Know Your Enemy: Philadelphia Eagles
By Keith Myers
Each week, I interview a blogger that covers the the team that the Seahawks are covering. This week, I was lucky enough to get Mark from Birdsfan.com.
1) It appears Reid picked the right QB out of the McNabb, Kolb, Vick trio, but with Vick comes injuries because of his style of play. How are the Eagles fans handling the situation at QB?
Eagles fans know that Vick is a high risk, high reward type player. If you look at his career, it’s very unusual for him to play in every game. He’s taken a lot of hits and kept going, but he’s also taken hits to the point where it keeps him out of the game.
You can’t deny how exciting of a player he is to watch though. Every time he pulls the ball down to run you hold your breath. Unfortunately, it’s both because you think he may score and you think he may take a hit he can’t get up from.
His style of play is no secret, so I don’t think it bothers fans that much.
2) How hot is the seat under head coach Andy Reid right now?
I really have mixed feelings about this. If it’s from a fan’s perspective, it’s pretty hot. However, the fans don’t make the decisions, the front office does. On their end, I think the seat is a lot cooler.
He has won a lot of games in this city despite never winning the big one and this is a very loyal franchise. I think if the Eagles win a few games down the stretch, he has a pretty decent shot at keeping his job. Defensive coordinator Juan Castillo is a different story, but I won’t get in to that.
3) How much did Eagle’s fans buy in to the “Dream Team” idea?
Despite what people may think, Eagles fans are pretty smart. There’s no denying that the offseason the Eagles had brought a lot of excitement to Philadelphia. I think from the fans perspective, they understood why Vince Young used the term “Dream Team” but they wished he didn’t. That feeling is especially true now given the Eagles record.
4) Without Vick and Maclin both out, what should we expect from the Eagle’s offense?
The obvious answer for any team missing their starting quarterback and best receiver would be to run the ball more. This holds even truer for the Eagles who have the top running back in the league in LeSean McCoy. However, any Eagles fan would tell you that doesn’t mean anything. Andy Reid has consistently abandoned the run game, even when they have tremendous success. It blows my mind.
I hope that they utilize the run game a lot, but I’m not confident they will. I think they may try to get DeSean Jackson involved early to give him some confidence coming off his benching last week. I also see Brent Celek and Riley Cooper being popular targets for Vince Young.
5) The Eagles have more quality corners than most teams have receivers that need covered. I’ve heard that playing time has been a major concern for a few players and that it hasn’t always been handled professionally. How true are those rumors? What are the Eagles doing about it?
Nnamdi Asomugha and Asante Samuel are clearly the top two guys. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was a Pro Bowl corner, so the Eagles figured they could just throw him in the slot and he’d be fine. That wasn’t the case at all. The thing that made things worse was the fact that they left Joselio Hanson, an extremely talented nickel corner who took a pay cut to stay with the Eagles, remain on the bench. The defense has really been atrocious this season.
6) Complete the sentence: The Seahawks win if _____.
The Eagles fail to commit to the run. As I mentioned above, everything adds up to the Eagles running the ball a healthy amount of times, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they will. Last week against the Patriots, LeSean McCoy had 10 carries. I understand that they wanted to throw the ball on a very depleted Patriots secondary, but you can’t just ignore the run game that easily. Especially not when you have the top running back in the league. They very may well neglect the run for no good reason, and if they do, I think they’ll definitely lose.
7) How about a score prediction?
I’ve pretty much gotten to the point where I refuse to pick in favor of the Eagles so I’m going to say 20-17 Seahawks.
If you’re interesting in checking out my answers to his questions, have a look.