What happened?
Up 35-17, the Eagles almost let the Lions come all the way back and tie the game late in the fourth quarter, but a defensive stand gave the Eagles their first win of the season as Michael Vick won his first start since 2006.
The Good:
Michael Vick was very good, completing 21 of 34 passes for 284 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed the ball seven times for 37 yards.
LeSean McCoy had the best game of his career, picking up 120 yards on 16 carries. He scored three times, including twice in the second half.
DeSean Jackson was great as well, catching four passes for 135 yards and a touchdown.
Nate Allen looks like a great pick so far, as he intercepted another pass, giving him two in his first two games.
The Bad:
Aside from Jackson, the next leading receiver for the Eagles was Jason Avant, and he had just 33 yards on three catches.
Brent Celek only caught three passes for 27 yards.
Mike Bell was useless in short yardage situations, carrying the ball four times and not picking up a single yard.
The Ugly:
The offensive line was horrible once again. Vick was running for his life most of the game, and the Lions picked up five sacks and forced Vick to fumble twice.
The defense against Jahvid Best looked even worse than the offensive line did. Best finished the day with 78 rushing yards, 154 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
Did you see the last seven minutes of the game? Not only did the Eagles go into a prevent defense that allowed the Lions to score twice and pick up a two point conversion, but Riley Cooper botched the onside kick and Detroit had a chance to win. Luckily, the defense was able to step up when they did, or things would have gotten very, very bad.
The Eagles only got to Shaun Hill twice.
The Eagles committed nine penalties for 75 yards, including two stupid personal foul calls on punts. This team has to be smarter than that.
The Breakdown:
After almost 24 hours of digesting, this game is still leaving a bad taste in my mouth. While Michael Vick looked good at quarterback, and LeSean McCoy was able to do his thing on the ground, the way that the last seven minutes of the game went were enough to make me even more worried about this season.
There was a lot of good in this game for the Eagles, though. Vick showed that his second half against the Packers wasn't a total fluke as he helped carve the Lions up through the air. He started early, as his second pass of the game was a 45 yard touchdown to DeSean Jackson, and after that, he was off and running. Jackson bounced back from a poor Week 1 as well, showing that he is still the playmaker on this Eagle offense. He's got to get more looks or catches inside the 20, however. Almost all of Jackson's touchdowns last year were outside of the red zone, and while that gives the Eagles a huge weapon, it hurts the offense when they get closer to the end zone. Defenses don't key on Jackson as much, because his speed can't hurt them the closer the Eagles get to scoring. That needs to be addressed.
LeSean McCoy got a chance to run the ball, and in doing so grabbed his first career 100 yard game on the ground. Even though he only carried the ball 16 times, he made the most of each carry and looked good against the Detroit defense. Sure, it was just the Lions, but everyone has to start somewhere, and for McCoy, a potential breakout season may have started yesterday in Detroit. With the passing game still in doubt, McCoy is going to have to have games like this through the year if the Eagles want to have a shot at a winning record this season. He's going to struggle at times as well, but anyone would behind this offensive line. The bigger focus is that when he does get the ball, he's got to do something productive. I know that sounds very simple, but it's the truth. If McCoy can make something happen with his legs, it will make the rest of the offense that much better.
Of course, not much could help the offensive line look better right now. This group is a joke, with no leaders on that line and no help anywhere. It was a problem during the preseason, and then Jamaal Jackson got to comeback for all of a quarter and a half before being knocked out for the season again. Without Jackson in there, someone else has got to step up, and there isn't anyone that really looks like they're able to do that. Jason Peters spent more time on the ground than he did protecting Vick yesterday, and the rest of the line wasn't much better. So far, through two games, the Eagles have allowed 11 sacks, and there probably would be a few more in there if Michael Vick wasn't able to run the ball so well. This is going to be a big problem all season long. The Eagles can't compete against the Redskins, Giants and Cowboys, especially with their pass rushes, with this offensive line playing as poorly as they are. Kevin Kolb is going to have permanent happy feet.
Then, there's the defense. Through two games, against NFC North opponents, the defense has allowed 59 points, which ranks dead last in the NFL. Yesterday showed how much Stewart Bradley really does mean to this team, because without him, Jahvid Best was able to kill this defense. Best had over 200 all purpose yards and scored three times against the Eagles. Omar Gaither isn't a bad middle linebacker, but he's not Bradley. The Eagles needed him yesterday in the worst way.
Having Bradley might not have helped in the fourth quarter, though. After going down 17-7, Vick managed to lead the Eagles to 28 straight points, putting them up 35-17 with just seven minutes to play. Game over, right? Well, if you're the Philadelphia Eagles, you decide to play prevent defense against the Lions. Big mistake. Detroit carved up the Eagles on their last two drives, scoring 15 points and turing an 18 point lead into a three point nail biter. Things got even worse when the Lions recovered an onside kick attempt, giving them a chance to send the game to overtime or even make a huge comeback. Luckily, the defense did enough to stop that from happening, but that's not the point here. The point is that someone on that defense should have stepped up and taken a leadership role. Brian Dawkins was the unquestioned leader of that defense while he was an Eagle, and you know that he would have gotten into every one of those players faces yesterday and gotten them to step up and make a play. No one did that for this team, though, and it's a bit unsettling. There has to be a leader on this defense, whether it's Bradley or Trent Cole or anyone else. Someone has to step up and get this team moving the way that they should be.
Yesterday should have been an easy win for the Eagles, and it almost was. Instead, it turned into a game that neither team really deserved to win. All it did was raise more questions about how this season is going to go for Philadelphia. Everyone has already said that Kevin Kolb is going to start again next week, but with this offensive line, you have to wonder if Vick isn't a better option. For the moment, at least, Vick is being a company guy and saying that it's Kolb's job, but if Kolb gets hurt or struggles again, how loud will the cries for Vick start to get in Philadelphia?
Next week, the Eagles go on the road to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars. This is the only team in the NFL that the Eagles have never beaten, so a win here would be very sweet.
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