What You Thought: Week Four

[mattb47]

I think people are too critical of Kolb right now...if he's named the starter again, he'll play better than yesterday.

You mean the next week when teams are actually gameplanning for him vs gameplanning for Vick? If he can't perform above average against a defense that was preparing all week for a COMPLETELY different kind of QB in Vick than he is, then I don't know that the logic follows that he'll perform better when a defense is ready to play him. Kolb just plain doesn't look that good...his confidence looks shaken and that shined through in how many passes he had to toss short to McCoy yesterday.

[thejusman1]

I think people are too critical of Kolb right now...if he's named the starter again, he'll play better than yesterday.

I don't think I'm being critical enough. He might look at his completion % and the fact that they actually scored on a drive as evidence that he did a good job. The truth is he stifled the Eagles' high-flying offense with his short, ultra-conservative passes, and had horrible downfield vision.

[bigh0rt]

I went to the Rams game and I left in awe of how good Bradford is and how lucky we are to have him in St. Louis. Aside from a hurting S-Jax, the Rams offense is a bunch of scrubs but he makes it work.

He definitely passes the eye test. He looks great out there right now.

[u_fig_eater]

I think people are too critical of Kolb right now...if he's named the starter again, he'll play better than yesterday.

You mean the next week when teams are actually gameplanning for him vs gameplanning for Vick? If he can't perform above average against a defense that was preparing all week for a COMPLETELY different kind of QB in Vick than he is, then I don't know that the logic follows that he'll perform better when a defense is ready to play him. Kolb just plain doesn't look that good...his confidence looks shaken and that shined through in how many passes he had to toss short to McCoy yesterday.

That's the same exact argument people made against Vick, and we all know how that turned out. Yesterday's game was bizarre on many levels.

The Eagles aren't hosting Donovan McNabb's homecoming every week. There was an immeasurable amount of emotion and pressure surrounding this game. It's probably the most pressure-packed game they'll play unless they have some do-or-dies later in the year.

The weather was horrible. McNabb himself only completed eight passes. Desean Jackson didn't do much, but on the other side, Santana Moss was held without a catch.

Lastly, his stat line was decent. 22/35 (63%) 201-1-1. Plus a bonus 21 yards rushing. Furthermore, if you give him the benefit of the doubt and add Vick's 49 passing yards (since Kolb entered mid-game), it looks even better. And if we play the woulda-coulda-shoulda game; if his receiver would have held on to the ball on the last play, his stat line would have been great and we would all be saying he was a hero.

His mechanics seem fine. If he is named the starter, he'll get the first-team reps, and run a game plan designed for him. See, that argument goes both ways. I'm not saying he'll light it up, I'm just saying that game was unusual and he'll be in a position to improve.

[Kareighuis]

Marshall was quiet the first half last night, so Miami started lining him up in the backfield then motioning him into the slot pre-snap. Suggests they're trying to create mismatches for him. And to think I was gonna try to trade him for equivalent WR value this week...

[mattb47]

I think people are too critical of Kolb right now...if he's named the starter again, he'll play better than yesterday.

You mean the next week when teams are actually gameplanning for him vs gameplanning for Vick? If he can't perform above average against a defense that was preparing all week for a COMPLETELY different kind of QB in Vick than he is, then I don't know that the logic follows that he'll perform better when a defense is ready to play him. Kolb just plain doesn't look that good...his confidence looks shaken and that shined through in how many passes he had to toss short to McCoy yesterday.

That's the same exact argument people made against Vick, and we all know how that turned out. Yesterday's game was bizarre on many levels.

The Eagles aren't hosting Donovan McNabb's homecoming every week. There was an immeasurable amount of emotion and pressure surrounding this game. It's probably the most pressure-packed game they'll play unless they have some do-or-dies later in the year.

The weather was horrible. McNabb himself only completed eight passes. Desean Jackson didn't do much, but on the other side, Santana Moss was held without a catch.

Lastly, his stat line was decent. 22/35 (63%) 201-1-1. Plus a bonus 21 yards rushing. Furthermore, if you give him the benefit of the doubt and add Vick's 49 passing yards (since Kolb entered mid-game), it looks even better. And if we play the woulda-coulda-shoulda game; if his receiver would have held on to the ball on the last play, his stat line would have been great and we would all be saying he was a hero.

His mechanics seem fine. If he is named the starter, he'll get the first-team reps, and run a game plan designed for him. See, that argument goes both ways. I'm not saying he'll light it up, I'm just saying that game was unusual and he'll be in a position to improve.

You know what the difference is though? Vick actually looked good when he came in for Kolb that game. Kolb did not. You can't just look at his stat line, that's an absolutely TERRIBLE way to judge how he actually played and how he will play. He had a decent stat line but looked absolutely AWFUL in that game...just terrible. He completed like 75% of his passes to LeSean McCoy on dump off passes, showed no ability to even look downfield to complete a pass much less actually throw it and didn't show a whole lot of pocket awareness either.

Also, McNabb didn't complete many passes and such because they just knew they could pound the ball against these guys and that was their plan the whole game...you could see it from the start when they didn't even try to pass on their first drive. Santana Moss being held without a catch has absolutely no bearing on Kolb...all it means is that the Eagles committed extra people to keeping him out of the game and the Redskins were happy pounding it on the ground...means nothing.

I don't know why some people keep thinking that this guy is still good...he had a couple decent games last year against two very generous passing defenses and has looked terrible in every snap he's played in this season. He looked bad early, bad this past week, and he'll look bad next week too...cuz he's just not as good as everyone seemed to think he was.

Let's look at what he did that game once he came in:

Short pass to Avant taken for 3 yards
Fumbled snap from shotgun, incomplete pass
Short pass to Avant taken for 17 yards
Short pass to Schmitt taken for 12 yards
Short pass to McCoy taken for 17 yards
Short pass to McCoy taken for 13 yards
Short pass to McCoy taken for 4 yards
Short pass incomplete to Celek

2nd Half
Short pass incomplete to Schmitt
Short pass incomplete to Jackson
Long pass incomplete to Maclin
Short pass to Bell taken for 1 yard
Short pass to Maclin taken for 15 yards
Short pass to Schmitt taken for 18 yards
Short pass incomplete to McCoy
Short pass to Celek taken for 12 yards
Short pass to McCoy taken for -1 yards
Sacked and fumbles but recovered by PHI
Long pass incomplete to Jackson
Scrambles for 11 yards
Scrambles for 10 yards
Short pass to McCoy taken for 2 yards
Short pass to Schmitt taken for 13 yards
Short pass to Avant taken for 7 yards
Short pass to McCoy taken for 7 yards
Short pass to McCoy taken for 5 yards
Short pass to McCoy taken for 6 yards
Short pass to Celek taken for 5 yards, TD
Incomplete pass to Avant (2 pt Conv)
Short pass incomplete to Jackson
Short pass to Jackson taken for 9 yards
Short pass to Celek for 10 yards
Spiked ball
Short pass incomplete to McCoy
Short pass incomplete to Celek
Long pass incomplete to Jackson
Short pass to Jackson taken for 4 yards (+ lateral to get first down)
Long pass intercepted

What's scary...is when you look at what percentage of his yardage was actually thrown by him, and what percentage was his receivers making good plays after the catch. About 65% of his passing yards were YAC in the time he played...13 of his 22 completions were to his RBs or FBs and almost half his attempts were to his RBs or FBs. So his long passes weren't actually long...they were short passes taken for decent yardage...he failed to complete ANY of his long attempts (although there were only a handful of them he even tried) and the only person he could consistently throw passes to was his RBs where 73% of that yardage was YAC. Sorry, but all that points to just downright awful.

[Kareighuis]

You can't just look at his stat line, that's an absolutely TERRIBLE way to judge how he actually played and how he will play.

Shh! I don't want too many to know that.

Seriously, Vick attacks downfield, while Kolb plays the conservative dink and dunk. Someone compared Kolb's QBing to driving- hands at 10 and 2 while standing on the break.

It'll be interesting to see what Philly does with the two this coming offseason- assuming they're both on the roster.

[DaSh 1s]

Wow, thank you mattb47 for that excellent write up.