Quote:Game logs are wonderful.

 

This is a link to the game log from yesterday's game.

 

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2014090707...u=gameinfo|contentId%3A0ap3000000391122&tab=analyze&analyze=playbyplay

 

Pay close attention to the second half possessions.

 

There were five of them before the Eagles took the lead.

 

The first three possessions were 3 and out possessions.  These are the yards gained per first down on those drives:  2, 0, and 0.  These are the 3rd down yards to go on those three possessions:  3rd and 8, 3rd and 10, and 3rd and 10. There were eight passes and one run during that stretch.  The one run went for 2 yards.  Henne was 2-8 for FIVE (5) yards.

 

Just looking at these three possessions tells me a few things:

 

1.  The team did not necessarily go conservative.  An 8-1 pass to run ratio usually can't be described as conservative.  As I have long maintained, ineffective football is not the same as conservative football.

 

2.  When they DID run, it netted 2 yards.

 

3.  Most of the passes were underneath.  The one deep attack was dropped by Lee.  Had Lee caught that pass, it flips the field at least.  If the Jaguars then ran the ball three straight times and not scored at all, at least another 2 minutes or so are taken off the clock and the Eagles likely are saddled with poor field position.  Those last two scores likely never happen, since the Eagles last ten points were scored with less than 2 minutes left, so at worst, we lose 24-17.

 

4.  Had we been able to mount any semblance of a running game, how much shorter would the game have been?  Had we notched another first down or two besides the one described in three that we missed, what else would we have precluded simply by possessing the ball another 4-6 minutes?

 

Henne went down the sideline to Lee twice in the same drive, once with single and the other in double coverage.  In both cases, he had catchable balls that went incomplete.

 

The second drive was all Henne folding up.  He had a batted pass and two errant passes.  Both of the passes were underneath.  The one to Todman looked like he hadn't even turned around yet, and then the one he threw to Brown was a ground ball. 

 

That first drive, and then the subsequent drives showed how little faith they had in getting anything on the ground.  It also showed that Lewis and Todman are not guys who are going to generate a lot of YAC.  You either get them past the marker, or you expect to come up short. 

 

That last drive was disappointing because Henne actually made a couple of fairly difficult passes only to have his receiver let him down.  After the first miss, which would have been a great catch, but if you can get two hands on it, you should be able to haul it in, so I'm still hanging that one on Lee.  The second one in double coverage couldn't have been more catchable, but I think the rookie simply knew the coverage was there and it broke his concentration.

 

This is what happens with young guys out there.  Those drops will eventually become catches. 

 

Hopefully as the line comes together and we start to see more effective run blocking, that will allow us to control the clock and have more manageable down and distances as the season progresses. 

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