You can't spell "Celek" without B-E-A-S-T! Photo cred to ESPN.
Let’s face it: the Eagles were going to win this game as long as they showed up. The Chiefs are a terrible team with a serious lack of playmakers on either side of the ball. As a result it’s a little tought to take too much from this game other than considering it a momentum boost heading into the bye week.
There were a few things we could take from this dominating performance though.
- Kevin Kolb is the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for at least 300 yards in his first two career starts. Great to see Kevin silence some of his haters, but before you start asking “Donovan who?” just remember Kolb was fortunate to face two terrible pass defenses in the Saints and Chiefs. As good as he looked at times these past two weeks the Eagles’ Super Bowl hopes still hinge on the health of #5.
One thing Kolb’s performance has done though is put even more pressure on McNabb to take this team to the Promised Land. If the Eagles fall short again you’d have to wonder if the front office would have enough confidence in Kolb to see what they could get for McNabb on the trade market. That however is a topic for next offseason.
- Desean Jackson continues to emerge as an elite NFL receiver. After today he should be among the top 5 in receiving yards, and he now has three plays of 60 or more yards through three weeks. As long as he can stay healthy he should be in for a career year.
- I was amused by Jamaal Jackson’s postgame comments about Desean’s touchdown celebration after the 64-yard score:
“I told him, ’Great run, but let’s try to exhibit some professionalism,’ ” the Eagles’ center said. “There’s nothing wrong with a little celebration, but once you put your body at risk, that’s when you want to take a step back and look at the big picture. There’s nothing wrong with just handing the ball to the ref.”
Proof karma is a bitch: the aftermath of celebrating a bit too hard is a nice long stay on the IR.
Jamaal is probably referring to the fact that Desean landed a little awkwardly after his quasi-cartwheel, and I’ll have to admit that I cringed when I saw it myself after the game (which sadly was not shown out here in Southern California.) I’m all for Desean having some fun and I really think Jamaal Jackson should worry more about becoming a better center before he starts critiquing his teammates, but he has a point. I’d really hate to see Desean pull a Bill Gramatica and injure himself during a celebration…just tone it down a notch next time, bud.
- How about Brent Celek? 22 catches in just three games leads the team, and just in case you thought his 8 catch 104 yard performance against the Saints was a fluke he responded today with, yes you guessed it, 8 catches for 104 yards AND a score. Most of his production has come with Kolb at the helm, so I’ll be intrigued to see if he can keep this up once McNabb and Westbrook come back.
- So much for Michael Vick’s triumphant debut: he went 0-2 passing and rushed for just 7 yards. I still don’t see how he fits in with this offense or makes this unit better.
- The Eagles defense blitzed a lot more than they did last week and it shows in the box score: 3 sacks, 5 TFL, 5 QB hits, but even more importantly Matt Cassel only averaged 5 yards per pass attempt. That coupled with his high completion percentage (he went 14 of 18 on the day) tells you he had to dump the ball off a lot to a secondary target thanks to pressure from the Birds defense. The fact that Dwayne Bowe missed the game with an injury certainly helped the cause.
- Good to see Omar Gaither stepping up at MLB. He led the team with 9 tackles and a sack.
- Special teams showed a marked improvement over last week, taking just one penalty and avoiding any turnovers (I’m looking at you Ellis!)
