In arguably what was the most frustrating loss of the season so far, anything that could have gone wrong for the Eagles..pretty much did. However there were some redeeming qualities, we’re here to break down the Good, the bad and the ugly..
THE GOOD:
Bradford Boiling:
Starting on a positive, the start of this game was unlike any other this season. The Eagles burst out of the gate with a huge pass to Brent Celek and never looked back for the remainder of the first half. Bradford went 5-for-5 early on and despite leaving the game early, ended the game with 19/25 completions, over 200 yards, a touchdown and no turnovers. It’s fair to say that Bradford is..or at least was at the top of his game.
Keeping it tight:
Fans have been crying out for weeks now to see more of the Eagles tight ends and that’s exactly what they got. Brent Celek had more receiving yards in one game than he had all season and led the Eagles with 134 yards receiving whilst Zach Ertz had yet another touchdown called back and had 68 yards, the second most on the team. It was great to see both Celek and Ertz finally utilised and play a major role in the success of the Offense early on.
Pressure pressure pressure:
Not to blow our own trumpet here but we have now accurately predicted BOLD predictions SEVEN WEEKS IN A ROW…no other site has come even close. The Eagles linebackers stepped up and hit Tannehill four times and forced the Dolphins into a safety. They held both Miller and Ajayi to under 50 yards and had some big tackles to their name. Mychal Kendricks had six tackles on the night in what was a good display of Linebacker dominance.
THE BAD:
Where they at though?
The Dolphins have one of the worst run defenses in the NFL, ranking 31st before coming into the game. The Eagles have finally perfected the one-two punch and you’d surely thinking adding 1+1=2 right? Nope, in the Eagles case it makes 4288839. The team rushed for just 83 yards with 61 coming from Murray. A lot of this wasn’t down to the running backs as we will get to later but running the ball 36 times compared to passing it 48 against a run Defense that bad simply shouldn’t be the stats at the end of the game and was a large factor in the Offense’s second half struggles.
Miscommunications:
From Jason Kelce’s high snap problems to more penalties, Sanchez hitting DeMarco Murray in the back and tripping him up a few plays later to a Miles Austin laziness episode, the Eagles just didn’t seem on the same page tonight. A few corner mismatches as well just put the Eagles out of the loop and they never fully seemed to click after Bradford left the game. Penalties ran rampant and it just looked a bit messy out there, something that has to be ironed out.
Mark Sanchez:
Meh, there’s no other way to describe his performance other than simply…meh. He did a Sanchez. He came in, lit it up for about 5 minutes before descending into tripping over his running back, missing receivers completely and making terrible decisions late on in a drive that had fans wishing that it was Bradford at the helm. For the legions of Sanchez lovers who have done nothing but talk about how he should be starting since week one, you asked for this…
UGLY:
Jason Kelce:
I still can’t quite figure out what’s been going on with Jason Kelce. Perhaps he’s too excited about wearing a Santa Claus hat for the Christmas video shoots again or maybe there’s a more pressing issue. Kelce has been out of sync for a while now with constant high snaps and errors, it’s something that has stunted the progress of the Offense and something that Bradford often get’s flak for. He can’t help it if he’s had to Odell a ball from 8 feet above him just to begin going through his procedure. They haven’t all been wildly off, but inconsistent enough to be a relevant cause for concern.
Sam Bradford’s injury:
This was probably the most heartbreaking thing we’ve seen all season..because as the second half began and the momentum shifted, this pretty much put the nail in the coffin. Bradford had been red hot in the past few games and a clean hit after what appeared to be a Line error saw him injure his shoulder and become inactive for the rest of the game. X-Rays show negative so that is a plus, but with Bradford missing this team did not look anywhere as dangerous and that’s a fact.
Offensive Line:
Something changed between last Sunday and this Sunday. The same players, the same line without Jason Peters, just a different opponent. It was back to square one with the Offensive line as the inability to create holes resurfaced, miscommunications continued and a missed assignment led to a Quarterback injury. Too many times was Bradford having to scramble around to make a play..this was easily the biggest flaw in the Eagles team tonight..again.
Photo credit: Hunter Martin – Philadelphia Eagles
