Eagles Blog

A young Eagles fan got to go to the Chiefs game, but due to sad circumstances.

Thursday night may have been the return of Andy Reid to Philadelphia and the night the Eagles retired Donovan McNabb’s day, but the night belonged to 3-year-old Bryan Maenner.

At his first Eagles game with his father, Richard, Bryan Maenner was there to live – not to die.

That’s because 18 months ago Bryan was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer that causes tumors in his body. Three weeks ago, doctors said there was nothing left they could do. Richard Maenner decided that he wanted his son to attend an Eagles game.

His story, however, made its way through the grapevine to Gayle Jackson, the mother of Eagles wideout DeSean. Gayle Jackson told NBC Philadelphia that she mentioned the story to her son, who helped the Maenners get tickets at the 50-yard line.

Gayle Jackson met with Bryan and Richard Maenner at halftime of the Eagles’ loss to the Chiefs on Thursday night.

“He just blessed me, believe it or not. So I’m the one that received the gift this evening,” Jackson said. “That’s why you live to be a blessing to someone else.”

Very kind of Mrs. Jackson to do that.

Mark Saltveit wrote a piece for FishDuck.com on Kelly losing games 2 and 3. It is funny to read his piece and see his frustration with Kelly being too conventional.

Worst of all, Kelly is losing with a conservative, often conventional attack unlike anything seen in Oregon for years.  After wowing football fans with his Oregon-style attack in game 1, Kelly showed a much more typical NFL offense in game 2.  That was fine, since the offense was still very successful (30 points and 511 yards).  After two games, Shady led the league in rushing, DeSean was the receiving leader, and Vick was 3rd in QB passer rating (behind only Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning).  It’s hard to see even now how anyone has “figured out” Chip’s offense; the Eagles have 1,385 yards of total offense after three games, the most in team history.  As far as I could see, Kansas City did not have a strategy that led to those turnovers or the failed pass blocking by the Eagles’ offensive line.  It was more a question of players getting beat, one-on-one.

Some fans/media would tell you Kelly isn’t being conventional enough. But the Oregon folks miss the Chip Kelly they saw for the past 4 years. I expect him to be more aggressive as he becomes more comfortable. We’ll see.

In case you missed this, Andy Reid gave Derrick Gunn a big kiss on the head.

Priceless.

Week 3.

Loss.

Damaris Johnson fumble on punt return.

Athletic LBs hitting Mike Vick and getting him off his game.

Team wearing red uniforms.

Andy Reid game manager at QB.

One WR burning the defense over and over.

Turnovers a problem for the Eagles. None for the opponent.

I’m talking about the Eagles-Cardinals from 2012, but that description fits last night as well. Last year the Eagles lost 27-6 in Arizona. That was a torturous game. An early fumble by Johnson led to a TD for the Cards and completely changed the feel of the game.

The score was 17-0 late in the half. Vick drove the Eagles inside the 5-yd line. He had open receivers, but failed to pull the trigger. He was strip-sacked and the ball run back 93 yards for a TD.

LB Daryl Washington was his nemesis last year. Justin Houston had that role last night.

Losing to Alex Smith vs losing to Kevin Kolb…neither is fun.

In Week 4 of 2012 the Eagles beat a Manning (Eli). This year the Eagles will face another Manning in Week 4 (Peyton). Winning that game would wipe away the frustration of the ugly Chiefs loss.

Jimmy Bama wrote a good piece on Brandon Boykin and how he’s becoming a playmaker for the defense.

The forced fumble was particularly impressive because of the heady nature in which Boykin made his play. Boykin explained that earlier in the game, he observed that Gates was carrying the ball carelessly, and that he wanted to take advantage.

“The way I saw Gates [carrying] the ball the whole game, he was kind of having it out here a lot,” said Boykin, mimicking Gates carrying the ball away from his body. “In my mind, I was saying if I got close, if I was coming in from the side or something I was always going to try to strip it. Luckily I was able to catch him right before he got the touchdown.”

Smart. He noticed an issue and then took advantage of it. Love to hear a young defensive player is thinking like that and also has the physical ability to make that play.

This is not the least bit shocking.

Nnamdi has the worst tackling efficiency in the league. Misses one tackle for every 1.5 attempts.

— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) September 19, 2013

Funny, though.

Bruce Feldman of CBSSports.com wrote a great piece on Texas A&M’s preparation for the Alabama game. This part caught my attention.

On the TV is Chip Kelly’s NFL debut against the Washington Redskins. The former Oregon coach is having quite a night as the Philadelphia Eagles’ new head coach. The Eagles had a staggering 21 first downs in the first half alone while ripping off 53 plays. Kelly’s success has caught Sumlin’s eye. The Aggies head coach practically bounds into the room and goes right to the grease board on Spavital’s wall. He grabs a blue Sharpie and diagrams up a wrinkle that Kelly has been carving up the Redskins with all night. It is a zone-read play with an option of throwing to the tight end with a bubble to the field. Usually a QB has three options on that play but the tight end free-releasing down the field creates a whole other set of problems for defenses.

“You’re always looking for something,” Sumlin says. “And that unbalanced stuff is really intriguing.”

Must read material if you like college football at all. Heck, really should interest all football fans.

It’s kinda fun to see Nnamdi Asomugha struggle elsewhere after 2 years of pedestrian play for the Eagles. Check out this comment from Bill Barnwell.

And on defense, the weak link was nickel cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, who has quickly become the liability that other teams try to target when he steps on the field. On Sunday, Asomugha missed a run fill early on and then got caught at the end of the third quarter for a 40-yard pass interference penalty that really changed the game; Seattle later scored a touchdown on that drive to go up 19-3, nearly killing off the game with 13:51 to go.

Nice.

Bill also has good stuff on the Skins.

That extends to the bigger problem with Washington, one that won’t be solved regardless of who lines up under center in D.C. for the rest of the year: It’s stuck with a roster that just isn’t very good in a lot of places. When it traded three first-round picks and a second-rounder to get Griffin, Washington basically lost the best way to find impact players like Kerrigan to add to its roster on the cheap. On top of that, the league-mandated cap penalty that the team incurred from the Albert Haynesworth fiasco continues to bite them; according to Spotrac, Washington is eating $17 million in cap space this season. It also has $5.4 million in dead money on its cap, including $3.3 million owed to former right tackle Jammal Brown and $1.8 million to Chris Cooley, who signed with the team when it was desperate for a tight end last year after Fred Davis went down. This is too much money.

The result is a team that still can’t fill its major problems with consistent answers. Washington still has a dismal secondary that offers up little resistance when the pass rush doesn’t get home. It has an offensive line that’s still very weak on the right side, and it’s stuck having overpaid for both Pierre Garcon and Josh Morgan last offseason, leaving the team with a low ceiling at wideout. Washington is also still lacking for depth, so when any of its stars get injured, it’s very susceptible to massive drop-offs in level of play.

So, Washington fans, lower your expectations and stay the course. You’re not as bad as you looked these past two weeks, and RG3 should get better as he shakes off the rust and gets real pro reps again. A playoff run, though, might not be in the cards.

Jimmy Bama tried to tell Skins fans that the 7-0 finish in 2012 involved some luck. They didn’t want to hear it. I think they might be starting to realize he was right.

_

From an Iggles Blitz reader (RIP Worms).

Finally. The pressure of an undefeated season is off the team’s back.

And from the great Fake WIP Caller.

Still, nice to hear Chip taking responsibility for the Eagles failures, after all those years of Andy never doing that @WIPMorningShow

— FakeWIPCaller (@FakeWIPCaller) September 16, 2013

This is kinda cool. Gameday magazine is online and you can check it out for free. All kinds of interesting looking articles and tidbits in there.