Philadelphia Eagles Out Flown By Seattle Seahawks 26-15

Before I start with this post, let me just say that I didn't expect the Eagles to win this game and even penciled my favorite football team in as losing this game very early in the offseason. With that said, this team still had every chance to win this game, but because of the fact that the Seahawks are a craftier and better prepared team, they did not win. The Seattle Seahawks are a very good team at home and the Eagles have not been a very good road team, only winning one road game against the lowly, 2 win Chicago Bears. 

The game started out with the Seahawks having the ball, but they went three and out and punted to the Eagles. The Eagles had a chance to get a good drive started, but they stalled because, yet again, they decided to pass the ball three consecutive times instead of running it. Not only does this seem to be a trend with this team, it also is starting to be a trend by the Head Coaches in attempts to outsmart the opponent. The other team is great against the pass, lets pass anyway to keep them on their toes. The Eagles then punted the ball back to the Seahawks and on Seattle's seemingly first play ripped off a 70 or so yard run by C.J. Prosise for a touchdown that immediately put the Seahawks up 6-0 in the first quarter after a blocked extra point.

One thing I was extremely happy about was the fact that the Eagles offense still had fight in it. They had fight by going all the way down the field on a seemingly seven minute drive that was capped off by a Carson Wentz to Zach Ertz touchdown pass. This was Ertz's first of the season and Wentz's first in two games. Regardless, the Eagles took the lead and did so by using the running game as well as some key short passes. The Seahawks next drive started deep in their own territory and it looked like if the Eagles could get them off the field that they could take control of the game. However, third down after third down and the Seahawks kept on converting, kept on converting until Seattle was at the Eagles 40 yard line and at 3rd and 16. The Eagles had a chance to force an incomplete pass, but were flagged for being offsides. So on 3rd and 11 on the Eagles 35 yard line, Russell Wilson turned a seemingly broken play into a Jimmy Graham touchdown catch with a missed tackle by Watkins. Believe me, it was embarrassing but not the most embarrassing touchdown Seattle scored that day. 

Now here is where the Eagles started to piss me off. Now they had a chance to score a touchdown on a screen pass, but guess who messed it up for the Eagles? You guessed it, Nelson effing Agholor. Because he wasn't lined up two inches closer to the line of scrimmage their touchdown was nullified on an illegal formation and they were instead forced to punt. I am kind of up to here with that guy. When he isn't dropping passes, he is screwing up touchdowns. He is a great route runner, the best on our team, but he just sucks. On the ensuing drive, Russell Wilson would throw deep to Doug Baldwin for 44 yards and that would lead to a Seahawks field goal. If the Eagles could get one bit of credit here, the red zone defense was just about immaculate as I don't think the Seahawks ever scored from close range. 

Before the half, the Eagles had a chance to nullify a part of a two possession lead by the Seahawks, but Carson Wentz was intercepted on 1st and 10 from the 50. The ball was intended for Dorial Green-Beckham and Wentz did not see Cam Chancellor and if he had waited a little longer, it might have been a completion. It really sucked to not get points off of that drive, but they might not have gotten points anyways as there wasn't much time left on the clock. I like the fact that Wentz was being aggressive, but it shows up as an interception none the less. 

After the Eagles and the Seahawks traded punts to begin the second half, the Eagles had the ball deep in their own territory. On 2nd and 4 with plenty of time in the pocket, Wentz forced a pass down the field to Bryce Treggs in double coverage and the ball was intercepted by Richard Sherman. Shouldn't have thrown the ball, but deep in your own territory, it is basically a punt on 2nd down. The Seahawks would then get into the red zone and Russell Wilson would jet sweep the ball to Doug Baldwin, run around the defense and would throw the ball to his quarterback, who was wide open for a touchdown. It seems very ironic that Russell Wilson would do that in a game where Nelson Agholor played so poorly in because him and Nelson Agholor are tied for receiving touchdowns this season. 

So the 4th quarter was extremely boring filled with punts, field goal attempts, field goal misses, turnovers on downs, but the Eagles still had the ball and were able to get the ball down the field thanks to some good passing by Carson Wentz. The Eagles were even able to get Dorial Green-Beckham open in the end zone for a touchdown and thanks to Nelson Agholor, a 2 point conversion. Now instead of doing the smart thing and saving their onside kick for their potential game winning drive, Doug Pederson elected to onside kick the ball with 3:33 on the clock, which is such a no no, that isn't even funny. The Eagles had the Seahawks on the ropes and they have a great special teams unit. You kick the ball deep and force a three and out. Instead, the Eagles onside kicked the ball, didn't get it and forced the Seahawks to punt, but instead of being deep in Seattle territory, the ball was at the Eagles 47. 

So the Eagles get the ball back and with a little less than two minutes to go were caught with a phantom pass interference call on Dorial Green-Beckham on a screen play that would have made it close to the Seahawks red zone, but instead lost 10 yard and were unable to capitalize and then lost. Let me say that despite some bad calls and no calls, I knew the Eagles weren't going to win. Seattle played really well on defense and again, they are just the craftier team. One moral victory is the fact that this team fought and didn't give up and if they had been smarter, they would have possibly had a chance to score earlier and possibly get an onside kick on the ensuing kick off. Not saying it would have helped them win, but it might have been a closer game. This team falls to 5-5, which if someone told me the Eagles would have 5 wins at week 10, I would have slapped them in the face and called them crazy. 

Russell Wilson extends football after catching first career touchdown

Philadelphia Eagles Play Gritty Against Atlanta Falcons 24-15

After losing a tough game against the New York Giants, the Eagles were looking to go home and regroup. A lot of questions surrounded the Eagles play calling as Doug Pederson called the game way too aggressively the week before. Everyone knew that the Eagles were a good team at home, but the Falcons were probably one of the best offenses in the game with Matt Ryan at quarterback, Julio Jones at wide Receiver and a great duo at running back. The Eagles would have their hands full as the Falcons had a three game winning streak all time against the Eagles.

However, this was a whole different team with a whole different coaching staff. After kicking the ball to the Falcons and stopping them in their own territory, the Eagles put the ball on the ground and moved the ball 81 yards for over seven minutes and forty-one seconds to cap off the drive with a Ryan Mathews rushing touchdown. After Mathews had been put in the doghouse by the fan base with two previous fumbles, one costing the Eagles the game against the Lions, it was good to see the Eagles premiering the savvy vet. Not to mention, Carson Wentz also completed four passes for four attempts to help the Eagles get down the field mistake free.

After the Eagles forced the Falcons to punt, the Eagles marched down the field with the signature play being a twenty yard screen pass to Ryan Mathews, but the even bigger problem with the drive was the fact that Caleb Sturgis missed a pretty simple 44 yard field goal. Caleb Sturgis had been pretty good thus far, but that was a pretty bad miss because the Falcons would end up going down the field after a long pass to Julio Jones. However, the drive stalled and Matt Bryant ended up kicking a field goal. After a three and out by the Eagles, the Falcons got the ball and went down the field again thanks to Julio Jones, but the Eagles stopped the Falcons in the red zone and Matt Bryant kicked yet another field goal.

After a long Ryan Mathews run, Carson Wentz got sacked and he fumbled with the ball being recovered by the Falcons and got the ball into Eagles territory. It really seemed like the Falcons were going to do something with the ball, but the only problem was the fact that Matt Ryan missed a 53 yard field goal. With 22 seconds left to go in the half, the Eagles had the ball in good field position, but very few time outs. With eight seconds left to go in the half, Pederson elected to call a play on 4th down, but none of the receivers got open and Wentz threw an incomplete pass on 4th down with two seconds left to go. I was really worried that the Eagles handed the Falcons a hail mary pass, but everything was okay because nothing came out of it.

After halftime, the Eagles were able to get the ball down the field quite easily. They did this mostly using the running game. However, once the Eagles got into the red zone, they seemed to freeze as the Eagles got a holding penalty with the ball deep in Falcons territory and were unable to convert. This series ended in a field goal that put the Eagles up 10-6. With the ensuing kick off, Matt Ryan was able to air mail a pass to Julio Jones and Matt Bryant was able to kick another field goal. After another drive of Ryan Mathews driving the ball on the ground, the Eagles had the ball on 3rd an 1 at the Falcons one yard line. However, instead of calling a quarterback keeper up the middle with his 6'5" quarterback, Doug Pederson elected to call a stretch play. I was really mad at that point because this was a point in time where the Eagles could have gone up by a touchdown, but that didn't happen.

After Caleb Sturgis kicked the short field goal, Matt Ryan was able to target Taylor Gabriel going up against Leodis McKelvin for a deep touchdown. The Falcons would take their first lead and the Falcons gained another victory after forcing the Eagles to miss a 55 yard field goal that was outside of Sturgis' range. This really pissed me off because on the previous kick off, Kenjon Barner was able to bring the ball back 52 yards on the kick off so the Eagles appeared to waste a good return. The other problem with this drive was the fact that Wentz was able to hit Jordan Matthews on a mid-ranged pass, he was popped in the face and dropped the ball. All of the Eagles fans around me were pissed off because we all thought it was hitting a defenseless receiver, but of course, the referees weren't watching because they wear a blind fold when it comes to calling penalties for the Eagles. Luckily, the Eagles were able to stop the Falcons on the next drive and they forced them to punt.

With the ensuing drive, Wentz was able to shine by passing the ball to Zach Ertz and by finally getting a pass interference call on a deep pass to Jordan Matthews. The Eagles were then hooked up with 1st and goal at the five and Ryan Mathews took the run from the shotgun and get the ball into the end zone. The score was 19-15 as the Eagles decided to go for two. After there was a hold penalty called on the first attempt, the ball was moved to the one and the ball was handed to Mathews for a successful conversion to go up by six. After trading punts, the Eagles were able to pin the Falcons deep in their own territory, but this was dashed as Najee Goode hit the return man out of bounds unnecessarily and 15 yards were tacked on to the play. At this point in time I thought the game was over but the Falcons only gained 5 yards. So on 4th and 5, Matt Ryan threw to an open Julio Jones in the zone, but the pass was miraculously dropped.

So the Eagles had the ball at the Falcons 40 yard line and were able to get eight yards, but that wasn't enough for a first down. However, it was enough for Sturgis to hit a 48 yard field goal right down the pipes. With a nine point lead I felt very comfortable, but there was still one minute, 57 seconds left. The Falcons were able to get sixteen yards, but Matt Ryan made the fatal mistake of throwing an interception to Leodis McKelvin for the walk off interception. The man was able to redeem himself for giving up the long touchdown and the Eagles were victorious. The Eagles did great running the football and really cut down on the mistakes. While Julio Jones had a lot of yards receiving, he didn't scorch the Eagles for a touchdown. While the play calling was bad at times, Wentz really wasn't getting much help from Nelson Agholor and Dorial Green-Beckham, but Darren Sproles continued to be the unsung hero with 8 receptions for 57 total yards. The officiating was also terrible, but that is no surprise to me, I am totally used to that, but I know the officiating will get worse when the Eagles play the Seahawks next week. They are the one team that seems to be immune to penalties as they rarely get called for anything and referees strangely keep their hands in their pockets when they commit penalties, should be an interesting one, but I was content to get the win.

Ryan Mathews scoring his second rushing touchdown of the game

Philadelphia Eagles Get Edged by New York Giants 28-23

As we go through a rebuilding season, I tend to lose more and more faith that this team will go to the playoffs. While the playoffs are always the first goal for every team, sometimes that just isn't realistic. It seems like every time this team loses, the fan base jumps off of a bridge and this was even something that I saw after this last game against the New York Giants. I knew this game was going to be close because that is how the games at Met Life Stadium usually are. Despite the fact that the Eagles haven't lost to the Giants in two whole years, I always knew that with a rookie Quarterback and Head Coach the game would be tough.

The game opened up with the Giants getting the ball and going three and out and punting it right to the Eagles. Once the Eagles got the ball, Carson Wentz completed one pass and then immediately threw and interception. This was an interception that immediately went for an Eli Manning touchdown pass to Odell Beckham Jr. This was a positive and a negative for me because I have both of those guys on my fantasy team. Then on the next drive, Carson threw another interception and then Eli Manning threw another touchdown, this time to Roger Lewis after the Eagles cornerback and safety ran into each other.

On the Eagles next drive, they got their offense started when they featured Trey Burton twice for a total of 43 yards, but the drive stalled deep in Giants territory and then Stugis kicked a field goal. However, Landon Collins rolled into the kicker but no penalty was called. The Eagles would then force a punt and with their next drive they again, went down the field, but they stalled deep in Giants territory. However, on a 4th and 2, Doug Pederson elected to go for it on a Quarterback sweep, but Wentz was dropped for a loss and the Eagles were forced to hand the ball back to the Giants when they could have gotten a field goal. The Giants would go backwards on their ensuing drive and on the Eagles drive, Wentz would connect with rookie free agent receiver, Bryce Treggs, for a 61 yard pass. This would be the longest completion of the day and the longest of Carson's career. Many Eagles fans were eagerly awaiting the playing of Treggs because he is very quick and he didn't disappoint. The drive would eventually lead to a short run for a touchdown by Ryan Matthews to make the game 14-10.

On the Giants ensuing drive, Eli Manning would methodically take the Giants down the field with the highlight play being a Victor Cruz catch over the head of Leodis McKelvin. Cruz would then leave the game with an injury after the play and the Giants would score on a passing play to Odell Beckham Jr. The only highlight of the rest of the half for the Eagles would be a long return by Darren Sproles and if he would have scored, it would have been good for the Eagles, but instead of kicking a field goal when the drive stalled, Doug Pederson again elected to run it up the middle on 4th and 1 with little Darren Sproles. The Eagles didn't get it and the whole time I sat there, yelling at the TV, "KICK THE F***ING FIELD GOAL!" The half basically ended with a blocked Caleb Sturgis field goal by Jason Pierre Paul so when Dog finally stopped being stupid, he wasn't even allowed to get the points. 

The Eagles would open the second half with a long drive the was mostly set up by Darren Sproles. Carson was able to throw a 20 yard pass to under achieving receiver, Nelson Agholor and Kenjon Barner was able to pound the rock into the end zone for a touchdown. With the Giants next drive, they went straight down the field on a long drive that was capped off with a Sterling Shepard touchdown thrown by none other than Eli Manning. It seemed like in this game, whenever the Eagles could catch a break, the Giants were always able to take the momentum back to their side.

On the bright side for the Eagles defense in the 4th quarter was the fact that they were able to get two turnovers. One in which Nolan Carroll was able to steal it away from Odell Beckham before he was able to secure it and the other with the ability to run the ball, Eli Manning threw a tipped pass right into the hands of Jordan Hicks. This was an extremely ill advised situation because it put the Eagles in the situation where they could score the go ahead touchdown after adding two field goals. So with the game on the line, the Eagles ran three passing plays from the Giants 17 yard line. I couldn't believe this, even with one time out, I expected them to at least try to run the football. However, on 4th down, Carson Wentz threw a fade route to Jordan Matthews, Jordan tried to adjust but was looking over his opposite shoulder. The ball fell to the ground incomplete and the Giants won.

It really sucked to see the Eagles lose this game because there were many points in the game where they could have won. Too many points were left on the field and the Eagles were also completely foolish to not kick those field goals earlier in the game. Carson Wentz also blew the first quarter by throwing costly interceptions. I don't really fault him because he is a rookie, but it appears that he has been trigger happy in certain situations. He did settle down eventually and was one of the reasons why the Eagles were able to come back in the game. I will say that as a football fan, this was a very good game and the better team won here. It isn't easy to say that, but the team has to play smarter. Not to mention, Doug Pederson has to find the featured back on this team because he just keeps mixing and matching backs without allowing them to get in a groove. He was criticized for playing to conservatively against Dallas and showed everyone by playing to aggressively against the Giants. He needs to find a middle ground soon or the fans will eat him alive.

Jason Pierre Paul blocks Eagles field goal

Philadelphia Eagles Submit to Dallas Cowboys 29-23 (OT)

Instead of making this post a reaction to everything that happened in this game, I am merely going to make it a critique of rookie Head Coach, Doug Pederson. Let me just say that this was a really good game. It had offense, defense, clutch performances, turnovers, and it went down to the wire. While I knew that the Philadelphia Eagles were going to lose, I was very impressed by the way that they were able to halt rookie sensation, Ezekiel Elliot and was able to disrupt rookie Quarterback, Dak Prescott. The Eagles were actually winning 23-13 at one point in the game, but because of some really bad coaching decisions, the Eagles eventually submitted to the Dallas Cowboys. The main reason was because while the Eagles made some questionable decisions in the 4th quarter and the Cowboys showed their experience and made some good choices of their own.

My girlfriend is an avid Dallas Cowboys fan and ever since I started dating her exclusively we circled October 30th as being our biggest test. Lets just say that she was very down in the 4th quarter, until her team started to come back and go into overtime. When Jason Witten caught the game winning touchdown, she was happy, but full of so much emotion that she didn't know what to do. I knew before that overtime drive even started that the Eagles would probably lose. I actually said to myself in the 3rd quarter that it would be really cool if the Eagles won this game, they would be 5-2 and at the top of the division, despite being a rebuilding team. Okay, back to the point of the post, the reasons why the Eagles gave this game away to a formidable Cowboys team in order was:

Number 1: Chris Jones fake punt run

At the end of the third quarter, the Dallas Cowboys trailed the Eagles 20-10 and had a 4th down deep in their own territory. Instead of punting the ball, they instead threw a curve ball to everyone watching by calling a fake punt. Chris Jones, the Cowboys punter, is actually a really fast human being. After getting by the rush, he went down the field for about 25 to 30 yards. If the Cowboys had punted, then the Eagles would have gotten it at around their own 40 yard line in good field position. As anyone might know, fake punts don't usually happen, but this is the second time the Cowboys have fooled the Eagles on special teams. In 2014, the Cowboys kicked the ball shallow, the Eagles return man, Josh Huff, didn't go to get it and the ball was recovered by the Dallas Cowboys. If memory serves me, the Cowboys scored a field goal on the drive to make the game 20-13.

Number 2: Switching out to cold running backs

One of the things that the Eagles have yet to figure out this season is who their feature running back is. For a few weeks, they have been playing Darren Sproles a lot in the first half because they are worried that Ryan Matthews keeps fumbling the football. This came into play because the Eagles got back up 23-13 and had the ball at around their own 40 yard line. This until on first down and ten, the Eagles gave the ball to rookie running back, Wendell Smallwood, trying to get cute and they fumbled. The Cowboys recovered and then kicked another field goal to make the game 23-16. Now I don't know about everyone else, but when you are trying to ice a game in clutch situations, the last thing you do is give the ball to a back that doesn't have a lot of experience. This would have been a good chance to work out someone like Kenjon Barner, but instead, they put their chances in the hands of a rookie and paid for it.

Number 3: Swing passes for negative yards

Swing passes are a situational thing for most teams. Usually if the defensive backs play off of the line, you can bring a receiver in to block for another one going out on a screen. However, the Eagles don't have any deep threats on the team and Carson Wentz threw short, pretty much the whole game. The receivers even had trouble catching these swing passes and these plays either ended in an incomplete pass or a really short gain. Late in the 4th quarter, however, the Eagles had a 2nd down at the Cowboys 32 yard line with a chance to run the ball and ice the game with a late field goal. However, instead of playing it safe and going forward, the Eagles ran a fake jet sweep, swing pass to Darren Sproles, which lost yards. Now Doug Pederson thought the team was out of field goal range, so he had Donnie Jones punt the ball.

Number 4: Eagles have 3 time outs, but they don't stop the clock

With about 30 seconds left in the game, the Cowboys were deep in their own territory and it was 3rd down. A coach with a lot of experience in game management would stop the clock so that they can have their offense have a chance to win the football game. However, this never happened as Doug Pederson let the clock run down to zero with me yelling at the TV, "CALL A TIMEOUT!" You call a time out, you can make a stop on 3rd down and get the ball back. Why? Because with two or one timeout(s) and about 20 seconds left is enough time to kick a field goal, especially with how short the Cowboys would have likely punted the ball because they wouldn't have wanted Darren Sproles to get a huge return. The time, however, went off the clock and the game ended.

Now the Eagles a 4-3, Carson Wentz had a decent game, it wasn't super impressive, it wasn't horrible. The guy is a rookie on a struggling offense that doesn't have many weapons and hasn't found it's complete identity. The coaching staff has a lot of time to grow as the team is rebuilding even though they are likely not admitting that the team is "rebuilding". The Cowboys really impressed me with how they bounced back because Dak was having a terrible game up until the 4th quarter as he completed less than 50% of his passes. However, when it all came down to it, the Cowboys were more proactive at the end of the game and made more "gutsy" calls to win. I hope this teams learns from this as they build for the long haul through the draft and free agency. Good game Dallas, it was a game for the ages.

Jason Witten score the game winning touchdown in overtime