Doomed in the Dome
Posted: December 15th, 2013 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 243 Comments »The Vikings played their best game of the season today. And the Eagles couldn’t handle that.
I did not think it was possible for the Vikings to put up 48 points, with or without Adrian Peterson. I am completely shocked at today’s performance. That is the best I’ve seen Matt Cassel play in a long time, maybe ever. He was 26-35-382. Those are astounding numbers.
We have to give the Vikings credit for playing so well. Most Eagles fans will want to rip the team, but Minnesota earned a lot of those yards and points with good execution.
The Eagles did struggle for sure and the defense was dreadful today. There is lots of blame to go around. CB Bradley Fletcher was awful, especially late in the game when the Eagles were trying to make a miracle comeback.
Let’s go ahead and dispense with the notion that the Eagles weren’t focused, lacked heart or were flat. That kind of crap had nothing to do with today’s loss. Those are tired cliches.
The Eagles were sloppy today. There was no lack of effort or anything like that. This was all about poor execution.
* Nick Foles had a poor pass downfield that Riley Cooper couldn’t catch inbounds. A throw that is 2 yards to the inside is a TD.
* Foles then threw a needless low block on a reverse that negated a DeSean Jackson TD run.
* DeSean Jackson failed to break up an INT on a downfield pass.
* There was a pass to RB Mass Asiata where he was uncovered.
* There were more than a few missed tackles.
* There were some blown coverages.
* The blocking was inconsistent.
This was just a sloppy performance. Minnesota played terrific football and made the Eagles pay for these mistakes.
The Eagles now have to start pulling for the Packers to win in Dallas. Unfortunately, the Boys lead 13-3 at this point. Not looking like a good day.
_
Aargh.
exactly.
Better this game happened against MIN than DAL. Still control destiny.
They don’t have a prayer in the world of stopping Marshall & Jeffrey. Season’s going to end next week.
Any given day. Who knows, another blizzard may slow them down like Megatron….
I agree it will be a struggle. But I also think Cutler is prone to mistakes, run game can be shut down if LBs show up, and Wolff may return!
not sure we can beat the bears
KICK THE BALL DOWN FIELD!
Sorry for yelling!
seriously….instead of potentially giving up a long return to Patterson, we just decided to give them the ball on the 40 yard line every possession. If you’re gonna give the other team the ball at midfield all day you might as well try an onside kick every kick off.
I agree. It also came across as playing scared. I hated it.
Nothing about McCoy only getting 8 carries?
I’ll cover that. This was just a quick post so people would have a place to comment.
Comment? Who has time to comment when the sky is falling?!
One quick little thing:
Minn has a TERRIBLE pass defense. Why? Because the secondary isn’t very good, especially at running that Tampa2 Frazier wants to play. Teams have been picking that backfield apart by stretching it and finding holes. Foles, for all of his four hundred yards passing, was very inefficient in his attack, mostly because he got so much boom and bust. There was that boom and bust factor, along with some of that Colt McCoy issh with minor negative plays, in big part due to the fact Foles didn’t challenge the zone coverage. He kept looking for one on ones, and while you’re supposed to do that, you also must be able to consistently move the chains methodically when you need to, and that tend to calls for pass plays Foles is very reluctant to attempt.
Need to see All-22 to find out what the issue was…receivers or Foles.
Seemed like foles looked a lot downfield I think big plays are the traps that Philly qbs fall into. Vick is a prime example. Looking downfield lead to the pick and a couple of sacks. Djax played with a lot of heart today.
Think game plan was bad w squib kicks. We played scared. Defense wad also maybe bc we had no pass rush? Just looked like 2012. Oh well cowboys lost.
Definitely going downfield more than I like. Of course, a QB as risk averse as I tend to be isn’t going to be very good lol.
Foles did target Ertz 9 times but it seemed like the Eagles played a lot more 3 WR sets this week since were playing behind a lot of the game.
Don’t like the offense nearly as much with the personnel in that group because it brings Avant on to the field. Painful to watch how slow he has gotten at times and how even certain LBs cover him in man. Getting a WR who can make plays in the slot especially give them YAC would really give this offense a different flavor in the passing game.
Offense line also isn’t a great pass-blocking unit either. Peters isn’t quite the stud he was 1-on-1, Johnson still can’t reliably block in pass coverage, and this o-line seems to struggle at times picking up the blitz.
And, with apparently no threat of a running game (did Andy start calling the plays?), their defense could concentrate on the downfield throws.
Yea, he shouldn’t have given up 48 pts either. Bum.
Desean failed to break up INT? A little harsh…..we’ve seen Desean do that many times this year…..the ball was thrown with way too much air….Prater wasnt even covering Desean,,,,,he came off his man and picked it off.
The lack of effort was slumping his shoulders and not making an effort to make the tackle. But lets be clear, it was a poorly thrown ball. Sprinting downfield to catch a ball, its grossly underthrown and its Desean’s fault?
The reply showed how desean was uncovered for about 20 yards.
The pass was bad as well. Never said it was a good throw.
DeSean’s teammates were mad at him for not trying to break up the pass. That should tell you all you need to know.
Is it also possible they were upset because DJax wasn’t pursuing the defender AFTER the interception?
I can’t watch the game rewind yet but they got a pretty healthy return on that pick and you never know when they break one and pick-6 it
Possible.
Djack said after the game that he didn’t see the Defender coming. The cornerback that was initially covering him left him so he thought he was all alone, wide open. That is before the safety switched onto him.
Great play design and execution by Vikings D.
Foles should have thrown it earlier when DJack was wide, WIDE open.
I hear you Tommy…..I thought he didnt try to make the tackle after the INT. Forgive me but it seems that Nick is Teflon and every pass of his should be caught or the receiver(if his last name is Jackson) is responsible for making sure the ball isnt intercepted.
I’m conceding that Desean was wrong on at least one count……
A downvote? Nobody puts Baby in a corner downvotes T-Law!
I thought it was pretty cool the Eagles let Andy Reid come back and game plan and call the game for them. Most teams don’t let their fired head coaches be a part of their game planning.
LOL. Yeah…
We could be done next Sunday night.
It isn’t the loss but how: not running the ball, not kicking deep, having no answer for Matt cassel. This was really depressing.
Doomed in the Dome
… and thank god the Dome is Doomed!
Shut it down!
Almost every week this year I’ve been nervous before games, I didn’t want to completely trust the team because of bad games and bad halves. There was one game earlier this year where I was confident in a win, and we lost. This week, between our play and a bad and injured Vikings team, I was sure we would win, once again that didn’t happen. Curse me for believing in the team
It wasn’t you bro. It was me. Of all the days to add the Eagles to my facebook likes, i chose last night. (In the words of Tommy Wiseau, God forgive me)
What an awful, pathetic performance from an overconfident team that bought all its own hype this week. Terrible job from the top on down. Awful gameplan and prep from the coach. Vikings feasted off of the short field all day thanks to not kicking it deep and not involving shady, no matter how badly their corners are hurt, is just plain stupid. Foles looked off all day with inaccurate throws, which is even more of a reason to get Mccoy involved.
As for the defense, they should have to find their own flights home and practice tomorrow, with pads. No excuse for that. Juan Castillo is laughing at you right now, Bill Davis. Now, if the Cowboys just take care of business in two very easy games they force the Eagles into a must win next week against a tough Bears team just to make week 17 mean something.
The Cowboys may hand the Eagles a playoff birth, but they showed today that they do not deserve to be a playoff team.
This reminded me so much of one of those Andy Reid games where the QB looked shaky, and for some reason we just kept passing more and more. How did LeSean only get 8 carries on a day when Nick Foles really looked lost.
On this disaster
1. Next time we play Minnesota, it’d better be early in the year to avoid a “letdown”- schedule makers take note
2. Kudos to Cedric Thornton- he was the one defender who I saw making plays
3. Earl Wolff=Jesus (hopefully)
4. If we weren’t so thin at DB, Chung would be cut tomorrow
5. Loved the fight this team had- I haven’t seen that in a couple of years. But obviously Matt Cassel just had to go all”Manning” on us when we were within 5
6. I think Nick had a good game with bad moments and was inconsistent at the worst times- I know lots of people will disagree
7. Really Chip? Only 8??? By the way, Chip and Andy switched bodies or something: KC up big on Oakland, and they’re actually using their RB
I know cliches yada yada but honestly Tommy I thought we looked really flat coming out of the gate today.
The kickoff plan sucked, the lack of usage for Mccoy sucked, the pass defense was atrocious. Foles was up and down. Peters couldn’t handle Jared Allen. The only person who I thought played good today was Ced Thornton and maybe DSJ.
This team needed this. Gut check. If we don’t get to the playoffs, then we didn’t earn it. Always easier to learn from a loss.
The Vikings receivers seemed college open for a lot of the game. It was like let’s rush the minimum and play a soft zone , give up kicking off, etc like we thought if we just don’t make a big mistake. Instead death by a thousand paper cuts.
The eagles played like just showing up was enough, and there is a decent chance that that arrogance cost them a playoff birth.
The game plan reeked of being scared. It’s a fine line between being scared and being stupidly aggressive, but I thought defensively and ST they played to not lose, they played prevent, so to speak, in both of those facets of the game. And, like you said, the coaches plan seemed to say, as long as we don’t mess up/let up the big play we’ll win. And, they played like that too. They played like a team that felt they didn;t have to go out there and win, like they just had to not lose. And, you can’t play winning football like that.
I love chip but…this works in college when the talent disparity is greater.
The Eagles were getting burned in man coverage, their corners are limited it would’ve helped if the birds had a pass rush.
it looked to me like a good 3/4 of Cassel’s completions came to WR for whom no defender bothered to be within 10 yards of. Of the times that a DB actually stuck with the WR, we invariably committed PI. Combine that with a nonexistent pass rush, bad angles and poor tackling. Not really a winning formula on D.
trap game?
Dallas looks much improved, know it’s GB without Rogers, Still,
hope for us to look improved next week. Might look at this as a good loss in a few weeks,
Run defense was great today and Asiata did nothing on the ground all day. Vikings just max-protected today and the Vikings o-line did a great job of providing Cassel exactly what he needs to succeed – a stable pocket and the ability to step up and make a throw downfield.
Eagles would have been a lot better off if Ponder had played because he doesn’t make a couple of the throws Cassel did today.
That 3rd and long completion to Chase Ford was such a back-breaker. Kendricks missed it by an inch. We were poised to get the ball back with a chance to take the lead. Everything snowballed from there.
Not Nick’s best game. Looked tentative, was inaccurate. Made a handful of big time throws, but overall way too inconsistent.
What were his numbers today? Missed it. …Also was that the type of QB performance Tommy was talking about down late in a game
Foles today
30 of 48 for428
3 TD
1 Int
Pretty damn good numbers actually. This all falls on the defense and STs. STs have really fallen apart the last two weeks.
I didn’t think ST’s were too bad themselves. Fipp asking them to squib every time was a killer.
Did you watch the first half? There were some great plays but Foles didn’t play well despite those numbers. There was just no defense in this game
Does Kendricks not being over 6′ 0″ have anything to do with that “missed it by an inch”? Seems like a great many a completed pass has been described the exact same way with Kendricks guarding an opponent.
Tommy, I know it’s hard to approximate without re-watching, but how much blame would you put on simply not having the talent?
Strictly speaking to Defense and Special teams, it seemed like once Boykin went down the secondary fell apart. Need two starting safeties (Wolff may be one, but I don’t think Allen starts on a super-bowl contender. Maybe a 3rd S). Also need to upgrade at least 1 CB spot, and get some needed depth. That depth will also help the ST coverage.
Pass rush was lacking. A tremendous rush OLB makes all the difference in this D.
Lastly, we need a kicker with a leg to boom kicks out of the end zone. I don’t care what Kelly says, there needs to be some competition for Henery.
If you can’t trust your kicker to kick the ball through the end zone in a freaking dome then why the hell do you even have him? He needs to go, period.
wait a second…they didn’t even try!!
If you don’t have the talent to stop Matt cassel then you don’t belong in the league. I think part of the problem was pass rush the others were penalties an missed tackles. Jennings and Simpson aren’t that good.
Bigger mystery is what the hell has happened to the special teams kickoff coverage unit the last 2 weeks?
Eagles’ strategy of avoiding Patterson did avoid any large kick returns but in the process often gave the Vikings good/very good field position outside of the 30. This hasn’t been a defense all year that has stopped teams from moving the ball up and down the field but been able to clamp down in the red zone & force some turnovers.
Yea, kept thinking when Vikings got in the red zone, we had them where we wanted….
Kelly’s decisions today was puzzling at best and at worst downright poor. The worst set of decisions might have been the 3 and 4th down calls though late in the 3rd quarter though including the decision to not challenge the 3rd down spot which likely would have given the Eagles a 1st down and instead challenge the 4th down spot.
Kelly hasn’t had quite the issues that Reid had with TO management & game-clock management in the 2-minute offense. Still there have been a couple of games this year where Kelly’s overall decisions haven’t been very sound. This was one of them.
I wasn’t a fan of wasting a time out on a 2 point conversion when trailing big in the second half.
Coy boys have 10 players with hamstring injuries
maybe need a sports science guy.
no mention of the continuing to kick it short when it clearly wasnt working
For all the grief that Chung will inevitably get this week (current Eagles’ whipping boy), Anderson has no business on the defensive-side of the ball.
Coleman stinks all around including his shoddy angles on tackles and positioning in coverage but Anderson is even a worse tackler. Flat out whiffed on 2 tackles today and didn’t even officially record a talent as a result.
Bears and Cowboys should watch tape off this game until their eyes’ bleed especially if Boykin is out. Play the entire game with 3/4 WRs, max protect, and throw the ball deep early and often. If Davis tries to take that away by playing everybody back, pick this defense apart underneath and gash them with delays/draws/screens with their competent and skilled RB.
Both Cowboys and Bears have QBs who can get the ball downfield, better and larger WRs than the Vikings, and a competent RB who is the a threat catching/running that the Vikings didn’t have today.
Can’t see the defense keeping either team the next 2 weeks under 24 pts. Just a question of whether the offense can put up enough pts and the special teams play can be solid enough.
I had no expectations of the Eagles doing anything and considered it ‘house money’ if they make the playoffs. Still do.
If they lose the last 3 games of the season and finish up home at 8-8, then yeah I will consider this is a disappointing season ultimately. Failure no, disappointing yes.
Hope I am wrong but I see a whole lot of ugly for the Eagles’ defense the next 2 weeks especially in Dallas.
Have to hand it to the Packers, their fans travel well.
Packers fans and Steelers fans always seem to show up for their teams on the road. The Eagles fans are fairly good too, but those two teams seem to bring a lot of fans with them.
We’d have more fans everywhere if we had 5 Super Bowls
looking like they are starting to get enthused.
It would have been nice to win out, but this may not be a bad game to lose. Maybe the guys re-focus.
It’s just human nature to bask in your own glory. The local and national attention may have been a little much.
The good teams bounce back and take their anger out on the next opponent. We’ll see if we’re a good team.
I know sometimes we don’t agree on some of the things the Eagles do, but the defense was playing better than the beginning, but Im still not sold on the 3-4 defense. Carry Williams looks like a FS to me, not a CB. We need to address this issue on the Draft. You can tell that J.P is getting there on the age, and we need to address that in the draft too.
Peters is a guy that will be a tough case this offseason but drafting a LT very high isn’t a move I would mind at all.
Defense desperately needs an upgrade at S, starter at outside CB (Fletcher at been ‘okay at times’ this year but was awful today, Williams make some plays but gives up a lot more), and a pass-rushing OLB who can generate pressure 1-on-1.
More pieces on this defense than I thought there was at the beginning of the year but it still needs another 3-4 pieces to become a Top 10 unit.
I don’t see us going OL super early. Matthews wont be there when we pick. Maybe Lewan falls. Kouandijo and Tiny Richardson don’t fit our philosophy. We already have Bamiro and Kelly but if we do go OT I hope we aim for James Hurst, Michael Britt, or Wesley Johnson on day 2. At guard the best fits are also day 2 or 3 guys: Zack Martin and Billy Turner would be excellent additions.
True….I just dont like the 3-4 defense.
Foles will inevitably get some grief for his performance today including some of the throws he missed, forced INT to Jackson, and holding on to the ball today.
Still thought he responded pretty well overall though including in the 3rd quarter and was able to consistently drive this team down the field in the 2nd half & put up points.
There isn’t a QB in the NFL today who could have lead the Eagles’ to victory given the inconsistent special teams play and horrendous defense. If the Vikings had a competent RB, they might have dropped 50+ pts on this team today.
The Eagles might have won if they had Matt Cassell because then he wouldn’t have been playing for the Vikings.
Packers are now within 5, early in the 4th.
Come on, December / Late Game Romo…
Also, that Dallas offensive play calling shouldn’t change. Three passes in a row on their last possession…
It’s like Chip’s calling their plays!
A Pick 6 would be epic.
Close…
Close enough!
Will be overturned…
Aikman is hoping…
Packers now down by just 5
The old shuttle!!!
with momentum!!!
Next week is going to take 10 years off of my life.
That’s how Cole is looking so young. The fandom of Dorian Gray…
Holidays, right?
They say cheating on your wife can do that to you also.
We don’t beat the bears convincingly, we don’t belong in the playoffs. Period.
It’s impressive how quickly Jerry Jones got money into the ref’s account.
Quick thoughts:
Eagles failed to capitalize early. Vikings had momentum. The crowd was in it. Very difficult atmosphere.
Eagles are who we thought they were.
I’m not worried about the offense. Although the slow starts really hurt. People have knocked me for suggesting a big/fast WR is a need. Think about how much man free coverage we faced. A big/fast WR would have really helped today. McCoy is our best player but he got stopped by his own team and coach. I could care less about the D we are facing. Make them tackle 25. Shady has most 4th Quarter runs of 40+ yards in NFL History. Give him a carry or 20.
Defense was a different story. As I mentioned previously, our two worst games were against Manning and Rivers. Matt Cassel is not elite but played solid football. This game exposed two biggest needs: 1. Athletic OLB pass rusher. 2. Playmaking DB that tackle well. The scheme is good and the players played hard but the talent is not there for sustained success. Our D has benefited recently by poor QB play. They did not respond well to a QB playing well.
Special teams. I don’t know where to begin. I feel like giving up a TD to Patterson might have been better than the field position advantage Vikings had all day. Bright note was Henery hitting 50+ FG. Albeit in doors.
I agreed with decision to go for it on 4th and half a yard. Even in our own side of the field. The offense needed a kick start.
Tough game. But made the holes in current roster very clear. And that might not sound like a positive but it is. 2013 is about learning how the roster adapts to the scheme changes. Who can play and who can’t. The secondary can’t.
spot on analysis. well done
I’ve been totally on board with a big receiver although I dnt want to reach in the draft
Mostly agree with you on the on the defensive needs but I think the Eagles will need a Safety (possibly 2) & CB. Hopefully Wolff can get back on the field b/c the Eagles really need to see if he can be a starter in 2014. This game showed why Belichik and the Pats let Chung go. Can’t see him on the roster next season, also I think Allen is a FA, only way he’s on the team next season would be b/c the FO couldn’t find a replacement.
REF : (HEAVY TEXAN ACCENT) “After reviewin’ the caw, the baw moved under the defendur’s hands, incomplete pass. 3rd down COWBOYS!!! Also, I’m abowt to make a bad encroachment caw and a crappy facemask caw against the Packurs.”
Kill me now. I don’t want to lose to the Cowgirls.
we wont!
Thanks. I needed that.
don’t become a negadelphian so quick! we have enough!
seriously, love everything you’ve brought to the table all year. Some folks got ahead of themselves with the 5-game streak and talk of the 2 seed.
we’re still a flawed team, beyond coaching and scheme. It will take more than a year. I feel blessed with everything Kelly has brought us, so quickly! Sky’s the limit.
House money.
This is torture. Having to watch the Cowboys for our post-season lives.
Shot ourselves in the foot today.
Literally, seeing as we didn’t run it.
No need to watch them. We still control our own destiny.
If we can’t beat the Bears and Cowboys, we’re just not that good and don’t deserve to make the playoffs.
On that play, you could hear Aikman pop a boner.
On a related note, I would’ve paid good money to hear Joe Buck call the Giants game today.
No, that’s just Joe Buck’s voice.
Why is it that our kicker is the only kicker that can’t put the ball out of the back of the endzone in a dome?
Didn’t draft him high enough. Next time need to think about 2nd round.
To add insult to injury, in the semi finals of my FF league (one of two games in the past 6 weeks that could keep me from prize money) I see McCoy score points for me like he was being coached by Andy while playing against Jamal Charles, whom not even Andy could slow down.
same…I had McCoy, DJax, and Coop. Only to get blown out of the water by Foles. stupid SI cover….
I also had McCoy and was going against Charles. That sucked.
http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu267/BoogaFrito/AckbarItsaTrap.jpg
Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better meme. I’m just… wow.
Tony Romo just Tony Romo’d the shit out of the Dallas game.
He needs his own watch commercial, because he is like clockwork.
The real Eagles defense showed up today. Kudos to Minnesota to exploiting our terrible pass defense. Yeah the run defense is adequate, but this is still a passing league. If you can’t defend the pass, you don’t have a chance. The pass rush is still very mediocre. If you dont have a single defender who can get double digit sacks in a season on your team, that’s pathetic. Barwin and Cole are just average at best. Cox has been ok, but he isn’t the stud defensive lineman we need him to be. I do think part of this comes from the scheme. Too much two-gapping negates his pass rush ability. Thornton is a nice run defender, but offers very little pass rush. Logan actually looks improved in pass rush, but gets pushed around too much in the run game. Curry is the best pass rusher on the team, but he rarely plays more than 30% of snaps a game. Meco is solid but not flashy. Kendricks just makes way too many mistakes. Too many missed tackles. Too many blown coverages. It might be time to pull the plug on him soon. Meanwhile, the bend but don’t break secondary finally broke like I said it eventually would. Bradley Fletcher got exposed today and Patrick Chung just sucks. He makes Kurt Coleman from last year look good. Cary did ok, but he still gave up too much today. Allen didn’t make any bad mistakes, but again, that shouldn’t be the goal. The goal should be to shut down the offense by making plays and doing your job. We clearly still need an upgrade for at least half of the guys on this defense before we can even think about going to the Super Bowl. For now, we’re stuck with the Keystone Kops.
Games like today show where the Eagles are talent-wise on defense.
The offense, even with Foles’ sometimes erratic passing against MN, posted 30 points. That should be more than enough to win.
In Kelly’s presser, he said the O-line had a bad day running the ball . . . although with only 8 attempts for McCoy, that critique seems Reid-eque.
Regardless, Kelly was more than ready to put the game in Foles’s hands. And he did so very early on.
That’s either a really high endorsement of Foles. An indictment of the O-line. A lack of confidence in the defense. Or just the least bad choice.
Anyway, the Eagles don’t have the look of a SB contender with this defense. The great results the prior 9 weeks were against some weak ball clubs, with bad QBs playing, or — in the Lions’ case — in some special circumstances.
Seems like the Eagles are a couple of very good drafts away from rebuilding this defense. Free agency? Who’s out there that’s going to create pressure up the middle? Or pressure on the edge? As for safety, hopefully that situation gets more stable with Wolff back. Chung’s not the answer.
__________________
I’d love to know what Kelly thinks about his QB situation.
[BC: This is not my weekly “mobile QB” comment. That’ll come later in the week.]
I just wonder what he thinks he has in Foles, who’s cooling down a bit.
As I said, the offense posted 30 points — and it should have 34.
But I believe Kelly thinks he can hand 42 on anyone and should, with proper execution, every week. He could be right.
No question the Eagles offense left points on the field. That’s on everyone. Foles for missing targets. The backs for dropping an absurd number of easy catches. The line for giving up too much pressure. Chip for not giving the ball to Shady enough. But at the end of the day, the offense got 30 points. That should be enough to get a win. This loss is first and foremost on the abysmal pass defense. 48 points to a pathetic Minnesota offense with no AP. I refuse to believe Matt Cassel will ever have anywhere close to that good of a game again. So no, I don’t pin this loss on Foles. Not the bulk of it anyway. They lost as a team. Everyone had a hand in it. But the defense was the biggest culprit of all.
I did not pin this loss on Foles. I started off saying this game shows how short on talent the defense is.
If I wasn’t clear, sorry.
I wrote: “The offense, even with Foles’ sometimes erratic passing against MN, posted 30 points. That should be more than enough to win. . . . As I said, the offense posted 30 points — and it should have 34.”
I think my question about what’s in Kelly’s mind is a fair one.
Slightly devils advocate, but Kelly’s game plan put a lot of pressure on the D, the the KO strategy back fired and the Vikings enjoyed great field position, and the 4th and 1 call in the 3rd quarter that was 3 freebies for the Vikings.
Too much time on the clock for Dallas?
Obviously you don’t take a knee there or anything if you’re Green Bay, but seriously…
Too much when they only need a FG, in a dome, with the refs paid for.
Yup.
They had to pay the refs. How the hell do you not call at least holding on that 2 point attempt. Holy shit.
And Green Bay’s defense is terrible.
Romo is the X-factor here. He can Romo again.
Please close the ref’s account.
OMG THAT’S AN INT!
He did it!! That’s an INT!
It is. But can the ref find a way to say it isn’t?
He sure can! Tuck rule!
If this stands, my week just got a million times better.
Agreed.
Dallas has this one. Perfect setup for Romo to get the winning FG. 2-pt play was huge.
Never mind. Romo is unbelieveable.
Damn.
Perfect setup for Romo to “Throw Game sealing Int. ” – Edited that for ya
if they don’t call that a clean int…..ref’s are paid off
Thats a pick
Romo may be the worst 4th Q – December QB I’ve seen in 50 years.
I can’t think of anyone remotely close to him.
Don’t know what his deal is.
Beasley pulled up on the INT. What the hell.
But Romo misread the coverage.
Seriously, Dallas is years away from winning a SB with Romo.
It could happen. But I’m thinking “no.”
he’s got the talent to win it all. Just fuckwittery goes on.
Hard to top that description. Excellent adjective.
Coaching.
Immobile
Thank god for Tony Romo!!!
TONY ROMO YOU BEAUTIFUL INEPT BASTARD YOU!
Put a douchey flat cap on this one… it’s over!
Kaepernick approves.
Come on FOX, cut to the Jerry booth!
he left the building!!
Don’t blame him… that thing is hideous!
lmaorotf
At 4:15 :/
At 7:45 😀
Green Bay pulls it off! Not such a horrible Sunday after all…
Allow 48 points to the Vikings, still in first place.
keep the blindfold on …you don’t want to see it.
Bad Luck Brian is the Cowboys’ quarterback.
It’s like today never happened!
No way in Hell can the Eagles beat the Bears. Marshall and Jeffery will tear apart our terrible corners, Fletcher and Williams. We’ll be lucky to come within 20 points of them. Please tell me we get a legit cornerback in next year’s draft.
Seriously?
Yeah, seriously. We’ve been incredibly lucky to face opponents who screwed up a golden opportunity. Terrelle Pryor is a completely inept passer and the Raiders had no offense. Scott Tolzien: ditto. The Redskins receivers are pathetic, but they almost torched us when Shanahan finally decided to throw the ball in the 4th quarter. For whatever reason, Bruce Arians decided to repeatedly run the ball when our strength is run defense and Carson Palmer ate us alive at the end of the 4th quarter when Arians finally let him pass. The snowpocalypse spared us from a 200+ yard receiving game from Calvin Johnson. It’s just surprising that the Vikings of all teams were the ones to solve this incredibly weak pass defense. Unless Cole, Barwin, Cox, Logan, or Thornton can bring a respectable pass rush (dubious considering their ceiling is average at best), we can’t conceal a horrendous secondary.
I hope like hell McCoy gets more than 8 carries against that run defense.
True. Also hope like hell our D comes to play. And maybe our seals can do something about their big 3.
Too early to start stumping for TJ Ward in FA?
Corners usually take years to look good, and there’s not really a sure thing coming out.
I don’t know. Jay Cutler will probably throw enough to our team that it’ll be a wash.
Yeah maybe, but as Charles Woodson eloquently put it a few years back, “Jay will be Jay” over under is 1.5 TOs for eagles d against cutler
Re: Jerry in the booth
There’s a TV shot, from 30+ years ago, when a very good Cleveland Browns team blew a game at the end of then-owner Art Modell having an incredibly human reaction to his team’s screw-up. Better than any shot of Jones.
Saying there were some blown coverages implies that there were some coverages that were not blown.. I challenge you to point those out.
There were times that we had excellent coverage and then got called for pass interfering the sh$t out of the WR, so there’s that…
You can always count on Romo to not count on him.
Death, Taxes, and Tony Romo throwing a 4th quarter INT.
Chip must have known Dallas was going to blow it.
Still.. if we had won today’s game, we’d be playing to sew up the division next week. Worst case scenario is it comes down to a winner-takes-all showdown in Dallas, so on the whole I’m still happy where this season has gone… hard not to view today’s loss as a huge missed opportunity though.
You’re right, we blew it today. Look at the bears as a playoff team. We don’t win that, we have no business in playoffs anyway.
Dallas lost. To a pretty decent GB team — that if Flynn had played against the Eagles, things might had ended differently for the Birds (rubs out NYG game, maybe).
Cowboys have Washington in D.C. next week. Eagles have Bears.
Should be a mighty interesting day next Sunday.
What’s interesting is the Dallas loss today guarantees the Week 17 game is for the division title. It’s also guaranteed to be the second Prime Time game in a row for the Eagles.
What if Eagles win and Dallas losses next week?
the worst case scenario for the eaglers is that we have to beat dallas for the division. The best case is that dallas loses to washington and we beat the bears and we get to spend that whole game celebrating.
In that case I take it all back.
I think, in the end, you’re right, though.
Week 17 is for the (bad) NFC East title.
Which is fine. I’d just like to know that in the WC game against SF, the O-line will show up.
Don’t want to see Foles running for his life all day . . . because then Chip “Andy” Kelly will disdain the running game after 5 carries. UGH!!!!
We’ll know by kick off if the game means anything. If the cowboys win then the bears game really has no implications but if the cowboys lose we can sew it all up.
Looking forward to Eagles hosting 49ers in WC Round. That’ll be entertaining.
Because Tony Romo cannot win in December.
Get a new QB, Jerry.
The best part is, after that contract extension, Romo is locked in for a long, long time…
that’s great!
who’s a better G.M. than Jerry?
I’d love to be a fly-on-the-wall at Fox Studios on Sundays to hear Jimmy Johnson’s off-camera stories about what a knuckle head Jones is as a GM.
Jones was a brilliant business man. Not so much as a GM.
That wouldn’t be the point. Jerry Jones is the owner. Just thinking of him as the ultimate fantasy football player. GM? Shemale. Jones wants to do the action, regardless of how competent he judges himself.
Lol that’s what my wife and I were discussing earlier. I said its gonna be funny when Romo finally leaves and they get a new qb who will probably be even worse lol.
It would be amazing if he ends up in a place like Cleveland and takes them to a Super Bowl.
Tony Romo :: 3/29/2013: Signed a seven-year, $119.5 million contract. The deal contains $55 million guaranteed, including a $25 million signing bonus and Romo’s base salaries in years one and two.
2013: $1.5 million, 2014: $13.5 million,
2015: $17 million, 2016: $8.5 million,
2017: $14 million, 2018: $19.5 million,
2019: $20.5 million, 2020: Free Agent
They just paid Scandrick and he got torched
I’d rather they didn’t. Romo is a unique player. Very good, but I’ve never seen anyone with such an obvious December kryptonite. Still, Jerry is a much bigger detriment to that team than Romo is, so hooray for that too.
So we had SD, MIA, MIN, GB and STL win.. Oh, it was upset week! Well, there you go then.
I hadn’t thought of that but yeah.. Odd week.
I am kind of joking, but it does help put this loss in perspective. Even other very good teams drop what should be a winnable game. And a bunch of them did this week, just like our Birds.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=gLSdxMv0hnZR8M&tbnid=rFt3P_u2j2CusM:&ved=0CAYQjhw&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftexasfishingforum.com%2Fforums%2Fubbthreads.php%2Ftopics%2F6598967%2Fall%2FTony_Romo_haters&ei=vFOuUuvgHfLKsAS534GoCw&psig=AFQjCNEM7N7X0g2Qf0E-s_FApVPTOum9RA&ust=1387242812533878
Nick Foles — whatever his faults — is a very careful QB with the football. Sometimes misses open receivers. Occasional bad read (like today).
But, after watching Romo this year — a guy more mobile and more talented — I’ll take Foles. And he’s still short of a season’s worth of starts.
Completely agree.
OD . . .
This was a painful afternoon. Bad karma, indeed.
And the Dallas loss doesn’t change the fundamentals of this team’s defense: a lagging pass rush and bad D-backfield.
But the offense? And Foles? Only going to get better.
He will continue to get better, that’s for sure.
I think the expectations of Foles have rocketed up rather too quickly. He wasn’t great today by any means, but at the end of the day, he threw for more than 400 yards, put up 30 points, had only one turnover, and compiled a QB rating over 100 against a pass rush that was in his face all day. It wasn’t a bad performance either – just not on the level of the best he’s had this season.
X —
A great point that applies to too many young players in every sport.
And to too much of every-day life.
We expect everything and everyone to be great today . . . and certainly no later than tomorrow.
I was more impressed how he kept responding and moving the team down the field especially late in the 3rd quarter & 4th quarter. Kept his composure, generally didn’t force bad throws, and was even-keeled. It wasn’t the Dallas game where he did become mentally unhinged once they got behind.
Sieve of a defense just couldn’t get a stop when they needed to including in the red zone.
That opening 3rd Q drive hurt.
As for the 2nd-down sack, though, I’d like to put a timer to it. It happened so damn quick — and on the field, it’s happening in the blink of an eye.
Yeah, if the Birds’ defense was able to just get a few stops in the second half, then we’d be talking about the huge second half comeback for Foles.
Romo’s 4th QB comebacks/winning drives often get overlooked but man it is hard to after some of his 4th quarter/OT career INTs.
His Decembers overshadow his 4th Qs.
That Ertz TD doe
:datass:
The whole season’s gravy at this point — playoffs or not.
Foles is pretty darn good, especially for a 2nd year QB with less than a season of starts and in his 2nd offensive system in 2 years.
The Eagles’ defense . . . needs lots of work.
Disagree on the playoffs. If they lose their final 3 and are home in Jan., it will have been a disappointing season to finish up at 8-8 especially after what happened today in the Dallas game.
yea i want to see the team reach 9 wins, personally.
I think they will for sure. We are facing some terrible defenses down the stretch. I don’t see anyway how we lose to the cowboys now, although we weren’t supposed to lose today.
Yea well..there can’t be as weak as a secondary in what we just played this week.
mmmm, well played sir
They most likely will, one way or another. An Eagles win next week plus Dallas loss clinches the division, making the last game meaningless for the Eagles. If Dallas wins the early game next week against WAS however, the Bears game is meaningless for the Eagles and they will likely rest their starters.
They could still finish 8-8 if they lose to both Chicago and Dallas. But I still think most likely they finish 9-7 and win the division. I’d hate to see us robbed of what could have been a very entertaining game against Chicago, but no matter what I’m fairly confident they will beat Dallas in the finale.
Before the season I thought they’d be 8-8 best case and doubted they would be in it for the Div lead. I knew guys that thought I was dreaming – they were calling for 6 wins based on switching to the 3-4 and letting both Nnamdi and DRC walk.
Personally I can take the improvements they’ve made and the 8 wins and call it a success. I really want them to take the Div over Dallas though, just never expected it would happen.
One minute, we’re all rejoicing that we’re playing with house money. One loss later and the sky is falling.
We’re not as good as we look at our best, and we’re not as bad as we looked today, though I don’t deny that next week looks a good bit more daunting than it did 9 hours ago.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bbkfae4CMAA2EmM.jpg
Hahahaa
Doomed In The Dome? Can’t you humor us and rename this article “Are You F*cking Kidding Me?”
I think that more accurately reflects our sentiments.
Bree’s lost to rams
Brady lost
Peyton lost
Romo choked against Flynn
…
If that’s what bad games look like with FOles, I’ll be tickled pink..
…
In other news I’m sweating trying to overcome facing jaamal Charles in fantasy. I’m up 10, I got Gio Bernard left, he has Torry smith….sweating this out
I’m down 5 ( which equals about 8 in normal scoring leagues) with Calvin left for me and Green for him.
9-4 Cinci looks awful against the 5-8 Steelers so far.
i scored a respectable 107 points with foles as my Qb. unfortunately my opponent had jamal charles and the seahawks D and scored 160.
http://dailysnark.com/wp-content/gallery/top-10-tony-romo-memes/tonyromo9.png
Holy. Fuck.
I stopped watching the Cowboys game because I thought it was over, and I missed one of the greatest Romo implosions of all time?! How is this even possible!
It’s not over till It’s over.
NFC East…0-4 today
How about Eli today huh? How that guy can even tie his shoes in the morning is a mystery sometimes.
He tried, but the Seahawks intercepted his left shoe.
lol
Russell Shepard sighting.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/blooper-tampa-bay-botches-trick-kickoff-return-giving-223711961–nfl.html?vp=1
Dang, that sucks for him. I prefer the Russell Shepard sighting over the Shaun Prater sighting though.
To me, this loss really surfaces the main problem this team has. The lack of singular talents on Defense. Cox is close, but not quite there. And the 3-4 scheme works against him. Maybe in the coming draft the team can get a strong OLB or CB. That’s what the team really needs.
I gotta admit, I was pretty aggravated about the loss today, but seeing the Cowboys lose, especially in spectacular meltdown fashion, well, its hard to stay mad when that happens.
Ah, the joy of hating the Cowboys.
I feel like I was beaten with a reality stick.
Me too. I was completely knocked off the Billy Davis bandwagon. His defense was totally unprepared.