One thing we’re sure most fans have noticed is that McNabb is inconsistent. Even further, when McNabb is good, he’s really good. More importantly, the rest of the team is really good. When he’s having an off day, the whole team feels it and performs poorly. Most likely one of the main contributors to this fact is that the Eagles are a pass heavy offense. So naturally, when our passer isn’t completing pass attempts, the offense lacks. When a team hardly runs the ball, the Quarterback becomes that much more important. The rest of the offensive squad relies on his performance in order to perform.

McNabb has played in six games so far this season. Look back at the first game of the season against Carolina – while our defense pretty much controlled this game, McNabb had a decent game as well. He had a passer rating of 80.6 which was his median rating of games played this season, but he had two passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown. His highest passer ratings were against Tampa Bay and the Giants, 157.2 and 146.7 respectively. He held a 91.4 passer rating against Washington. Now, if you look at two of our three losses this season, Oakland and Dallas, he had a 66.3 and 61.4 passer rating. Read the rest of the stats from those two games and you’ll see his performance greatly affects the performance of the rest of the team. Something should be mentioned regarding the run as well. It’s acceptable to blame poor performance of Wide Receivers on them not receiving complete passes from the Quarterback, but you’ll see that Shady McCoy, Westbrook and Weaver have all ran further and completed more first downs in games McNabb is playing well than when he’s not. It may not be as big of a factor, but it still plays a part. I think McNabb is more of a leader to this team than people realize. We have some tough games ahead and it’s important that McNabb gets back to playing at his full potential. The NFC is a touch conference this year and in order to have some playoff hopes, we need our star QB to play like the star he is.

Play calling plays a role as well. It makes no sense to have a couple of lost downs due to incomplete passes and then run for a few yards on third down and have to punt. While it’s nice to hope the first down can be reached, it seems a pass attempt would yield better results. Additionally, the fourth and inches play from the Dallas game keeps replaying in my head – forget the bad spot and the fact that McNabb got the first down – if you know everyone is going to automatically form a dog pile in the middle of the field, why not fake the quarterback sneak and hand the ball off to Leonard Weaver. I can almost bet that by the time anyone figured out where the ball was Weaver would be in the end zone celebrating solo.

One last thought as we head into San Diego – our defense is absolutely horrible when it comes to covering tight ends. We’re going against one of the elite tight ends in the league in Antonio Gates this weekend. If we can’t find a way to contain him, I have a feeling we’ll be in for another heartbreaker…

Eli was throwing lazily, and his receivers responded in kind. They were not in sync at all.  True, Eli pitched and caught some ball balls to Steve Smith and Hakeem Nicks, but he lacked vision down the field.  Although Steve Smith was generally covered well throughout the game, Hakeem Nicks ran free several times through the Eagles secondary, where they were playing him soft.

The predictable Giants plays, notably their running plays, fell into a rabid Eagles defense.  This was the Giants game plan pretty much throughout the game: first down, run either Brandon Jacobs or Ahmad Bradshaw; second down, ditto; and third down, Eli makes a short dump to Kevin Boss, with the Eagles defense matching them step for step.

The porous Giants defense ultimately sunk them, especially in the second quarter.  DeSean Jackson’s 54-yard touchdown pass and sequentially Jeremy Maclin’s 23-yard touchdown pass simply crushed the Giants before halftime.  The Giants couldn’t recover afterwards and toppled to the continuous body shots.

DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin have developed into a new breed of highly talented receivers quietly appearing all through the NFL, but they have been coming in droves in the NFC East.  The Giants have Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks.  The Eagles upcoming opponent, the Dallas Cowboys, have Miles Austin.  From what I have seen, these players actually enjoy playing the game, instead of flaunting their ego unlike their predecessors.  Maybe the divas like Terrell Owens and Ochocinco will go the way of dinosaurs.  Or maybe they already have.

Please review the questions and provide your answers in the comments section!

1. Do you expect the play calling to involve more short passes and quick releases to avoid Donovan McNabb from having to take a big hit?

2. Jeremiah Trotter was taking snaps with the first team defense this week. What type of playtime do you see him getting in his first game back?

3. If the Eagles get a big lead early on Sunday, should McNabb sit so he can further rest his ribs?

4. What type of workload should Brian Westbrook get in his return Sunday? Should he and LeSean McCoy split playtime evenly?

5. What will be the final score?

The Eagles have crushed two really bad teams and looked terrible against one of the best teams in the NFC. They have a few more games here against bad teams before they see a real challenge. However, the Eagles don’t make their schedule so they can’t be blamed here. All they can do is keep pounding the teams they’re supposed to and pick up some quality wins when they play good teams.

I think right now it is good for them to have a soft schedule coming up due to the injuries they’ve had. This allows players to get back on the field and start to gel. They’ve had three games already and have played with three different lineups and a slew of different players. I’m looking for them to get the lineup they want moving forward on the field and to dominate teams. The talent is definitely there, and I think they are capable of doing tremendous things.

We do need time so they can prove they are who we think they are, so until then we have to wait.

From PhiladelphiaEagles.com:

The Eagles waived … CB Trae Williams, CB Jack Ikegwuonu, DE Bryan Smith, DE Josh Gaines, LB Tank Daniels, FS Reshard Langford, WR Danny Amendola, RB Lorenzo Booker, C Dallas Reynolds, G Paul Fanaika, G Mike Gibson, TE Rob Myers, FB Marcus Mailei and FB Kyle Eckel. These players are now subject to waivers.

The Eagles released … DT Dan Klecko, LB Matt Wilhelm and TE Matt Schobel. These players are now unrestricted free agents.

The Eagles placed QB Michael Vick on the Exempt/Commissioners Permission List. He will not be able to practice as long as he’s on this list. He is eligible to play in Week 3 against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Eagles placed OT Fenuki Tupou on injured reserve.

As you can see this leaves some more questions at the wide receiver position. I am glad to see Eldra Buckley made the team and that Lorenzo Booker was cut.

What are your initial impressions of the roster cuts?

- Glad LeSean McCoy didn’t get overworked. Had a nice goal line carry where he was able to find the end zone.

- Michael Vick scores his first touchdown as an Eagle. I think he can be a real threat in the red zone like they showed last night. Seems like they’re still tinkering around to find out how he can be used best.

- Mark Sanchez went 5/5 for 67 yards and a touchdown making the Eagles defense look like trash. Got eaten alive by the tight ends again. That is something that REALLY needs to be worked on or it’s going to be a long season.

- Sean Jones, wow man what’s your deal. Looked absolutely horrible in pass coverage. He was allowing receivers to get up to him instead of keeping everything in front of him. The guy is a tackling safety and a tackling safety only.

- Jack Ikegwuonu had a nice interception and return but other than that I wasn’t overly impressed with his coverage skills. He shows glimmers of hope here and there but I still think he has work to do.

- Moise Fokou vs. Joe Mays – Going to have to give the win to Fokou here. Although they both couldn’t defend the pass, Fokou was all over the field recording 10 tackles.

- Wasn’t overly impressed by anything Macho Harris did last night. This means Quintin Demps better play like a monster as I’m weary to his backups.

- Brandon Gibson got a lot of playing time last night and in my opinion he showed that he deserves to make this team. I really do want to see him make the team and will be very interested to see how it plays out.

- Great night for Tony Curtis. Got his first action in an Eagles uniform and was definitely impressive. I thought the guy was brought in to be the team’s blocking tight end; however, he showed that he can catch the ball too and looked good doing so.

- Danny Amendola.. You hate to see the kid go but it’s a numbers game. He played his heart out last night and is a great little player. Despite his size he breaks away from a lot of people who get their hands on him.

- So Michael Vick didn’t put up great numbers but I’m not disappointed with his play. I’m happy he got knocked around a lot because it’s been quite some time and he needs to get that feeling back. He didn’t look stellar dropping back and throwing the ball but that’s not what he’s hear to do. He made plays with his feet when he needed to and you know you were holding your breath every time he broke out of the pocket. It really is exciting to watch him play.

- I’m glad the offensive line that played last night was not our starting line. They looked terrible and gave up 7 sacks. I think Kevin Kolb held the ball too long a couple times but the pressure was still pretty crazy.

What did you notice about last nights game? Positive? Negative?

Positives
- The starters got to play a lot. This is good for a few different reasons. It helps work on their condition. They got more time to gel and work with one another. Those who are new to the starting lineups on offense and defense were able to get a lot of reps and get comfortable with the guys that have been there before.
- Jason Avant. No one ever talks about this guy but he is a stud. He had 5 receptions for 94 yards last night, and I feel that whenever Donovan is pressured and forced to leave the pocket Avant is always the one that comes back to the ball and gets open. He’s not afraid to plant himself in the middle of the field and look for the ball.
- Hitting. There were some missed tackles and poor efforts last night but the Eagles did bring the wood on many occasions. When Asante Samuel hits someone so hard that they stay down, you know the Eagles are hitting.
- Donovan. Yes he did have a terrible interception and did some typical Donovan things but overall I think he faired well. He was getting very little time to throw the ball and did a great job of escaping the pocket and making plays with his feet. Although he’s getting older, we have two quarterbacks with great feet.

Negatives
- Red Zone Offense. This has been an issue for so long and it seems the Eagles can’t figure out how to score touchdowns instead of field goals.
- Run Game. I’m not saying that they didn’t run the ball well or anything, I’m saying that they didn’t run the ball enough. 58 passes compared to 19 runs last night. Again, same old Eagles here. First and goal on the one yard line and you’re throwing the ball. Is this a lack of confidence in the offensive line or not thinking any of your running backs can pound out one yard on the goal line?
- Linebacker Pass Coverage. This is something I’ve been looking for the LBs to improve the past couple weeks and it doesn’t seem to be happening. They got burned hard by a 45 yard screen play by MJD and had trouble covering tight ends again.
- Pass Protection. Donovan was pressured out of the pocket on many occasions last night. He had very little time before the pocket collapsed on him. Offensive line has got to do a better job of protecting him back there.

I’m not going to list Michael Vick as a postive or a negative. I was happy with the crowd embracing Vick everytime he entered the game. He had to be nervous coming into it with how the crowd would react. He only kept the ball himself one time out of his six plays on the field. When he looked downfield and threw the ball he looked good and that’s what I wanted to see. Everyone knows he’s going to do stuff with his feet but can he sit back and throw the ball if asked to do so. I think he showed he can and that makes him a double threat that defensive coordinators are going to hate game planning for.

That’s all the positives and negatives I’m going to list for now. Overall, I was disappointed with the performance of the team but hopefully they’re getting all the bugs out now.

What did you positives and negatives did you take away from the game last night?

1. Offensive Line
Four out of the five starters will not be participating in tonight’s game. Sure this is a great opportunity for the backups to get some reps but then again I don’t wanna see Donovan and Shady get their heads ripped off. Which brings me to my next item.

2. LeSean McCoy
Everyone knows he did great in his first game rushing 10 times for 55 yards. He looked great. However, the kid is going to always face the question of if he can take the NFL beating. I’m interested to see how he is able to protect his body and gain maximum yardage without taking the big hits. This is a guy that needs to play 16 regular season games and be ready for the postseason.

3. Red Zone Offense
This was an issue last week and has been an issue for quite some time. Too many field goals in the game last week. Losing Ingram for the season didn’t help their production and having Celek out this week isn’t going to help either. They’ve got to come up with some other type of solution to be able to score touchdowns instead of field goals. The play calling needs to be stepped up.

4. Secondary
I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the pass coverage in last weeks game. I think it’s a good thing that the Eagles have to face both Tom Brady and Peyton Manning in the preseason as it puts them against top tier quarterbacks right off the bat. Brady was alright last week but I think a bit tedious with it being his first game back. He threw that interception to Sheldon Brown that was just AWFUL. I think the pass interference call on Asante was a toss up and you’ll get that call some days and not get it other days.

5. Tight End Coverage
This was a biggie for me last week. The linebackers looked silly in pass coverage last week and got burned for big plays and touchdowns on multiple accounts. Akeem Jordan looked absolutely terrible on the first touchdown. I think we all know the Eagles linebackers can hit and stop the run. They need to prove that they can step up and cover tight ends and even running backs out of the backfield.

6. Quarterback pressure
I don’t think the Eagles pressured Tom Brady as well as they could have last week. The guy had plenty of time to recover his knee but you got to know he was going to be a bit scared coming into his first live game since the surgery. Pressure him and he’s sure to make mistakes. I’d really like to see our end rushers wreak some havok in the backfield tonight.

7. Special teams
Jeremy Maclin looked alright returning the football but he did have that muffed punt and that bothers me. I thought we were over those days. If this continues we can throw DeSean back there again but I’d rather not do that. I’m just hoping he dropped it because of first game nerves. I also don’t like that we missed a field goal that would have essentially been the game winner.

So those are the things I’ll be looking for from the team tonight. Hope to see a strong outing and even though it doesn’t really matter, I’d like to see a win.

What things will you be watching for during the game tonight?

It is unknown at this time how long this will be, but it kind of makes me nervous. Everyone knows that Johnson is a defensive mastermind and not having him around will hurt. I think the veterans are really going to have to take the younger guys under their wing and help them as they try to learn the defense.

I hope Johnson is able to recover and return back to the team soon. He is a staple in this organization.

So let’s take those three players and compare them to Boldin. Who would you rather have? Sure Maclin and Ingram haven’t proved anything yet but they sure as hell could. Only time will tell. Although I really did want to see Boldin end up as an Eagle before the draft, I’m happy that he did not.