Eagles look broken in loss to Giants

Well, that was embarrassing.  Here are some of my thoughts on the Eagles terrible performance against the Giants:

-The offense wasn't pretty but the defense deserves most of the blame for this loss.  The Giants are not a good offensive team and they were playing with a makeshift wide receiver group and they still managed to put up 29 points. Not all of the blame goes to the linebackers, either, as top players like Nnamdi Asomugha got uncharacteristically burned.  While the defensive line is still creating a lot of pressure, the rest of the D is broken.  Juan Castillo may be in over his head.

-Even before he hurt his hand, Michael Vick did not look right.  It's hard to blame him with the way he was getting hit early and often.  It will be a miracle if he makes it through this season without a serious injury.  He broke his non-throwing hand so I would have to guess he will be able to make the start next week.

-Mike Kafka did not look good this time around, throwing a pair of picks.  Should Vick not be able to go, we could see our first Vince Young start.

-LeSean McCoy is an absolute beast.  Just when the offense looked lost, McCoy took the rock and carried the team on his back and got the Eagles back in the game.  His 128 yards on the ground were the lone bright spot for the Birds.

-Casey Matthews and Kurt Coleman both made terrible plays that led to long Giants touchdowns in the first half.  Coleman was benched for his missed tackle in favor of Nate Allen, who quickly got abused by Ahmad Bradshaw.  Matthews should have also been benched for completely biting on a play fake and letting Brandon Jacobs rumble down the sideline.  Perhaps the Eagles will shake up the linebackers yet again next week or perhaps they will finally sit the rookie down.

-Playcalling is always an issue with Andy Reid but I'm still trying to figure out why Owen Schmitt got a pair of goalline carries.  The Giants couldn't stop McCoy so they give the ball to the fullback twice in a must-score situation?  Doesn't make any sense.

-Steve Smith has to be pissed for how he played against his former team.  That gift interception and only two catches better leave a sour taste in his mouth.

The Eagles really aren't a good football team right now.  They get a weak Niners team next week and if they don't show some life, you can probably already kiss the playoffs goodbye.

The positives and negatives from the Eagles preseason game against the Steelers

What a difference a week makes. Last week, the Eagles first teamers seemed to do everything right as they worked over the Ravens in limited work. This week, the Steelers dominated on both sides of the ball from the start, stomping the Eagles, 24-14. Here are some of the positives and negatives that I noticed from the Eagles second preseason game:



Positives:



LeSean McCoy: The lone bright spot of the first team offense, McCoy picked up 37 total yards on 5 touches. Shady looked to be in regular season form as gashed the Steelers defense. Maybe the Eagles will run the ball more this year? Yeah, maybe not.



Dion Lewis: He had the one big play for the Eagles offense, picking up 40 yards on a catch and run. He almost made up for his earlier fumble with how good he looked on the play.



Mike Kafka: Andy Reid really has a magic touch when it comes to developing quarterbacks. Kafka was easily the best quarterback for the Eagles tonight, slicing up the Steelers 4th defense by completing 14 of 19 passes for 160 yards and 2 touchdowns. He will make some great trade bait down the road.



Vick's tackle of Polamalu: After Troy Polamalu picked him off, Michael Vick made a solid tackle to stop him from returning it for a pick six. If that sounds like a reach for a positive because very little went right for the Eagles, that's because it is.



Negatives:



First team defense: They were overaggressive from the start and Ben Roethlisberger took advantage, slicing them up for 125 yards and two touchdowns on a pair of drives. It's really hard to put much blame on the Eagles d-line as they got to Big Ben a handful of times but he was able to move around and buy himself enough time to find the weak spots in the Eagles secondary. No matter how many Pro Bowlers you have, no secondary in the league can cover everyone forever. There is still plenty of time for things to come together but there is too much talent in this group to accept a performance like that. Juan Castillo has work to do.



Linebackers: Surprise, the one part of the team they didn't bother to upgrade this offseason is the weak link of the defense! With all the great players around them, it might help if this group was occasionally in the right position to make a tackle. Casey Matthews doesn't look like a starting middle linebacker yet and I'm not sure two more weeks of preseason football will be enough to turn him into an effective player. Maybe the shoddy performance by this group will force the Eagles to address a position they don't seem to care about.



First team offense: Things didn't go much better for the offensive starters, who failed to come close to registering a point and looked completely out of sync. The Steelers defense is no joke but there is no bright side to an offense that punts and has three turnovers in their four possessions. Its hard to get too upset about the offense when there clearly is no game plan or strategy to be seen so all we can do is hope that once everyone is healthy and all of the weapons are accounted for, damage will be done.



Michael Vick: Rough, rough night for Vick, who continually threw into coverage and seemed to make bad decisions on every play. His goal early on was simply to get the ball to DeSean Jackson as much as possible but he had trouble finding anyone else open. It's only preseason but three picks is still unacceptable for a supposedly elite quarterback. At least he made that nice tackle on Troy Polamalu!



Asante Samuel: He got burned by a Roethlisberger fake that led to a Steelers touchdown. That won't help his trade value!



Eagles backup offense: While the defense seemed to stiffen at times in the second half, the second team offense was pretty abysmal. Sure, there were decent plays here and there, but an interception by Vince Young pretty much negated any positives. I think it all starts with the offensive line, which is completely in flux due to injuries and new signings.

(Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)