Philadelphia Eagles Defend Against Minnesota Vikings 21-10

After last weeks game against the Washington Redskins where the Eagles didn't score a single offensive touchdown, the fans were really down. All of the fans that were claiming the Eagles were going to win the division after they defeated the Steelers in week three were claiming the Eagles were going to go 3-13 and every part of the team sucked. However, I think very few fans even thought the Eagles had a chance against the 5-0 Minnesota Vikings coming off of their bye. I heard people say the Eagles would get shut out and the Vikings would score over thirty points total.

Going into the game, I knew the Vikings were a good team. They win their games by running the football, playing it safe, getting good field position, kicking field goals, and capitalizing on the mistakes that you make. If you get down by ten points to the Minnesota Vikings, you are probably going to lose, that just shows how good of a team they are. They don't have a good offense and if you get pressure on them, they will make mistakes. Teams that play them make the mistake of playing too aggressively and forcing passes into tight coverage against their shutdown defense. What they should do is run the football consistently and throw short passes. If the receivers aren't open, take the sack or throw an incomplete pass.

Beginning the game I thought that if Carson Wentz can survive the game without getting splattered all over the field, then it would be a moral victory. Our rookie offensive tackle, Vaitai was still starting but I was hoping that he would get some help. The other story line for the game was the fact that former Eagles Quarterback, Sam Bradford was going to line up with the Minnesota Vikings. He was with the Eagles last year and during the preseason. However, the Eagles traded him for a first round draft pick after the Vikings lost franchise Quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater for the season.

And now to the game, the Eagles went three and out and punted to the Vikings. The Vikings returned the favor by going three and out, however, that was all foiled after Trey Burton on the Eagles ran into the Vikings punter and the Vikings got a free first down. However, they got to around midfield and then punted back to the Eagles and the Eagles got the ball at their own one yard line. Three plays later, on a 2nd and 9 play, Wentz threw the ball short intended for Brent Celek, but the ball was intercepted by Andrew Sendejo and the Vikings had the ball inside the five yard line. Now here is where things get very crazy, three plays later, Sam Bradford threw an interception of his own to Rodney McLeod in the end zone and the Eagles took over at their own twenty yard line.

On the ensuing drive, Carson Wentz botched the hand off with Darren Sproles and the Eagles fumbled. However, the game got crazier when on the very next play, Sam Bradford fumbled the ball after getting sacked. Malcolm Jenkins recovered the fumbled and ran the ball in for a touchdown. However, the touchdown was reviewed and Jenkins was actually downed by contact by Vikings tight end, Kyle Rudolph. On the next drive, Wentz made yet another mistake with an interception to Xavior Rhodes. It was a really bad throw on 3rd and 11 because Nelson Agholor was being covered tightly and it is the kind of ball that the turnover hungry Vikings would capitalize off of. The better idea is to throw an incomplete pass or take a sack because you can punt the ball away and win the field position battle, but instead Wentz got too aggressive.

During the next two trading drives, the Vikings punted after six plays and then the Eagles punted after nine plays. However, the Vikings were able to go down the field after a long 3rd down pass to Kyle Rudolph and the Vikings ended their drive off with a Blair Walsh field goal. On the ensuing kick off, Josh Huff took the ball and returned his first kick off for a touchdown for the season. The Vikings were charged with roughing the kicker so Doug Pederson elected to have the Eagles go for a two point conversion. The play was successful after Carson Wentz rushed the ball for a yard straight into the end zone and the Eagles went up 8-3.

Right before the end of the first half, it looked like the Vikings were driving on the Eagles for either a touchdown or a field goal. This was until Rodney McLeod sack-fumbled Sam Bradford and the ball was recovered by Eagles defensive tackle Beau Allen. When the Eagles began their drive at their own 48, I was expecting them to run the football down the field and that is exactly what they did at the beginning, however, they had a 3rd and 2 and Wentz had Trey Burton wide open, however, he threw the ball too high and the ball was incomplete. However, Doug Pederson had confidence in Wentz and the young quarterback repaid his head coach by getting the first down. On the next play, Wentz threw deep to Dorial Green-Beckham and the receiver was being molested down the field, but no flag was called. The one thing I have noticed is that referees aren't calling penalties when it comes to defensive backs playing against Green-Beckham, I was upset, but I remembered earlier in the game, Jalen Mills should have been called on a pass interference on Steffan Diggs, but the officials picked up the flag for no reason at all. This might have been one of those no calls to cancel the last no call out.

The Eagles were, however, able to get the ball deep into Minnesota territory, but the clock was running low and Sturgis was ready to kick a field goal. Knowing that this would be a good time to ice the kicker, Vikings coach, Mike Zimmer, called a timeout. In response, Doug Pederson put the offense back onto the field to run another play, but the ball went incomplete. So during the next play, Sturgis came back onto the field and the ball was kicked straight into the uprights and the Eagles lead 14-3 at halftime. While both defenses were playing well, both Quarterbacks, who had played well during the season to not turn the ball over both had three total turnovers and had completed far less than 50% of their passes.

To begin the second half, the Vikings got the ball first and the defense for the Eagles was ready to play. They were so ready that Sam Bradford was sacked on back to back plays by Jordan Hicks and Nigel Bradham. Unlike last week where the Eagles relied on their front four against the Redskins, they brought the heat and pressure against Sam Bradford and the Vikings. The Eagles got the ball after the punt at their own 23 and methodically drove the ball down the field with running back Ryan Matthews and some inopportune Vikings penalties including one by Trey Waynes against Dorial Green-Beckham and one on Linval for an illegal hands to the face on a Ryan Matthews 27 yard run. After two blotched snaps by Carson Wentz at the end of the drive, he threw a five yard strike to Dorial Green-Beckham for a touchdown to go up 18-3.

The Vikings actually had a very good ensuing drive late in the third and early in the fourth. They were able to make it deep into the red zone and I thought they would end up scoring a touchdown, however at the end of the drive the Vikings had a 4th and 1 situation that they were unable to convert thanks to a strong Eagles defense. The Eagles got the ball at their own five and went three and out, but the Vikings muffed the punt and it was recovered by Trey Burton. The Eagles then made it deep into Vikings territory thanks to some hard running by Darren Sproles. While it was a good nine play drive, the drive stalled and Sturgis kicked a field goal to make the score 21-3.

Now here was the problem for the Eagles at the end of the game, after getting the ball on downs, Ryan Matthews was back to his fumbling ways and fumbled the ball. On their final drive, Sam Bradford lead an eleven play, 53 yard drive for a go ahead touchdown pass to Cordarrelle Patterson. While it ended well for the Vikings, I am pretty sure Sam Bradford was sacked and he fumbled twice and the ball was recovered by Minnesota. The last ditch attempt for an onside kick was tried by Blair Walsh, but he failed as the ball rolled out of bounds. Carson Wentz finished the game in victory formation and the Eagles won the game 21-10.

This was one of the craziest games I had ever watched. The moment you thought that one team would profit off of the turnovers of the other team, they would turn the ball over themselves. Sam Bradford had the chance to have the Vikings be the first team to go 6-0 and have the starting quarterback have zero interceptions, but Sam not only threw an interception, but he also fumbled twice. The Eagles played really well on defense and I am specifically impressed with Mychal Kendricks, who was blitzing very well. He doesn't do well covering and he doesn't do well in run defense, but he does do well blitzing. On a sad note, nickel cornerback, Ron Brooks was lost for the season and this really sucks because now they will be using Malcolm Jenkins to cover Cowboys slot receiver, Cole Beasley. When those two teams played last year, Beasley had two touchdowns and consistently gave Jenkins ankle-breakers. Good luck to him next week as the Eagles have the daunting task of playing the 5-1 Dallas Cowboys.

Josh Huff flips into the end zone after scoring a touchdown

Philadelphia Eagles Get Shredded By Washington Redskins 27-20

After the Lions game, I obviously felt that the Eagles were extremely screwed by the officiating, but I cannot say that this time. I want to give a huge shout out to the officiating crew in this game against the Redskins because while the game was not perfect and no game is, I didn't feel cheated after it. The Eagles were given one bad call and the Redskins were given one bad call, that was about it. You see, at the end of the day, I can be a gracious loser and give the other team credit if they were truly the better team. Going into the game, the Redskins were missing tight end, Jordan Reed and the Eagles were finally missing offensive tackle, Lane Johnson, who missed the first game of his ten game suspension for using a banned substance. They were also missing cornerback Leodis McKelvin, who has missed most of the games this season. 

This time, the Eagles received the ball first and after two straight sacks on first and second down, the Eagles called a running play for their first first down of the game, however, they had to punt the ball three plays later on fourth down. Carson Wentz luckily only came out of that drive with a torn jersey thanks to the Eagles starting rookie right tackle, Halapoulivaati Vaitai or "Big V". Unfortunately, "Big V" played like a big void as Redskins edge rusher, Ryan Kerrigan had his way with the young man. Sometimes to the detriment of Carson Wentz as it was truly horrible to watch. And while it wasn't the worst performance for an Eagles offensive lineman in their debut, it was by far the most pathetic. With that said, the Eagles did not give the young man much support and he continued to struggle all game. 

The Eagles defense was actually handling the Redskins high powered offense and stopping the run. However, this was all until Redskins quarterback, Kirk Cousins, aired a pass to former Eagles receiver, DeSean Jackson. The young man was being covered by rookie cornerback, Jalen Mills and the play went for around 30 yards. By the end of the drive, the Redskins had gotten inside the red zone and Cousins had exploited the Eagles man to man defense with a Jameson Crowder passing touchdown. The problem really wasn't the defense at this point, they had previously stopped the Redskins on two drives, it was the fact that once they got another first down, they were at 2nd and 3 and coach Pederson called a passing play that got Carson Wentz sacked. The Redskins are very poor against the run and instead of calling more running plays in these situations, Pederson called a passing play and took the Eagles out of manageable third down position. 

The Eagles punted on that drive and the Redskins lead a masterful drive down the field, which ended in a newly acquired, Vernon Davis touchdown. The Redskins had mastered the running game against the Eagles. At the time I was completely unsure of whether or not Matt Jones or Rob Kelley was running the ball, but it didn't matter because with my poor vision and from where I was sitting, they looked the same. I didn't even know the Redskins utilized a two back system like this. Off screen on that touchdown though, the Redskins committed an excessive celebration penalty when Vernon Davis threw the football through the uprights of the goal post after scoring. So up 14-0, the Redskins kicked the ball off from their own 20 yard line and Wendell Smallwood returned the ball for a touchdown and the Eagles terrible offense was unable to hit the field to stink it up. 

Then the Redskins went down the field to around their 40 yard line, then called a triple reverse play. It appeared that struggling linebacker, Mychal Kendricks took down Jameson Crowder, but according to the replay, he didn't and the Eagles got away with a phantom tackle. Didn't matter because a few plays later, Kirk Cousins threw a pick 6 to Malcolm Jenkins and the Eagles were able to tie the game up. However, my pleasure with the play ended when Cousins was able to redeem himself, get the ball down the field, challenge the Eagles at the goal line, draw a Fletcher Cox roughing the passer call, and then on 3rd and short they ran the ball with Rob Kelley for a short touchdown. After this horrid chain of events, the second quarter ended and the Eagles offense barely had the ball.

The Redskins started their first drive of the second half by stalling very early after good kick coverage by the Eagles special teams. However, after Kirk Cousins ran for yet another first down, he was able to get the Redskins down the field. You see, while the defense bent, they didn't break as they forced Dustin Hopkins to kick a field goal. While on the next drive, the Eagles showed promise, they were called on an illegal block in the back on Wendell Smallwood, which negated a 38 yard pass to Dorial Green-Beckham. It was a bad call, but it was the worst call the Eagles were given on the day, which was a shame because it was a really good play. On the Eagles ensuing drive, the Eagles were able to get the ball down field and Jordan Matthews had a really nice 54 yard catch, best I have ever seen from him, however, the Eagles were only able to get a field goal after Barner was unable to pick up a four yard first down on third down.  

The Redskins had an ensuing drive that was a lot like the field goal drive before, more good running yards and more throwing to wide open receivers on crossing routes across the field. At this point in time, the Eagles line was weak after Bennie Logan got injured and the linebackers were still unable to make tackles. It was almost as if the running backs were still moving their legs even after getting tackled. The Redskins again, made it into the red zone and stalled, they then finished the drive off with another Hopkins field goal. The Eagles still showed that they had some fight though. Especially after Wentz finally completed a pass to Dorial Green-Beckham for 23 yards and then to Zach Ertz to the 22 yard line. The drive later stalled after Wentz was unable to connect with Ertz for a touchdown because the young tight end dropped the ball yards before the goal line. 

After the Redskins punted on the ensuing drive, all the hope rested on Carson Wentz and the offense to tie the game up. And while the young quarterback tried to rally, he was unable to as the Redskins sacked him two times in a row and the Eagles were unable to get the ball back. This game stunk to watch because the Eagles were unable to do anything on offense. The Redskins were next to last when it came to stopping the run and the Eagles barely used their running game and were not putting the offense in a good situation to win. Those two returns for touchdowns were also a double edged sword because while the Eagles got enough points to tie the game up, the defense was left on the field for more time than they needed to be. Also, throwing a rookie tackle onto the field with no help didn't do the offense any favors as Vaitai was a turn style and it really hurt the momentum of the offense. On a final note, while the game was called much more fairly, it came out at the end of the game that the Eagles were penalized more than any team has in a two game span, so that is always great. I expect to see more of the same when the Eagles play the 6-0 Minnesota Vikings. 

Carson Wentz gets his jersey ripped off by Ryan Kerrigan

Philadelphia Eagles Get Clipped By Detroit Lions 24-23

I am sitting here, writing this, not happy about this game. Not just because the Philadelphia Eagles played extremely poorly against what should have been an inferior opponent, but also because of the truly inept officiating. I wish I could come out here and congratulate the fan base of the Detroit Lions, but alas I cannot one hundred percent do that. With that said, I will attempt to do this review without mentioning the poor officiating despite it being the worst officiated game I have watched since January of 2014 in an NFC Championship Game between the 49ers and the Seahawks.

The game originally started out with the Lions getting the ball first and with it, they used running back Theo Riddick to get the ball down the field (with two possible holding calls not called, I told you I couldn't let that go) and eventually gave the Lions a go-ahead passing touchdown to go up 7-0. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Eagles got the ball on the kickoff, the returner muffed the kick off the bat and were only able to get the ball to inside the 15 yard line. While Carson Wentz played well in this game, the Eagles were unable to get a drive together and they punted the ball back to Detroit and Detroit went on to have another long drive for another Theo Riddick receiving touchdown from Matthew Stafford to go up 14-0.

This must have made Carson Wentz and the Philadelphia Eagles mad as they took the ball, went all the way down the field to set up a short yardage catch by Ryan Matthews for a touchdown to rally at 14-7. While I thought this might have lit a spark into the defense, it didn't stop the Lions from going off on the Eagles. The Lions at one point had a 3rd down and long deep into Eagles territory, but after Bennie Logan basically de-helmeted Matthew Stafford on what should have been a sack, the Eagles were called on a personal foul and the Lions got another chance. After what should have been an illegal touching in the back of the end zone by Marvin Jones, he stepped out of bounds and caught the touchdown. You cannot be the first to touch the football if you step out of bounds. There is no guarantee they don't score a touchdown on the drive, but they would have been heavily backed up.

You can clearly see the receiver in the back of the end zone stepping out of bounds before the ball was thrown to him, he shouldn't have been allowed to catch the ball first. Look at the ref, he is right there, it should have been called but it wasn't.

So the Eagles are down 21-7 with only a few minutes left to go in the half. They receive the ball and then get to the 50 yard line. Once they get to the 50 yard line, they are called on a chop block by Darren Sproles. Now in the picture you are about to see, you can see Sproles at close to the bottom of the screen blocking the defender with another lineman near him, he is double teaming him with another lineman. Obviously this officiating crew doesn't know what a chop block is because it is when two offenders are going one high and one low on the defender. That isn't happening here as Sproles is merely engaging in a block. 

Then even more bull sh*t took place as the Eagles were called for an ineligible receiver down field, but it was called on #98, who was a defender, so the officials called ineligible receiver downfield on a member of the other team so they basically forgot who was on offense. They later picked the flag up after announcing it and never explained what they were doing. I wasn't watching the game with sound so I didn't know what was going on. Then they called Zach Ertz on offensive pass interference, but because they never showed the replay I cannot tell you whether or not it was a good call or a bad. The drive ended when Carson Wentz re-connected with Zach Ertz and Caleb Sturgis kicked a long field goal to make the game 21-10 at halftime. 

In the second half, outside linebacker, Nigel Bradham was allowed to come back into the game. You see, because he went to the airport with a loaded gun in his carry-on bag, he was suspended for the first half. After Carson Wentz scored on a 75 play drive, Nigel was able to force a fumble against Matthew Stafford. The ensuing drive lead to a field goal to make the score 21-20, Detroit. There is a controversy over whether Eagles receiver Dorial Green-Beckham was being interfered with in the end zone, but it was left completely uncalled, you decide whether it should have been called or not... 

After this drive, the Eagles were able to get the ball back at their own 20 after a touchback and they went down the field with a good mix of run and pass and were able to get to around the 35 yard line. Ryan Matthews had a really good rush up the middle, but it was called back after a Brandon Brooks' "phantom" holding call. Again, the following pictures show that this is NOT holding, but again, this is what I and all other Eagles fans had to deal with this officiating crew...

Notice the guy flailing the arms? Yeah, he might be acting like he is being held, but he isn't, that is a perfect block. 

Instead of getting a chance to score a touchdown, the officiating crew screwed up again because instead of calling a spot of the ball penalty, they pushed the Eagles back an extra ten yards and the Eagles kicked another field goal. After the Lions had another stalling drive, the Eagles had a chance to ice the game. However, after calling a toss play to Ryan Matthews, he fumbled and it was recovered by the Lions. It took a while for the officials to review the call because apparently if an offensive player is touching the ball and is touching out of bounds linr, then the ball is dead. However, the replay officials said that there was no evidence that Jason Kelce, center on the Eagles, was touching the ball. However, I don't understand how anyone could say that he wasn't because look at this...

The arrow is where the ball is, clearly it is between Jason's legs and he was touching the out of bounds line. If he isn't touching the ball, then he had to have had a force field between him and the ball because he has fat legs. The Lions then went down the field and kicked a field goal after a VERY suspect personal foul on Malcolm Jenkins where he hit the receiver while he was running. I am pretty sure you are allowed to do that, if you aren't, then how is he supposed to tackle? 

On the ensuing drive, the Eagles lined up and Carson Wentz threw a deep pass and it was intercepted by the Lions and the game ended. Wentz played well despite the interception, at some point it was bound to happen, but he still sits up there as one of the better Quarterbacks in the league. This loss stung and honestly I won't forget it for years. When all was said and done, the Eagles almost won despite the inept officials. However, a loss is a loss despite all of the evidence of the one sided officiating because the Eagles have a loss on the record sheet. I am honestly kind of worried about the Eagles chances next week at FedEx Field against a Redskins team that the Eagles haven't defeated in two calendar years. I hope the offense and defense can get it together because I don't think that I can take another game of 14 penalties and two called on the other team. The Lions weren't called ONCE for holding despite the fact that I saw their offensive line hold twice on the first drive and once on the first play! Believe me, I am very salty, the sodium levels are at 500 mg on this one.