Week 1 Rollercoaster Ride of Rust to Riches!

Happy Monday! It always is after an Eagles win in the Philadelphia area and the Eagles are now 1-0 tied at top the NFC East. We went for a roller coaster ride but the game ended with the thrill of victory. Lets take the ride how I saw it!

FIRST HALF
The first words that come to mind for me are “A What Dude”. We all I think expected rust from both the offense and defense but talk about scaring the ever living crap out of everyone. This was a half of football that was certainly more down then up. The Defense seemed to forget this was a real game. Case Keenum had all day back there. No Pass Rush. Odd Schemes and rotations. The receivers who everyone had to google before the game were wide open. The offensive game plan was mind boggling to say the least. It felt like Carson hadn’t thrown or completed a pass over 10 or 15 yards and the frustration was growing. It led me to ask why are we still running continuous zone read plays (Nick Foles Playbook)? Some would blame execution here but going double tight end in shotgun formation on 3rd and 2 or calling timeout to run a toss play on 3rd a short isn’t execution as much as it is bad play calling to me. How does play action under center work if you are not calling running plays under center too? THEN IT FINALLY HAPPENED with 4:27 to go in the 2nd quarter. Carson Wentz hits Desean Jackson on a 51 Yard Touchdown Bomb to give the Eagles their 1st score of the day to put us down 10. Excitement is Back! We are all thinking LETS GO!!! Then Derek Barnett jumps offside giving the Redskins an extra 5 yards which aided a 48 yard field goal by Dustin Hopkins to close the half 20-7. The Boo Birds were out and rightfully so!

SECOND HALF
Doug often loves to defer when the Eagles win the toss and it was the right move again this week. It allows the Eagles to make adjustments at halftime and get the ball first in the 2nd half. Doug’s adjustments in the play calling and scheme plus Carson Wentz’s decision making on 3rd down (12 of 13 for 197 yards and 3 TDs with 0 INTS) are what allowed the Eagles to come back from a 13 point deficit rather quickly. I also can’t forget the offensive line who played great in both the pass and run game.

The play calling was amazing by Doug as he made a commitment to running the football early on and even when trailing by two scores. If they could have success running the ball then it would open up the pass. It certainly worked with the first drive accounting for 8 runs and 4 passes capped off with a 5 yard touchdown pass from Wentz to Alshon Jeffrey. The very next drive on 3rd and 10, Wentz after looking off the safety hits Jackson on another 53 yard bomb which gave the Eagles a 21-20 lead and the Eagles never looked back. E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES echoed in my house and you could hear it on the TV at the Linc as well. The front seven improved too making it much more uncomfortable for Keenum and totally shutting down the run. I will say the secondary lucked out on a few Redskin miscues they definitely got beat on but we can chalk that up as game one. The secondary is still very young at the corner spot overall so they will need time. The ride ended on a high note with an Eagles Win and the offense meeting possibly exceeding our expectations. Only 6 penalties too!

Check us out on Edge of Philly Sports Show 9:30PM this Thursday. We will dive into this game more along with discussion on how we can beat the Falcons on Sunday Night. Go Birds!

Fred Hugo
Co-Host & Writer for Edge of Philly Sports
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