Mid-term Grades for NFC East Teams

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By Chris Murray
For the NFC' Easter

Now that we are at the half point of the season, the race in the NFC East is still the most compelling in the NFC even if the teams aren't as good against competition outside the division.

Dallas Cowboys (6-2) B

Even though the Dallas Cowboys (6-2) have taken the lead in the division thanks to Sunday's win over the Philadelphia Eagles, the question for Dallas is can they keep it going into December where they have struggle over the last four years.
As it stands now, the Cowboys are playing well offensively. Dallas has the NFL's third ranked offense in the NFL (sixth in passing and eighth in rushing). Romo after struggling earlier in the season has found a rhythm with young wide receiver Miles Austin, the main reason for the Cowboys recent resurgence.
During the Cowboys current four-game winning streak, Austin has scored at least one touchdown. He scored two-game winning touchdowns in Dallas wins over the Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.Austin has definitely been the difference maker for the team.
The Cowboys three-headed monster rushing attack of Marion Barber, Felix Jones, and Tashard Choice are averaging 138 yards per game. Barber has been Dallas's version of New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera with his ability to get in between the tackles and run out the clock.
In Sunday's win at Philadelphia, Barber kept the chains and the clock moving by gaining 23 yards on three carries in the game's final four minutes. That along with a five-yard pass from Romo to tight end Jason Witten and the Eagles never saw ball again.
The Cowboys defense, which struggled to get interceptions and sacks back in September, has been playing much better. Against the Eagles, the defense pressured Donovan McNabb into four sacks and two interceptions. They also stopped the Birds on two critical, but controversial driving-end plays that were reviewed by the replay booth.
In both instances-a reception by Eagles running back LeSean McCoy on third down and a quarterback sneak by McNabb-were ruled in favor of the Cowboy. The defense apparently created enough doubt for the replay officials to not overturn the calls. As a result, the Eagles were forced to lose two crucial timeouts that ultimately sealed their fate.
With December still on the horizon, the Cowboys overall grade for the first half of the season is a “B” mainly because of how they've played in the last four weeks.

Philadelphia Eagles- (5-3) C

If there has to be a question that Philadelphia Eagles fans have about their team from week to week, is who are the real Eagles?
Most Birds fans would like to think that it was the team that rolled to a 40-17 victory over the New York Giants as opposed to the inconsistency the team has shown in their last two losses to an awful Oakland Raiders and in last week's loss to Dallas.
The only unwinnable loss the Eagles have had this season was a 48-22 loss at the hand of the undefeated New Orleans Saints that might be one of the best teams in the NFL at this juncture of the season.
With all the weapons on the Eagles offense such as DeSean Jackson and Brian Westbrook when he's healthy, the Birds are hurting on the offensive line where Shawn Andrews has not played all season and guard Todd Herremans has missed games due to injury. The Birds free agent pickup left tackle Jason Peters has been a disappointment and has allowed opposing defensive ends to sack McNabb.
The injuries to the offensive line have made it difficult for them to come up with more consistent performance. In the last two losses, McNabb has been sacked 10 times.
Speaking of injuries, running back Brian Westbrook hasn't been in the Eagles lineup for the last two games because of a concussion and a sore ankle. The Eagles need Westbrook back in their lineup to help younger weapons like DeSean Jackson, who caught just two passes in the loss to Dallas.
In the loss to the Cowboys, McNabb had a difficult time establishing any kind of flow in the passing game. With the pressure of the Cowboys defense bearing down on him through out the game, McNabb tossed a pair of interceptions, overthrew receivers and was sacked four times.
The game ultimately came down to a couple of replay challenges that not only went against the Eagles, but sucked up all their timeouts. With four-minutes-33 seconds left in the game and facing a fourth and 11 at the Cowboys 34, the Eagles inexplicably kicked a 52-yard field goal to cut a seven-point deficit to four.
Dallas ran the clock out and won the game, leaving Eagles fans to flood the local talk show circuit with another example of how McNabb and head coach Andy Reid do a poor job of managing games in the fourth quarter—the Eagles are 1-8-1 in their last 10 games decided in the fourth quarter.
Though the Eagles are 5-3 at this point of the season, four of their wins have come sub-500 records. The only team contending they've beaten this season has been the free-falling New York. The Eagles dropped from about what would have been a B (had they beat Dallas) to a straight up “C” because of their inconsistent play and a very bad loss to Oakland.

New York Giants (5-4) C-/D+

For the first five weeks of the 2009 season, the New York Giants looked like they returning to the form that helped them win the Super Bowl in 2007.
But after four devastating losses in a row, the Giants are searching for their collective mojo, not to mention answers for their current free-fall.
In their four losses, you name it, the G-Men have blown off the field on the defensive end—133 points in their last four games—including two games in which they've given up more than 40 points, they've had bad games by Eli Manning, who has thrown six interceptions during this current losing streak and they've lost games in the final seconds—last week's loss to the San Diego Chargers.
The odd thing about the Giants offense is that the receiving corps has managed the fill the void left by departure of Plaxico Burgess. Steve Smith has 53 receptions for 662 yards and four touchdowns. Rookie Hakeem Nicks is making a bid for NFL Rookie of the Year with 20 catches for 368 yards and four touchdowns. Former Michigan star Mario Manningham has caught 48 passes for 439 yards and four touchdowns.
And yet, the Giants are 28th in the NFL in red zone efficiency, scoring 15 touchdowns on 36 trips inside the 20. The pundits who follow the Giants on a regular basis believe that's where New York misses a tall receiver like Burress who can just go up and get the ball because of his height.
Here's an idea for head coach Tom Coughlin—you have Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw give it to one of those guys. With a pair of running backs who can bust through the line and offensive line that can blast open holes, moving the ball on the ground rather than trying to passs on goal line situations would help New York to score a few more touchdowns.
Defensively, the Giants are not the same team that dominated teams with a fierce defensive line and a solid linebacking corps. For one thing, the Giants aren't getting the same kind of push in the pass rush they once had. Osi Umenyiora is not exploding off the ball like he did before his injury, but he does have four sacks.
Strangely enough, the Giants are the NFL's top ranked defense in yards allowed and third in pass defense. But in the last four games, New York has allowed teams compile 349 yards per game—just under 100 yards more than their average.
The Giants injury-riddle secondary which has been without cornerback Aaron Ross and safety Ken Phillips has allowed opposing qjuarterbacks to pick them apart.Although they played better against the Chargers, the defense still allowed San Diego to drive to the final touchdown.
In the last four weeks, the Giants went from an A- to C-/D+.

The Washington Redskins (2-6) F

The only good thing you can say about the Washington Redskins at this point of the season is that they have eight more games left to play and their season will be over.
Despite having one of the NFL's best defenses, the Redskins have been awful as a team, but it's not the fault of the player on the team. It's the head coach—Jim Zorn and an absolutely clueless front office, most notably owner Daniel Snyder, that have put the Redskins into their current state of chaos.
On the offensive end, the Redskins are 24th in the league in total offense-20th in passing and 23rd in rushing even with Clinton Portis in the back field. Not even the recent hiring of Sherm Lewis as the offensive coordinator (while taking Zorn's playcalling duties away from him) has helped a Redskins team that has yet to score over 17 points in a game.
The team has an injury-riddle offensive line. Quarterback Jason Campbell, if he's not harassed by the opposing defenses, he has been an erratic quarterback so far this season. He has nine touchdown passes and eight interceptions.
While the Redskins have the best defense in the league, the inability of their offense to keep chains moving is the thing that's making life hard before the defense because they're staying on the field so long.
The bottom-line is that the Redskins are at the bottom and they're not getting up soon. Therefore , the Skins will get an F until further notice.

Romo has a lot to prove against Eagles

By Chris Murray
For the NFC'Easter
The last time Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys visited Lincoln Financial Field in South Philadelphia, they were given a good old-fashioned Philly beat down of biblical proportions in a 44-6 shellacking in the regular-season finale.

That loss put the Cowboys out of the playoffs while adding to what has become their annual late season swoon of playing poorly in December and January.

This Sunday Dallas will come back to the Linc for another meaningful game against the surging Eagles, who are fresh off of a 40-17 whuppin' of the New York Giants. Both teams are 5-2 and tied for first-place in the NFC East.

The Cowboys have won three straight and the Eagles have won their last two. Romo said he is not thinking about what happened to him and his squad at the end of last season.

“That was last year,” Romo said of last year's loss to Philadelphia. “ We had to deal with that all off-season and we had to grind it out to get better, to improve and not let that happen again. We've taken a lot of steps to be the ball club that we're hopefully gaining to be. For us, it's about improvement and getting better.”

Both teams are feeling like that they've got the swagger back and are ready to make a move in the division. Obviously, something has to give here and somebody's going to win while the other squad will go through a week of agonizing re-appraisal and self-reflection.

That's something that Romo knows all about. He had an entire off-season to figure out what went wrong with himself and the Cowboys. Every one thought that the solution was to get rid of the always volatile Terrell Owens, which the Cowboys did at the end of last season. But the reality really and he even admitted it, was that Romo's half-hearted approach to game preparation was definitely apart of the death knell to the team's playoff aspirations.

And so everything will again bounce back to Romo, who has yet to win a meaningful game as the quarterback of “America's Team.” In some big games against divisional competition over the last couple of years, Romo has come up short.

The most glaring example was the Cowboys 33-31 loss to the New York Giants where Romo threw three interceptions led to three Giants touchdowns. One of those ;picks was returned for a touchdown. In a loss to the Denver Broncos, Romo was 11-of-24 for 201 yards, no touchdowns and one interception that he threw right to cornerback Champ Bailey near the end zone. Romo's inconsistent play throughout that game kept the Cowboys from taking what should have been a winnable game.

Sunday's game against the Eagles will be another opportunity for Romo to perform well in a big game. At this point of the season, Romo has finally found a go-to receiver in Miles Austin and his offense team has played with some semblance of consistency in their last three games. The Cowboys running game has been among the league's best.

The good part of that equation from Romo's perspective is that the burden is not all on him—he has weapons like Austin and tight end Jason Witten in the passing game and he has running backs like Marion Barber, Felix Jones and Tashard Choice.

“Anytime you play the position you have to do certain things well,” Romo said. “That's part of playing the position.when you have good personnel around you, it definitely helps that you can trust other people to know when they're going to be so you can look off longer. Obviously,when a guy can make people miss are things that separate themselves and that goes a long way.”

The only decent team Dallas played during that stretch of games was the Atlanta Falcons, a playoff team from last year. The Cowboys struggled in an overtime win over the 1-6 Kansas City Chiefs and they had an easy time with a 2-5 Seattle Seahawks. Those teams they aren't necessarily world beaters.

Romo has to prove that he can stand up to the Eagles variety of blitz packages. The word on Romo for the last couple of years is to put pressure on him and he will crumble or have a bad game throwing the football. He has not proven that theory wrong in big games during his career.

Sunday's game against the surging Eagles will be one of many times (December is one month away) that Romo will have to prove that he can lead his team to a big win.

Jackson legit deep threat for Eagles

By Chris Murray
For the NFC' Easter

Throughout the Andy Reid/Donovan McNabb era in Philadelphia, the biggest complaint in Philadelphia is the lack of a game-breaker at the wide receiver position. With the exception of the 2004 season when the Eagles had volatile wideout Terrell Owen, the Eagles haven't had a game-breaking wide receiver. The Birds went to the Super Bowl that season with Owens as their starting receiver.

So far in the 2009 season all the noise about McNabb not having that big-time go-to receiver has been muted by the performance of players like second-year wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who has become one of the most dangerous weapons in the Birds offense.

Statistically, none of the Eagles receivers are in the top 10 among the NFL's best, but McNabb does have receivers who are capable of making that game-breaking play at anytime.

After an outstanding rookie season in 2008, Jackson is following it up with a sophomore season that teams have to account for him as a force in the Eagles passing game. This season, Jackson, who was last week named the NFC's Offensive Player of the Week , has caught 24 passes for 501 yards for four touchdowns and is averaging 20.1 yards per catch—the second highest in the league for receivers with 20 or more receptions. All four of his touchdown receptions have been more than 50 yards.

In fact, all of Jackson's touchdowns-whether they are punt returns or on runs from scrimmage like his 67-yard touchdown on an end-around against the Washington Redskins—have been beyond 50 yards.

In the Birds 40-17 shellacking of the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, Jackson caught three passes for 78 yards including a 64-yard touchdown pass from McNabb late in the second quarter.

“I am just being put in some great positions to go out there and get long touchdowns. Whatever it is we have to do to make it work, that is what we are going to do,” Jackson said after Sunday's win over New York.

But Jackson is not the only Eagles wide receiver. With the injury to Kevin Curtis, rookie Jeremy Maclin is starting to get some looks from McNabb. Against the Giants, Maclin caught four passes for 47 yards and a touchdown. McNabb said he is starting to become more comfortable with the rookie out of Missouri.

“I am. You know, we worked a little bit in the off season. In the first game he didn't play much while I was in there, while I was healthy,” McNabb said. “And then you know from Tampa on, we've been able to work together, and (WR) DeSean (Jackson) as well, just working on our timing. We've had some ups and downs, but we are also kind of comfortable of what we're seeing and being on the same page.”

The problem with past Eagles teams, with the exception of 2004, is that they had players who were decent possesion receivers that might make a big play every now and then. So far in his brief time with the Eagles, Jackson has consistenly displayed an ability to be a deep threat in the Eagles offense.

In last year's NFC Championship game against the Arizona Cardinals, Jackson caught six passes for 92 yards including a big 62-yard touchdown pass from McNabb that the Eagles their only lead in the game before the Cardinals eventually won it.

With Jackson's speed, the Eagles can use him in a variety of situations from the Wildcat formation to handing the ball off to him on end arounds. As one of the league's most dangerous punt returners, Jackson has managed to put some fear in the heart of opposing special teams coach as well. Jackson likes how the team is versatility as a football player.

“The biggest thing I can say is they put me in great positions to expose the defenses,” Jackson said. “Anytime you have the coaches and the other 10 players helping you and doing everything they can to go out their and have success. Just keep putting it together.”

The only question about a small receiver like Jackson, who is listed at 5-foot-10, 175 pounds, is his durability. Last season, Jackson played in all 16 regular season games and three playoff games. He caught 62 passes for 912 yards and two touchdowns. Jackson has yet to be kept out of a game because of an injury.

Jackson's ability to stretch defenses makes it possible for possesion receivers like Jason Avant and tight end Brent Celek, who leads the team in receptions, to work the middle of the field on third down situations to keep the chains moving.

While it still remains to be seen if Jackson can be as good as Owens was in 2004 on a more consistent basis, but at the rate he's going right he may not be that far from being at that level.