Gold Stars And Demerits: Eagles Vs. Broncos
By Spike Eskin
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – I remember the second half of last season, it was almost impossible to do this column every week. This was because it was almost impossible to find anyone on the Eagles to give a "gold star" to. This week feels like one of those weeks.
In a matchup that looked like it could be very ugly, the Eagles made sure it lived up to that. Please beat the Giants. Please, please, please beat the Giants.
Gold Star - Chris Polk and Jeff Maehl
This pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Going into a game against the best team in the NFC, and your only two touchdowns are scored by Chris Polk and Jeff Maehl. It's not really a recipe for an upset.
Demerit - Chip Kelly & Billy Davis
Where the heck is Big Balls Chip? Seriously. We're not seeing too much of the offensive creativity we saw in the first half of the Washington game (side note: we'll be talking about that first half for ten years). I fully expected Kelly to show a lot at first, and then sort of pull back, but the last two games seem to be a pretty extreme swing the other direction.
Where was Big Balls Chip on fourth down toward the end of the first half on the Broncos 36 yard line?
Where was Big Balls Chip when the Eagles were down two points after Polk's first half touchdown?
Am I expecting too much, or did the NFL beat it out of him already?
And I know Billy Davis is playing without too many pieces on defense, but man oh man, that was terrible.
Gold Star - Peyton Manning
I know he's not on the Eagles, but the guy is the best quarterback I've ever seen in my 37 years of life. You can yell and scream about the playoffs and Super Bowl and clutch and blah blah blah (he has a higher playoff QB rating than both Brady and Elway, by the way), but if you ask me "who was the guy who you've seen be best at playing quarterback?," the answer to me is quite clearly Manning.
The fact that he's a 37 year-old guy who had a few neck surgeries just adds to the legend.
Demerit - Brent Celek
Obviously this game did not come down to one, or even five, dropped passes. But when Vick hit him in the bands for a possible touchdown, and definite first down, and Celek dropped it and the Eagles had to settle for a field goal, I had a bad feeling.
When you are trying to beat a team like Denver, and you're a team like the Eagles, you have to be flawless. Celek showed early on that this was not going to be the case.
Gold Star - OMAHA!
OMAHA! OMAHA!
Demerit - Cary Williams
Cary Williams made up for the time he got torched by what seemed like running away from a wide receiver on another play.
Judging defensive secondary play is sort of tough, because you never totally know who was supposed to be where, but it sure looked like Williams wasn't where he should have been, far too many times.
