So I expected a comfortable win this week but not that comfortable. Frankly, it was as important a win for Shanny as there could be as he really needed to show that this team is making progress and a loss to a reeling Eagles team would have been devastating. We had a lot reasons to believe we would win that include:
1. Eagles starting a rookie at QB.
2. Eagles O line is decimated.
3. We were at home.
4. We were coming off of a bye week.
5. We got Garcon and Meriweather back.
All of that came together and it was a solid all around game. Here are my grades:
Offense: A. Led by RG3 who was razor sharp again. He completed 14 of 15 passes (93%) for 200 yards, including touchdown passes of 6, 49, 61 and 17 -- one in each quarter. His numbers resulted in his first perfect passer rating of 158.3. He also ran 12 times for 84 yards and was again serenaded with chants of "RG3." Give credit to the WRs for this as well. I like Aldrick Robinson and would actually like to see more of him. Moss made an incredible catch on the 61 yard TD pass as he jumped between two defenders stealing the all away for a TD. Morris was solid again in the run game picking up 76 yards. I will say that I am not a real big fan of the pitch and would rather see the stretch run play. Still, solid ground game.
Defense: A. The defense got three takeaways and four sacks and had Foles under pressure for much of the game. Meriweather was huge in his first game back as he got 7 tackles and an INT in basically a half as he hurt his right knee early in the third quarter. I'm not saying he is the cure all for our secondary but he certainly was a difference maker yesterday as he laid out some huge hits that not only jarred the ball loose and sent Eagles receivers to their sidelines but he helped to pump up the defense and the crowd with his play. Hopefully his injury isn't serious and he is able to play on Thursday night. Still, the entire defense was much better. Coverage was solid and again we stopped their ground game limiting McCoy to 45 yards on 15 rushes. It was a very good performance for this struggling defense.
Special Teams: B. Solid. Nothing special. I do like Forbath as he is now 9 for 9 on FGs since coming to the Skins. The only negative about this group is that Forbath really needs to do better on kickoffs. He admittedly has a strong leg on FGs but struggles on kickoffs and it shows. Strange that that is the case but I can live with the short kickoffs as long as he is making the FGs.
Coaching: A-. Not much went wrong yesterday. Game plan seemed sound. The only two things that got me were, as mentioned, wasn't a fan of the pitch run plays especially the RG3 option runs as those don't work well at the professional level. That said, I do like that RG3 seems much more careful about getting rid of the ball and getting to the sidelines. On the defensive side, there were a couple of times where we showed the zero blitz thing which I am not a fan of and we didn't back out of the blitz and it hurt us. There have been enough times now where that play has hurt us much more than helped us and I would like to see it removed from the play book. I did like that we showed it a few times and backed out of it and I also liked sending in a corner or a safety for a blitz. This is MUCH better coaching. Josh Wilson had a good corner blitz resulting in a sack and a Foles fumble (recovered by the Eagles). D. Hall also applied pressure on Foles on I believe the Eagles opening drive that helped. This is more of what I would like to see from Haslett and the defense. I don't want to see vanilla type of defense or an all out rush as this is WAY too predictable.
Again, a strong performance by the entire team. The first one we have seen all season. Again, hopefully we get Meriweather back as, while I don't think he is the cure all, I truly believe he makes the defense much better.
On to Dallas on Thanksgiving.
HTTR!!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment