Jim Zorn Is Real Good At The Rope-A-Dope

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Don't be mad Eagles fans, your team played a good game, you just fell for the oldest trick in the book, the rope-a-dope. Kidding of course, no way the Redskins wanted to be down 14 points with 7 minutes left in the 1st quater but 23 consecutive points will certainly make a team look a lot better after that kind of start. Lets face it though, if the Eagles could just manage one yard in the 4th quarter like the Redskins did (on 4th down i might add) it would've been an entirely different game...but they didn't, so suck it up. Game over, 23-17, Redskins. 4-1 vs. 2-2. Who runs the West Coast offense now, huh punks?

You can whine all you want about your team blowing a 14 point lead, but those 14 points happened in the first 8 minutes of the game. Too bad the game is 60 minutes long. I've heard complaints that the Eagles didn't run the ball enough and should have "run out the clock" after being spotted 14 points in the 1st half of the 1st quarter. The truth is the Eagles tried to run the ball, they just couldn't do it successfully. The Eagles often ran on 1st down (until the 4th quarter) and were unsuccessful most times they did so. By creating 2nd and 3rd downs with long yardage needed the Eagles were forced to throw the ball to create offense. Sadly for the Eagles, neither their offensive scheme nor personnel are set up to consistently get large chunks of yardage through the air, especially against a team with so many experienced defensive backs like the Redskins.

Westbrook was averaging 2.8 yards a carry on the ground, off his career average of 4.7 a carry, and obviously was hurting from this chest and ankle. To rely on him, in hindsight, was folly. The Redskins D kept the 'skins in the game after getting shocked on the 1st drive of the game by stopping the run, creating difficult 2nd and 3rd downs to convert, thus rendering the Eagles dink and dunk passing game ineffective.

As useless as the Eagles offense was on the ground, the real culprit here was that the Eagles D just didn't do what they had to do to win which was disrupt the QB and stop the run. They only registered 1 sack and they recorded 0 interceptions or fumbles. This is a D that thrives off of pressure and the turnovers that result from it and they didn't do a good enough job of getting to the QB to make their pressure result in turnovers. When you apply pressure and it doesn't work, usually you give up some points.

That and their double covering of Santana Moss left Chris Cooley wide freakin open the entire game. Did no one on that coaching staff think to cover the Pro Bowl tight end? That wasn't Zorn's play calling so much as the Eagles forgetting the Redskins had a TE who could catch a ball. As for stopping the run, were they so concentrated on Zorn's efficient passing scheme that they also forgot the Redskins had Clinton Portis back there? He ran wild, 145 yards on 29 carries, 5 yards a carry, including runs of 21 and 27 yards. Those breakdowns on the Eagles defense resulted in the Redskins being able to move the ball down the field quite consistently throughout the game.

Basically, when a team runs the ball efficiently, stops the run effectively, controls the time of possession and doesn't turn the ball over, that team stands a good chance of winning. The Redskins did all that with excellent plays and play calling on offense and defense. It wasn't just Jim Zorn, it was Jim Zorn and Greg Blache who put the players in position to suceed on both sides of the ball, so any rantings about Zorn have to include Blache as well, the man is coaching a great defense right now. You must give a lot of credit to Andy Reid, Jim Johnson and offensive play caller Marty Mornhinweg however, for playing right into the Redskins schemes on both side of the ball...at least after the 1st half of the 1st quarter. Suckers.

Can I say it again? 4-1! Who woulda thunk it? Not me...seriously.