Eagles win.

What more can you say about this game ... Well, below is what I can say.

The Redskins are just a total joke and the ESPN commentators encapsulated that nicely. My favorites were when Gruden responded to Antwan Randle-El’s muffed punt by saying, “Lightning continues to strike.” Later Mike Tirico reacted to the Redskins fumbled snap on 4th and goal: “And that summarizes the Washington Redskins”

With several quick drop plays early, Mcnabb looked crisp at first, although he did rush the throw on the Eagles’ first failed third down conversion. I really thought Andy Reid scripted some good plays early. He got Westbrook on the field a lot before he got concussed, and the Eagles had a lot of good scripted plays designed to get the ball in the hands of the playmakers: Westbrook, Maclin, Jackson, but after the first couple series, things broke down.

On the whole, Donovan rushed way too many throws. Really a weak game by McNabb after the first six or eight throws. Over a third of McNabb’s passing yards were on the one TD throw to Jackson, and even that ball was a bit underthrown. Mcnabb also underthrew McCoy on the 3rd quarter swing pass that went for a loss, but they got a facemask on London Fletcher anyway. McNabb really has struggled with accuracy and he seems to be jittery when there’s a strong pass rush, not giving himself a chance to set up his feet and deliver the ball accurately. Right now not throwing intereceptions just isn’t enough.

I did love Andy's call of FB dive for Weaver on the 3rd and one situation midway though the first quarter. Let’s do more of this.

On Vick’s designed run for first down on 3rd and 2 in the fourth quarter, Leonard Weaver also made a great block to take out a DE, which enabled Herremans to pull and block for Vick at the second level. That Weaver block just is not made by Josh Parry or Thomas Tapeh (and don’t even ask me about Tony Hunt)


On defense, I liked the blitz packages, and Mikell played a great game both blitzing and tackling and holding down his assignments in the run game.

Witherspoon was on the field a whole lot and looked quite good, doing a lot of different things, and he definitely showed that he can blitz. McDermott blitzed withersppoon quite a bit. On the Babin sack in the 3rd, Witherspoon attacked the same gap as Babin enabling Babin to release from his man.

Even more impressive was Witherspoon's heads up play to come down with the batted ball to score a TD. This play also really showed the creativity of McDermott. On that Witherspoon TD, Babin lined up in 2 point stance over Patterson who lined up at LDE. Then Babin, Trent Cole, and backup tackle Dixon (all 322 pounds of him) dropped back into coverage which took away any checkdown plays over the middle. With only four rushers, I suppose it’s not really a blitz, but it was impressive and in created major confusion for the blocers who failed to drive the rushers back enough to give Campbell a throwing lane. With Bunkley, Witherspoon, Mikell and Patterson coming in, Mikell did a great job to take advantage of the confused redskins protection to get a hand on a ball that ultimately became a pick-6 for Spoon Jr. (as Eagellectual reader Dan the Student has taken to calling him).

On Witherspoon’s strip of Campbell, it was just a great overload call by McDermott, Witherspoon followed Mikell and Gocong (who basically lined up as a DT) in and there was no one to block him. The announcers talked about the simplicity of the Eagles blitz packages, but what I saw was a lot of mixing and matching personnel in new and interesting places, and it all seemed to work.

All those sacks were certainly fun. Great coverage on Bunkley’s late 3rd quarter sack. Really a coverage sack. Good blitz design early in 4th quarter to get Cole one on one with a TE. Fred Davis cannot handle Cole, come on now.

The Eagles run defense really was stout and that played a big role in the win. Patterson and Bunkley both seemed to be around the ball carrier whenever he went down, but Clinton Portis is a far cry from where he was a couple years ago.

Also, a great play by blitzing Sean Jones to bat a Campbell pass in the late 3rd. Jones disengaged from FB Sellers to chase Campbell, and Trent Cole did a great job of covering up Sellers when he released from Jones and went into a checkdown route. McDermott’s comfort, and success, using Trent Cole in coverage situations just further opens up the pass rush playbook.

Still you’d like to see the Defense hold a little better in the Red Zone (not counting the botched snap the Eagles had little to do with). Devin Thomas’s TD was inexcusable. I’m not sure whether it was Samuel’s or Mikell’s responsibility to hold down the back of the end zone, but one of them definitely needs to stay back there and not bite on the pump fake (a possible theory is that it was Mikell’s responsibility but he came up on the short throw pump fake b/c he didn’t trust Samuel to make a goal line tackle, but that’s just a theory).


This team’s inability to close out a game is a real concern. This was a real problem for last year’s team and seems likely to become one for this year’s team when. You’d like to see the defense just shut these guys down, but again, these problems must be pinned (like the tale on a DONkey) on the offense.

The second half made clear what the two big Jackson plays masked in the first half—the complete stagnation of our offense once Westbrook went out. The team had a ton of trouble establishing the run in the second half. McCoy looked like he was running OK, but the blocks just weren’t there. McCoy did, however, struggle in pass protection a couple times.

Overall, the pass blocking was not the disaster it was against the Raiders, but it still needs real work. Peters seemed to get beaten multiple times by athletic DE Andre Carter. Herremans seemed to have even more problems. He had a penalty in the pass game that almost gave Washington a safety, struggled to keep Hayneworth from collapsing the pocket (a tall order though), and on at least one running play—which went for a McCoy two-yard gain—Herremans failed to push his man out of the hole. Also, though, Jamaal Jackson needs to help Herremans out against a guy like Haynesworth when there’s no A-gap blitz. Would like to see better awareness from the veteran center.

The only real offensive bright spot that half was Maclin working to extend the play on the 3rd quarter third-down catch to move the sticks. Maclin did a nice job breaking off his route to come back away from the coverage when Mcnabb scrambled to his left. Maclin is definitely showing flashes of why he will, soon I hope, be a very nice NFL starter … and perhaps much more.

The offense will have a tough challenge next week against the New York Football Giants, who desperately want to avoid a three-game losing streak. On top of all that, it seems almost definite that Westbrook will miss this game (the signing of Saints practice squad rookie PJ Hill pretty much advertises this). It’s hard to see our offense sans B-West keeping the Giants D off-balance (or on the field), but maybe, just maybe, our D can keep us in this by making Eli Manning (is he the most overpaid American there is?—watch out former AIG execs!) throw three interceptions. He did it last week! All this is so much less frustrating thanks to the Phightins, though! Thank you Clifford Lee.