I’ve seen a lot of good football in my day and I’ve seen a lot of bad football in my day, but I ain’t seen nothing like what I saw on Sunday.
It didn’t feel like anyone really won, but it really felt like both teams lost. The clock just kinda ticked triple zeros and one team just so happen to have more points than the other.
It was a complete and utter shit show and there’s nothing worse than being the loser of a shit show. The Cowboys lost Tony Romo to a collarbone injury, so that means Brad0n Weeden will be their starter for the next eight weeks. So now the Cowboys have one of the most star studded IRs in the NFL, but despite all this still seem to be in better shape than the Eagles after Sunday.
The Eagles not only failed to play well, but they had their scheme completely unravel on them, and its that second part that has me really concerned. There were times on Sunday, when the camera would cut to Chip Kelly on the side line and he would look completely lost. Sunday left a lot of people wondering if Chip Kelly’s offense had finally been figured out, but then again if I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I’d be probably able to afford some decent Sixers tickets.
The Eagles pretty much sucked on every level, but Sam Bradford has received the lion’s share of the criticism and it is deservedly so. Saying Sam Bradford’s vision looked a little bad on Sunday is like saying Ray Charles was just a little near sighted. Bradford consistently missed wide open receivers who were right in front of his face. One specific instance was on Bradford’s first interception of the day, instead of throwing to a wide open Josh Huff running across the middle, he chose to force a throw to a covered Zach Ertz in the end zone; Sean Lee was having none of it. Bradford’s accuracy also left a lot to be desired, which is concerning considering thats one area of his game that’s been heavily praised.
For how bad Sammy was, I will give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. I don’t think it can be said enough that this was his second actual game in close to two year; the tin man needs his some oil because he’s a little rusty. I’ll give it a few more weeks before I start to worry.
I bet Demarco Murray did not expect things to go how they did on Sunday. Someone was probably having a REAL bad day. I hope Murray missed his old defensive teammates because he got to see a whole lot of them. There were few carries where Murray wasn’t greeted by a Dallas defender in the back field. DeMarco was shooting daggers at Bradford and Kelly all night; he was not a happy camper. Some of it had to do with the play calling, some of it had to do with his production, and a lot of it had to do with the production of the players around him; He wasn’t happy about Bradford’s fumble or when Bradford would pull back a hand off just to end up overthrowing a receiver.
I can overlook the mistakes of almost every positional group, Jordan Matthew’s drops do have me worried, but I think he’ll shake it off, the one place I am worried about though is the offensive line, specifically the interior. Gotta love the consistency of Allen Barbre and Andrew Gardner, building off of their crap season debut and looking like complete shit in week two. They made the Cowboys look like geniuses for extending Tyrone Crawford and that just sucks. Jason Kelce has me a little worried too, but I think he can turn around after this poor outing.
I don’t want to say the Eagle’s defense had a bad day, but I also don’t want to say they had a good day. The Dallas offense would move the ball with ease at times just to ultimately get stopped by a clutch defensive stand. They were Billy Davis’ “bend don’t break” defense and I hate Billy Davis’ bend “don’t break defense”.
The pass rush was next to a nonexistent for the second week in a row. Outside of an early Connor Barwin sack and a very Very VERY nice hit on Tony Romo by Jordan Hicks, there weren’t very many birds in the Cowboys backfield. Brandon Graham has yet to make a real impact since being promoted to a starter, he needs to start earning his new contract. The pass rush set the tone and kept the Eagles in games last year, if that’s gone, things could be bad.
The defense was able to make some big pays and did force some turnovers, but the offense squandered golden opportunities. This was the Eagles game to lose, they lost it, then the Cowboys gave it back to them, and then they lost it again.
Its only week two, so its hardly time to start abandoning ship, but still this one hurts pretty bad. This was the type of embarrassing loss that makes you wonder if Chip Kelly might just go back to College, where he knows his offense works. The Eagles suffer a few more loses like this and Chip may slip out the back door before the angry mob comes asking for his head.
Uncertainty about a head coaches commitment level can be deadly and that’s why, even with two pro bowlers sitting on the bench, I think the Cowboys are in better shape than the Eagles. Romo and Dez will heal, but its hard to make players want to get behind a coach who may just peace as soon as the going gets tough
Rumors about Chip Kelly wanting to go back to college will always be around, even when things are good, but if he does put out a few more efforts like this one he could lose the fan support and its even harder for players to buy into a coach if he does’t have his fan support. DeMarco Murray already seems a little disgruntle. Sam Bradford is a free agent at the end of the year and I doubt he’ll want to stick around in a city where fans are asking for a new head coach.
There’s still a lot of season left to play, the Eagles can turn this slow start around. The Colts started 0-2 last year before making a run at the AFC Championship. Things aren’t that bad yet, but my finger is circling the panic button. I can’t help it, Im getting Vietnam flash backs of the Dream Team era and that’s all it really takes for me to go into worst case scenario mode.
So now Chip Kelly is 0-3 at home against Dallas, two of those games, this Sunday’s included, were two of the worst offensive performances of his era. I think this might just be a case of one team sucking against another at home, it happens. So Eagles fans, wipe away those tears, the Eagles play the Jets this week and do you know what the Jets do? Play football bad. Sounds to me like a good place to start a turn around.
Snowballs & Batteries 