Westbrook added, “Osi (Giants DE Osi Umenyiora), he’s a Pro Bowl player. Winston hasn’t played much at all . . . but we have to do some things to protect him.”
That says it all. Umenyiora ended up with 6 sacks in the game, mostly coming against first time starter Winston Justice (starting at LT in place of the injured William Thomas). Lawrence Taylor never had a game like that in his Hall of Fame career. If adjustments to help Justice were made, Giants Defensive Coordinator, and former Eagles’ linebackers coach, Steve Spagnuolo had an answer to every one of them, and appeared to know what they were in advance. Were there any suspicious Giants' cameramen running around in the swamp last night??
When a team has been as successful as the Eagles during Andy Reid’s tenure, as a fan, I can rest on a certain confidence, that when things get bad, the head coach and his assistants will be able to work things out. The depth of knowledge on the Eagles’ staff is immense. None of it was on display on the offensive side of the ball last night.
“Against that defensive line, I need to give a little help and I didn’t do that,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said, trying to take Justice off the hook. “It wasn’t one guy, it was a team effort.”
Why not give him some help? Put a back or the tight end on his side to block. I don’t understand. Justice is a highly touted second round draft pick from USC, but he was clearly over-matched. If assigning a player to help block on his side was out of the question, maybe Justice should have been replaced. Guard Todd Herremans has played tackle. Perhaps he could have moved to outside and Scott Young moved into his place at guard.
Bad teams throw away opportunities. Omar Gaither picked off an Eli Manning pass in the red zone, late in the second quarter and returned it 49 yards into Giants territory. Suddenly, down 7-0, the Birds had a prime opportunity to get right back into it. They promptly wasted it with penalties, and marched backwards into a missed field goal by David Akers. According to the CBS broadcast team, the Eagles had been averaging 3 penalties per game. Against the Giants they had 15 for 132 yards. Is this a bad team? It is sure paying like it on offense. Correll Buckhalter had 103 yards on 17 attempts. McNabb had only 138 yards on 31 attempts, was sacked 12 times and lost 62 yards on those sacks. McNabb’s longest pass play was for just 15 yards. Buckhalter had a 6.1 yard average and a longest run of 17. When your STILL RECOVERING QB is being pounded, and you are making gains on the ground, why not put it in the hands of your running backs and try to back up the blitzing pass rush with a load of misdirection runs? I noted after game 2 that Andy Reid’s preparations seemed ill conceived . Sunday night’s mess is more evidence of the same. I have the utmost respect for the head coach, but a disturbing pattern has emerged. Two awkward, stumbling offensive games is just a bad start, but 3 out of 4 means I am really getting worried. Is the personal turmoil of the last year showing in the Andy’s, and the team’s performances?
I want to note one other observation. The Eagles' defense is pretty good. They held the Giants offense to 10 points and kept the team in it. Any offensive production from the Eagles and it would have been a nail biter. That is reassuring. If they maintain the defensive success, and are able to become a decent offensive team, they could again make themselves a contender in a weak NFC.