Opponent: Philadelphia Eagles
2009 record: 1-1; beat Carolina and lost to New Orleans.
Last year’s record: 9-6-1, second place in NFC East
Record for the last five seasons: 46-33-1, with three tips to the playoffs, including two NFC Championship Games (2004, 2008) and one Super Bowl appearance (2004). Overall the Eagles went 5-3 in playoffs the last five years.
Last appearance in the playoffs: 2008 NFC Championship Game at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale Arizona where the Eagles fell to the Arizona Cardinals 32-25. Philadelphia beat Minnesota by 12 and the New York Giants by 12 to reach the conference title game as a wildcard team.
Head coach: Andy Reid, in his 11th season leading the Eagles, the second longest current tenure in the NFL. He has a 107-69-1 record, including post-season.
Coordinators: Marty Mornhinweg, offense; Sean McDermott, defense (replacing Jim Johnson who passed away in August.)
Roster overview: The Eagles have had one of the best personnel operations in the NFL for the past decade. They have built their team through the draft and seldom make big mistakes. They’ve shown the willingness to make moves to fill in holes, like their trade this past spring to get LT Jason Peters from Buffalo. Of the 53 players on their roster 30 were drafted by the Eagles. Overall, they have 22 players who came into the league as first, second or third-round draft choices. It’s a fairly young roster, with only four players with 10 seasons or more experience and nine players over 30 years old. In Philly’s starting 22, they have 14 draft choices.
Quarterback: Pick one QB or four, the Eagles have the most unusual collection of quarterbacks in the league. Donovan McNabb will be 33 in November but right now, he’s trying to heal up some cracked ribs. Michael Vick is 29 and back after missing more than two seasons of action due to his time in Leavenworth. Jeff Garcia is 39 and joined the Eagles after asking for his release from the Raiders, where he spent the pre-season. The quarterback scheduled to start against the Chiefs is 25-year old, third-year man Kevin Kolb; a second-round choice in ’08 out of the University of Houston. It’s just his second start and 10th NFL game.
Offensive threats: The guy who makes this Eagles offense roll has never been McNabb, it’s always been Brian Westbrook. Over the last five years, only LaDainian Tomlinson has more yards from scrimmage than Westbrook – 8,244 yards with 54 TDs, with Tomlinson at 9,472 yards and 100 TDs. Westbrook makes the Eagles go. The addition of WR DeSean Jackson has made a big difference for the Eagles offense; he’s shown in one year and two games that he has game breaking abilities. Eagles QBs rely on TE Brent Celek for the short passes.
Defensive stars: There are no superstars on the Eagles defense; this unit has been more about the sum of its parts in recent seasons than individual power. They are strong on the corners with Asante Samuel and Sheldon Brown. Rookie Macho Harris is starting at free safety. Back-to-back first-rounders in 2005-06 Mike Patterson and Broderick Bunkley hold down the middle of the Eagles defense. DE Trent Cole is the sacker, with 29.5 sacks over the last three seasons.
Special teamers: K David Akers is in his 11th season and is an 81 percent kicker over his career. One item of note, he has four FGs blocked in the last two seasons. P Sav Rocca has a 44-yard gross average. Right now DeSean Jackson is leading the NFL in punt returns thanks to his 85-yard return for a touchdown; his average right now is 27.8 yards a return. CB Ellis Hobbs is averaging 24.9 yards on kick returns.
Top ’09 draft picks: 1st-round choice WR Jeremy Maclin has not made an impact yet, catching just two passes for 12 yards; 2nd-round RB LeSean McCoy has 14 carries for 64 yards; 5th-round pick Victor “Macho” Harris is the starter at free safety and has four tackles in two games.
Familiar faces: DE Jason Babin, who played last year with the Chiefs; CB Dimitri Patterson who played last year for the Chiefs, but will be out of this Sunday’s game because of a hand injury that required surgery.
INJURY REPORT: OUT – OL Todd Herremans (foot) and CB Dimitri Patterson (hand); DOUBTFUL – QB Donovan McNabb (ribs); QUESTIONABLE – WR DeSean Jackson (groin), RB Brian Westbrook (ankle), WR Kevin Curtis (knee), S Quintin Demps (hamstring); PROBABLE – DE Victor Abiamiri (groin), LB Omar Gaither (neck), G Max Jean-Gilles (knee), OT Winston Justice (hamstring), LB Joe Mays (shoulder), CB Asante Samuel (neck).
These guys can be beat, doesn’t mean we will, but it’s possible. They’ve experienced a rash of injuries and I don’t think their D is the same without Johnson running it.
For us to win we need to obviously get some things rolling better on offense. We need to have a similar effort on D like we saw vs the Raiders, and we need to play smart as we did against Baltimore.
It can be done, now we just need to see if the young Chiefs can put it all together.
At some point the blame has to be put on the players
good read on the subject
http://kan.scout.com/2/901874.html
maybe responsibility is a better word than blame
No way no how can Rin’s chiefs beat the Eagles…
FINAL SCORE: PHIL 38 – chiefs 13
“Rin’s chiefs”
Since when are you a Chiefs fan?
“Since when”
Reminder regarding the sign “Please don’t feed the Raider/Troll.”
As a Chiefs fan who also follows the Eagles pretty closely, I wanted to offer my scouting report. Pardon the length.
First of all, despite all the Wildcat talk, the keys to competing with the Eagles are pretty basic IMO: running game, linebacker and safety play, special teams, and turnovers.
Westbrook is gimpy, but he when gimpy he’s still capable of making one or two big plays that make the difference in the game, as he did last season in the Vikings and Giants playoff games; the Cards kept this from happening in the NFC championship. One of Westbrook’s biggest talents is using blockers. He’s very good at hiding behind his big offensive line until he sees an opening (reminiscent of some of LJ’s bigger runs last season); the Chiefs D has to get off their blocks. The backup RB, McCoy, is talented, but he’s no Westbrook. The Eagles O line is a patchwork due to injuries; the backups they’ve been forced to use are a downgrade in pass protection, but they’re very big and can run block. Defensively, the Eagles traditionally play the run well, but had a big lapse early in the Carolina game and didn’t look very good against New Orleans. Eagles have very solid DT’s and fast DE’s, so running up the middle and around the ends is generally difficult. Chiefs have to have success running at the Eagles smallish DE’s. If the Chiefs pull guards on running plays they have to neutralize the back-end DE or they’ll get run down.
The underneath passing game was the Eagles Achilles heel last season, and it looks like that hasn’t changed. Despite the big numbers by New Orleans, a big part of the Saints success was underneath passes against linebackers and safeties. The Eagles are hurting at MLB (their starter is out for the season and his replacement is dinged up) and, as Bob pointed out, they’re starting rookie Macho Harris at FS. Harris is a converted CB, but that didn’t seem to help in coverage against the Saints. The Chiefs need to establish a passing game using their tight ends and running backs. The Eagles are capable of a relentless pass rush, and it may be difficult for the Chiefs to pass protect long enough to allow deep routes, but if they establish the run and short pass they should get some opportunities to take shots downfield. On the other side of the ball, if the injuries to WR’s Jackson and Curtis are serious enough to hamper their play the Eagles will lean on short passes to Celek, Westbrook, McCoy, and Leonard Weaver. Celek is every bit as good as the Ravens’ Todd Heap. I wish the Chiefs had DJ available to cover short routes; other LB’s and safeties need to step and and prove their success against the Raiders TE wasn’t just the result of facing one of the most inaccurate starting QB’s in the league. The Chiefs have got to play screen passes better than they have in the first 2 games. Screen passes and passes to running backs in the flat and short middle are a big part of the Eagles WC offense.
The Eagles special teams are good overall, but the Chiefs have a better punter and maybe a better kicker. As opposed to the last game, the Chiefs should get a chance to run back some kickoffs and establish better field position than they did last Sunday. The Eagles punter can be good at times, but he’s erratic and his hangtime is generally not great. The Eagles have very good kick returners in Jackson, Quinten Demps, and Ellis Hobbs, but Jackson and Demps are both banged up. Hobbs had a key fumble on a return last week. Please, Chiefs special teamers, don’t let punts roll into the end zone this Sunday.
The Chiefs CANNOT turn the ball over. LJ and Charles (if he plays) have GOT to hang onto the ball. NO bad/dumb throws by Chiefs QB’s: Eagles CB Samuel is a ballhawk with 27 career picks, CB Sheldon Brown plays solid fundamental coverage and has 2 picks this season, OLB Akeem Jordan has 2 picks this season as well. The Eagles destroyed a decent Carolina team with turnovers. On the other side of the ball, Eagles QB Kolb has shown a tendency to throw INT’s – he’s been picked off 3 times this season and 7 times in 96 attempts going back to the beginning of last season. The Chiefs secondary is capable of getting some picks off this QB. Also, rookie RB LeSean McCoy comes into the NFL with a bit of a rep for bad ball protection.
Some random thoughts:
- If the Eagles were completely healthy this game would be no contest – but they’re as banged up right now as they have been in quite a while. After 2 games, one a big win and the other a big loss, it’s hard to tell how good the Eagles really are with their current roster.
- Philly sometimes has bad games against inferior competition, but they rarely lose to bad teams. Once again, injuries may render this history moot.
- I agree somewhat with Bob that Westbrook is the key to the Eagles offense, but McNabb’s play is usually the difference between a big win and a close game. If Kolb and Vick can’t make big plays the Eagles may not be able to rely on a hurting Westbrook to pull this one out.
- If the Chiefs turn the ball over this game could get as ugly as any of the NFC South losses from last season.
- I’d love to see the Chiefs devise running/passing plays that force CB Asante Samuel to tackle a player one-on-one; he’s one of the worst tacklers I’ve seen in the NFL.
- Todd Haley has gameplanned against the Eagles defense many times, with varying degrees of success; he should at least understand what it takes to neutralize them. If the Chiefs offense can avoid negative plays (int’s, fumbles, sacks, TFL) against the Eagles D they have a shot to stay in the game.
- The Eagles have been known to lose home games early in the season, although consecutive home-game losses are rare. Still, not sure home-field is that big of an advantage for them Sunday. If Kolb or the Wildcat aren’t successful I’d lay odds that the crowd at the Linc will start to get very vocal in their disapproval of the Eagles.
- I think this game will tell us a lot about the Chiefs ability to stop the run. If they can’t stop the Eagles running attack they’re going to have huge problems against the rest of the NFC East.
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September 25, 2009 – Rin Tin Tin says:
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Criticism accepted. Allow me to do the honors:
Ridiculously long, thread-killing comments that nobody reads – Rin-87, ILLChiefsfan-1. Once again, Rin is the WINNER!
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