Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Week One Wrap

We all know that committing turnovers and penalties are a recipe for losing football games. That’s a cliché, and I’m sure everyone who watches football has said that out loud at some point in their lives. We have anecdotal evidence to back it up; the Oakland Raiders, Brett Favre in the playoffs, and obviously, the Eagles on Sunday.

As most have seen by now, the Eagles lost to the Packers 16-13 on a late Mason Crosby FG. Just looking at the final score, you’d think the defense played great. After watching the game, you would agree that they were even better. They sacked Favre four times, stifled Green Bay’s running game and made clutch plays down the stretch to preserve the tie.

Unfortunately, the other two phases of the game let them down. Despite what Tony Siragusa was harping on all day, the Eagles had a good ground game. Westbrook and Buckhalter combined to chew up clock and move the ball. However, the Eagles got away from it a bit and put the game in the hands of a struggling passing attack. The Offensive Line had a tough time handling Green Bay’s front four at times, and it hurt the timing of the Eagles’ offense. McNabb also had an off day, which didn’t help matters.

Of course, there were the special teams. The two muffs that cost the Eagles the game. A couple other misplays. It was an awful debut. Some will say that a lot of times, special teams are overlooked. They stuck out like a sore thumb on Sunday.

If the Eagles didn’t commit those turnovers and Mike Carey didn’t throw the flag like Rod Barajas allows runners to score at home plate, the game probably would’ve been a bit different. Let’s put some numbers behind that.

In week 1, the team that committed fewer penalties was 12-4. The team the committed fewer turnovers was 13-3 (I used more penalties as a tiebreaker in the case of teams committing the same amount of turnovers.) It doesn’t get any more simple than that. If you’re more disciplined, you win games.

The Eagles were obviously not as focused or disciplined as the Packers on Sunday. With the offense struggling, there was no margin for error. If you score 45 points like Dallas did, then you can commit a few more penalties or a turnover or two because you figure an NFL defense can hold an opponent under 45.

Some of the calls were correctable things, such as the illegal formations. I don’t get how teams actually commit those. I also don’t get why officials are sticklers about them. Cut down on holding and now all of a sudden, the Eagles are playing a clean game and getting more chances.

I think they’ll cut down on the penalties and turnovers. Mahe should secure the special teams; who thought anyone would be saying this four months ago? McNabb will shake off the rust and get the offense going. There’s too much talent on this team to let muffed punts and jersey tugs hold them back, right?

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