| Tyritorious said: Eagles are going to have a rough season. I'm calling Chip Kelly will wear out his welcome and this will be his final season in Philly. |
They play the helpless Giants and Redskins a total of four games, that's an easy 4-0 to 3-1 right there (if the Eagles stay healthy).
The Eagles are my team's main rivals this year, so I follow them a bit. Of course they're all high as kites off of preseason right now, but we know that PS usually means squat outside of player evaluations. See : Detroit going 4-0 then 0-16, Dallas going 0-4 then 12-4. Everybody is generally taking it easy in PS to try to reduce the risk of major injuries, but the Eagles still have to run that go-fast offensive scheme, and no PS defense is going to be very interested in going 10/10ths to actually stop that.
Of course, the constant go-fast is the problem the Eagles have had the last two years. They look great early to midseason, but the absolutely massive amount of time their defense has to be on the field (their offense either succeeds in scoring or fails to convert FAST nearly every time) gasses them over the year. The most glaring example of this was seen in their two games with Dallas last year. Dallas had a super short week and was tired coming into the Thanksgiving game (IIRC it was something like Sunday Night or Monday to Thursday!), and the Eagles crushed Dallas at home. Then a few weeks later in December, Dallas came into Philly and absolutely crushed the Eagles until they started coasting (they nearly let the Eagles back into it late, but firmed up in time to stop that). The Eagles also lost to the basketcase Redskins late in the season I think. Dallas lost to the Redskins earlier in the season, but that was really something strange to see. WAS was literally calling 'cover-zero' blitzes and bringing the entire team. It was insane. I've never seen it before in the NFL before or since, and that's probably because it's a massive risk, a single game-planned quick slant goes to the house with cover zero. Gruden is a complete buffoon though, so who knows, he might try that again this year, and that spells possible major injuries to their NFCE QBs even if they lose those games.
So anyway, I see Philly doing overall fairly well this year barring major injuries, but another 10-6ish season and 2nd in the NFCE unless Chip learns to coast it with a decent lead. Otherwise his defense will look like swiss cheese yet again in December for a late self destruction. At least this year I think it's likely that 10-6 gets a wildcare, and I could see them recovering to win a game in the playoffs.
Now if Bradford and/or Murray go down? Things start to slide a bit. Foles was better than Sanchez, and I think a healthy Bradford is better than either, but not by a huge margin. If they get to midseason at 6-2 or 7-1 like I expect, but play the 2nd half with a diminished lineup, that can turn into a 3-5 or 4-4 finish quickly (or worse).
Philly AND Dallas both play some ridiculous defensive teams this year. Even the Jets, who may be useless on offense can really hurt you on defense. And that's cake compared to Miami or Buffalo's new defensive looks imho.
