Vikings Pillaging Again

By Chris Sherman

Wow, so last night was embarrassing. On national TV, the Eagles, huge favorites, produced a demoralizing loss. I guess Minnesota lived up to their name by catching us off guard, pillaging our city, and stealing our women (perhaps the metaphor doesn’t stretch that far unless Brett Favre picked up a few numbers on the sideline with pic-receiving-capability). I’ve been wrong this season (see yesterday’s post) more than I’m used to in predicting the future, so I’ll go back to evaluating the past.

One thing we should keep in mind: this loss could end up being a gift. If we had won, we would, next week, be fighting with everything we have (on a brutally short week) against Dallas to try and get the first-round-bye. And if Chicago had won, we would have done it all for nothing. We would be going into the playoffs without any measure of rest in the exact same playoff situation we are in now.

Instead, we go into next week with nothing to play for, not even as a spoiler. We can rest those starters who so desperately need it, and we can expect to host Green Bay, New York, or Tampa Bay in relatively fresh condition.

Negatives (in descending order of lousiness)

Marty Mornhinweg
Why did it take so long for him to bring extra help along the offensive line to protect against Minnesota’s constant blitzing attack? The defensive strategy of hitting Vick as much as possible isn’t exactly a new idea. I could understand if he thought we could exploit the blitzes with short passes to guys like Celek and McCoy in the open, but then why was Vick called to take a 5-step-drop EVERY DOWN? The amount of times Vick did the 5-step-drop and had to immediately step into the pocket or face a sack was disturbing. Stepping into the pocket makes it harder to hit those underneath guys because it’s hard to make short passes over the hands of the defensive linemen even if he avoids a sack.

Michael Vick
This was his worst game of the season, and I don’t believe you can blame it all on Mornhinweg and the offensive line. Even before he had taken too many hits, he was throwing the ball way off target and, often enough, straight to a defender. In the second half, I think he was so frazzled that he completely reverted to Atlanta-Vick. He would look to run immediately and he kept dumping it off to his tight end for small yards if he didn’t carry it himself (see fumble #2). That’d be fine by me if we were consistently moving the chains, but the hits combined with the constant sprinting on a 30-yr-old body caused him to gradually become slower, less elusive, and less productive. If he is going to be Philadelphia’s quarterback for some years to come, we need to see that he can maintain his focus during a bloody game like this and not revert to old habits. This kind of struggle is what the playoffs are going to look like now that the Vikings just showed the NFL how.

Dimitri Patterson
I’ve been pulling for Dimitri because I like cornerbacks who are more physical, but he has been victimized too many times in the last two games (before too, but I gave him a break while Asante was out). He was benched which was good, but that cornerback spot is a big concern now. I’m not overly confident in Joselio Hanson or Trevard Lindley as a starter, and, with Nate Allen injured, both of our safeties are run specialists. It looks like we’re going to be very vulnerable to the deep attack in the playoffs unless something miraculous happens.

Juqua Parker
I actually thought Juqua did a good job against the run, but he blew the finishing plays in the backfield. He missed tackles on Joe Webb that would have gone for huge sacks not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR times. The third one, when combined with additional missed tackles from Moise Fokou and Asante Samuel, allowed Webb to scamper in for a long touchdown nearly untouched. Every one of those sacks would have provided a huge mental lift for our defense and crowd, and they would’ve simultaneously put some damage (physically and mentally) on Webb. He has to make those plays or I think Darryl Tapp (who I thought had a nice game) should get a few more snaps.
Offensive Line
I’m admittedly not great at evaluating offensive linemen since I only notice them when they do something wrong, but I thought they got pretty well swallowed last night, particularly on the right side with Mike McGlynn, Max Jean-Gilles, and Winston Justice. But, like I said, you should look elsewhere for real offensive line evaluations.

Penalties
12 penalties, and not one that I thought was unjustified (this coming from an admitted referee-hater). I don’t like having discipline issues in week 16.

DeSean Jackson
Was it just me or did Jackson look lazy last night after the first few of Vick’s misses? On one of the almost-interceptions last night I could swear that Jackson slowed his speed downfield but didn’t turn to fight for it. On one of the actual interceptions, he stood in one place allowing himself to be neutralized on the pick. I hardly noticed him in the second half, though it’s certainly possible that he was being double-teamed the whole time. More and more I feel like he’s going to throw a hissy-fit if he doesn’t get the ball as many times as he wants, but that’s really just observation built on speculation rather than the other way around.

Linebacker Corps
They weren’t awful, but they kept getting sucked into the middle to be contained when Adrian Peterson bounced back out. Nearly all of Peterson’s biggest runs came on the outside. It was like, instead of forming a pocket of protecting for their QB, they forced a pocket of suppression around the entire Philadelphia run defense, leading Peterson to a one-on-one against Kurt Coleman.

Minnesota’s Last TD Drive
That was an embarrassing drive if I ever saw one. Akers kicking the ball out of bounds to give them great field position. The blown coverage on the 3rd-and-10 after the costly defensive timeout (I don’t blame Reid for this, we needed that stop at all costs). Kurt Coleman’s indecision that allowed a huge Peterson gain. The 12-men-on-the-field penalty. These are all mental mistakes we can’t afford to make in a close game, let alone all at the same time.

Bright Spots

Kurt Coleman
He looked really good against the run. Especially for a rookie who was picked last out of our 13 selections in the draft (244th overall). The solo tackles he made on Adrian Peterson were things of beauty and kept the team in the game longer than we deserved. He did make the aforementioned mental lapse that caused Peterson to help close us out, but I’ll take his physical ability of tackling Adrian Peterson in the open field over complaining that a rookie made a fixable, mental mistake any day.

Tight Ends

Brent Celek really stepped up when the team needed a playmaker that the defense wasn’t ready for. His 10-catch production didn’t end up helping us too much, but he did his job when his number was called and is now reminding defensive coordinators that there is yet another playmaker they need to prepare for when taking on the Eagles.

Clay Harbor wasn’t overly involved in the passing game, but his TD catch and subsequent focus on getting his feet inbounds was outstanding. He’ll get some more looks in future games when we’re having trouble in the red zone.

LeSean McCoy
Shady looked good last night. His one run, which dodged several would-be tacklers in between Minnesota’s run defense, was spectacular. His other runs were impressive too, but they were overshadowed by the rest of the offense’s limitations.


Credit where credit is due
I do feel obligated to give some credit to Joe Webb for his performance. He started off very shaky and then built his confidence as the Eagles’ offense couldn’t pressure him to have to score quickly and the Eagles’ defense couldn’t pressure him at all.


Hopefully this isn’t a sign of what we will expect in the playoffs. Hopefully this is just a bad game, like Atlanta’s performance against us. Hopefully Reid will rest most of his starters next week. Hopefully, we can have some football-related-fun in January and February.