The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 15-6 in a game which redefined the term “ugly.”   Nothing about this contest was pleasant to look at.  The offense was ugly.  The injuries were ugly.  The food they showed was ugly.  The city skyline was ugly.  Even the cheerleaders looked like a bunch of skanks.

Where to even begin with this one?   I don’t mind having my blog overrun by mouth-breathing Philly fans, although I admit I’m surprised that so many know how to read and write (however poorly).   Beside the final score, I have no idea what they feel compelled to brag about.   Their team scored a whopping one touchdown.  If this is the kind of victory you are proud of, well, no wonder why your team has never won anything.

My original idea was to use this recap to illustrate why Steelers RB Willie Parker is superior to overrated Eagles scatback Brian Westbrook.  So much for the best laid plans…   Westbrook went down early in the game with some sort of sprained ankle and never returned.  These sort of soft and gutless players are another reason Philthydelphia is doomed to never win a championship.  Fast Willie did nothing to help my case, however, rushing for 20 yards on 13 carries.   Ouch.

The Steelers D played extremely well yet again.  They had some problems in the first half as even without Westbrook, the Eagles executed their inane dink-and-dunk strategy to perfection.  I said in my preview that Steeler LBs were going to struggle covering their RBs.  I gave our backers too much credit.   They didn’t struggle, they completely failed.  Only a fumble recovery and an interception off a terrible throw by QB Donovan McNabb prevented 14 points being put on the board.  CB Bryant McFadden was the man responsible for both those acquisitions as he had an excellent game in his 2nd career start.  S Troy Polamalu had an incredible pick (his third in three games) later on, thus pretty much establishing he’s back to his old Tasmanian Devil self.  D-coordinator Dick Lebeau made his usual intelligent halftime adjustments causing the Philly offense to sputter in the second half.

Unfortunately, the other Steeler coaches left their brains back in Pittsburgh.  QB Ben Roethlisberger at one point was sacked SIX TIMES on eight consecutive pass attempts.  He went down 8 times in total and was harassed, chased, and/or knocked down at least two dozen more.  Memo to Mike Tomlin:  When your QB is on his back more often than one of the Philly Cheerleaders, that would be the time to make some ADJUSTMENTS.

Perhaps we could’ve tried running the ball.  Parker’s scant 13 carries were spread out randomly over the entire game.  No concentrated effort was made to establish a ground attack.   Worse yet, rookie RB Rashard Mendenhall once again didn’t get any carries.  Why did we draft him if we’re just going to use him on kickoffs?  Nice pick, Tomlin.   Beyond that, we’re carrying three TEs on the roster.   If the Eagles are blitzing every other play (which they seemingly did), bring them out and go into a max protect formation.  The Steelers didn’t do this until late in the 3rd quarter, by which time Ben was beat up and out of synch.  Offensive Coordinator Bruce Arians must’ve watched the Monday Night tape and forgot he coaches the Steelers and not the Cowboys because he kept sending our receivers (specifically Nate Washington, who actually contributed a little something today) on deep patterns, even after it became clear Ben wasn’t getting the time to look down the field.  Instead of cutting off the patterns or going to a three step drop, he just kept dialing up the same idiotic plays leading to the same Wile E. Coyote-esque results.

Needless to say, the play of our offensive linemen was atrocious, surrendering 9 sacks, terrible run blocking, non-existent pass-blocking, and a general lack of competence in every area.  RT Willie Colon allowed so much penetration he should change his name to Colonoscopy.  C Justin Hartwig blew a number of assignments and was treated like a human traffic cone all day.  I gave him a pass last week because Shaun Rodgers is a massive human being but if he needs double-team help every week, he’s useless to us.  RB Mewelde Moore and FB Carey Davis were no help at picking up blitzers, either.   The NFL is a copycat league and if word gets around about that, Ben better get used to waking up Monday morning with grass stains on his ass.

Speaking of Big Ben, the shitty offensive line doesn’t let him completely off the hook.  He was back to his old tricks of holding on to the ball for way too long in a vain and misguided attempt to make something out of nothing.   There is no dishonor in throwing the ball away so as not to get beheaded by an onrushing DT.  Several times he sidestepped the pressure or moved out of the pocket only to look downfield, then take another look, then one more look for good measure, then…get dumped to the turf for a sack.  Somehow, he’s never learned you only get 2-4 seconds to step up and let the ball go before somebody is on top of you.  His magical Flutie-esque escapes often lead to big plays but the opposite result, which we saw yesterday, leads to big losses, fumbles, and eventually a serious injury.

As bad as it is to lose to the Iggles, and believe me, having to read a week’s worth of comments by their mutant fans was painful enough, I’m more upset by the general direction of this team.  Everything clicked against the Texans but, c’mon, they’re the Texans.  Last week, we defeated the hapless 0-3 Browns but there were ominous warning signs such as the pressure Ben was under or the fact we only put up one TD.  This week we played one of the top Defensive Coordinators in the league and everything fell apart.   We’re in an extraordinarily bad division so we don’t have to abandon playoff hopes or anything like that.  However, unless this teams starts coming up with some answers for the questions we knew they were going to have about the offensive line, we’re going to be doomed to ultimate failure.   Ask any Philly sports fan how that feels, they know what it’s like.

When the Philadelphia Eagles made the surprise pick of Houston QB Kevin Kolb, it appeared that 2007 would be the end of the Donovan McNabb era. While McNabb has had a great career in Philly, it’s been filled with controversy and he has missed 15 games in the last three seasons due to injury.  In a story which will sound familiar to Steeler fans, McNabb repeatedly failed to advance his team past the NFC Championship game and then played poorly in his lone Super Bowl appearance, thus leading to questions about his ability to win the Big Game.

Last year, McNabb’s knee was healthy enough to play, but wasn’t healthy enough to make him feel comfortable early on. The Eagles were also not helped by the keen eye of former Redskins defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who saw that the Eagles receivers struggled badly against corners who bumped off the line of scrimmage. The normally efficient Eagles offense wound up finishing 17th in points per game.

As the season progressed, McNabb got more and more comfortable with his knee, but it was still too late to turn things around and the offense was still inconsistent at best. They wound up winning the last three games of the year to turn in an 8-8 record.  Still, for all intents and purposes THIS season looks to be one last hurrah for head coach Andy Reid and McNabb as similar to the Favre/Rodgers situation in Green Bay, the trigger will have to be pulled on the Kolb era fairly soon.

STEELERS DEFENSE VS. EAGLES OFFENSE

McNabb’s game has changed over the years. He started out being the type of quarterback that could excel if he had the right receivers.  Now it seems like, while he could definitely use some receivers, it’s more important that the O-Line protect him because he’s become more accurate with the ball and better at reading defenses but doesn’t have the mobility he once did.  He doesn’t throw a lot of interceptions because when he misses his throws, he usually misses them low.

For all of the talk of Andy Reid relying on the running game more, the Eagles still threw the ball 58% of the time. In fact, Reid’s teams have thrown the ball an average of 57% of the time throughout his career, regardless of depth at WR. Here’s a look at the percentage of time the Eagles have thrown the ball during Reid’s tenure:

2007…………………… 58%
2006…………………… 57%
2005…………………… 63%
2004…………………… 59%
2003…………………… 54%
2002…………………… 53%
2001…………………… 56%
2000…………………… 59%
1999…………………… 53%

Those number can be slightly deceiving, however, as a big reason why the Eagles pass so much is that Reid is a big fan of the screen pass play which, for them, functions almost the same as a handoff would on another team.

The offense actually has not revolved around McNabb for awhile. Instead, it’s revolved around RB Brian Westbrook.  He’s not good enough to be a receiver and he’s not good enough to be a chain-moving running back but he’s athletic enough to do a little bit of both.  He’s the “real” Reggie Bush in that he does everything that Bush was expected to do coming out of college.

The key to curbing Westbrook’s effectiveness is to stick a cornerback on him or use multiple spies on him to follow him around the field.  As I said, Westbrook doesn’t excel in any one area but he’s a decent runner, a great screen receiver, and they even split him out at wide receiver, all of which creates match-up problems galore.  Last week, Steelers LB Mister Lamarr Woodley didn’t look very good when assigned to cover TE Kellen Winslow and he’s probably the fastest backer we got.  Lawrence Timmons has the raw athletic ability to be an intriguing spy but he doesn’t start.  I have no idea who defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau plans to use against him but he better have one helluva scheme cooked up or it’ll be a long day.

Beyond that, the Eagles feature a rather mediocre corps of receivers.  Kevin Curtis’ numbers are not as hot as they look on paper. He only had 80+ yards receiving in 3 games. Of course 221 of those yards came against an awful Lions defense, 121 yards came against the awful Jets defense, and 111 yards came against the Vikings, who also had a weak pass defense. He struggled heavily against teams with corners who could play the bump and run like Washington, where he only had 7 catches for 48 yards in both games against the Skins. Reggie Brown wasn’t any better against the bump and run. So what Reid did was load the receivers up on one side and force the opposing defense to play more zone coverage. While that may seem like a nice solution, it makes the offense pretty one dimensional.  Class Dunce DeSean Jackson can stretch the field and return punts. However, Jackson lacks size and is a big enough moron that some clever work from wily vets like CB Ike Taylor and Troy Polamalu should keep him fairly quiet.

STEELERS OFFENSE VS EAGLES DEFENSE

Philly employs a 4-3 scheme that is designed to play a variety of coverage packages, so they are very typical of a lot of 4-3 schemes in that they go after speed and sacrifice size to get that speed. They usually play Cover shells 1-3 and d-coordinator Jim Johnson is one of the at best throwing blitzes, stunts, and twists at you until the cows come home.  Because they rely on quicks instead of beef, they are very reliant on having depth up front.  Even with all of their starters in place, if the backups are weak this defense can struggle. That’s why the Eagles draft a defensive tackle just about every year and go after players like Darren Howard (who can play both DE and DT) and Chris Clemons (who can play LB and DE).

Trent Cole is the gem of the defensive line as he’s electric on the field. He’s a bit like the Giants’ Osi Umenyiora in that he’s weaker against the run than going after the passer, so good run blocking offensive tackles can give him problems. Also like Umenyiora, he’ll have these games where he’s absolutely on fire and looks like the best defensive end in football.  They’ll rotate the other DTs heavily and look out for rookie Trevor Laws, who was one of the lone standouts last year at Notre Dame.

QB Ben Roethlisberger is hurting.  Nobody knows how badly, especially not Andrea Kramer.  The best medicine for what ails him would be feeding a steady diet of Fast Willie Parker to the Eagles.  There should definitely be running room and nothing would be better than 30+ carries for Willie and only 15 pass attempts or so for Ben.  Hopefully Tomlin will let RB Rashard Mendenhall out of the dog house so he can chip in with a few carries, as well.

The Eagles only finished with 11 interceptions last year.  The Eagles stress turnovers more than most defenses because they are trying to get off the field as quickly as possible. They planned to trade Lito Sheppard this offseason but he’s still there, along with future starter Sheldon Brown. They also signed free agent Asante Samuel who has had 16 picks over the last two seasons. Samuel was tremendous in 2006 so they threw at him a little less in 2007 which explains while he had a decent passes defended %, he only had six picks. The Eagles like to play a little more man-to-man than Samuel played in New England so he may have some difficulty making that transition but will nevertheless continue his ball-hawking ways.  None of these guys looked particularly impressive last Monday as the Cowboys went up and down the field like they were playing Madden Football ’08.   If Ben’s sore shoulder can hold up, there should be plays there to be made.

The Eagles are a strange team because once you think you know how well they will play, they go out and do the exact opposite. For years I thought the Eagles were doomed after watching teams destroy them by running the ball against the defense and negating their blitz. But the Eagles wound up winning and winning.  When it appeared the Eagles defense was going to be unstoppable (i.e. 2005), they played lousy and all of the flaws in Andy Reid’s game plan became apparent.  They crushed a hapless Rams team in week 1 and gave the mighty Cowboys a competitive game last Monday night.  They definitely have the firepower to give the Steelers fits but their lack of quality talent on defense is going to make things difficult when they play good teams.  If the Steeler line can impose their will in the running game and the defense can keep them in third-and-long situations, those might just be the keys to a victory.