MVN - Most Valuable Network

Update on Shawn Andrews’ Neck Injury

The good news is that it appears that the neck contusion Shawn Andrews suffered in the second quarter of Saturday night’s game is not serious. The bad news, still, is that it forced Scott Young into the game, and he committed the crucial fourth-down penalty that nullified a big pass to Hank Baskett on the Eagles’ final drive of the game. Considering the offensive line started every game this season, the timing of Andrews’ injury was inauspicious, to say the least.

Since we’re now officially in the Eagles off-season, we’ll have plenty of time to discuss where the team should go to prepare for next season. Start leaving your thoughts hear, and I share some of my own in the coming weeks.

Eagles-Saints Post-Game Thoughts

I’m sitting here with a beer typing this out, which seems appropriate after this loss. It’s a tough one to take, because of the chances the Eagles had to win that didn’t work out, and because of the defense’s complete inability to stop the Saints’ offense, not just on the final drive, but throughout the game. Considering that the Saints themselves did more to stop themselves on offense than our defense did (Sean Payton got as cute as Andy Reid at times, instead of running the ball down our throats even more), it’s pretty remarkable that we even had a chance to win.

They’ll be a lot of griping about Reid’s decision to punt on 4th and 15 with 1:56 to play. At first I agreed with it, since if you don’t convert, you give the Saints the ball close enough that they could run three plays, kick a long field goal, and have the Eagles needing to go the length of the field to score a TD in the final minute. Then again, after Deuce McAllister gained four yards on first down, you just knew the defense wasn’t going to be able to stop them. People will probably harp on the decision as the key factor in the game, but there were a lot of other problems that prevented the Birds from advancing to the NFC Championship game.

I’m a little puzzled as to why Sam Rayburn didn’t play more in the game, if for no other reason than to give Darwin Walker and Mike Patterson (who had two assists today, and nothing else) a breather they badly needed. Considering how badly the two tackles were getting blown off the ball, I’m not sure why Jim Johnson didn’t put Brodrick Bunkley in—he couldn’t have done any worse.  If you watch the replays of the Saints’ various runs, you invariably see Jeremiah Trotter getting blocked by an offensive lineman, which means that the defensive line wasn’t engaging blockers well enough to prevent the O-line from moving to the “second level” of blocking linebackers.

As Paul Domowitch pointed out in Thursday’s Philadelphia Daily News, Payton went after Trotter’s coverage skills (i.e., none) in the first meeting in October, and was able to exploit him again. When you have essentially a third-string tight end in Billy Miller catching four balls for 64 yards, well, that’s not a good thing. And I can’t even remember the last time Brian Dawkins has had absolutely zero impact on the outcome of the game.

On the offensive side of things, the offensive line didn’t do a particularly good job pass protecting against a constant Saints blitz, especially after Shawn Andrews left the game with a mysterious, and possibly serious, neck injury that no one at Fox was aware at the time it happened. Equally crucial was another red zone series where the Eagles chose to get too cute and throw the ball instead of just picking up the first down on 3rd and 1. They had to settle for a field goal, and the inability to score a touchdown on that drive was the difference in the game.

We’ll now have plenty of time to figure out where to go from here, though once again fixing the front seven on defense has to be the highest priority. Unfortunately, the free agent market isn’t going to be a strong one, and the guy the Eagles could probably use the most in the first round of the draft, Michigan’s behemoath DT Alan Branch, will go too high unless the team cough up a lot of draft picks. The team should also re-sign Jeff Garcia and Donte’ Stallworth, whose price probably went up after his three-catch, 100-yard performance tonight.

Thursday Eagles Notes

Thomas Tapeh is still questionable for Saturday night’s game with a knee strain. If he can’t go, Correll Buckhalter will fill in at fullback. Not quite an ideal solution. Joe Horn is still questionable for the Saints with a groin injury.

I was thinking about this a week or two ago, but I came back to it today after Sam Donnellon wrote a column in today’s Philadelphia Daily News about Marty Mornhinweg’s reputation getting a boost in recent weeks. Could Mornhinweg ever have enough success as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator to be considered for a head coaching job again? His failure in Detroit was almost comical, until you realize that the Lions’ problems have turned out to be far worse than Marty’s coaching ability. Sometimes, you can have success in your second tenure as an NFL head coach—just ask Bill Belichick. (Not that I’m putting Morhinweg in Belichick’s league, just saying he had a tough go-round his first time out as well.)

Don Banks of SI.com ask a “veteran NFC insider” his thoughts about the Eagles-Saints matchup. which completely lack any insight (sample “analysis”: “Brian Westbrook is really showing what he can do in the run game.” Wow. Want more? “Marques Colston had a hell of a year.” Stop, my head is swimming from all this insider info.) Mark Eckel of The Trenton Times offers a similar interview (with the same guy?), with only slightly better results. One semi-decent point the scout makes: “I guess having Hollis Thomas back will help. He played really well against (the Eagles) last time.” Thomas is returning to action after a four-game suspension for violating the league’s banned substances policy. Will he make a difference in the Saints’ lackluster run defense?

KC Joyner at ESPN.com offers far more cogent points in his breakdown of Saturday’s game (Insider account required). If you remember all those bombs Andy Reid called in their first meeting not falling into the arms of Eagles’ receivers, you’re right. Joyner notes that not one of Donovan McNabb’s 10 deep passes was caught in that game. Joyner thinks the Eagles could have better luck this time with Donte’ Stallworth being in the lineup. He also points out that in the earlier Eagles-Saints matchup, Drew Brees was 9-for-9 for 77 yards on short passes to receivers that were uncovered. That’s just one of many stats that should be keeping Jim Johnson up at night this week.  

Tuesday Eagles Notes

Well, I guess they are Wednesday morning notes by now, but I saw them all on Tuesday. First up, Rich Hofmann makes the point that you don’t want to hear but is probably true–the Eagles probably need to score a lot, like 30 or more points, to beat the Saints. The question of the week is: How will the Eagles’ D be able to slow the Saints offense, since they probably ain’t going to stop it totally? Pat Kirwan over at NFL.com thinks Jim Johnson will blitz a lot, which didn’t work the first time out because Drew Brees throws from so many three-step drops.  The Eagles, instead, better hope for deflected passes that turn into interceptions rather a bushel of sacks.

I was planning on talking about the Linc at length once the season is finally over, but I figure I’ll add my two cents since the Philadelphia Daily News made a big stink about the swaying exit ramps after Sunday’s game. A big part of the problem is that there is only one escalator on each side of the stadium for all of the upper-level ticket holders. Worse, they only open one door to let people through to the escalator. So while we waited for 10 minutes to get on the escalator, a ton of people weren’t waiting and hitting the ramps instead. While there may be a “permanent solution” found to buttress the ramps in the off-season, adding another escalator on each side of the Linc would be a fan-friendly step that will, of course, never happen.

I guess I’m not that surprised that there are already mock drafts starting to pop up, including this one on ESPN.com. You need an Insider account to see the whole thing, but I can tell you that Todd McShay of Scouts Inc. slots the Eagles in at the 27th pick, and that pick is outside linebacker Lawrence Timmons from Florida State. At this point, I’m more intrigued by the pick right before Timmons, Fresno State CB Marcus McCauley, who is 6-foot-1 and runs a 4.3 40. Someone like that could definitely help against Plaxico Burress in the future.