The Importance Of Maclin & Jackson

When you look at last night's box score you will see that Jeremy Maclin and Desean Jackson combined for 6 catches, 85 receiving yards and just one touchdown.  Not impressive by any stretch but in order to get a real sense of how they impacted last night's game, one has to look beyond the box score.

Today on WIP, Michael Barkann and former Eagle Ike Reese were talking about how Maclin and Jackson do such a great job of stretching the field.  Reese brought up the fact that in an effort to prevent the big home run pass to either Maclin or Jackson, opposing defenses are dropping guys back into coverage and which means less guys in the box and more running lanes for Shady.  You definitely saw this last night as Vick didn't throw the ball far down the field at all and instead took what the defense gave him.

After the game Vick was asked about why he didn't throw the bomb to either Jackson or Maclin:

“Did you see how deep the safeties were playing? It was 500 yards back. Can’t throw a bomb against that. So you have to pick and choose your spots. Intermediate routes, try to get them to come up and try to put pressure on them to get what you want. Sometimes it’s tough. Each week you’re not going to see the bomb. It all depends on what you get.”

And that's exactly what the Eagles did last night.  They took what they could get both through the air and on the ground.  With safeties playing far back the whole middle of the field was wide open for quick passes to Brent Celek and Jasan Avant, and long runs for McCoy.  McCoy had 185 yards on 30 carries and took advantage of the glaring holes in the Dallas D.

Basically the box score doesn't tell the whole story.  While Maclin and Jackson may statistically have been non-factors last night, in reality they were the key to the entire offense, and the sole reason McCoy was so successful on the ground.