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Meh, someone would have to pay me good money to watch that travesty of a game again to point out anything specific about it Roachie. Perhaps it was due to my looking for some silver lining or my ever-present homerism, but at the time I posted that comment, Gocong had made a couple of nice plays.

Chris GoHome made no plays at all, unless you consider falling on your face a play. Roachie is spot on because I was paying close attention to GoHome from the start and he fucking sucked last night.

They act like they've never seen a screen pass before.

And let's not hope JJ's fix to the lack of pass rush is "Throw 12 guys at the QB and hope something happens".

And what happened to Dawk? I know it's preseason, but is there something else here? The only time I saw him was when he was getting belly-to-belly suplexed on the field.

You CAN see a difference between Gaither and Trot on the field, though. And who gets the 3rd WR spot, Baskett or Avant (since Avant looked)?

Two shaky linebackers and a safety who can't tackle. Definitely cause for concern on the D.

Lots of penalties on O as well. Just a totally sloppy game.

OG made a nice play getting from sideline to sideline on a couple plays which was Trott's weakness. But on screens and run plays right at him he got owned. On the Parker TD run he was swallowed up and manhandled like a lil girl by one of the guards.

Here are my general thoughts:

- What happened to Bloom? I know he's nicked up, but his returns are awful after showing a little promise in the first game. He has more total return yardage sideline to sideline that north and south this preseason. Additionally, what does his benching in the first half mean?

- McNabb and Kolb both looked good.

- Gocong...yeesh. That was not what I was hoping to see. Some stuff is obvious for all to see. Namely, he doesn't appear to have enough agility to play the position without falling. In the open field he looks like a DE playing LB. The speed is good enough and he still shows his talent in bursts, but I was disappointed. Further, his blitzing is sometime effective, but he's also single handedly blown up a lot of blitzes by leaving his lane. I saw him do it a couple weeks ago and lat night he did it again at least once, basically taking Dawk out of the play. If you are going to blitz, you have to be able to do it without taking out another blitzer in the process.

- Spikes doesn't look quick. I'm hoping it's all an illusion, but I'm just not feeling the LBs so far. It seems like they've been unable to make a play so far in the pre-season and I'm just waiting for someone to do something. That said, his tackle/forced fumble on the goal line was picture perfect and was the first time I really thought "Nice...that's what he's here for".

- Avant looks like a prototypical slot WR. He seems to get open with relative ease and catches everything fairly easily. He's not fast at all, but he IS tough to tackle and shifty.

- Curtis again looked very quick on the field, but I think you saw the downside on that deep ball. He's not a deep ball receiver and his speed/quickness is best utilized underneath. I don't know what it is, but some guys just don't track the ball well downfield and make those catches. That ball McNabb threw was on the money and would have caught by T.O., Reggie, Pinkston, or Stallworth (probably even Baskett)...not Curtis. I think it has something to do with the legnth of his arms, but that's just a shot in the dark.

- Speaking of Curtis, I don't blame him for losing concentration on that slant in the end zone. He knew that was a hospital ball as soon as the ball was called. The one thing I noticed McNabb doing last night was locking onto receivers and Curtis was definitely going to get thumped if the pass wasn't picked off.

- Reggie had one of his bad hands days. I like his intensity and I think he brings a toughness to the outside (which is needed), but after he scrapped with one of the CBs, the drops started coming and he got whistled for a personal foul. He has to learn to control the emotions.

- Bunkley is a different player than last year and easily the most consistently impressive lineman they've had so far (IMO). Patterson might be the second most impressive.

- The defensive ends are a little scary right now. Kearse might as well be the invisible man so far. They all seem to just be flying up the field and falling down while the QB comfortably steps up and make his throw.

- I've never seen to many people just falling down in a game before. That was just weird, but everyone was just falling.

- Dawk looked extremely rusty. I'm hoping it's just rust and not the injury (he seemed to move okay).

- Hunt had a nice night. I thought that was the best he looked, but I still don't like his running style.

- I'm not sure who is responsible for the jailbreak in the secondary, but giving up career best numbers for 1 half of play to Big Ben isn't good.

- I didn't see Barksdale or Gaddis the entire game.

- IMO, Rocca won the job last night. He's a machine.

- Celek looks like a player. His blocking isn't bad, his hands seem soft, and he has the ability to make a guy miss and pick up a few extra yards. He's looking like LJ's replacement next year.

- Watching Dookie Davenport again last night continues to make me furious that the Eagles didn't sign him in either of the last 2 years. He would be a PERFECT fit in their offense.

All in all, it was a craptacular crapfest.

as bad as the D looked, I do think Spikes played a nice game. He was the only one making plays and tackles....

I thought Buck played well last night. He seemed to hit the hole well. I also liked what I saw from Hunt. His upright running style will drive you crazy and he couldnt outrun a lawn tractor but he definitely has size and should be good for short yardage. Liking what I am seeing from Nick Graham as well he just seems to make plays. Other than that not much to cheer about.

Also, something to keep in mind...

It's only the pre-season, but the Eagles rushing offense is currently 28th in the league in yards per game and 31st in yards per carry. Their defense is 27th against the pass and 24th overall, giving up about 350 yards per game.

That's putrid.

FD, Westbrook isn't getting the carries he would in the regular season. Blunt probably won't get as many, and Hunt will probably be 3rd and shorts only. I think rushing at this point is a bad thing to look at, especially considering Westbrook's touches so far. That said, it is very telling on the line play (good lines will get everyone yards) and depth.

Yeah, I'm not saying they are operating at full capacity with Westbrook and Andrews basically not on the field.

Still, when you are 31st in yards per carry, that's pretty terrible. Everyone does the same thing in the pre-season (uses the starters sparingly...specifically good backs) and there is only 1 team in the NFL that has been less effective on the ground than the Eagles.

- Reggie had one of his bad hands days. I like his intensity and I think he brings a toughness to the outside (which is needed), but after he scrapped with one of the CBs, the drops started coming and he got whistled for a personal foul. He has to learn to control the emotions.

There was talk amongst one of the morning shows where they said it didn't look like Brown improved over the off-season. Does this seem right?

And about the pass rush - there were more than a couple opportunities where it looked as if the Birds would get a sack, but Big Ben eluded them. Problems with the turf or a sign of things to come?

Those clowns don't know what the hell they are talking about.

Reggie is fine. The problem is they just haven't thrown the ball his way and he dropped 2 yesterday. He was blowing coverage up against the Panthers and they they couldn't get the ball into his hands.

Those WIP idiots are probably responsible for the rash of "Will Avant unseat Reggie?!?!?!?!?!?????" threads on the Eagles message board today.

haha, reggie is fine...i think #5 and FB have been giving Curtis the ball to get timing together....im not worried about the offense one bit. I was impressed with their ability to convert 2nd and forevers and continue to find success with who ever is the TE out there.

THE D is D problem. LB's will kill them this year...starting to re-think not having trotter for obvious run situations. They say he is only being offered backup jobs in TB and Den. If he is gonna be a backup, be a backup here.

I seem to recall Reggie making a lot of nice catches and bad drops last year. I would expect the same thing (both good and bad) this season.

And yes, the defense is still a major, major problem, although it was nice to see Bunkley and Patterson making plays. Bunkley does look like a new man, a guy who will make a real (dare I say essential) contribution this year. I can't even begin to imagine how bad this linebacking unit would be without Spikes.

While it wasn't a real game, last night showed me exactly what I thought I'd see from the Eagles this season: they will be good enough to contend in a weak, pussified NFC, but they are way out of their league when it comes to the elite teams of the AFC. The above average AFC teams are probably better than most of the NFC, too.

Would Trot come back here as a backup after being cut?

Those WIP idiots are probably responsible for the rash of "Will Avant unseat Reggie?!?!?!?!?!?????" threads on the Eagles message board today.

Makes no sense. Only way Avant unseats Brown is if they cut him. And it wasn't WIP (for entertainment purposes only) making that comment - it was the guys on 950.

They said last night on the broadcast that they spoke with Trotter and he told them he "probably wouldn't have accepted" a backup role.

He's just a guy who's in a little bit of denial because he's working out for teams and not getting offers.

The Eagles didn't even offer him a backup role (just asked if he'd like to retire or be released).

Must've missed that part. Was giving my "mute" button a workout since it was Madden/Michaels.

It's only the pre-season, but the Eagles rushing offense is currently 28th in the league in yards per game and 31st in yards per carry. Their defense is 27th against the pass and 24th overall, giving up about 350 yards per game.

That's putrid.

Not so. Just think of the killer Week 2 or 3 Spuds article about how they are moving up the ranks compared to the Pre-season.

so I re-watched the tape and fill a little better...The pass defense was way too overaggressive and clearly has work to do on the screen etc...Originally I was disgusted with the run D....not so (at least not the 1st team). Parker had 10 carries for 32 yards. Take out the 18 yrd TD (awful) and the steelers starting running back (no big runs outside of parkers TD) had 9 carries for 14 yards, with one fumble...

is my homerism so high that I must find a silver lining ..or was the run D not as bad as it seemed.

blackberry auto type sorry...fill-feel, among other typos

It had been a while, so for the heck of it, I visited Pravda.

While there, I read Spuds' article on the defense.

I must say that prior to this article I was getting very worried, but now I have learned that apparently I, like all Eagles fans, am just neurotic.

Cocong is gonna be awesome because he's fast. Considine was playing at an All-Pro level before he bounced off of Heath Miller, and everyone is just focusing on that one bad play while ignoring his shining history. Stewart Bradley is gonna be phenomenal because white guys kick ass. Gaither will destroy everyone in his path because the coaching staff made the right decision in cutting Trotter. Why was the decision correct? Because the coaching staff made it. Duh.

Whew. Thank you, Spuds. You always put it all in perspective. Now I'm only concerned about whether I should make Buffalo Chicken Dip or Ropa Vieja for the tailgate at the Broad St. parade.

jesus, after seeing that spuds article, i politley would like to take back my post...

Thank you talon and mlewis for bringing us back to reality. That Eagles article had me thinking I was dreaming. How many times last year did we hear about how the Eagles could correct their mistakes in the next game? This is just blind optimism at this point.

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