From: jmd@cbnewsm.cb.att.com (joseph.m.dakes)
Subject: Eagles Report
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 14:19:44 GMT
Keywords: Kansas City 24, Philadelphia 17


This game was supposed to be the battle of the irresistible force vs
the immovable object with Kansas City's punishing rushing attack going
against Philadelphia's #1 rushing defense.  It was anything but.

The Chiefs came out throwing and throwing and throwing and throwing
some more.  Kreig threw five straight times on the Chiefs first
possession culminating in a 43-yard TD pass for a 7-0 lead.  That was
to be the story of the game as Kreig play-actioned the Eagles defense
to death completing 12-26 for 272-yards, 3 TDs, with 1 INT.  The Chiefs
rushing attack was limited to 62-yards on 19 carries, but the threat of
the running game was just enough to make the play-action work.  Of
course it wasn't all offense for the Chiefs.  The Eagles moved the ball,
particularly on the ground, in the first half, but when they got into
scoring position the KC defense put the clamps on Cunningham and Co.  It
was an excellent gameplan and almost perfect execution by Kansas City.

Eagles Report Card:

Randall:  C.  Randall completed 16-27 for 168-yards with 2 TDs and 2
INTs.  He also ran 12 times for 81-yards.  But he threw some terrible
balls early on and was sacked 6 times.

Running backs:  B-.  Herschel gained 89-yards on 19 carries mostly all
in the first half.  Byars had a couple of good runs and caught 4 balls
for 28-yards.  But on key third and fourth down situations they were
stopped cold.

Receivers:  C.  TE Pat Beach caught 2 TD passes to get the Eagles back
in the game in the fourth quarter.  Fred Barnett caught 6 balls for
86-yards, but dropped a ball which could have put the Eagles on the board
early in the game.  Calvin Williams was invisible except for being
penalized for offensive pass interference which negated an Eagles first
down late in the game.

Offensive Line:  C.  The line opened some gaping holes for Walker early
on, but as mentioned above, they didn't get the job done on key third and
fourth down situations.  Kansas City also got six sacks and pressured
Randall most of the day.

Defensive Line & Linebackers:  B.  Kansas City didn't run as much as
expected, but even when they did they were stopped pretty well.  The
GANG GREEN even got some pressure on Kreig sacking him 4 times.  But
it wasn't enough as the play-action repeatedly caused them to hesitate.

Secondary:  D-.  If it wasn't for an Eric Allen INT to set up an Eagles
TD it would have been an F.  The secondary was faked out of its shorts
getting burned on scoring tosses of 43, 24, and 74-yards.  Even KC's
fourth quarter FG was the result of a long pass completion (even though
it was defended about as good as it could have been).  Eagles fans should
be overjoyed learing that CB-Izel Jenkins was benched during the game.
The only problem was that Zel's  replacement, Otis Smith, did just as
poorly if not worse.

Special Teams:  F.  After Roger Ruzek's 49-yard FG to pull the Birds to
within 7-3, it was all down hill.  Two blocked FGs by KC, poor punts,
terrible coverage and no return yardage.  It doesn't get any worse than
this.

The Eagles were outplayed and outcoached.  The only positive out of this
is that considering how badly the Chiefs outplayed the Eagles, they only
lost by 7-points.  Sure it was 24-3 early in the fourth quarter, as all
the Eagles-haters are pointing out, but the game is sixty minutes long.
It would have been easy to go through the motions down by 21 in front of
80,000 screaming fans and just get on the plane to go home.  But the
Eagles gave their best for a full sixty minutes to get back into the game
and even had a chance to tie it up at the end.  Unfortunately, their best
wasn't good enough to beat a very good Kansas City team.

One other positive is that the Eagles should now be willing to activate TE
Mo Johnson.  Kotite didn't want to mess with success and make any roster
moves with the team winning.  But now he has no reason not to get another
legitimate TE into the lineup.  This move will help Pat Beach and free up
Keith Byars, IMHO.

Next week the Eagles travel to RFK to take on the Washington Redskins
in what should be a classic NFC East matchup.


E-A-G-L-E-S

Joe Dakes
AT&T Microelectronics
555 Union Boulevard
Allentown, PA  18103
alux2!jmd