No Bailouts For EAGLES in Washington

Another foul offensive stench left on the field pretty much seals the doom of Philadelphia as they gak one in Washington. The Eagles offense tanks as they lose 10 to 3.

Where to begin? As has been the case in most of the losses this season the Eagles offense once again cannot sustain any meaningful drives. They went a pathetic 3 for 14 on 3 rd downs. Also a prevailing theme is there refusal to stay with a commitment to a balanced offense. They threw the ball 46 times and ran it 16 times. Yes that is correct, 46 to 16 with a game separated by only 7 points. Which is made worse when you consider there previous 3 game win streak featured a rare rushing attack.

All day the Eagles defense continued to give McNabb and company plenty of chances to do something. And they did NOTHING. That was the most incompetent 275 yards of offense I have ever seen. And while it is bad enough they threw the ball 3 times more than they threw, McNabb had 46 attempts and only 230 passing yards. That is a 5 yard per attempt average! That is lame and yet it has become the norm.

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The reasons for that are three fold.

• McNabb is dump off happy QB at times. He can throw the deep ball but I do not believe he is very confident in his wide outs. Also the design of many of these short passes are not conducive to Run-After-Catch yardage. I see too many passes that have the receiver turn and face the QB. That is not going to get you many open field yards. Also McNabb has never been good at consistently delivering a pass in stride or leading his receiver even when the play is designed that way.
• This receiving group does not help move the chains often times. How many times do you see they need 7 yards and they run a 6 and ½ yard route? Actually the so called exciting game ender to Reggie Brown that ended the game Sunday was a perfect example. He cut the route short of the end zone for no good reason. They also do not go to the ball when they run a curl or are square facing Donovan. They wait for the ball to come to them. Which also gives defenders time to close the gap or make a play on the ball. When they do catch it they are tackled on the spot which is usually 3 – 5 yards from the line of scrimmage.
• The stack the deck against themselves. Refusing to commit to a run the defensive secondary is more than happy to give the Eagles those little dump off passes all day. Donovan doesn't usually have to many chances down field.

If anyone doubts any of this just look at Washington's stats. They did not have a good day offensively overall. But they did claw out 122 yards on the ground and get a TD. This also helped them win the time of possession battle. Which can be over stated but in this case it illustrates how that can help when you are offensively inept.

Well the one saving grace this season could have is if we beat the Cowgirls and keep them home for the playoffs.

By Andy Natalie
ProFootball-fans.com Staff Writer