September 13, 2016
Everything is A-OK in Eagles Land after one week of real football, as hope abounds after the rookie quarterback’s terrific debut against the admittedly poor Cleveland Browns. Things went so well that the commander-in-chief is now even in talks to hop aboard “the Wentz Wagon.”
How about the rest of the beautiful mess that we call the NFC East, though? Let’s check in on the Cowboys, Giants, and Washington.
Terrance Williams wasn’t close to the only player who failed to run out of bounds late in the game last weekend, but his blunder sure was the costliest:
Hey, see the big white thing to your right? It's like a magic line, you just step on it and it stops the clock. https://t.co/iwjIWNtECh
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) September 11, 2016
Dan Bailey is one of the best kickers in the league, and he had knocked a 56-yard attempt through the uprights earlier in the game. Jason Garrett would have loved to give Bailey a shot after gaining a few more yards. That chance never came, because Williams turned up field instead of getting to the sidelines.
At least Dez knew:
Bryant was almost invisible otherwise, finishing with one catch for eight yards. While Dak Prescott was the story of the preseason, he’s receiving entirely too much praise for his Week 1 performance. Prescott didn’t make any big mistakes, but he also didn’t do anything particularly well either. Check out these stats from ESPN’s Bill Barnwell:
Prescott managed to finish without taking a sack or giving the ball away and was impacted by several drops, but his overall performance was nothing spectacular. He finished 25-of-45 for 227 yards, completing under 56 percent of his passes while averaging just over 5 yards per attempt. To put that in context, Prescott was the 100th quarterback to throw exactly 45 passes in a game since 2005. Prescott's completion percentage tied for 76th among those 100 passers. His yardage total tied for 93rd. He was unproductive for throwing such a high number of passes.
The other takeaway from the game? $1.3 billion dollar stadiums can apparently have trouble with sunlight.
Next: at Washington
Bryant and Odell Beckham Jr. had a catch before the game, which ruffled some feathers:
The kids would call this game recognizing game. @DezBryant and @OBJ_3 having a pre-game catch.#NYGvsDAL pic.twitter.com/JcgcgNoJ8C
— Joe Trahan (@JoeTrahan) September 11, 2016
Dez Bryant and OBJ just completed warmups by throwing together. Don't recall Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice doing that before their games
— Ed Werder (@Edwerderespn) September 11, 2016
Beckham Jr. had a more productive day than Bryant, with four catches for 73 yards. The real story on the day for New York was Victor Cruz, who is healthy for the first time in two years and back to salsa dancing after catching touchdowns:
Other than that, not much happened with the Giants. Ben McAdoo picked up a win in his first game, the new-look defense passed its first test, and Eli Manning was sharp in the red zone.
Up next: vs. New Orleans
In 2013, Washington followed up a division title by getting embarrassed by the Eagles in the opener on Monday Night Football.
In 2016, Washington followed up a division title by getting embarrassed by the Steelers in the opener on Monday Night Football.
Kirk Cousins looked inaccurate, Jay Gruden’s coaching left a lot to be desired, and for some reason, Brashaud Breeland was stuck covering Antonio Brown instead of Josh Norman. This did not go well.
.@AntonioBrown84 CANNOT be stopped.
— NFL (@NFL) September 13, 2016
By anyone. 😳 #PITvsWAS https://t.co/VndUVOxtdx
And oh yeah, he was twerking:
Heading into the season, I felt that Washington was the most complete team in the division. While that still might be the case, losing another home game to Dallas this weekend would put them in a pretty big hole.
Up next: vs. Dallas
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
