Monday Musings: Honest Asomugha, Coaching Clinic, Packers/Texans, Eagles Need Trade

1. Honest Asomugha – I may take a lot of heat for this particular Musing, but I’m going to give my honest thoughts on it. As a member of the media, I’m grateful there are players like Nnamdi Asomugha who tell it like it is. Yesterday, Asomugha was critical of defensive coordinator Juan Castillo and implicated him in the fourth quarter blowup for the Birds defense.

That gave me the ammunition to fire away on Castillo, calling for his in-season firing – and I’m never one to have a quick trigger on a firing.

That said, as much as I know fans want to hear the truth from players and coaches, it’s not in the best interest of the team for any player, and in particular one of Asomugha’s caliber, to be admitting that a coach made big mistakes.  That’s even more true with a coach like Juan Castillo, who was under fire last season and on the hot seat going into the offseason.

The Eagles of the early 2000’s almost always toed the company line, following head coach Andy Reid’s example of never throwing any individual other than themselves under the bus. Perhaps these Eagles would be better served by that attitude.

2. Eagles and Lions Need a Coaching Clinic – Yesterday was one of the most poorly coached football games you might ever watch, by both Andy Reid’s Eagles staff and Jim Schwartz’s Lions staff.

The Eagles coaching staff was able to find what worked, but moved away from it on both sides of the ball. g.

The most egregious error was a decision by Schwartz with 10:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, trailing 16-13.

Read more here.

3. Packers Obliterate Texans – So, what to make of the Packers 42-24 thrashing of the previously undefeated Texans last night in Houston?

Not too much. Here's why.

4. Philadelphia's Sack Obsession – I still can’t figure out why Eagles fans are so frustrated by the teams’ lack of sacks on defense. I explain why here.

5. Immature Lions – As a stringer for Sirius NFL Radio, part of my job is to go into the winning locker room to secure a post-game interview. The scene I found in Detroit’s locker room was extremely surprising.

6. Castillo Blitzing Wrong Players – There have been a lot of calls for Eagles defensive coordinator Juan Castillo to dial up more blitzes, but when he did yesterday, it backfired. So, what gives?

7. Surprise Seahawks – I wasn’t giving the Seahawks enough credit, apparently, but they sure impressed me this week in a 24-23 win over the Patriots, holding Tom Brady to a 79.3 quarterback rating – his lowest since a 75.4 rating in a Week 8 loss to the Giants last year.

8. Should Eagles be Looking for Trade Partners? – The trade deadline was moved back to week eight this year, and the Eagles might be in a position to take advantage. While I believe their problems on defense are purely on the coaching staff, they have some holes to fill up front on offense.

9. Eagles Fans Disappoint – I was surprised by the relatively poor showing from Eagles fans yesterday, with many empty seats early in the game – a lot of which didn’t really fill in. The crowd was also much more subdued than usual in some big spots in the game.

10. Monday Musings Mailbag - Your Twitter questions answered.

The full version of Monday Musings is available here.

Ryan Messick covers the Eagles for 97.3 ESPN FM.  Follow him on Twitter.