Quick Prediction

Eagles 19
Lions 13

Dr. Pigskin's Prescriptions

Every (or at least this) week Dr. Pigskin prescribes the proper remedies to what ails the Eagles and/or one of the players. As well as posting here, Dr. Pigskin also calls his prescription in to the local CVS Pharmacist and has him deliver it to Lincoln Financial Field. No one ever questions Dr. Pigskin. Because, ladies and gentlemen, he is a doctor.

Today's Patient: The Philadelphia Eagles' Offense
Symptoms: Stagnant, Inability to Produce in the Red Zone, Wide Receivers Having Difficult Time Creating Separation, Just Not Very Good
Length of Symptoms: Two Weeks

Very interesting. You say you've been experiencing these symptoms for two weeks? And you're nervous that if you don't get better soon, your situation could become dire? Well don't you worry. Just follow my directions, and you'll be as good as ever by next Sunday. OK? Great. Now here is my prescription.

1. Run the Ball. Consistently. You have one of the best Center-Guard combinations in the NFL in Jamaal Jackson and Shaun Andrews, even if Andrews isn't completely healthy. You should be able to dictate the tempo running behind these two guys. No one is going to buy your play action fakes on second and third down if they don't actually believe you are going to run the ball. And while you are at it, maybe have Bryan Westbrook and Correll Buckhalter in the same backfield for a few plays a game. Put one of them in motion and see if the defense lines a safety or linebacker over them. This will create a little unpredictability which I think you could use right now.

2. Put Some Receivers in Motion. I hear that my dear old friend, Ron "Baby Button" (don't ask) Jaworski, also made this suggestion on Monday night. And I have to agree with Double B. If your wide receivers are having a tough time beating the bump off the line of scrimmage, then teams are going to keep jamming them. Add a little motion and force the defenders to play a few yards off of them. It can't hurt and may add some confidence to your receivers.

3. Use the Middle of the Field. I know, I know, your starting tight end, LJ Smith, is still recovering from an injury. But you have backup tight ends right? I'm not saying they need to be running down the seam every play, but at least get them involved in the offense. If the corners start to give the wide receivers some breathing room, have them run some slants as well. Until Donovan McNabb is completely healthy, you need to keep things simple and easy for him. Short routes in the middle of the field accomplish that task.

Sounds simple right? Well, it is. But the only way I can guarantee success is if you stick to the plan. If you try and self medicate or only use the plan for one half, you'll probably just regress to your current state. Hopefully it goes well, and I'll see you next week.

Where have I seen this before?

In 2003, the Eagles started out 0-2. In the first 2 games, they were outscored a total of 48-10 by an okay Tampa Bay team and a Pats team that, while very good, was coming off a shocking 31-0 drubbing by Buffalo. Donovan McNabb in those first 2 games was a combined 37-82 for 334 yards, with 3 INT and ZERO touchdown passes. He did run for 55 yards in each game, but that didn't help- they got completely throttled in back to back games. The entire city was in a shambles, and several thousand men jumped to their deaths from the Walt Whitman Bridge. What oh what was wrong with the Eagles? And of course those 2 lost games led to the Eagles having a horrible 4-12 season.

Oh, wait, NO THEY DIDN'T. The Eagles won 12 of their next 14 games, won the NFC East, beat a great Packers team in the divisional round in a classic game, cured several forms of bone cancer, and then sadly blew it against Carolina in the NFC Championship Game. The 0-2 start became a distant memory, which judging by the reaction to the young 2007 season is a completely obvious statement.

These 2007 Eagles do have obvious problems. Reid/Mornhinweg have done a bad job calling the offense, McNabb is not even at 80%, the secondary depth is thin, the special teams' coverage and return skills are terrible, and the receiving corps is as lively as as Pavarotti's corpse. But man, do you remember who their leading receiver was in 2003? James Thrash. They almost made the Super Bowl with Thrash and Pinkston leading the team in receiving. That's way more amazing than if they were to make it that far with Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis.

My initial optimism going into this season has been dampened somewhat too. I drank way too much McNabb Kool-Aid going in, forgetting that almost no one can come back 100% from an ACL tear this quickly. And I admit my 12-4 prediction is now going to be a bit off. But this is still a playoff team in the weak NFC. However if they lose to Detroit this week, then I'll join everyone on their "Eagles are a disaster" crazy party bus.

That Was Not Very Good

Well, the Eagles got beat by another average football team. I thought it was best summarized by Steve Young after the game when asked to describe the Redskins performance in one word, and he just stared at the camera until he could come up with "Efficient".

There is blame to go all around for this one.

Donovan McNabb still looks like a quarterback recovering from ACL surgery. There are a lot of throws that he is currently missing on that a healthy Donovan McNabb makes easily. Some of it is timing, like the deep balls, and some of it is his leg. Why these players feel the need to rush back from ACL surgery is beyond me? It probably cost Daunte Culpepper his career and Carson Palmer was not fully healthy until the start of this season.

As was discussed ad nauseum last night, the receivers are having a very difficult time getting open, especially when they are being jammed at the line. I agree that LaRon Landry made a great play at the end of the game, but Kevin Curtis has to figure out a way to tuck that catch away. I imagine the immediate knee-jerk reaction will be for fans to pine for the days of TO. I'm not nearly at that stage. Reggie Brown showed last year that he can be a very good receiver in the NFL. For some reason, he has not shown up to play yet this year. Hopefully he realizes that for the Eagles to succeed, he needs to step his game up.

But my real problem with the Eagles right now is the coaching. They are not giving the players the best chance to succeed. I have usually supported the Eagles coaching staff in the past when it comes to playcalling. But last night they seemed to be using the running game as a way to give the receivers a quick breather on first down. The Eagles have a very good running game when they decide to use it. Yet Brian Westbrook only had 17 carries last night.

The most disconcerting trend last night was the Eagles reliance on McNabb once they got inside Washington's 25 yard line. According to my counting, the Eagles ran 25 plays inside Washington's 25 yard line, and only 2 of those plays were running plays to Westbrook. They tried to get him the ball in the open field with some short passes, but obviously the Redskins were keying on him during passing plays and taking their chances with the Eagles receivers making plays.

Washington is an average team. Green Bay is an average team. Both teams played essentially not to lose, and they ended up not losing. I'm not ready to write off the Eagles season yet, mainly because the NFC is awful, but they are in a big hole right now.

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It is time for the Tony Kornheiser Experiment to end. I will preface this by saying that I love Tony Kornheiser. Using the written word to express humor is one of the most difficult things in life. But he is one of the few newspaper columnists in the country that is actually funny. And I love his radio show, which was billed as sports talk radio, but rarely discussed sports. With that said, he is terrible on Monday Night Football. The only substance he "adds" to the telecast are the random statistics that the producers feed him. He has essentially become an audible computer graphic. And this has been made even more glaring by putting Ron Jaworski in the booth. Jaws has quickly become the best football analyst on TV. So you have Jaworski breaking down a play immediately after it happened, then you have Kornheiser adding, "Aww, c'mon Jaws, you're just saying that because you're rooting for the Eagles".

The third quarter of last night's game was basically unwatchable with Kornheiser and Charles Barkley making the same three points for forty five minutes; McNabb and Reid don't get a fair shake, Philadelphia fans are brutal, the Eagles wide receivers have always been bad, save the TO year. It seemed like they told Jaworski to just sit that quarter out. Fortunately for me, Anthony Bourdain was in South Carolina eating BBQ, so it was an easy choice to flip over to The Travel Channel.

At some point the NFL has to step in and tell ESPN, "Listen, we appreciate you guys trying to bring more viewers to the broadcast, but we're the N F Friggin L. We are the most popular sport in the country, and it isn't even close. Just broadcast the game and people will watch it. You don't need to have a late night talk show in the booth during the third quarter. People are watching the game because they want to watch a football game. Also, fire Chris Berman while you are at it. He annoys us"

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Does anyone really believe that the Arizona Diamondbacks are going to make the playoffs?

IT WAS ONE GAME!

The latest and greatest in overreacting Philly sports writing garbage comes courtesy of Rich Hoffman in today's Daily News.

Hofmann takes a look at the Green Bay game last week and makes the assumption that McNabb's unimpressive performance means he could be washed up. That's a big statement to make after the amazingly small sample size of one frigging game. Also, it was one measly game against a team with a very good defense, who were playing at home. And Hoffman ignores the dropped passes by the Eagles receivers. Those are counted in McNabb's passing stats, you know.

Obviously McNabb is a step slower right now- for one thing, he's not 25 anymore. And he is also just coming off MAJOR RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY. Call me crazy, but this could be a reason he's not able to run around as well as he used to. It's pretty commonly believed than an ACL tear has a 2 year recovery period. So chances are we're not going to see a lot of leg magic out of McNabb this season. Boo hoo. But this hardly means he's washed up, or that he's going to have 15 more games like last Sunday's. I'm so tired of these doomsaying columnists who say the sky is falling when in reality it's just sagging a bit.