Whats the Eagles' biggest threat?

[BCEagle]

It will certainly be interesting to see how the "new" Cardinals fare against the, as far as I'm concerned, best defense in the NFC. The jury's still out on their pass defense though. They really didn't face many decent passing teams all year. Dallas, when they had their heads on relatively straight, put up 300+ and 41 points and the Cardinals were incredibly predictable and unbalanced.

Other than those two games, I don't see any team on the Eagles schedule that was really a passing team, much less a good passing team. I think it's going to be a dominating win for whichever team that turns out to be at an advantage.

I don't even count the regular season game between the Eagles and the Cardinals. The Eagles jumped out to a big lead early, and then were in a position defensively to cheat against the pass. The Cardinals were held to 25 yards rushing. Boldin had one of his worst games, and Fitzgerald dropped a sure TD pass. If Cardinals receivers don't drop so many passes, maybe that game turns out very differently.

As McNabb said yesterday, that game feels like it happened a year ago. Both teams are different now.

 

[IAWarnerFan]

Shadow Westbrook with Dansby...and put DRC on Jackson and Hood on Curtis.

That still leaves Hank Baskett and Jason Avant.

 

[Mulli]

That still leaves Hank Baskett.

Who?

 

[IAWarnerFan]

Who?

Their 2nd leading receiver in terms of yardage. I'm more worried about Avant, he has been playing very well lately.

 

[Mulli]

Their 2nd leading receiver in terms of yardage. I'm more worried about Avant, he has been playing very well lately.

Hmm, I don't recall Baskett doing much this playoffs.

 

[Mitch]

Ralph on Avant.

The toughest matchup may be Hood on Curtis and the Cards may have to switch DRC over to Curtis. In the minds of the Philly coaches, Curtis is their best WR by a wide margin. He's like a speedier, tougher Ricky Proehl.

 

[conraddobler]

McNabb is a pain in the ass.

He's impossible to sack at times, you get so close and he just ambles out of the way and then hits someone for 20 yards on you and as others said it sucks the life out of the defense to cover for 5 seconds and get beat in the 6th second.

Since there is no design to it it's also almost impossible to bait him since you have no idea where he's going to go with the ball or be at when he does it because of the fact it's all freelancing.

Guys have to maintain control when going after him, no flying by him and flailing at him he'll just duck it and then roll out and spank you for your trouble.

The best thing you could try IMO is some kind of modified Mike Vick defense we used on Mike back when DG was here, stay in your rush lanes and close down around him.

 

[IAWarnerFan]

Ralph on Avant.

The toughest matchup may be Hood on Curtis and the Cards may have to switch DRC over to Curtis. In the minds of the Philly coaches, Curtis is their best WR by a wide margin. He's like a speedier, tougher Ricky Proehl.

I see that as the toughest matchup right now. I think we should give Brown some safety help (unless Brown plays the way he has been playing). Agreed put Hood on Jackson at times.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

It's Westbrook. Not because he is a great running back -- as you noted in your post, you have already faced better conventional running backs in the playoffs. He is a threat because he can really be used anywhere on the field, and when he gets open space, he has a deceptive quickness that makes him difficult to tackle.

On defense, Dawkins should be added to that list. He's arguably the best free safety in the conference. I know that FS is not as important as the CB position, but he is a play maker, with three FF in the last three games.

hit it on the head. westbrook and dawkins.

though i'm a little less worried about dawkins. he was crying after the giants game. means one of two things:

1. he's a p*ssy

2. he blew his load a couple of games too early. unless you've won the superbowl, you don't cry. the giants game was huge for them, but if they made it the entire season, then they might be in for a let down against us. might be overlooking the poor widdle cardinals.

i like both answers.

 

[moklerman]

I think the Eagles might have a letdown after the Giants game as well. Not a huge letdown perhaps but that was the game that was personal for them. Huge rivalry game on the road like that and the emotion might be a little flat vs. a relatively unknown foe, much less rival.

 

[BCEagle]

hit it on the head. westbrook and dawkins.

though i'm a little less worried about dawkins. he was crying after the giants game. means one of two things:

1. he's a p*ssy

2. he blew his load a couple of games too early. unless you've won the superbowl, you don't cry. the giants game was huge for them, but if they made it the entire season, then they might be in for a let down against us. might be overlooking the poor widdle cardinals.

i like both answers.

I'm not surprised by Dawkins' emotional response. Those two fourth down stops were things of beauty.

 

[WildBB]

I think the Eagles might have a letdown after the Giants game as well. Not a huge letdown perhaps but that was the game that was personal for them. Huge rivalry game on the road like that and the emotion might be a little flat vs. a relatively unknown foe, much less rival.

I see it as a must to shut down DeShawn Jackson as much as possible. Curtis and Westbrook will get their yards , but Jackson is the Ace in the hole for that team. Shut him down somehow.

 

[MrYeahBut]

Scrambling QBs always give the Cards trouble. Hell, Seneca Wallace got away from them more than once in week 16

 

[Cheesebeef]

I think the Eagles might have a letdown after the Giants game as well. Not a huge letdown perhaps but that was the game that was personal for them. Huge rivalry game on the road like that and the emotion might be a little flat vs. a relatively unknown foe, much less rival.

agreed. besides, everyone's already dubbed them the winner of the game. I'm thinking they were celebrating watching the Cards-Panthers game because, well, we're the Cardinals... and I wouldn't blame them one bit. It would have been like if the Suns had somehow beat the Spurs back in 2007 and got to face Cleveland instead of Detroit. I know I'd think that title would have been ours already.