tweeky

Our 2003 team has been compared to the makeover the Jets went through in 2002. A team with that many new guys needs a lot of time to gel and get on the same page. They also replaced 6 or 7 starters with new guys and I found this interesting...

Their 1st 5 games they gave up 30 points per game. Their next six games they gave up 13 points per game. We had only 3 starters from last years squad start last night. Eight new starters! What did we expect? Did anyone really think we'd go out and dominate one of the very best teams in the NFL playing virtually all of their starters from last year?
In retrospec, I'm surprised we didn't get beat by 50 points.

saint5221

I wasn\'t disappointed we didn\'t win, I was disappointed in the way we lost. The Eagles are an excellent team with alot of talent and it showed. I wasn\'t as much looking for a cohesive team effort as solid individual efforts. Few were forthcoming last night. I am not placing tremendous stock in what happened but it should not be ignored either. There were glaring inadequacies that must be addressed.
We were out maned in the trenches,I\'ll allow some latitude on the O line where we have proven vets who should preform better and probably will. On the D line we did nothing fancy just tried to generate a strait rush and failed miserably. I understand this is a tough test but one would think our guys could of won acouple individual battles, they didn\'t ,none at all. Our linebackers looked lost as did our secondary ,this could be attributed to not knowing where to be an what to do yet, so they get slack there. Where they do not is in the awful tackling. This is not about a scheme or position, its about locking up the man infront of you and taking him down. Something this team seems to have far to many problems with. They was little effort in far to many areas. Lack of focus was rampant ,penalties, dropped passes, very sloppy play. This team didn\'t look hungry or even interested in playing. Sound familiar?
If this team is going to turn the corner a begin a tradition of winning this is not the way. I don\'t expect perfection just better effort.There is still plenty of time and hopefully this will serve as a resounding wake up call. It\'s not that we lost a preseason game, its that we continued many of the mistakes and problems that cost us games when they count. This should not be ignored just because it\'s preseason. The wins in December come from the lessons learned in August for that sake I\'d like to see a better effort, not necessarly a win.

[Edited on 8/12/2003 by saint5221]

lumm0x

Like saint5221, I just wanted to see some solid individual showings from the players. I was looking for a few guys to try to get themselves noticed in a good way. I didn\'t care if they lost they game, coming away without injuries and seeing some 2nd and 3rd string players trying to win a job is what preseason is all about. I expected a very simple and wrinkle-free scheme on offense and defense in the first preseason game. After hearing about Charles Grant\'s impassioned speech to the team I at least expected enthusiasm and effort.

What we got was a none of the above. It was plain brutal execution of the most simple of plays. No one looked sharp, no one looked interested. I\'m not going to blame the coaching staff solely for the lack of playmaking because they asked just for simple plays. The players were barely able to do that. An adequate showing, even with a loss is fine. The fact that no one on our defense could tackle should be an absolute embarrassment to every player and the coaches. Damn rights they deserve to get sh!t on over last nights performance. They play as a team they get recognition as a team.

I hold nothing last night towards how we will be in the regular season, but any professional that doesn\'t feel embarrassed over last night would scare me to have on our team.