November 15, 2015
What a joke. The Philadelphia Eagles lost to Miami Dolphins 20-19 at The Linc, and man, it was absolutely excruciating to watch. Chip Kelly, GM appeared to really hamstring the Eagles in a game where he saw his starting quarterback leave due to injury.
The Eagles are now 4-5 on the season. Here’s what I saw:
• With eight minutes left, Donnie Jones and the special teams gave the Eagles a chance. His 46-yard punt was downed at the 2-yard line. That’s about it for the positives!
• On the opening drive of the second half, Bradford lofted a beautiful ball down the right sideline… that Miles Austin dropped. If Kelly doesn’t scheme most of the outside receivers open, they aren’t the type of players who can make catches against decent coverage (again, as the GM and guy that let Jeremy Maclin walk, this is entirely his fault). Austin later couldn’t drag his feet in the back of the end zone on a pass from Mark Sanchez.
• Jason Kelce is having a disappointing season, and he predictably had some trouble with the very rich Ndamukong Suh. Friend of the site Noah Becker makes a good point, though:
People killing Kelce like he's not been playing two positions all year.
— Noah Becker (@Noah_Becker) November 15, 2015
• The whole offensive line struggled to block Miami’s front. Dennis Kelly looked a lot more like Dennis Kelly.
• E.J. Biggers and Chris Maragos are on the field a lot, especially when you consider Chip Kelly drafted a defensive back in the second round back in May.
• It’s difficult to take the Eagles even the tiniest bit seriously when they legitimately forget how to play football for two quarters every week. False starts and holding penalties killed the offense in a third quarter in which the Birds were held scoreless.
• You know, I have a hunch that Sanchez and DeMarco Murray haven’t gotten too many read option reps together in practice.
• Sanchez almost killed Jordan Matthews with a hospital ball in the fourth quarter. That would have led Monday Night Countdown’s “JACKED UP!” segment, if said segment still existed. Clean hit, too. Luckily, Matthews *just* got the wind knocked out of him.
• Sanchez threw that brutal interception in the red zone (aka “The Sanchez”), but Austin didn’t appear to finish his route very well on that play. Brutal day for Austin, which isn’t all that surprising. You should not be heavily dependent on Miles Austin to make plays, but here we are.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
