Monday night's football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and
Washington Redskins was big on a number of fronts. For one, there was
the much-hyped return of Redskins QB Robert Griffin III to his fantasy
football owners. However the biggest story leading up to all of NFL
Week 1 was how new Eagles head coach Chip Kelly's and his explosive
rapid fire offense would translate to the NFL. The values of Michael
Vick, LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jackson, etc. hung in the balance. Well as
far as the first half was concerned, Kelly's offense and reputation
couldn't have been any more potent as the Eagles jumped out to a 26-7
halftime lead. Just as advertised, the Eagles took between 12-15
seconds between each offensive play, gassing the Redskins defense from
the start. They would wind up running the second most plays in one half
in NFL history and the players involved all benefited tremendously.
Vick was a monster, throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for
another. Than there was McCoy who wan all over the Redskins defense
both in the first and second half. As far as the final stats were
concerned, here is how things ended up.
Michael Vick:
15/25 for 203 yards with 2 passing TD's and one rushing TD. He also
ran for 54 yards and lost a fumble. It was an awesome performance and
it reminded of Vick's MVP-worthy 2010 season which resurrected his
career coming off of his prison stint. Clearly Vick still has the goods
to be a big time fantasy football QB, both in the run and passing
game. As long as he stays healthy that is. This is exactly what I
foresaw being a possibility which is why I actually touted Vick as a
sleeper and recommended drafting him for the first time in his career.
Now I have been a very longtime Vick critic and rightfully so but his
value dropped so low to the point that he was well worth an investment
given the appeal of Kelly's system. Clearly he fits it to a T.
However
the one black mark on the night was the fact that Vick and most of the
rest of the Eagles offense were sucking wind in the second half. In
fact Vick and company (outside of McCoy) did next to nothing as possibly
all those offensive plays in the first half caught up with them as
well. That should be less of a problem going forward though as the
offense gets into better shape.
LeSean McCoy:
31 carries for 184 yards and 1 TD along with 1 catch for 5 yards. McCoy
was one of the stars of Week 1 as he ran wild Monday night. Damn I
should have drafted him. I should have known better too that McCoy
would be a monster in this offense as Kelly actually called more run
plays than pass plays while at Oregon. Bryce Brown proved to be a
non-factor as well carrying only 9 times so this clearly is McCoy's
show. While the one catch was a disappointment in PPR formats, the
overall body of work was tremendous. McCoy could very well lead the NFL
in rushing.
THE REST: DeSean Jackson caught 7
passes for 104 yards and 1 TD as he for once in his career looked like a
PPR guy. Jackson has never been a big receptions receiver so this
bears watching. No one else caught more than 3 passes though so at this
point only Jackson is worth monitoring going forward into Week 2.
So
at least for one week the Chip Kelly Show was everything it was
advertised to be. We need to see more before we can conclude this is
how it will be every week but for now those who invested here have to be
feeling pretty swell for that choice.
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