Looks like Riley Cooper is the fifth mouth to feed behind McCoy, Sproles, Ertz and Maclin, which likely means noticeably less production than last year. Not that he played well with two dropped passes including one in the endzone, and an offsides penalty.
Foles wasn't sharp as he was off-target on a number of intermediate and long passes. His stats were padded a lot by Sprole's long runs on dump-off passes. Way too much handing off the ball and dump-off passes for my taste, I expected the Philly offense to be more dynamic. The Eagles were fortunate to escape with a win unless their gameplan now consists of counting on Sproles to have 150 yards receiving from dump-off passes each week.
As successful as Foles was last year, I still think Matt Barkley can run Chip Kelly's offense better.
Something to keep in mind is that Cooper started the year off in dreadful fashion last season (93 receiving yards through 5 games), too, before exploding in Week #6 for 120 yards. He was universally criticized for his play, which was exacerbated by his drunken “thought crime” at a Kenny Chesney concert prior to the season. Kelly stuck with him, and he finished the season with 47 catches, 835 yards, 8 TDs, and got a nice contract in the off-season. Also, it’s not as if Jeremy Maclin is lighting the word on fire through 2 games, though he’s obviously been better than Cooper. I think Riley will be fine through 16 games.
I agree that the Philly offense has been a disappointment. We criticize black QB’s for “dinking and dunking,” and with the exception of a few longer passes per game (usually to Ertz), that’s exactly what Foles is doing. As teams begin to key on Sproles and McCoy out of the backfield, Foles will be forced to throw longer routes, hopefully benefitting Cooper, Ertz, and Celek.
Defensively, a few injuries to Philly’s black starters could really lighten up this atrocious unit with the likes of Bair, Allen, Matthews, Hart, Braman, and Maragos. [Fingers crossed]
I like Andrew Luck, but with the signing of the languid, permanently-ineffective Hakeen Nicks (and benching of Griff Whalen), the Colts have really gone full-on Caste this season. At least Whalen play a bit returning kicks/punts. As was the case the past 2 seasons, the speedy TE, Coby Fleener, barely plays behind the chubby, cement-footed, never-dynamic “starter,” Dwayne Allen. With Angerer gone, at least DE Björn Werner now starts on this putrid defense. I’d like to see them miss the playoffs.
With 2 weeks gone, I’m really enjoying the 0-2 starts by Caste squads like the Saints, Bucs, Giants, and Raiders. Early-season loses by Seattle, Pittsburgh, NYJ, and San Francisco were satisfying, also. Now let’s hope that Elway’s Black Bolshevik Broncos start losing ASAP.
