Sunday, October 5, 2008

Disgust

Y'know, folks, there are days when filling the bloghole is just no fun. Mostly, those days involve a dispiriting Eagles loss. Seven quick points from a day to forget...

> Brian Westbrook's not healthy, or if he is, he's just not that healthy anymore. On several occasions, especially in the second half, he wasn't able to move the chains on plays he usually makes, with the most notable case being where the aged London Fletcher caught him in the flat from behind. Once again, you see how much the offense needs Westbrook to be good; without him, there is no margin for error, especially on a day when the wideouts are dropping balls.

> The really discouraging point about today's game was the way the defensive line got pushed around. I could cite a lot of stats here -- 203 yards on the ground for the Redskins, a clear win in time of possession, the inability to force a punt in the last seven minutes of the game, after cutting the lead to six -- but here's the quick and easy takeaway -- 30 pass attempts for the visitors, one sack. I don't remember it, either. When you can't stop the run, you aren't a football team.

> The loss drops the Eagles to 2-3 and in serious trouble in the East, with two of the losses in the divison, and the rest of the division looking very sound indeed. The NFC East plays the NFC West this year, and the AFC North -- which means, really, that falling behind in the division most likely means that the only good chance you have for gaining ground is head to head. Unless they somehow go 4-0 in their remaining division games, it's getting hard to see how they are a playoff team.

> If you are looking for encouragement -- and I don't know why -- Reggie Brown looked good today, which was useful, given how the Redskins were determined to take DeSean Jackson out of the mix. If and when Kevin Curtis comes back, the team has a lot of weapons on the outside. Maybe some of them even good.

> Once again, David Akers misses from distance, and the other team makes all of their long distance shots. That never gets old.

> Is this the year where the team just can't score when they are inside the opponent's 2-yard-line? Shane Andrews, Eagles Nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

> Oh, and just to add to my misery, I got to hear about what a wonderful game it was from Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, and how multiple penalties that seemed as sure as hell like pass interference to me, well, weren't. My hate of Fox isn't just limited to their "News" department, folks.

Next week, at San Francisco. I'm expecting a bounce-back, but then again, I was expecting that this week, too.

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