We're heading into week 4 of the season, and the Eagles will travel to the "Windy City" to face the Chicago Bears. We looked at how the Bears Offense will match up against the Eagles defense. Now let's observe the other side of the coin, Eagles offense, Bears defense.

The Eagles got banged up a little in week 3 against the Steelers, and that could have an impact on how the Eagles attack the Bears' defense. Here are the keys for the Eagles offense. First the Eagles have to protect Donovan McNabb. The backups are going to have to bring there "A" game. Lastly, the tight ends need to establish their presence in the passing game.

Everyone knows that the Eagles are going to throw the football more times than not. So naturally, the offensive line needs to protect the quarterback. This is especially import this week because of McNabb's chest injury. When he returned to last weeks game you could see that his chest was hurting him, and affected his throw. The offensive must maintain the pocket, and keep the Bears from taking shots. Jon Runyan, Max Jean-Gilles, Jamaal Jackson, Todd Herremans, and William Thomas need to keep the pocket in tact for the entire play. If the pocket breaks down, Donovan will take some unnecessary hits as he steps up towards the line of scrimmage, or out of the pocket.

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          We're heading into week 4 of the season, and the Eagles will travel to the Windy City to face the Chicago Bears.  Let's look at the matchup, Bears offense, Eagles defense.

          In order for the Bears offense to be successful, they need run the football successfully. The responsibility falls on the shoulders of their offensive line, and their running backs. With just having played 3 games this season the Bears have run for 456 yards on 105 attempts (4.3 yards/carry average). This would indicate that the offensive line is doing a good job opening holes for the running. Of the 105 attempts, rookie Matt Forte has taken 73 of them, and gained 304 yards on the ground, and is 4th overall in rushing. In addition Forte has caught 13 passes for 105 yards. Behind Forte, the Bears have former Detroit Lion Kevin Jones, Garrett Wolfe, and Adrian Peterson. Kevin Jones could be a good compliment to Forte, provided that his foot has healed after suffering a Liz Frank fracture. Garrett Wolfe is a change of pace back, but is undersized. 

                If the Bears are able to rush for 100 yards or more per game, they will make Kyle Orton's job of managing the football game much easier. The Bears aren't relying on Kyle Orton to win football games. They are relying on him no to lose them. In order for Kyle to manage the game effectively he needs his offensive line to protect him, the running game to be productive, and his receivers to get open. The offensive line needs to give him time to make his reads. If the running game is working that will alleviate some of the pass rush, and setup up the play action pass. The key for Orton will be time. The more time he has, the better decision he should be able to make.   

                The Bears' wide receiving corps isn't star studded by any stretch of the imagination.  They don't have a great deal of size. Their biggest receiver is 10 year veteran Marty Booker (6'0", 205lbs). The Bears are converting Devin Hester from defensive back to receiver, but is a work in progress. Not too mention he's injured as well. Brandon Lloyd is their leading receiver, but has been a castoff from 2 other teams for under performance.  But the Bears do have two solid tight ends in Desmond Clark, and Greg Olsen. Orton has made a lot of check downs, and thrown to the back. Forte is 2nd on the team with 13 receptions.

                The keys for the Bears are to continue to run the football, protect Kyle Orton, play turnover free football, and make plays. The biggest thing for the Bears right now is their pass protection. Orton needs enough time to make a good decision, and to avoid throwing errors.

               On the other side of the ball is the Eagles defense, and there is no indication that this matchup doesn't favor the Eagles.  The keys for the Eagles will  be to stop the run, and put pressure on the quarterback. 

               The Eagles are doing everything right against the run. Through three games Jim Johnson's boys have on average only given up 45.7 yards on the ground. The Eagles defensive line is undersized compared when matched up against the Bears offensive line, but we held the Cowboys to 73 rushing yards, and their offensive line dwarfs that of the Bears. The Eagles front four will need to tie up their blockers, and allow the linebackers to to get to the ball carrier as they have been doing so far.

             If the Eagles are able to put a stranglehold on the Bears running game, you can expect Jim Johnson to open the floodgates, and blitz Kyle Orton unmercifully. I can't imagine Lovie Smith abandoning the running to game, and rely on Orton to sling the ball all over the field. The Eagles will need to get pressure on Orton in passing situations. If the Eagles can put pressure on Orton, then our secondary should have a field day picking off errant throws. With our secondary being as good as it is, expect to see some coverage sacks this week.

          The Eagles defense has a clear advantage here over the Bears offense. I don't think that we'll get 9 sacks this week, but we will get some. Expect to see more turnovers than in previous weeks. My only concern will be: If Matt Forte is in man coverage with one of our linebackers. We have seen them get burned.

thoughts?

 It wasn't our prettiest win, but it was a win none the less. The Eagles defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 15-6. It was a game of defense (on both sides), and our defense took away everything. 180 yards of total offense. That is what the Eagles gave up to the Steelers. The birds dismantled the Steelers running and passing game, and recorded 9 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 interception, and a safety.

The Steelers have a strong offensive tradition of running the football, and this year doesn't look to deviate from that in any way. Willie Parker ran for 243 yards in the Steelers first two games of the season, but hit a brick wall in the Eagles defense. The Eagles held parker to 20 yards on 13 carries. In total, the Steelers were only able to amass 33 yards rushing on 19 attempts. The Eagles forced the Steelers to abandon the running game, thus making them a one dimensional offense.

The Eagles forced the Steelers to beat us through the air. Needless to say, they couldn't. When the run was no longer a factor Jim Johnson waged an all out war on Ben Roethlisberger. Johnson sent blitzers from everywhere. The result was that, Roethlisberger was sacked 9 times, fumbled twice, and tackled for a safety. The one instance in which he had time he threw the deep ball, and Asante Samuel was in perfect position and he made the pick. The Eagles systematically took away the Steelers offense.

When a team can play defense like this, they are going to win more games than they are going to lose. So far, the Eagles have not allowed an opponent to gain 100 yards rushing. If they can continue to force teams to abandon then run, they have the talent, and a strong chance that they can take away the pass too. Do the Birds need to record 9 sacks every game to be successful? No, but it doesn't hurt. They will need to apply the same amount of pressure though. Let's hope there is more where that came from.

    It's the question on quite a few Eagles fan's minds since our Monday night loss to the Cowboys. Is Brian Dawkins a liability? I asked this very question back in August. My answer was "No", and it still is, but not as emphatically. The biggest concerns that I have are his mental mistakes, and his speed.

    In the preseason game at Pittsburgh Santono Holmes caught a pass at the line of scrimmage, and took it 20 yards for the touchdown. Brian Dawkins took a bad angle, and got burned. 3 or 4 years ago, he could have taken that same angle, but he would have been able to catch Holmes and tackle him. At the time, I thought that it was an isolated incident, and there was no body of work to substantiate the notion that he was done. Although, there isn't a huge body of work to support the claim, it grew during the game in Dallas.

Jason Witten got behind the defense twice against us, once in the 2nd quarter (42 yard completion), and again in the in the 4th (32 yard completion), setting the Cowboys up for the game winning score. Here's what he had to say about getting beat over the top.

  "I don't like the fact that I gave up a couple of big balls down the field. I took a couple of bad angles on the football today. I went for the interception on one and the other one, I wasn't quite in position. That wasn't good enough. I hold myself to high standards and it wasn't good enough.'' -Brian Dawkins

 

It's a long season, and don't believe that Weapon-X should hang up his cleats right now. He can still produce. He was strong against the run, and he can still lay the smack down on unsuspecting receivers, Bbut he can't rely on his speed to compensate for mental mistakes anymore. I wanted the Eagles to go after Miami's Kenny Phillips in the draft as Dawks eventual replacement. Do the Eagles look to next years draft? Maybe use Carolina's pick to do it?

    Last night, I watched a back-and-fourth battle between two offensive juggernauts. Unfortunately for us (Eagles and their fans), we got the short end of the stick (41-37). One team would score, and then the other would counter. This went on for the duration of the game. Besides disappointment, I took away some observations from the game. Some Good, Some Bad, and Some Ugly.

   The Good:  The Eagles won the turnover battle. Tony Romo threw an interception at the end of the first quarter ,that the Eagles were able to turn into a touchdown. Then we receovered Romo's fumble in the end zone for another touchdown. Winning the turnover battle will more times than not get you a win. We didn't get many turnovers last year, but the fact we got 2 against a very good team is praise worthy.

    We only had 5 penalties for 44 yards, and the Cowboys racked up 10 penalties for 108 yards. Committing fewer penalties than your opponent is yet another key to winning games. Dallas was loud all night long, and the fact that we committed so few penalties indicates to me, that the were focused, and disciplined.

    We won the time of possesion battle too, but not by much. 

    The Eagles defense held the Cowboys running game to less than 80 yards.  Marian Barber was held to 63 yards rushing, and Felix Jones added another 10. The Eagles were all over the ball. Seldom were the Cowboys able to open holes to run through. We didn't allow Barber to get the extra yards after contact that he's known for. If the first guy their didn't bring him down, he didn't let go either, and we swarmed to the ball. The front seven looked fierce against the run.

    Donovan completed passes to 9 different receivers for 281 yards. DeSean Jackson caught 6 of them for 110 yards. A great deal of credit should go to our offensive line. They gave McNabb a ton of time to make his reads.

    Brian Dawkins can still lay the lumber! made a great play to knock the ball out of Martellus Bennett's hands, while leveling the boom on him as well. He had 4 tackles, and a forced fumble recovery.

    The Bad:  Blown Covverages. Terrell Owens' 1st quarter 72-yard TD reception opened the offensive flood gates. He made a tiny hesitation move between Lito Sheppard and Sean Considine, that allowed him to get behind the defense. The Eagles were in a zone when T.O. made that move. Did that freeze Considine enough for him to blow by him, or did Sean blow his assignment? There's truth to both sides, but the overall body of work for the night would lean towards blown coverage. Jason Witten got in on the action too. He got behind Brian Dawkins for a 42-yard reception on his way to over 100 yards receiving.

    In the 2nd quarter DeSean Jackson put on the afterburners, and ran right by a flat footed Ken Hamlin and Adam Jones for a 61-yard reception which would have been a touchdown, except for the fact that he dropped the ball at the 1-yard line. We were lucky that we still got a TD out of it (B-West). I would have chalked this up to being a Rookie, but he has done that before. It's a lack of concetration, and unacceptable. He needs to understand that one play can be the difference between winning and losing.

    Pressure on the quarterback. The Eagles didn't record a single sack, and the Cowboys had 4. With the acquistions of Samuel and Clemons this off season Jim Johnson was supposed to conjure up some serious havoc to rain down on opposing quarterbacks. We were able to get pressure, and force Romo into some bad throws. However, we needed to apply more.

    Effective use of the tight end. L.J Smith let the first pass of the game bounce off his hands. That set the tone for his night. He caught one pass for 10 yards. Brent Celek only caught one pass too. The Eagles need their tight ends to be effective in the passing game. Jason Witten, Martellus Bennett, and Tony Curtis all caught passes when their number was called.

    The Ugly: Turnovers. They cost the Eagles the game, and by "They" I mean the only one we had! Donovan McNabb did some double pump before handing off to Westbrook. Westbrook never got a hold of the football, and the Cowboys pounced on it. They got the ball back at their own 33-yard line. On the ensuing drive Asante Samuel was called for pass interference in the end zone, which gave the Cowboys the ball at the one. Marian Barber scored, and they were able to take the lead for good. There's nothing uglier than losing a game in the fourth quarter.

    We need to regroup, and come back strong. It's a short week, and we have got another tough opponent in the Steelers on Sunday.

            Like all good things, this post has come to the end. Offense wins games, but defense wins championships, and that’s today’s topic. We are going to look at the defenses of both teams. Who they have, what’s their depth, performance, injuries, and before it’s all over, I give you the winner! So get your popcorn ready, because this is going to be a show.

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                It is day three of my investigation of Monday night’s division showdown between the Eagles and Cowboys. To this point, I’ve weighed in on both team’s running backs and quarterbacks. Today, I will finish out the offensive side of the ball, and scrutinize the wide receivers, and tight ends, and who’s the got the advantage. Here are the depth charts for Philadelphia and Dallas [NFL.com].

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Today, I am going to look at the quarterbacks for the Eagles, and Cowboys. The majority of this analysis will look at Donovan McNabb, and Tony Romo. I'm going to briefly include Kevin Kolb, A.J. Feeley, Brooks Bollinger, and Brad Johnson in this post, because they could see time, if someone were to get injured, and thus could have a potential impact on the outcome of Monday night's showdown in Dallas. I will incorporate statistics in this discussion, but I will use them sparingly. They are more to display each quarterbacks body of work, than to argue who’s got the advantage.

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 Although, I'm still revelling in the glory that was our week 1 dismantling of the Rams, my attention has turned elsewhere. My focus has zeroed in on our week 2 division battle with Dallas. Both Dallas, and Eagles' fans alike, can agree that this matchup is of great importance. The winner, will take an early lead atop the division, which is one more step towards the playoffs. The loser, will have experienced a setback, and need to muster their resolve to keep moving forward. It's early in the season, but the game will be a pivotal one for both teams. Over the next week, I'm going to post a head-to-head comparison, and what I see as keys to coming out on top. Todays look, will be at the running backs.

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