Game Preview – at WAS

Posted: November 17th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 34 Comments »

My PE.com column takes a look at the game.

In a bizarre scheduling quirk, this is the third straight season the Skins have hosted the Eagles after a bye week.  Washington lost both of the last 2 years.  Let’s hope that trend continues.

I expect the Skins to score points.  Adding Pierre Garcon should give the passing offense a boost.  If it turns out he’s not that healthy, that will be a good thing for the Eagles.  The WAS passing game isn’t loaded with weapons.  I don’t think the Skins will put up 38 or 40 on us, but I think they’ll do better than 12 or 13, the point totals from their last 2 games.

Nick Foles is less experienced than RG3and6.  He’s less gifted.  But Foles has better weapons to work with.  And longer hair.  I’m really excited to see what Nick can do.  There will be ups and downs.  I’ve been preparing for the rough moments by watching Matt McGloin play QB for Penn State.  I should be able to handle just about anything.

The Eagles have the better defense in this game.  It would be great if they could make some plays to help out Foles and the offense.  Doesn’t Trent Cole owe us a strip sack?  The Skins RT is their weak spot so maybe it will be Jason Babin and Brandon Graham that get into the backfield.  This could be the week where having Mike Patterson back in the lineup pays off.  He was the Eagles best run stuffing DT last year.  He’s been rusty the past 2 weeks, but might be ready to play a lot this week.

Does the 5-game losing streak finally stop?  I sure hope so.

* * * * *

If you prefer to hear a game preview, Jimmy Bama and I did one for Helmet2HelmetShow.

We also talked a bit about the Stanford/Oregon game, since that game has 2 big time coaching candidates, David Shaw and Chip Kelly.  I think you’ll be highly entertained by the ideas we came up with for how to spice up Andy Reid’s postgame PC’s.  We had some excellent ideas.

_

  • GermanEagle

    As far as I can remember, this might have been the shortest game preview in a long long time. And I don’t blame you Tommy at all, I think the Eagles will lose, too. ;)

    • TommyLawlor

      I wrote stuff yesterday, for PE.com, and then did the podcast. Didn’t feel the need to re-write all of that in a post.

      • GermanEagle

        No offense taken. I was just playing.

        • TommyLawlor

          I know. Just wanted to explain.

  • Anders

    Tommy, I wouldnt mind if Foles put up the numbers McGloin put up today

    • TommyLawlor

      Me either. Would help if the Eagles played IU. Also helped that Allen Robinson played like a star.

      • goeagles55

        I’d rather Shady put up the numbers Temple’s RB put up today.

      • D3FB

        Real shame about Mauti though.

  • nopain23

    Definitely watching Stanford vs Oregon tonight. I keep hearing from iggles fans that Stanford’s HC would be an excellent choice to replace AR. I admit I know nothing about the guy.Anyone here knows why iggles fans are so high on him??

    • TommyLawlor

      I’ve talked about him a couple of times on podcasts. Former Eagles assistant under Gruden. Also worked for Ravens. Dad played, coached in NFL. Smart guy.

      • nopain23

        Thanks T. I don’t know if that’s a good resume or not but it sounds like he would be on the short list of possible candidates. Can’t wait for your post on possible HC to replace AR. I trust it will be quite thorough as usual. Most of the other sites keep bringing up retreads like Cowher, Gruden and Homlgren. I think that’s just lazy journalism. They’re not willing to do the research on lesser known guys like Shaw.

  • http://www.facebook.com/normanahaupt Norman Haupt

    Tommy, and I’d like some thoughts on if Lurie would entertain the notion of a rebuilding year (or period),or if you think he’ll be more pedel to the metal since the conference is so wide open every year?

    • TommyLawlor

      I need to address this in a post. Good question.

  • A_T_G

    Streaks are going to end this week. We have won twice against the ‘Skins coming out of a bye, and we have lost three in a row against teams coming off a bye this year.

    It still seems unfair that a quarter of our games this year are against teams coming off a bye.

    • TommyLawlor

      Very unfair.

  • Anders

    btw Tommy, I suppose you have seens Chip Kelly’s comments on Foles right? It make me really wonder why Foles divide people so much.

    • TommyLawlor

      I did see that.

      Not sure about the hesitance with Foles. Maybe after watching more than a decade of McNabb and Vick, supreme physical talents, Foles just looks incredibly pedestrian.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=565087931 Jeppe Elmelund van Ee

    I must have missed your reference of RG3and6 Tommy. What’s up with that?

    • TommyLawlor

      Skins are 3-6. That means RGIII = RG3and6.

      • Sb2bowl

        I thought I saw it as this………..

        the Redskins face a lot of 3rd and 6′s……. hence, RG3 and 6

        • A_T_G

          That was my initial guess too. You know, if he ever does something impressive and relevant on a long third down in the playoffs, we are going to hear about RG 3rd and 24 for a long time.

  • SteveH

    I dread Nick Foles laying a big fat turd on the field tommorow. If that happens we’re going to be in full on franchise QB search mode before you know it. That would suck.

    • TommyLawlor

      Don’t totally agree since it is his first start, but there is no denying it would send us all into a deep depression.

      • SteveH

        The fact that its only his first start won’t stop most people from going into a panick I think lol.

  • austinfan

    I never listen to podcasts, watch videos of talking heads, etc. I can read ten times faster than I have to listen and skip any nonsense I’m not interested in. This stuff is for illiterates and long distance truck drivers.

    Foles has to shave that awful fungus on his upper lip, boy, you got to look the part.

    If Foles doesn’t put up big numbers against the Redskins, Eagles are in full QB drafting mode, this is a bad defense. I don’t mind if he throws a couple picks, that happens with young QBs, but he should have guys wide open all day and time to throw (unless Bell is allowed on the field). So no excuses.

    • BC1968

      That first paragraph was unnecessary. Just saying.

      • austinfan

        I shouldn’t pick on Tommy, it’s something I’m just sick of all over the net these days, go to a weather site, sports site, news site, and everything is a video with a talking head(s), taking up bandwidth, wasting my time, hitting me with bad advertisements. All I want is a quick story on the item that interests me and I got to wade through a morass of bad talking heads instead of some succinct, to the point writing. Powerpoints on steroids. My worst nightmare.

        I’m not against videos per se, if people understood how to use them. The point of images is to display information that would take pages of print — not to take print and verbalize it in front of a camera. Which is why good editing is the key to good video. Watch those football shows on Sunday and you see the wasteland of talking heads saying nothing, watch NFL films and you see how powerful film can be. Those “22″ images are a good example, while they can be misleading (and that’s where video is more “honest”), they also can illustrate a point visually which allows the writer to economize on words. Any idiot can point a camera at a talking head, it takes skill to script and edit a video that’s worth watching.

        It’s not just football, when Sandy was hitting the East Coast, all I could find on some weather sites were talking heads in front of a weather map, not a well edited collage of satellite and animated weather maps that would have illustrated what was happening. The problem isn’t the media, it’s the bad messages by the idiots in control of the media. You Tube is the work of the devil, lowering standards and IQs everywhere around the globe.

        • Arby1

          I had a similar response to weather videos for Sandy. One concisely written or edited video piece would suffice. But that’s not what they want to do. They want to bombard you with STUFF that keeps you on their site in the hope that you click on a commercial link.

      • A_T_G

        I hear that. Er, um, I mean I read that. It’s not like I am some illiterate truck driver.

        No, wait, I mean truck driver or illiterate. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

        Well, with driving truck. There is definitely something wrong with being illiterate. I saw a billboard just the other day advertising a free literacy program…

        (Did the awkward silence pass yet?)

    • http://twitter.com/corry_k Corry Henry

      It’s also for people that want to listen to something at work that isn’t office banter about Britney Spears’ outfit on the X-Factor.

  • kaninfaan

    I thought it was “RG3andOut” ?

    • GermanEagle

      I rather call him RG3and7 from tomorrow…

  • lilmc

    Heading to Fed Ex now. Tommy, I will toast a PBR to you in the parking lot. Let’s go Birds!!!

  • austinfan

    Couple points, Foles is a Texas HS QB, these guys are more NFL ready because they spent their summers in HS playing 7 on 7 football. Doesn’t guarantee they’ll be good QBs, but they have far more reps throwing the ball going into college, so it’s not just that Foles had as many attempts in college as McNabb, he probably had two to three times the reps going into college.

    http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000058501/article/drew-brees-matthew-stafford-show-texas-influence-on-nfl

    http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/story/2012-04-25/luck-griffin-tannehill-texas-7-on-7/54542400/1

    One coach to watch is Marrone on Syracuse. While he’s had a mediocre record as a college HC, remember recruiting in Syracuse is a bitch. Hi, come to the land of ice and snow in the middle of nowhere. He was the OC for Peyton when he turned NO around, after 4 years as an OL coach, found both Evans and Nicks in the middle rounds for his OL, and helped build the best offense in the NFL despite losing McCallister his second season and Colston his third season to injuries.

    Shaw on Stanford would be interesting, 8 years as a QB/WR coach in the NFL, 4 years as OC at Stanford before taking over. Given how well they’ve played without Luck, you got to credit him with some fine work.