Andy Reid called the Eagles 10 penalties for 100 yards against the Browns in week one ‘Ridiculous’ during his Monday Press conference.
‘Ridiculous’ is one way of putting the fact that a football team can accrue nearly as many yards in penalties as it surrendered in the passing game (118). Another, is simply unacceptable. For a team under a 14-year veteran head coach, with Super Bowl aspirations, that kind of undisciplined football isn’t going to win games.
Sure, the Eagles escaped Cleveland with a 17-16 by the skin of your teeth win in the season opener. But making that many mistakes against teams such as the Baltimore Ravens who come to the Linc in a few days, the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions not far behind them, it’ll be much more difficult to escape under those circumstances.
Sunday wasn’t just an aberration, it’s a long-standing trend to last season’s Dream Team nightmare.
In 2011, the Eagles committed 107 penalties, good for an average of around seven per game. If you extrapolate out the Eagles ten penalty performance on Sunday, the Birds are on pace for 192 in 2012.
To make matters worse on Sunday afternoon, penalties negated 24, 17 and 10 yard runs by LeSean McCoy. Not that there’s much justification for throwing the ball 59 times with a quarterback who only took 12 preseason snaps and was battling thumb and rib injuries in August, but those three touches to McCoy could have evened the flow of the game and thus made Reid’s play calling more balanced.
Todd Herremans was the only offensive lineman not to draw a flag against the Browns.
As if penalties weren’t damning enough for this team in it’s season opener, it tripped all over itself offensively trying to give the ball away. Michael Vick’s four interceptions are well documented. However, you can’t forget LeSean McCoy’s first quarter fumble and two other Vick fumbles that he went on to recover, when examining the whole picture of Sunday.
“Offensively, turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. You just can’t have those and I would say that we didn’t play as disciplined offensively as we needed to all the way around,” Reid said in the opening monologue of his Monday’s press conference.
If the Eagles hope to improve to 2-0 on the season and remain undefeated against the AFC North, they’ll certainly have their hands full when Joe Flacco, Ray Rice, Anguan Boldin and Torrey Smith come to town on Sunday afternoon.
Flacco carried the Ravens to the AFC title game last year and after the season opener is playing the best football of his career and had an MVP like performance against Division Rival Cincinnati on Monday night. The Audobon New Jersey native finished with 299 yards passing and two touchdowns while completing 21 of his 29 passes. Unlike Vick, he didn’t throw an interception or turn the ball over.
When Flacco wasn’t putting on an aerial assault against the Bengals last night, he was handing the ball off to workhorse back Ray Rice who finished with 68 yards and two touchdowns while averaging 6.8 yards per carry.
Despite the franchise formerly calling Cleveland home, these won’t be the Browns lining up against the Eagles on Sunday.
The Eagles were able to hold on against Cleveland because of the Browns relative lack of offensive firepower. True, Trent Richardson was a Heisman Trophy finalist and is already drawing comparisons to Adrian Peterson, however, the Browns started a rookie quarterback in Brandon Weeden and lack a deep threat at wide receiver. Under those circumstances, it’s not difficult to put 8 or 9 in the box and dare Pat Shurmer and company to beat you through the air. Juan Castillo and company won’t have that luxury on Sunday against the Ravens.
In order for the Eagles to be successful, they’ll need to limit both turnovers and mistakes on Sunday afternoon, because unlike their week one opponent, the Browns, Baltimore has the resources on both sides of the ball to make the Birds pay.
** From Matt’s Notebook **
* Lost in the shuffle of the Eagles five turnover performance on Sunday is the fact that Alex Henery missed a 45-yard field goal against the Browns. It’s the sixth game in a row that the Eagles have missed a field goal. Meanwhile in Green Bay, David Akers tied the NFL record with a 63 yard field goal for the 49ers. Think the Eagles brass may be regretting letting the veteran kicker walk after his lackluster performance against the Packers in the 2010 playoffs?
* The Eagles are banged up at wide receiver. Riley Cooper will miss his second straight regular season game as he continues to recover from a broken collarbone, and Jeremy Maclin will likely be a game time decision with a hip injury. That led the Birds to bring in receiver Mardy Gilyard for a workout Tuesday and sign WR/TE/H-back Derek Carrier to practice squad. Carrier worked out for the team last week.
* Fletcher Cox’s first NFL sack was a casualty of one of the Eagles ten penalties. Cox has the pure strength to push his man into the pocket on every play. Cox said last week that winning NFL Defensive Rookie Of The Year Honors is among his goals for the 2012 season. The Eagles first round draft choice finished Sunday with two tackles and eventually did earn his first sack against Brandon Weeden.
* On the interception that was returned for a touchdown by Browns linebacker D’Qwell Jackson, Vick stared down his receiver and Jackson jumped the route before taking it to the house. A rookie doesn’t make that through, let alone telegraph it the way Vick did on that play. He’ll need to be better against the likes of Ray Lewis and Ed Reed on Sunday.
* Two of Vick’s four interceptions came on second down on Sunday. His first just as the Eagles were approaching field goal range. On second down, the safer play is to throw the ball away rather than force a ball into double coverage, which Vick made a habit of in the season opener.
Matt Lombardo is the Lead Writer and Eagles Beat Reporter for Taking It To The House and a Contributor to the Sports Journey Broadcast Network. To Contact or interview Matt, email him at mdlombardo@yahoo.com . Follow Matt on Twitter @MattLombardoPH