Eagles Q&A from behind enemy lines

We are starting a new weekly series here at Ol’ Bag of Donuts (like we don’t have enough already) when we go behind enemy lines and reach out to a blog of the week’s opposing team for a Q&A.  Five questions that we think pertain to the outcome of the game, current happenings of the opponent or just something that we need an answer for.  Whatever it might be we want to give you a look from the other side before the week’s game.  We still don’t have a clever name for this yet, so shoot us any of your ideas!

This week we are talking to JasonB of Eagles blog fame that is Bleeding Green Nation. These guys have a great site and provide a lot of content, so definitely give them a look before the game Sunday for any Eagles insight and throughout the season.

1.) What do Eagles fans realistically expect from Kevin Kolb this year? Is it possible that the team may need to take a step back in 2010 in order to move forward? (Aaron Rodgers missed the playoffs in his first year as a starter and now considered among the game’s elite)

Well oddly enough, the reason the Packers took a step back that year wasn’t so much Rodgers as it was their awful offensive line. There’s certainly some fear here that this could end up as yet another parallel between Rodgers & Kolb. The Eagles offense line was terrible in preseason, but the sliver of hope is that three starters were basically not even there all preseason. The line will be fully intact for the first time in Week One, but it remains to be seen how healthy they are and how well they play as a unit. That said, if we were to assume the line does it’s job then I don’t think fans expect a big dropoff from McNabb to Kolb in year one. There was no dropoff in the two games he started last year, so over the course of a whole season our expectation is that he’ll do a good job.

Like I said though, for me it’s all about the offensive line.

2.) We have all read about McNabb’s departure, but how will the absence of Brian Westbrook impact the Eagles?

As it turns out, not as much as I would have thought. For all intents and purposes, this is the second year without Westbrook. He was hurt since before training camp last year, he never got really healthy, then the concussions came and really never was a part of the offense. Despite that, the Eagles set a franchise record for points last year.

There were many years where the entire Eagles offense was McNabb, Westbrook, a good offensive line, and a bunch of guys. That’s not the case anymore. Between DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin & Brent Celek the Eagles offense has weapons. LeSean McCoy had a solid rookie season taking over for Westbrook at RB and showed that he has a similar skill set. It’s hard to say if he’ll ever be as good as Westbrook was, but in this offense he doesn’t have to be.

3.) How do you think the Eagles attack Rodgers and the Packers’ vaunted passing game Sunday?

They’re going to come after him. The Eagles have been an attacking defense since Jim Johnson took over a decade ago and his protege, Sean McDermott, hasn’t changed that. Their philosophy is to pressure the QB by whatever means necessary and force him into mistakes.

They’re going to come after Rodgers. They’re going to try and hit him and make him uncomfortable. Whether they can execute this remains to be seen.

4.) Brandon Graham was a player on many draft boards for the Packers, how is he looking so far?

He’s done really well so far. He was so impressive in camp and preseason that he won the starting left defensive end job from veteran Juqua Parker, who had eight sacks last year. His effort from play to play is off the charts and he’s flashed some moves and technique that you don’t often see from rookies. Usually these guys coming out of college will just try to use their speed to beat OT’s in the NFL. Graham certainly still has work to do, but most of us feel like we’re seeing the makings of a really good player here.

5.) If you were defending Desean Jackson, what would you do?

The games were he didn’t produce last year were the ones where Donovan McNabb was under siege. So shutting down Jackson starts with getting after the quarterback. I realize that this isn’t a particularly surprising or insightful suggestion, but in the NFL the simplest solution is usually the right one. You shut down Jackson by getting in the quaterback’s  face.

Thanks again to JasonB at Bleeding Green Nation. We look forward to talking to them again in the future.

-Adam Somers