Game Preview – Time To Destroy Dallas

Posted: November 8th, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 38 Comments »

Are the Eagles better than we think?

Sounds dumb to ask that about a 3-4 team, but I’m sitting here watching the Packers play the Panthers and I can’t help but think of that possibility. The Eagles blew out the Saints and Giants. They lost at Carolina, but that was a 21-16 game in the 4th quarter. The Eagles could have won that game.

At halftime, the Panthers are up 27-7, and it isn’t even that close. They easily could be up 34-7. On Green Bay. And Aaron Rodgers.

So the Panthers came back at Seattle to win there, beat the Eagles and now are blowing out the Packers. That doesn’t help the Eagles record at all, but it could make you feel differently about the loss.

Do you use the site Pro Football Reference? You should. I’m there constantly. If they ever mix in pics of Megan Fox, I’ll probably forget the rest of the internet and just stay there. Anyway, PFR has a stat they put together called SRS. They rank the teams based on a formula. Here are their NFC rankings:

ARZ  10.9
GB  5.5
CAR 4.2
PHI 4.0
SEA 3.3
STL 2.6
ATL 1.4

Everyone else has a negative number.

You can go here to read about the SRS formula if you are a math person. This isn’t a definitive way to say the Eagles are the 4th best team in the NFC. I just think it is interesting that they rate so highly.

It will be interesting to see how the Eagles play tonight. Maybe they’ll get back to the form that helped them blow out the Saints and Giants. If so, we might start to feel pretty good about the team.

Or maybe we’re looking at another game where the team plays sloppy and underachieves.

I wrote my preview for PE.com.

I’m excited to see the Eagles defense tonight. I’m curious about the offense.

There is a lot of mystery about the OL situation. I remember a game where a guy made his first start at LT in prime time against an elite pass rusher. That was 2003. Artis Hicks moved to LT on MNF and blocked Jason Taylor. The Eagles won 36-24.

Lane Johnson should be a better LT than Hicks was.

If the OL does struggle, this will turn into an ugly defensive battle. I’m not really sure which team that favors.

We should learn something about the Eagles tonight. Did the bye help at all? Is this team ready to get hot down the stretch? Can Sam Bradford take a big step forward?

Beat Dallas!!!

*****

If you want some more good reading, check out this post by Eagles Rewind.

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38 Comments on “Game Preview – Time To Destroy Dallas”

  1. 1 SteveH said at 3:16 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    I expect us to win this. We *should* win this.

  2. 2 Media Mike said at 6:09 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Agreed.

  3. 3 Weapon Y said at 3:18 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    I think the ugly defensive battle favors the Eagles. The Eagles defense is much, much better than the Cowboys’. The DL is stacked, the ILB group is replenished, and the safeties(!) are awesome. Unless we’re talking about a repeat of Week 2 (in which case, I might be driven to never watch football again), the Eagles offense should have just enough long drives to keep our defense from wearing down and giving up points.

  4. 4 Media Mike said at 6:09 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Run
    right
    at
    them

  5. 5 SteveH said at 3:30 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Man Kirk Cousins looks terrible out there today. Like even worse than usual.

  6. 6 Corry said at 5:03 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    He saves his best for Philly for whatever reason.

  7. 7 FairOaks said at 3:31 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Looks like the SRS system (it does stand for Simple Ranking System) is more-or-less based on margin of victory. So, teams that continually *just* come up short, but win big occasionally, would be higher-ranked in that system. It also sounds like it’s an old system, pre-dating footballoutsiders 😉 Still, it may show that our schedule has been unexpectedly tough so far. So… if we string together some wins, maybe that system has some merit… and if not, the system doesn’t account for our weaknesses very well 😉

  8. 8 SteveH said at 5:29 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Atlanta getting their asses beat by the Blaine Gabbert lead 49ers… They’ve been trending down for a while now but this is a new low.

  9. 9 Media Mike said at 6:09 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Making that nonsense loss in the opener even harder to stomach.

  10. 10 GermanEagle said at 5:36 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    How about (we fuck) dem Cowboys?!

  11. 11 Dragon_Eagle said at 5:57 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Oh, and Fuck Dallas.

  12. 12 Media Mike said at 6:08 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Agreed! Still hate the Giants more, but F Dallas.

  13. 13 GermanEagle said at 6:35 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    I know. Still cannot see how any Eagles Fan can not hate the Cowboys more?!

  14. 14 Media Mike said at 6:41 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Fan base issue. New York sports fans are the scum of the earth and think they’re entitled to act like everywhere they go should revolve around New York.

    Also, spend a good deal of years working as a bouncer on the Main Line dealing with a-hole New Yorkers from Villanova in a few of the bars where I work.

    Simply due to the self-important fan base; I hate the Giants more.

    Cowboys fans, in this area at least, are old school Philly dudes from the 60s and 70s who wouldn’t hang with the Eagles and/or fake Riley Cooper types who think they live in the country and want to embrace some type of red neck Confederate lifestyle. In both cases; they’re more pitiful than annoying.

  15. 15 kajomo said at 8:09 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    For us younger fans it is seeing the Giants win Championships. We were too young to really know the pain of Dallas’s success.

    I also grew up in central NJ and I hate Giants fans

  16. 16 Media Mike said at 6:08 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    We need big win tonight. Bad enough I had to see (not watch however; thanks for Washington / Pats Fox 29!) Carolina win over Green Bay, but I’m not going to be able to stomach an Eagles loss to Dallas.

    I’m optimistic that our D really lays the lumber tonight and we walk out of there with a 24-10 win via a few 2nd half TDs runs from Murray.

  17. 17 Will:↑↑↓↓←→←→BA said at 6:27 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Mike Evans is killing me

  18. 18 GermanEagle said at 6:34 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    And me.

  19. 19 Iskar36 said at 6:34 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    I’d love to see us destroy Dallas and for someone to knock Greg Hardy out of the game. I’d love to see us win a blowout against the Cowboys. But…. beating a 2-5 team, regardless of if it is a rival isn’t going to do much to change my opinion about this team. This is a game we should win. If we lose, that will do way more to determining how I feel about this team than if we win. Right now, I view this team as a good, bad team. In other words, we are not a good team, but against bad teams we should win more than we lose. That’s not where I want the Eagles to be and it isn’t where they should be right now.

  20. 20 Will:↑↑↓↓←→←→BA said at 6:37 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Division games so unpredictable. We could be undefeated and the Cowboys 0-7 and I still wouldn’t call this game a win

  21. 21 Insomniac said at 6:53 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Chip: we don’t need a decent or good or even great WR
    Bradford: go f yourself Chip

  22. 22 Duracell said at 7:03 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    I mean, the WR play has been atrocious this year. But I don’t think there was a single person in the world who thought Matthews wouldn’t be at least decent, and we did draft a 1st round receiver.

  23. 23 Insomniac said at 7:29 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    I have hope for Agholor but Matthews was a guy that I thought would forever just be an average and at best above average slot WR.

  24. 24 A_T_G said at 7:08 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Followed seconds later by…

    Bradford: Okay, maybe I overreacted, Chip. I guess I can deal with the receivers as long as you are using those picks on the OL… wait, what the hell, Chip?!

  25. 25 GermanEagle said at 7:06 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Here’s hoping we will run the ball 219 times tonight.

  26. 26 A_T_G said at 7:09 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    You figuring we slow down the tempo in the 4th quarter?

  27. 27 Tdoteaglefan said at 7:12 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Kiko in demeco ruled out..so it looks like rotation of hicks/kiko and kendricks in the middle

  28. 28 A_T_G said at 7:14 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    One day, we might get to find out how Davis deals with 4 good, healthy ILBs. One day…

  29. 29 oreofestar said at 7:29 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Well if they lose season is all but over… We suck but they suck more 20-13 Eagles

  30. 30 Patrick said at 7:30 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Jesus christ Denver.

  31. 31 oreofestar said at 7:31 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    So much for my Jags trying to win the division

  32. 32 Corry said at 7:33 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    I really like Malcolm Jenkins as a player and leader, but his beard is terrible.

  33. 33 Corry said at 7:49 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Good news guys, Greg Hardy is dedicated to being the best person he can be. Apparently some people’s best is better than others because he’s a piece of shit still.

  34. 34 Insomniac said at 7:54 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Can I use the same analogy for our WRs hands?

  35. 35 Corry said at 7:54 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    I actually expect you to because their hands are also shit.

  36. 36 Will:↑↑↓↓←→←→BA said at 7:56 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    I’ll just leave this here

  37. 37 Dragon_Eagle said at 7:57 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    That would be for the best.

  38. 38 A_T_G said at 7:56 PM on November 8th, 2015:

    Rock-hard-so-dried-out-it-turns-white shit, maybe.