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This was a blown opportunity because the Eagles won the stats but lost the game. Overall, I think the team played well, but lost to a lesser team.

OFFENSE
Vick had a tough outing with two fumbles, an interception and a concussion; he carries the ball like a yo-yo. I think Jackson made the best defensive play by an offensive player I have ever seen and Peters had his best game as an Eagle while Celek had his worst game. Smith and Kafka made nice debuts and McCoy had another solid game. It should be noted that Jackson recorded his 3rd dropped TD of the season.

DEFENSE
Jenkins was a beast in the 1st Q, then Cole stole the spotlight. Samuel demonstrated why he is the best CB in the NFL and Asomugha and Rodgers-Cromartie played well, too. 35 points is too many and I think Castillo deserves some blame, especially since the redzone and goal line needs dramatic improvement.

SPECIAL TEAMS
Lewis is still struggling as KR although he improved as the game progressed. Henery had his first miss albeit from 63 yards that Tom Dempsey would have missed. The kick coverage team gave up big returns for the 2nd consecutive week.

ROOKIES
Kelce had another good game, with good pass and run blocking. Matthews was dragged like a rag doll, again. Lewis struggled as KR, Henery was perfect except for the 63 yard attempt and Henry had 1 amazing punt. I think the remainder of the rookies were deactivated.

COACHING
Who called all those running plays? The Eagles were balanced for the first time in 13 years. None of the trick plays worked and they never have. Only 1 wasted timeout for taking too long to call a play, so there was improvement. Reid still doesn't understand the concept of the challenge flag and he never will.

OPPONENT
Gonzalez is still playing like a hall-of-famer despite his age. Their rookie WR Jones is going to be a dominant player. Robinson is the dirtiest player I have seen since Conrad Dobler. Steve Martin did a better coaching job than the last time we saw him; he has 2 games against Denzel Washington of Tampa Bay.

I think Castillo deserves some blame
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Some? Tonight....5 redzone trips, 5 touchdowns.

Fire his ass yesterday. He can't scheme for shit.

This game, in general, pretty much summed up Andy Reid's tenure in Philly....a head shaking cluster fuck.

This game, in general, pretty much summed up Andy Reid's tenure in Philly....a head shaking cluster fuck.


Normally I am the first to blame Reid, however I give Reid credit for a good game plan, balanced play calling and effective protection schemes. I think Reid needs to dispose of the trick plays because no defensive coordinator has ever been fooled by his nonsense. He mucked up another non-challenge, but when has he ever made the correct decision on a challenge? Only one blown time out which is remarkable for Reid. Discipline is a problem because there were too many penalties, again.

I think Castillo is facing an uphill challenge and the defense has been getting progressively worse each week since the first preseason game. The one improvement this week was gang tackling which mitigated Atlanta's rushing game. The red zone defense is worse than the red zone offense, which says a lot. The defense struggles on short yardage and goal line situations, so they have plenty to work on.

Washburn and Mudd deserve credit because both lines played well. The difference between winning and losing was the turnovers, and the Falcons deserve more credit than any Eagle blame. The Falcons defense forced three turnovers, including two in the red zone, and they were good plays.

Discipline is a problem because there were too many penalties, again.
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Philly had 4 penalties for 20 yards. Are you and BI the same fucking person?

Jesus. Christ.

Game plan? Pshaw. It was OK....except for the critical 3rd down WR screen that everyone saw coming, and a lot of runs were Shady changing losses into gains (man he's good).

I thought Asomugha played better than 22 and DRC tonight, plus he wasn't left unblocked b/c the offense didn't think he would make a tackle.

I thought the D did well initially on short yardage runs - I mean, Atl only scored on later downs close to the goal line.

I shudder to think what will happen if they don't fix the safety/LB issue by Thanksgiving. Brady and the boys will be licking their chops.

And really, John Abraham did more to hurt his team with penalties than any Eagle tonight.

Philly had 4 penalties for 20 yards. Are you and BI the same fucking person?


There were at least 2 offsetting penalties and some declined penalties. Collinsworth showed a few uncalled penalties and said, "they got away with it." I thought the penalties looked sloppy on replay. Certainly an improvement compared with the Rams game, but sloppy nonetheless.

You're typing just to type at this point.

The safeties and LB's were invisible. It isn't hard to KNOW how to beat this defense. The Eagles gave up 4 TD's by the pass. Two to Tony G. 7 passes for 83 yards and 2 TD's. Is this really a mystery?

Plus, Collingsworth kept expressing his amazement about the defensive alignment.....what he couldn't come out and say was how fucking dumb it is to line up your defensive ends like gunners on a punt.

Reid did get too cute with his play calling. The third down pass to Maclin really didn't help. The reverse (he's been running that for 11 years) to DJax RIGHT after Shady bitch slapped the Atl defense was retarded and dulled the rhythm of the offense.

Celek had a few crucial drops.

DJax....if you want crazy money, you can't drop 3 TD's worth in two games. You can't.

Maclin had a few crucial drops as well.

The offensive line did alright for the most part. I was surprised that Kafka did fine.

I am not surprised by this outcome. But this should be a harbinger for what will happen if Reid STILL can't comprehend why he needs a LB that can cover TE's and soft balls for his middle 3.

One of the girls who joined us to watch the game asked why Reid appointed Castillo, the former o-line coach to d-coordinator.....she asked, "why would he do that? does he know anything about coaching defense?". Keep in mind this was after she asked, "why didn't they try to kick a FG on the FG that was closer to them?" (after Atl got stopped deep in their territory).

There were things to be encouraged about:

Shady
Reid actually running the ball
Kafka
the corner backs
T Cole (not new)
etc.

The only "Dream" part of this team is dreaming that one day they can stop the run and cover TE's.

agree with BMA - there was no problem with the penalties. in fact, it seemed liked they cleaned that up which was heartening.

PC - really? there were some penalties they just didn't call? you're blaming the eagles for those? (they were luck on the jenkins helmet-to-helmet hit on ryan),

one positive note, it's nice to see the front four actually get pressure without the blitz.

it seems pretty simple with this D - they have talent on the line and at the corners, hence those groups tend to play well. they have elected, again, to put marginal talent at LB and safety, so again, those units are killing them. an experienced DC might be able to scheme to cover for the gross deficiencies, but castillo has not yet been up to the task.

on O, the eagles have probably the ideal makeup if you could draw up your top three WR, yet all three had crucial drops last night (as did celek). the line is playing surprisingly well. vick has got to be more careful with the ball and figure out how to pick up a blitz.

finally, i'm not saying i expected henry to make that 63 yarder, but when you pick a kicker in the 4th round, you sort of hope he has the leg to make it at least reasonably close when kicking in a dome.

That was probably among the funnier field goal attempts I've ever seen. I don't know if he just doesn't have the leg or over-kicked it, or choked a little, or what, but it's pretty rare to see an unblocked field goal attempt fail to reach the end zone.

Didn't read the game thread...

I thought the D played really well until they went to the no-huddle. Defended the run very well after the first drive, WRs stymied all game, Gonzo made a sick catch and the turnovers by the O put them in bad position. When the bullets started flying they couldn't get stops.

So, good gameplan, but can't think on his feet, and sucks in the red zone. Castillo is definitely a Reid disciple.

Did anyone actually expect Vick to not miss at least 4 games this year?

Castillo was overmatched in the 4th, and it was what I was afraid of - the Falcons would go to the line, see the D, then change their play. Did the D change theirs?

The no huddle also worked (as Zak pointed out), and I have to wonder why the Falcons OC didn't do it earlier (aside from, maybe, he's just not very good). Ryan was hearing footsteps all night and they should've gone to it in the beginning of the 2nd half.

falcons have a couple inexperienced guys on their ol, so maybe they didn't want to put them in that situation right away

That was probably among the funnier field goal attempts I've ever seen. I don't know if he just doesn't have the leg or over-kicked it, or choked a little, or what, but it's pretty rare to see an unblocked field goal attempt fail to reach the end zone.

C'mon, man. It was from 63 yards. It's pretty rare that you even see anyone attempt something from that distance. (Guys like Janikowski do not grow on trees.) Would've been nicer had the kick gone longer, but at least it was down the middle, and more importantly, Reid wasn't afraid to try it. Fat Man grew a pair. How exciting is it to finally see the Eagles get the ball back with 45 seconds before the half and then actually try to score instead of kneeling out the clock like cowards?

I thought the run defense played significantly better once they stopped being so reliant on the porous, asinine wide nines alignment. Yeah, they gave up a big one to Michael Turner in the 4th, but there was some excellent blocking on that play. And I did see a couple of running plays through the wide nines where the safeties successfully came in and plugged the holes with the linebackers. I guess that's the key there, as the linebackers cannot handle it themselves. To be fair, the linebackers probably can't even handle tying their own shoes.

Reid made yet another glaring error by not challenging on the obviously terrible call of the INT that bounced off the turf. You can say, "That's his staff's fault," but who hires and directs the staff? Since the defense wasn't interested in stopping anything at that point, that turnover immediately led to seven points and a momentum killer.

This game shook out similar to the way I'd expected with the receivers providing a new twist. On both sides of the ball, the Eagles live and die by big plays. It's all or nothing, and the defense is either giving up 40 yard runs or they're getting INTs or sacks, while the offense is either churning out huge hunks of yardage or turning the ball over. That's the way this team has been built, but at the end of the game, they were in position to win, and Maclin blew it. It's a shame because he was having a career day up to that point, but since I expect the run defense to suck ass, and I count on Reid making at least one horrible decision per week (not even counting the ridiculous end-arounds that exert tons of energy for a one yard gain), this loss can be placed on the stone hands of Jackson, Celek, Avant, and Maclin. Aside from Jackson, whom I anticipate will have a drop or two, their inability to catch the ball was unexpected and looked more like the Eagles of 1999-2003, but the drops cost them in the end.

I was surprised that Kafka did fine.

I wasn't. I know it's preseason, but he's looked good coming in then, even last year. If anything, he reminded me a bit of how Kolb looked running the offense.

I don't see how he doesn't start against the Giants, even if Young is healthy (assuming Vick misses).

Jerrod Page looked bad on that Turner 63 yard run that changed the game. He had the best shot to stop it from getting too bad, and he whiffed.

Was Watkins inactive again?

C'mon, man. It was from 63 yards. It's pretty rare that you even see anyone attempt something from that distance. (Guys like Janikowski do not grow on trees.)

Meanwhile, Dino's new team kicks a 55 yarder.

Was Watkins inactive again?


Watkins played in the Atlanta game and I noticed that he did fine on his blocks. I don't know how much he played but I noticed him in the 2nd half. Collinsworth and Michaels didn't mention the substitution so I don't know the circumstances.

not even counting the ridiculous end-arounds that exert tons of energy for a one yard gain


I don't want to see anymore trick plays or the wildcat.

That one play were Vick finally ended up with the ball and nowhere to go was dumb.

Think we ran that play on my pee wee football team.

In the end a very winnable game for the Eagles and they blew it.

Meanwhile, Dino's new team kicks a 55 yarder.

In terms of field goals, there is a world of difference between 55 and 63 yards. There's even a world of difference between 55 and 60 yards. Few guys ever get an attempt in their entire career from 60 or more yards.

I just heard Reid say possibly the most honest thing he's ever said in a morning after press conference.

Not a direct quote, but pretty close "I take the blame for this loss. I had a young QB in the game late and I feel like I was too conservative when Kafka came in there. That sent the wrong message to the team. I kind of sat on the ball when he entered and I think that sends a message to the team whether you intend it to or not and it's not a good message"

Yeah, that was.....weird, yet very refreshing.

He also kept mentioning that if he didn't have confidence in Kafka, he wouldn't have traded away Kolb or signed Young. I think he really feels bad about it. And it didn't sound like coachspeak, either.

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