A big win was necessary, but we do need to remember that the Chiefs are a terrible team. They have now lost twenty-six of their last twenty-eight games.
The defense looked great against a pretty bad offense.
Excellent tackling this week to rebound from last week’s poor display. Especially impressive was Quintin Mikell who had several nice open field tackles
Cole is becoming a really impressive player. He’s already better than Hugh Douglas was, since Cole’s as explosive in the pass rush while being a much better run defender. He really can't be run at. Meanwhile, Abiamiri was much improved in run defense after a week in which the Saints exploited Abiamiri’s gimpy groin (can a groin be gimpy?) in the previous week.
McDermott dialed up some real intense blitzes. They had more zero-coverage blitzes (no deep safety) and single safety looks then I can remember in a long long time. Anyone afraid that McDermott would be timid in replacing Johnson should feel quite reassured.
Gocong has been panned lately by local sports writers, but I noticed several times where he looked good on the blitz and helped provide the pressure that prevented Cassel from rolling away from pressure up the gut. He got beat for an eleven yard play by a TE in man to man coverage midway through the second on the Chiefs’ first TD drive.
On the touchdown two plays later, it was just an incredible throw and catch by Cassel and Bradley taking advantage of the height differential between KC WR Mark Bradley and Ellis Hobbs who actually had Bradley covered like glue (my apologies for mixing metaphors). Gocong remains who I thought he was—unspectacular, but serviceable—a better fit for this defense than Dhani Jones definitely and a much better value than Takeo Spikes at the SAM position.
The interior of the defensive line was impressive as well. Bunkley and Patterson repeatedly disrupted the Cheifs’ efforts to get the run game going and played a big role in Gaither’s highlight reel game.
Great game by Gaither, helped by great line play. The line played strong against the run , so that Gaither could come free many times to the ball-caririer and a bit at the qb as well, which brings us to the newest piece of news at the MIKE position.
I really don’t know what to make of the Trotter signing. He obviously gives them a great run-stopper for plays straight up the middle. The man can shed blocks and tackle—that we know. But when we last saw him, he couldn’t do anything else. He couldn’t flow to the ball on runs much outside the guards and he certainly couldn’t cover most rb’s or te’s in the pass game. Consequently teams routinely exploited this weakness, most notably when the Patriots did this with numerous screen plays across the middle, many of them to MVP WR Deion Branch in the Eagles loss in Super Bowl XXXIX, and Trotter was five years younger then. But the Eagles have worked him out, so they seem to think he can play. Another interesting twist in a season which has had more bizarreness in three weeks than most have in seventeen. I guess at a minimum he may know some stuff about Tampa’s defensive scheme from his season there two years ago.
Which do you think you could have gotten highest odds for four months ago, Maclin on the Eagles, Vick on the Eagles, Garcia on the Eagles, or Trotter on the Eagles—I’d probably say Trotter. All I know is if I could have bet a parlay on all this, I’d probably be in the market for an NFL team of my own. The Los Angeles Eagellectuals? The London Pints?
Anyway, on to the offense.
Great play on the DeSean TD. It was just a quick slant that D-Jax made into a big play. That’s what’s so impressive about DeSean Jackson. He has the speed and elusiveness to make any routine play into a gamebreaker. Kolb took a quick three step drop and made a perfect timing throw to Jackson, and kudos also to Nick Cole and Peters for clearing a huge throwing lane for Kolb. There was no one between Kolb and Jackson once Peters pushed his man outside and Cole forced his man towards the A-Gap (and Jamaal Jackson).
Celek looked great too. He has really gotten good at using his body to shield defenders from the ball, and then his power when running with ball makes him a real threat for major yac. Nice blocking too. He looks like he could be on his way to developing into the best Birds TE since Keith Jackson (apologies to Chad Lewis)—let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Still, I think we need to take the success of the Eagles’ passing game with a grain of salt. It was amazing to me how softly the Chiefs played the Eagles receivers. Jackson actually saw a bunch of single coverage early in the game, before the 64 yard touchdown. The Chiefs defense is seriously bad.
I’m still unconvinced that Kolb is an NFL starter. Not saying he can’t be but I don’t think we’ve seen enough to feel comfortable with him. Kolb still seems to rush decisions under pressure
Kolb made a few really good throws this game, much more so than in the previous game. Especially notable was in the 3rd when Kolb whizzed an eleven yard out to Maclin where only he could catch it before going out of bounds.
Kolb’s reads on many plays seemed to be simplified. He often looked like he was only reading half the field. Whether this was his own failing or Andy’s intentions to make things easier for Kolb against a defense that was going to leave more than one guy open on many plays, I don’t know. I will say though that there were several plays on which he did not seem to see the most open or deepest open receiver. Kolb missed a few plays and threw a few balls behind his receivers. Against a better defense some of these balls are possibly intercepted. Kolb especially seems to have trouble reading defenses on the run. Too often he tossed passes to covered receivers once he began moving out of the pocket. Hopefully we won’t have to see Kolb in meaningful playing time again this year, and I’m not sure how much we’ve learned about his future, but we now definitely know for the present that he is an effective spot-duty backup, and for that at least we should be glad.
As for Vick, I thought he looked good on a couple pays and rusty on a couple others, but I also think we must reserve judgment on the wildcat. As Eagellectual reader Ron the Doctor pointed out, Andy Reid is probably approaching this new formation like a chess master. The point is not what happens on any given play, but rather how it sets up potential opportunities to observe holes in the defensive tactics that will ultimately, hopefully, open up chances for big big plays later on.
McCoy, I thought, looked great. He looked quick, fast, and tough, and had some nice blocks in blitz pick up, including a crucial one on the first quarter 43 yard pass to DeSean. A great route combo on that play by the way, where the Eagles exploited the holes in the Chiefs' zone by running Maclin on a deep route and Avant shallow on the same side, enabling Jackson to cross towards their side at an intermediate distance able to grab the ball in stride and turn up field before anyone could hit him.
Love the play call of a QB sneak on the Eagles’ 2nd TD. Great play by Jamaal Jackson to push forward and let Kolb dive right over him. Good play also to have Nick Cole fill in Jackson’s hole as Jamaal pushed forward. A well-designed QB sneak. Let’s run this every time we have goal to go from inside the one. How ‘bout it Andy? Instead, though, when we had 4th and one later on in the first half, Andy inexplicably lined up with an empty backfield. I loved the call to go for it, and I’m even ok with throwing it, but at least make them have to defend the run. Line up with a back in these situations, please!
Justice continues to look strong. Clearly he has turned a corner and may be beginning to realize his second-round potential. In general the offensive line is really protecting well. It will be interesting to see if this holds up against better defenses. We’ve got two chances to see the O-line against decent pass defenses (the Raiders and the Redskins) before the real challenge against the Giants on November 1 at the Linc.
Definitely some C-grade announcers on CBS. First time I’ve ever heard the Linc described as being in downtown Philly.
Also, notice how fear of Jackson’s return prowess led the chiefs’ punter Colquitt to punt a bit shorter to get the ball high enough up to prevent a return. Not as good as a D-Jax return TD but still helped our field position all day (plus it’s harder to get a special teams penalty when there’s no return—so in that sense they’re doing us a favor.)
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