We haven’t covered the last 2 Eagles games because of the focus on the Phillies’ run and the NBA Preview, but we have been watching. And one thing we watched this weekend was our linebackers getting smoked on the Raiders only touchdown of the game and on the 3rd and 8 conversion that sealed it.
The Eagles addressed the giant hole Stewart Bradley left behind in the pre-season by acquiring Will Witherspoon from the Rams for rookie WR Brandon Gibson and a 2010 5th round pick.
Reid said in announcing the deal that Witherspoon would absolutely be the starting middle linebacker for the remainder of the season.
In doing some quick research on the 29 year-old Witherspoon, I’ve got to say I’m impressed we paid such a small price for him (though who knows, we might have been high on Gibson). Scouts Inc. gives him a rating of 75, the same score given to Jonathan Vilma and Ernie Sims, among others. He is rated higher than Keith Brooking, Joey Porter and the aforementioned Stewart Bradley. The scouting report praised his athletic ability and said “in coverage, he has very good awareness and instincts along with good solid range.”
When I texted my friend who is a Rams’ fan to see if he saw the trade, he responded with a swear, followed by saying he is “our best athlete on D.” Witherspoon signed a 6-year contract in 2006 and can play inside and out, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him outside next year when Bradley comes back.
Certainly an upgrade and potentially a huge upgrade. Let’s hope that the Oakland game was just the case of team playing down to their competition combined with the huge Peters loss (and some other things) – and that a very serious and disciplined team takes care of business against the pretty bad Redskins this Monday.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
thaaaaaaaaa SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!
“We haven’t covered the last 2 Eagles games because of the focus on the Phillies’ run and the NBA Preview’ – Good thing. I dont think anyone would want to write a post on that last game
Andy Reid & Co. move swiftly and effeciently to address problems. defense is taken care of. Now if someone could just give McNabb a knock on the side of his head….
jkay, couldn’t disagree more.
Problem is not McNabb, it’s the play calling as always. Giants ran the ball to victory vs. Raiders, we threw it. Pass protection was terrible, so we threw some more. McNabb kept getting sacked, so the answer is to throw yet again.
We easily could have won that game had we run the ball at them and got the pressure off #5. Our pass to run ratio was ridiculous in this game.
If I have time I’ll look up all the games we go pass whacky, can we agree throwing the ball more than 65% is absurd? 75% My bet is our W-L ratio is terrible in those games.
Become predictable on Offense and that makes the Defense’s job really easy.
McNabb was partially to blame – he certainly didn’t play well.
My thought process is that when Peters went down, it all fell apart. Dunlap is flat out not good, and it’s possible we just couldn’t run with him on the line so we were forced to pass.
Sometimes games like this can be good – they can wake up a team and show them they aren’t as good as they think they are. Hopefully we smoke the Redskins and then find out what we REALLY are against the Giants. I don’t think we will know what kind of team we are until then.
Mike - I disagree completely with you. McNabb IS absolutely ONE of the problems.
He isn’t the only one and as always it’s debatable if he is the biggest problem (offensive line and linebacker play are bigger in my own opinion). But his inconsistency is what hurts this team.
We all know he has talent so it’s not like we are arguing that we don’t have enough talent at the quarterback position. But what keeps him steps behind the other top quarterbacks in the league is his consistency.
Last game he missed a couple deep balls down the field for big plays when receivers were open. That was in a game where the defense only allowed 1 touchdown. That is huge. The week before he made those throws and had a near perfect passer rating. Inconsistency.
Some weeks his touch on all throws is perfect. His decision making is great and he even runs for first downs when he is really in his zone. But then he has a game where he forgets we don’t have any more timeouts, mismanages the clock during 2 minute drills and over and under throws open guys. Inconsistency.
I like McNabb and have always maintain that if he could just put it together 100% for one full season AND the entire playoffs we get our Super Bowl. But his time is running to do that and we’ve been waiting for a long time for it to happen.
I can’t believe the Rams wouldn’t want Reggie Brown in this trade.