It wasn’t pretty but the Eagles started off the 2011 season with a decisive 31-13 victory against the St. Louis Rams. The 1-0 Eagles will head down to Atlanta next weekend to take on the 0-1 Falcons on Sunday Night Football. Below is a look back at who shined and struggled during the Eagles opening week victory.
THE GOOD:
Michael Vick finished with 285 total yards (AP Photo / Tom Gannam)
QB Michael Vick: The statistics don’t tell the whole story. Vick was by far the best player on the field for the Eagles yesterday and was in control of the game from start to finish. Making his first opening day start as the Eagles starting quarterback, Vick finished 14-32 for 187 yards, 2 touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also carried the ball 10 times for 98 yards (including two kneel downs for -2 yards with the game in hand).
Although Vick only completed 44% of his pass attempts on Sunday he made things happen throughout the game with both his arms and his legs. The Eagles finished 8-for-12 on 3rd down conversations largely in part due to Vick. He took on a lot more responsibility from last season making adjustments at the line of scrimmage and picked his spots when to use his legs as his protection broke down. His touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson in the 3rd quarter was a thing of beauty. Vick did a nice job reading the field and got off to a strong start for the 2011 season.
WR DeSean Jackson: All of the talk surrounding DeSean Jackson heading into the season was about his contract. He put that distraction behind him and came out with a strong performance to start the 2011 season. You want a new contract? Go out there and earn it. That’s exactly what DeSean continues to do. The Eagles home run hitter performed as a more complete wide receiver on Sunday finishing with 6 receptions for 102 yards and a touchdown. He caught some nice intermediate routes and had good yards after the catch.
DeSean did drop an easy touchdown on a deep throw from Vick along the left sideline. He was targeted 12 times during the game and only caught 6 passes. He’ll make that catch later on in the season once Vick and Jackson’s timing improves. Overall it was a very good start to the season for Jackson.
RB LeSean McCoy: McCoy got the 2011 season off to a great start finishing with 15 carries for 122 yards and a touchdown. He also had 2 receptions for 15 yards and a touchdown. Heading into the 4th quarter McCoy had just 11 carries for 27 yards. He then exploded in the 4th quarter with 4 carries for 95 yards and a touchdown.
McCoy had 95 rushing yards and a touchdown in the 4th quarter (AP Photo / Tom Gannam)
McCoy showed he is ready for a big 2011 season. His elusiveness was on display throughout Sunday’s game in St. Louis. He has the ability to turn a 3-yard loss into a 2-yard gain which can’t be discounted. As the Rams defense wore down the Eagles offensive line was able to create holes and McCoy took advantage. McCoy’s goal in 2011 is to make the Pro Bowl. He certainly got off to a great start.
Pass defense: The Eagles pass defense got off to a good start on Sunday. They should improve as the season progresses but you can see that the talent is there. The defense allowed just 209 passing yards total between Sam Bradford and AJ Feeley. Although the Rams receivers dropped several passes during the game, Bradford never seemed comfortable in the pocket. Safety Jarrad Page had a very nice game in his Eagles debut. The Eagles pass defense needs some work in the middle of the field but overall they got off to a good start.
Defensive line: Jim Washburn’s wide-nine style provided immediate dividends in getting to the quarterback. The Eagles blitzed minimally on Sunday and still finished with 5 sacks by defensive lineman. Jason Babin had a great debut in his second go-around with the Eagles picking up 2 sacks (he had 2.5 sacks for the entire 2009 season). Trent Cole, Cullen Jenkins, and Darryl Tapp also picked up sacks in the game. Tapp forced a fumble that led to Juqua Parker’s second career touchdown. The Eagles pass rush seemed much improved from last season.
Offensive line: Overall the offensive line was better than many people anticipated. After a very shaky first quarter the offensive line settled down and protected Vick fairly well in pass protection. They also created some big holes in the run game in the 4th quarter. Considering Jason Kelce was playing in his first NFL game, Todd Herremans was moving out to RT from LG, and Evan Mathis and Kyle DeVan were making their first appearances for the Eagles, the offensive line was adequate.
THE BAD:
Offensive line: That being said the offensive line still wasn’t good enough. Michael Vick’s scrambling ability covered up a lot of their mistakes. The Eagles had to burn three 1st half timeouts because the play clock was running out. They were also called for a delay of game penalty. There seemed to be a lot of confusion along the line and the first two series were downright poor. They improved as the game progressed but there were still several negative aspects in the line play.
The Eagles defense was lucky RB Stephen Jackson left early in the game (AP Photo / Seth Periman)
Run defense: One of the tradeoffs in playing the wide-nine style along the defensive line is that you put additional pressure on your defensive tackles and linebackers in run defense. The Eagles simply have a lot of work to do against the run. The Rams running backs averaged 6.76 yards per attempt. The defense was gashed up the middle time and time again. Even if you take out Stephen Jackson’s 47-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage, the Rams still averaged over 5.0 yards per carry. The Eagles seem very vulnerable up the middle right now. They’ll need to improve as the season progresses.
LB Casey Matthews I hate to signal out any particular player but Casey Matthews was not good enough on Sunday. He was consistently eaten up by blockers and tried to arm tackle the opposition way too many times. Matthews improved significantly from week two to week three of the preseason. With the speed of the game increasing from the preseason to the regular season, we’ll see if he is able to get up to speed and make adjustments moving forward. If he’s not the Eagles are going to have to move in another direction.
Special Teams: The special teams play must improve. Dion Lewis brought two kickoffs out from the end zone and was tackled well before the 20-yard line. The first one can be attributed to a rookie making his NFL debut and wanting to make a play. The second one was inexcusable. He has to know better. The offense can’t continuously start drives from their own 10-15 yard line.
Alex Henry didn’t get much depth on his kickoffs. Chas Henery only averaged 36.3 yards per punt with a long of 39 yards. Colt Anderson should have been called for a penalty on one of Henery’s punts. Special teams certainly have room for improvement.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Any time you can win a game on the road to start the season against an up-and-coming team, it should be considered a success. The Eagles won and they won decisively. However they still have a lot of work to do. They should only get better moving forward.
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