Kudos to the Washington Redskins, your 2015 NFC East Champions, for finally taking the Eagles behind a barn and mercifully putting them out of their misery.
This season was a hot shit sandwich and every bite went down as smooth as you might as expect.
This team came in with astronomical expectation thanks to a mirage of a preseason. I hate to admit it, but even I had Super Bowl aspirations after seeing what this team could do. But all those preseason games did was lull the Eagles into a false sense of skill that bit them hard in the ass once games actually started to matter.
The expectations were high, but the writing was on the wall that this season was going to be a disaster.
For starters, the Eagles didn’t play a single starting quarterback in the preseason, aside from a series of Andrew Luck in the first quarter of preseason week 1. The defense went completely untested, but that didn’t stop people from putting the Eagles’ front seven in the conversation for best in the league. It took about four weeks to show how wrong we all were. It’s stuff like this that made the team over confident.
Another false positive that game from the preseason was the offensive line. Things were manageable at first, but it didn’t take long for this wheels to fall off. This was the group I was most concerned with going into the season. Chip Kelly thought he could just plug in some kind of athletic back ups and his offensive line wouldn’t skip a beat, but NAAAAAAWWW. Not only was the guard position a complete liability all season, but it turned the center position into a weakness as well. Going into the season, not enough was made about the obvious lack of chemistry this group of players had with one another. Not one of these players had ever lined up next to one another and the lack of cohesion was pretty evident. With Jason Peters’ talent all but gone and Jason Kelce’s sudden drop in production, the offensive line is a bigger question mark now then before the season began.
The main reason I was so worried about the Eagles’ offensive line was because Chip went out and got himself a couple of players who would depend on an elite line: Sam Bradford and DeMarco Murray. As the season wore on, Bradford showed no reason for concern as his mobility improved with each week; his knees had me sweating. By the end of the season he was actually making defenders work for their sacks. Murray on the other hand showed no such improvement. Rather things just got worse as the season wore on. It became clear pretty quickly that DeMarco was the product of a stellar OLine in Dallas. He isn’t fast enough to run outside, his vision isn’t good enough to run inside unless there’s a hole the size of a semi, and he’s been nothing but a pouty, moody, distraction. His shortcomings have taken away the running game from Chip Kelly, that’s like telling Mike McCarthy not to throw the ball.
Making a second year wide receiver your team’s new number one was also a little bit questionable. People were expecting Jordan Matthews to match the productions of Desean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin and that may of been a little bit much, but hey hindsights 20/20. What might of been even more ridiculous was expecting Nelson Agholor to match Maclin in his rookie season. Some of that may have been from the fact that Agholor is almost an exact clone of Maclin or from last season’s super rookies, but nonetheless it was a lot for a rookie. Then there was the fact the only veteran presence at this position was Riley Cooper and Miles Austin. Sam Bradford and the Eagles were doomed before this season ever started.
Then there’s the secondary, returning only one starter from last season. When there’s a new starter at four of your five secondary spots, you have to expect some growing pains. I really think trading Brandon Boykin was low-key one of the moves that killed this season.
Then there’s Byron Maxwell, who really doesn’t do anything well. All through the preseason this guy was getting burned and letting receivers get open, but he’d sprinkle in a turnover or pass break up every so often. Once the games started to matter, the turnovers and break ups came few and far between while the receiving yards kept raking up. Week 1 against Julio was just a sign of things to come.
Another player who came in riding a lot of hype was Kiko Alonso. Hell, he was basically the conductor of the Eagles’ hype train his season was being built up so much. Really, we should of been smarter than putting all of our eggs in Kiko’s basket. The guy was coming off a torn ACL, hadn’t played a down of football in over a year, missed the entire preseason, and then played a half of meaningful football before reinjurying his knee and missing about five more weeks. By the time he finally started playing regularly, he was about as rusty as Sam Bradford at the start of the season. Kiko is a player who is praised for his instincts, but when your away from your natural environment for too long, instincts can begin to weaken. Kiko has been playing poorly, but I feel as though its more due to disuse rather than lack of talent.
All in all, a lot of these wounds were self inflicted. Chip Kelly completely reshaped this team, and it may have been a little too college. The Eagles were one Ryan Broyles away from a BCS Championship team. This stuff may of worked on Saturdays, but shit won’t fly on Sundays.
Chip Kelly’s Eagles have been nothing but successful in his first two seasons finishing with 10-6 records in consecutive years. Those records are nice, but all they did was land the Eagles a couple of late first round picks. It may not of been pretty, but the Eagles need this season to restock the cupboard.
This offseason will decide if Chip is the real deal or just LSU’s next head coach.
Snowballs & Batteries 