Okay then:
-- Gostkowski must have been nervous because he only kicked the opening KO to the 2 yd line. He did however, put it right on the numbers for the Iggles right side, nice directional kick.
-- The Iggles essentially used a 2-1-1 wall, they must have had the correct intervals, but I've seen four man walls that were looser in the old days.
-- The 2-1-1 tried to seal the Pats left side and create a lane in the middle of the field, but Eric Alexander got down quickly and jacked the edge man up and laid him down, then forced the KR to take a wider entry angle into the lane.
-- Edelman fought through his blocker while maintaining outside contain with Wilhite holding the edge outside him, this forced the KR to try and change direction into the teeth of the coverage, before Edelman shed the block and wrapped him up.
-- It looked like the Pats tried to force the Iggles into their right side, where the teeth of the NE coverage was, but the Iggles had a nice counter using the speed of their KR. Decent return, but NE's backside coverage stayed in their lanes and kept the KR from getting into the open field.
Poor camera work on the first defensive series - per usual I guess.
-- The D-line is playing a one-gap game and immediately ran a twist with Sey crashing in from DE to draw a Double-Team and Pryor coming around behind him. McNabb tried to go deep along the sideline against Wilhite, but offensive pass interference and illegal formation calls killed the play.
-- Guyton shed a block to make the first tackle, but it wasn't like a normal NE DL effort since TBC was doing his Dwight Freeney imitation and whoever the DT on that side he was doubled out of the area code leaving Guyton to stack, shed, and stick inside a wide lane - but he got it done. Mayo got a piece before the runner was down too.
-- The Iggles tried to use their TE to clear out the LBs for the FB coming underneath, but no go as the FB took the ball 1/2 yd beyond the LOS and picked up about 5 yds before Guyton and Mayo got him.
-- Iggles 3-wide, Pats 4-3 nickel, looks like Butler came in for Wilhite who slid inside to the "star" over the slot man. Adalius & Mayo behind the line. Adalius ran with the TE and Mayo faked a blitz while spying on McNabb, he drew an OL to block him so one less for the DL. TBC drew a RB/LT double-team off the edge. The Iggles color man claims McNabb was rushed a little, TBC may have forced him to step up before he rifled the ball into the turf by the receiver's feet.
-- Punt, 38 yd kick oob.
-- 1st and 10: Pats 2-wide (Moss, Galloway), 2 TE (Baker, Thomas). Iggles run blitzed against the NE left side, Light missed a block on the DE slanting inside through the B-gap and failed to slow him for Kaczur pulling across, so Kac had to stretch to get a big enough piece of the DE to push him wide on his bee-line towards Maroney. Maroney was almost met three yds deep in the backfield, Kac getting a piece of the DE and Maroney's own sidestep kept it from being a loss of yardage. After that Maroney had nowhere to go and just got back to the LOS. Reports of his dancing on this play are pure bologna - the cheap, extra gristly kind.
-- 2nd and 10: 3-wide w/Edelman in, 1 TE. Iggles 4-2 nickel. Flanker screen to Edelman behind Galloway for 6 yds. Galloway was okay, but it wasn't a blocking clinic.
-- 3rd and 4: Five wide NE, Iggles in Dime. Decent protection, Brady released the ball on the 3 second count. He was a step behind Galloway with his timing on the pass. He also had Faulk from the slot for the first down underneath on a nice spin move to get open.
-- Punt: Nice punt just outside the numbers to the Iggles right side. I don't know who the Gunner was but he plowed through two vise men and appeared to have upset the PR as he reached and muffed the punt. The Gunner got a piece of the ball knocking it away from the PR, but the one vise man was quick to recover the ball.
-- 1st and 10: Iggles 2-wide, 2 RB offset left. Pats 6-1 heavy, Meriweather in the box outside the SLB/TE. FB dive behind Center. Meriweather looked to be the first to get to the FB, and it's hard to see, but it looks like the Iggles tried to combo Pryor with the C/LG and he rode with the C's push and slid underneath the LG to join Meriweather in holding this to a 3 yd gain, Vince came over from the other DT slot and they all wrestled the FB down together.
-- 2nd and 7: 2-wide, 2 TE right shotgun. Pats 4-3 pass rush package. Good protection, but good coverage too. Guyton skyed to get a piece of the ball and tip it short of the WR.
-- 3rd and 7: 4-wide. Pats 4-2 nickel. Big blitz - both Mayo and Adalius came with Sanders coming from Safety forcing McNabb to hurry and throw off his back foot incomplete.
-- Punt: Edelman fair catch with a man in his face, there was some good pressure up the middle by the PR team.
-- 1st and 10 NE 23: 2-wide, 2 TE. Iggles 4-3. Thomas motion to the NE right side, Brady play action to Maroney and hit Moss on a nice crossing pattern for 13 yds.
-- 1st and 10: 3-wide, TE Rt, shotgun. Iggles 4-2 nickel. Brady to Moss deep along the sideline - Samuel draws a PI for holding Moss' arm.
-- 1st and 10 Phi 18: 2-wide Lt, 2 TE Rt. Phi 4-3. Nice blocking - the OL blocked down pulling Mankins, Baker from 1x1 outside Kaczur blocked down to seal the DE. Thomas kicked out the SLB. Mankins creamed the MLB. Kaczur came off and picked up the WLB and took him all the way across outside the SLB. Maroney was unable to get up a head of steam - he looked like he was sailing through a mine field with all the changes of direction as he let his blockers clear the way, the only thing that kept him from busting loose into the secondary was the LDE had been spun completely around by Baker's block and was pointed in the right direction when Maroney slowed to allow Kaczur to finish opening the door, the LDE was just able to get a hold of him to save a big gain. It was a really pretty job of blocking and following your blockers. 4 yds.
-- 2nd and 6: 4-wide, trips Lt. 4-2 nickel. Flanker screen to Edelman behind Baker and Lewis for 5 yds. Good job blocking and running behind the blocks again.
-- 3rd and 1: I-form, Moss Rt., TE Rt. Phi 4-3. Quick snap, running behind Baker at RTE, Thomas kicked out the run blitzing SLB. Baker jacked the MLB back, and Maroney slashed over the line for a first down before Hobbs brought him down. 4 yds.
-- 1st and goal: I-form, Moss Lt, 2 TE Rt. Phi 4-3. Alex Smith motioned R-L and chipped the RDE before sealing the WLB. Thomas kicked out the S. Light lost his block on the RDE when Smith came off and Maroney was pulled down from behind as he followed his blockers off LT. 1 yd.
-- 2nd and goal. 3-wide, 2 Rt, TE Lt, shotgun. Phi 4-1 dime. Edelman motioned inside to bunch behind Lewis. Nice protection as Brady worked from R-L and hit Baker running an out at the goal line. Another half second and he could have hit Maroney at the 1 when he cleared the Umpire. TD.
-- Gost for the EP. 7-0 Pats.
Observations: Favorite whipping boy Maroney showed great patience and decent vision, setting up his blockers and giving them time to do their jobs for him. Favorite whipping boy Matt Light had a more mixed game to this point, twice missing on run blocks against a quick DE - he was solid in pass protection. Baker and Thomas working together as TEs looked very good, with Baker drawing more power/in-line assignments and Thomas the FB assignments, but both lined up in-line and offset off the line with no immediate pattern to who was doing what except when Thomas was at FB. Edelman looked natural (though I know the best is yet to come), Lewis looked like Gaffney, Galloway and Brady still need more time together.