Eagles lose highly-anticipated debut of kelly green uniforms
After several months of anticipation, the Eagles throwback kelly green uniforms finally took the field in an impressive debut in Sunday’s 27-20 loss to the Packers.
“They looked sharp. Better than I expected, actually,” head coach Andy Reid said of the uniforms. “It’s just too bad this was a one-game deal. Now we’ll have to watch this mess of an offense get injured on every play in their normal duds.”
Kevin Kolb also made his debut for the Eagles and was outplayed by Michael Vick if that’s any indication of where the quarterback situation is right now.
Reid: Kolb allows us to shift focus back to passing game
Eagles head coach Andy Reid spoke Tuesday about the start to the Kevin Kolb era in Philadelphia and the quarterback’s ability to bring the team back to a more pass-oriented offense.
“That’s something we lacked while Donovan [McNabb] was here,” Reid said of his pass-until-you-can’t-pass-no-more coaching style. “Kevin’s accuracy and pocket presence allows us to get back to throwing the ball, which we got away from when Donovan handed the ball off once in Week 5 and one other time in Week 11. That’s not our game.”
Reid also announced his plans to completely phase out the use of a running back by the end of the season, though he did admit it could happen “as early as Week 6 against the Falcons.”
Football expert unsure how to grip, throw football
According to witnesses, award-winning NFL expert John Clayton reportedly looked “confused” and “not at all comfortable” when asked to throw an actual football on Friday.
“Judging by the way he held the football with both hands, we started to wonder if he had ever touched a football before,” said one non-football expert witness of the football expert. “Then he tried to throw it and we didn’t wonder anymore.”
Clayton, who recently ranked Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb 24th out of 32 NFL quarterbacks, was inducted into the writers’ wing of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007, a full three years before touching an actual football for the first time.
Reid stands by decision to sit Kolb for remainder of career
Eagles head coach Andy Reid will not second guess his decision to bench Kevin Kolb for the rest of his life.
After the Eagles capped off a close, 30-27 victory over the Broncos on Sunday, Reid had to answer for his decision to never allow his backup quarterback to see the light of day again.
“We’re one of the hottest teams in the league right now, and Kevin’s bench play has been huge for us,” Reid said. “We need him well rested so he can give us some quality rest from the bench in the playoffs.”
Kolb took the news surprisingly well and even agreed with Reid’s decision to play McNabb and occasionally mix in Michael Vick for some ridiculous reason.
“Coach Reid said I’m a valuable asset to the team and he needs me on the bench so I won’t get any ouchies or boo-boos,” Kolb said on Monday. “I totally respect his decision and I just want to make sure I’m ready if the time ever comes for me to touch or possibly throw a football again.”
Eagles’ throw-to-an-open-cat formation shocks, awes Chiefs
Michael Vick played in his first regular season NFL game since 2006 as the Eagles pummeled the Chiefs 34-14 on Sunday. Vick ran a handful of Wildcat plays, but it was the Eagles’ elusive throw-to-an-open-cat (or “Opencat”) offense that stole the show and gave the Eagles their second win of the season.
Starting in place of the injured Donovan McNabb, Kevin Kolb ran the experimental offense to near perfection, throwing to open cats for 327 yards and two touchdowns.
Andy Reid later explained the difficulty involved in running such a newfangled, hi-tech offense when everyone is so used to running the Wildcat.
“It’s something we’ve been working on for a couple weeks now and to be honest, we didn’t expect such positive results so soon,” said Andy Reid of the Opencat offense. “It’s hard to explain exactly how it works, but essentially what you wanna do is pick an open cat to throw to and when you’ve found one, that’s when you throw the ball to that cat.”
Overwhelmed by the formation from the Eagles’ first offensive possession, the Chiefs had no answer and could not recover for the rest of the game.
“We gameplanned all freaking week to defend against the Wildcat and then they throw this Opencat stuff at us,” said first-year Chiefs head coach Todd Haley. “They did run a couple Wildcat plays and we did a good job stopping them, but how in the world are you supposed to defend against a quarterback that can throw to open cats on a consistent basis? You can’t, it’s impossible.”
The Eagles will decide whether to stick with the popular offense — which has also been implemented by the Saints with great success — or return to the Wildcat in Week 5 when Donovan McNabb is expected to return against the Buccaneers.
Kolb starts strong but regains form in second half against Saints
For about 30 minutes of football, Kevin Kolb looked like a solid NFL quarterback. He then brushed himself off in the second half and returned to looking like a backup QB that took some extra reps in practice.
For the game, Kolb attempted 51 passes for 391 yards and two touchdowns, but was picked off three times in an ugly 48-22 loss to Drew Brees and the Saints.
After the game, Andy Reid spoke about the loss and Kolb’s performance in his first career start.
“Kevin really showed he still belongs in this league with the way he played out there,” said Reid. “Don’t take that as some ringing endorsement, though. It just means our plans of sitting him out on the curb if he bombed are in a holding pattern. I think a [expletive]-faced fan could have thrown for 400 yards against the Saints if you let him throw 51 times, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Kolb impressive in 'throw to guys with green helmets' drill
The Eagles’ 2009 season is officially underway as training camp opened at Lehigh University on Monday. The initial Day One buzz focused on the absence of first round pick Jeremy Maclin but quickly turned to Kevin Kolb’s eyebrow-raising performance in the ‘play catch with your teammate’ drill.
“Kevin caught everyone’s attention out there today,” said Assistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. “He picked out a teammate and threw to him for about 20 minutes while avoiding throwing to other players, coaches, reporters and fans in the stands. Just a superb session.”
Mornhinweg also noted that new offensive lineman Stacey Andrews struggled mightily in the ‘don’t eat the punter’ drill.
Report: Kolb talks about desire to be an NFL starter, what he had for dinner last night
Eagles backup quarterback Kevin Kolb spoke on Thursday about how he would rather throw a football for a living than hold a clipboard and somehow this became newsworthy.
“I just said how I would rather be an NFL starter and the reporters and fans started going nuts,” said Kolb on Friday. “They must have been pretty desperate, because I started talking about what I ate last night and they completely lost their minds.”
In what was obviously one of the slowest news days of this Eagles offseason, Donovan McNabb also drew attention for his odd pairing of friends on a YardBarker.com blog post.