Eagles v. Cowboys, Sunday, October 30, 2011
Stud of the week: Shady McCoy, of course, who pretty much OWNS this category this year. I've already asked Santa to bring me his jersey for Christmas. Could he be any more awesome? I don't think so. To recap: 185 yards on the ground on 30 carries and two TDs, plus another 15 yards through the air. The second coming of BWest? You know it.
Since we're all thinking it, I'll go ahead and say it: "Where the HELL have these guys been for the past 6 weeks?" I'm glad they finally decided to show up, but seriously, I was expecting them in week 2, not week 8. Better late than never.
OK, sure, a bunch of new guys on the field and pretty much an entirely new coaching staff are going to take time to gel. Seven weeks, to be precise.
Are the Eagles becoming a team that can run the ball and shut teams down on defense? Because that would be an interesting switch to the Andy Reid playbook. The thing I loved most last night was seeing the long drives sustained by nice runs and short passes over the middle. Dictionary west coast offense. Those were some BIG holes the offensive line was creating. Andy Reid could have run through those holes himself. Hell, he probably could've driven the team bus through them. What made it even sweeter is that the Cowboys came in with one of the top ranked run defenses in the league.
Clearly Rob Ryan game planned to take away DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin, and in that, he was pretty successful. Maclin and DJax had 3 catches each, for 54 and 31 yards respectively. The thing is, if you're going to put all your guys on those two, that leaves Jason "Hands" Avant, Brent Celek and Clay Harbor to run free in the middle of the field. Now throwing across the middle is not the easiest thing for the relatively short (at 6 feet on the nose) Mike Vick. Then again, the o-line gave him such a nice clean pocket all night long, he could drop back as far as he needed to.
And on D, it seems like I may owe Juan Castillo an apology. It wasn't showy -- it wasn't like there were a zillion picks and sacks (1 and 4) -- but the Cowboys were just totally out of sorts all night long. They only had 12 first downs, and, if I recall correctly, only THREE in the entire first half. The Eagles D was getting off the field and only made one mistake all night long (Kurt Coleman got a little over excited), allowing the only Cowboys' score, in scut time (aka "the entire 4th quarter").
Oh, and did I mention? No turnovers. THAT was a treat. Big time.
THIS is what we were expecting 6 weeks ago. Hopefully, the guys can keep it up. Because the team that played Sunday night looks pretty damn unstoppable.
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