Post Game: Eagles vs. Lions

Injuries:

Starting corner back Leodis McKelvin regaggravated his hamstring and sat out the whole second half. We’ll get an update on his status when they return to practice on Monday or Tuesday. 

Synopsis:

One first down. That’s all we needed to be  4-0. This one stings. We’re 3-1 and tied for first so this loss doesn’t kill us but this still hurts. It took a lot of energy out of me today watching this game, but it was one of the better football games I’ve seen in a long time. Even if Ryan Mathews holds on to that ball who knows if we still would have won but I would have liked our chances with the way our defense played in the second half. It was interesting to see how this team dealt with adversity and I think they passed the  test even if they lost the game. Let’s start my review with the offense. 

Offense:

What a shame to see Carson Wentz throw his first pick trying to take a shot for the win. I would have liked to see more plays run but I can’t fault the kid for trying. He showed me a ton today and impressed the hell out of me the way he brought us back. Great stats on the day, 25-33 for 238 yards and two touchdowns to go along with the one interception. He handled pressure extremely well and also stayed calm to help guide us back and take the lead. I have no doubt in my mind that this kid is going to be a star. 

Doug Pederson had a great game play calling until that final play. I just don’t love a toss play on 3rd and 2. You could blame execution but I don’t think that was our best play in that spot. Our zone read with Darren Sproles was working all day in short yardage but they decided to go a different direction. To make maters worse we fumbled the ball and it proved costly. I don’t want to blame that one play because we could have put them away with a touchdown earlier in the quarter. 

There were some communication issues with Kelce and Wentz but that is expected on the road and with a rookie quarterback. Penalties killed us all day but I think these officials called an absolutely terrible game. It seemed very one sided in Detroit ‘s favor. Every time there was a big play more than likely it was negated because of a penalty on the Eagles. Fair or not, it killed our momentum early on but as the game went on we cleaned that up a little bit. 

Defense:

I kept thinking it was Thanksgiving all over again. Our defense was getting cut up early and often and it was extremely frustrating to watch. It felt like that bye week really took its toll on us because we looked a step slow in that first half. I think that we underestimated Detroit a little bit as well, myself included. It’s the National Football League and anybody can beat anybody on any given Sunday. We were the victims of that today. 

Our D-line did nothing early on. We were getting blown off the ball by the lions offensive line as they were on there way to getting 5-6 yards a run. Our secondary was a step slow and kept committing costly penalties as well. Nolan Carroll #22,  in particular struggled in press man coverage getting turned around and getting beat on short routes. Mychal Kendricks #95 also struggled in pass coverage again this game. It seems to be a big weakness of his and I really hope that he improves on that. He got beat on the touchdown by Theo Riddick and that gave me flash backs of last year in Detroit. It wasn’t just those two though, I felt no one on that defense played well in the first half. A lot of poor tackling by everyone there. 

Once the second half started our defense snapped out of it. All they gave up in the 2nd half was 45 yards. Let me say that again….45 YARDS. That’s the defense that we have seen all year it was just a little too late. Everyone on that defense woke up in the second half. I don’t know what it was but everyone was flying to the ball like they should have been doing all game. Our D line started to get some serious pressure on Stafford and we finished the game with 4 sacks. We only allowed 80 rushing yards and 164 passing yards. Very frustrating because I wish we could have seen the defense play like this all game. 

Special Teams: 

Kicker Caleb Sturgis continued to look great. Going 3-3 with one from 50 yards. I have confidence in him if things came down to it he could win us a game. Punter Donnie Jones didn’t have a great game. A couple short punts that put our defense in a couple bad spots but I think he’ll be fine. Darren Sproles didn’t have too many chances to make a play on punt returns. Solid performance by the special teams. 

Overall, I’m upset at the loss because we had a win slip away from us last minute but I saw some good things today from Carson Wentz and our 2nd half defense. We need to have a short memory here and get ready to go to Washington and get a win. We can’t let this loss linger and carry over to next week. At the end of the day, were still 3-1 and in first place but after getting a win today against the Ravens, the Redskins are playing the best football of the short season so far and next week will be no easy test. So let’s take the positives from today, build on them and go to Washington and get our first Divisional win. IN DOUG WE TRUST.