Monday Morning Mehta

Edition # 207
September 11, 2007

www.mondaymorningmehta.com

The Eagles open up the 2007 season with an ugly 16-13 loss at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Andy Reid now goes 3-6 in season openers as head coach of the Eagles. Let's try to sift through the mess.

Game Negatives:

- Andy Reid. The # 1 Game Negative has got to go to the head coach. From not having Brian Westbrook in to return punts, to his constant denial of the run, this was one of Reid's worst performances. It was abundantly obvious to everyone watching the Eagles punt returners were lost. To keep trotting those guys out in a close/tie game was ridiculous.

- Special Teams (thanks Einstein). Sometimes it's just brutally obvious what caused a team to lose a game, and this was one of those cases. The Eagles were an absolute mess on punt returns. Greg Lewis started off the festivities by getting drilled immediately after fielding his first punt, fumbling, and the Eagles were down 7-0 before you could even say "The not so frozen tundra of Lambeau Field". The rest of the game was an absolute fiasco as well. J.R. Reed tried his hand at punt returning and didn't do well either. He muffed the final punt with about a minute left which led to the game winning field goal.

- Donovan McNabb. I thought he played pretty poorly, but I probably shouldn't be surprised. Green Bay has a good defense and he's coming off an major injury. But the ground attack was doing so well that McNabb should've hit many more passes. The game started off by McNabb missing a wide open L.J. Smith by about 3 feet and was pretty much a crapshoot from there. He looked indecisive at times which probably was a factor of the Green Bay defense being so good.

Game Positives:

- Takeo Spikes. He was absolutely all over the field. Clearly he was pumped up and feels he has a lot to prove. Hopefully he doesn't wear down late in the season. Spikes needs to realize he's in Philadelphia now and not Buffalo or Cincy and our season is about what we do in January, not September.

- Mike Patterson. Good to see the D-Line play well overall. It wasn't a stout offense but you need some confidence to build against the top offenses.

Overall it's just the first game and no rash bandwagon jumping is required. They need to address the punt return situation and likely will be re-signing Reno Mahe.

The defense? Looked fine. Can't go too crazy after Week 1, either way.
Ed Wasser and I were in Green Bay and squished into seats at Lambeau Field for the opener. I'm sure Ed will offer up his insight next week, but from my perspective I noted a few things about the Green Bay road trip:

- How in the world does a town this small get a NFL franchise? Well, it wouldn't in 2007, but when you have a team that's one of the founders of the NFL, I guess you can connect the dots. The whole city lives and breathes Packers football. They're incredible proud of thier small city and huge franchise. It's no wonder Brett Favre is a hero here.

- The stadium looks like it was built about 5 years ago (one caveat). They've undergone a massive renovation, but the concourses and the concession stands all like brand new.

- Only caveat to the above is it's like watching a game at Happy Valley. Every seat is a bleacher seat. So if you get there 5 minutes before kickoff and everyone's already seated, good luck squeezing your fanny into your seat. The seats should come with a free back surgery after 3 hours sitting in that.

- Overall the people of Green Bay were awesome. Very friendly and not any signs of fights even with hundreds/thousands of drunken Eagles fans floating around the city.

Around the NFL

Biggest win: I had to make a last minute change here. I think this goes to the 49ers. Not just because the won, but how they won. The played poorly on offense the entire game, but had a terrific final drive to win it. I gotta think this gives Alex Smith some confidence in a weak division. These are the types of wins that propel young teams into the playoffs.

Worst loss: Jaguars. Losing at home is bad enough. When you lose at home to a divisional rival that makes it even worse. Then when you find out that team wasn't even the Colts, you're staring down 3rd place in your division. Did I mention they cut their starting QB a week ago? Jack Del Rio, welcome to the coaches hot seat.

Best Team: Patriots. Going on the road and thumping your biggest rival certainly sends a message Week 1.

Best Team Part 2: Colts. Thumping a pre-season favorite in the other conference certainly send yet another message Week 1.

Worst team: Chiefs. Too many injuries and not enough quality surrounding Larry Johnson.

Worst team Part 2: Atlanta. Wait, Cleveland.

It's only one week fans. Try and think back if you even remember who won in week 1 last year.

Go Phils!