Dallass really sucks

It is amazing what happens when the Eagles have no turnovers, no stupid, backbreaking penalties, good to great play calling in the redzone, and great focus and execution. It seems when a team has these things going for them they also get the bounces and tonight was no exception for the Eagles. Bounces that went their way - Nnamdi's interception, the recovery of center fumble on snap even though the ball was kicked, busted plays turning into first downs, Vick's strip sack that Herreman's was able to jump on, and Reid even went 2 for 2 on his challenges to make it abundantly clear this was the Eagles night. Of course both of those plays, especially the second were terrible original calls by the officials.

As a result the Eagles demolished the Cowboys 34-7, put up 495 total yards, dominated time of possession 41:09 to 17:51, rushed for 239 yards vs. the leagues #1 defense vs. the run, and almost shut Dallass out. The shutout would have been the best tribute to Jim Johnson who was inducted into the Eagles hall of fame at half time along with another defensive great, Eric Allen, but allowing on 7 I suppose is acceptable.

Other notes:

• Jim Johnson's last game coached at the Linc was a 44-6 blowout win over Cowboys in 2008.
• Nice to see the coaching staff do what we want - continue to run the ball, get Celek involved, put cornerbacks on tightends like Whitten, and less to NO gimmick plays.
• Vick was on fire in the first half, especially on the third TD drive with the two passes that completed the series - the first down pass to Avant and the TD pass to Celek.
• Also great audible by Vick on that first TD play to Maclin.
• Vick also was decisive on his runs and picked his spots really well. He also got out of bounds and avoided hits better, though not perfectly.
• I actually laughed at that Snickers ad with Joe Pesci and Don Rickles.
• The worst call of the year so far has to be the one the refs said was a backwards pass that Jackson dropped.
• The crowd gave a huge mock cheer when the refs corrected it, but I wasn't sure if it was for the refs or the fact that Reid went 2 for 2 on his challenges for the first (and probably last) time ever.
• Romo was awful and played like a scared little girl for the most of the game. I love when he sacks himself.
• Speaking of sacks, good to have Trent Cole back.
• Offensive line played great on both protection and run blocking. Credit also goes to the tightends in this regard as well.
• Danny Watkins was good. Has he gotten a penalty yet?
• So glad we signed Steve Smith. I guess he really is just an injury insurance policy, but it's not like we've needed him.
• Should the starters have all been in there on the last 2 offensive series? The Cowboys were dropping like flies.
• Kind of disappointed no fan dressed as Rob Ryan for Halloween.
• The Cowboys dressed up as a football team, but they didn't fool anyone.
• If NBC had any cheesesteak shots, I missed them.
• Dallass sucks.

Dallass sucks

10/30 8:20 PM ET	Opening	Legends	5Dimes	SBGGLOBAL	JustBet
Dallass @ Philadelphia	51 -3.5	50.5 -3.5	50.5 -3.5	50.5 -3	50 -3

Matchup

Bonus Question: Which team is the bigger fraud?

Right back in it!

It appears Andy Reid is capable of learning. The offense was successful today with short passes and running the ball consistently. But Reid is a slow learner, so he still tried a quarterback sneak on the inch line before going with a run to the outside for a touchdown. And after their first 2 trips inside the 10 resulted in touchdowns, the offense reverted to field goals the next 2 times, and then put up a big fat zero for the entire second half, giving the Redskins a chance to steal the game. But Rex Grossman repeatedly destroyed any chance Washington had of winning the game by throwing terrible interception after terrible interception. He was the Eagles MVP and eventually was replaced by backup, John Beck.

The Eagles defense showed up today by getting 4 interceptions (but Grossman deserves more credit for those than the Eagles) and shutting down the Redskins running game. I have no idea how they shut down the run so effectively as opposed to previous weeks. Maybe the "brilliant" Coach Billick could have filled us in instead of babbling on and on about something pointless. I think the Eagles also benefitted from Washington's play calling. Where were the screens and the draws that the Bills killed the Eagles with last week?

I will also do something very rare - thank the refs. The refs bailed the Eagles out more than a few times today with bad calls, most notably the roughing the passer call in the first quarter that really helped the offense get out of a huge hole and get rolling to their first touchdown. Up until that call the Eagles were only going backwards.

With the 20-13 win the Eagles are now only a game out of first in the hapless NFC East and SuperBowl bound again!

Other notes:

• Coleman had 3 interceptions, but also the stupidest play of the game with his idiotic personal foul on a defenseless receiver that already dropped the ball.
• Nnamdi had the hit of the game, knocking big mouth Cooley out of the game. Sheldon Brown on Reggie Bush is still the best hit by a #24 I ever saw.
• The Eagles first TD was a great call and perfectly executed. Miracle.
• McCoy could have had 2 TDs on the day if he didn't drop a shovel pass. He tried to run before he caught the ball...
• I don't think Dion Lewis was down on his "TD" run. If he was there would not have been any bright green underneath his knee - he was casting that shadow on the ground you know.
• Speaking of shadows, in that dumb ad where the plane lands in the back of the pickup, the truck has no shadow underneath it at all when they go to the angle from the front.
• Two weeks in a row DRC has let an interception bounce right off his hands. His whiff while trying to tackle the "shifty" Beck in the fourth quarter was embarrassing.
• Celek's "spectacular" catch was only difficult because he didn't catch the pass the first time.
• Eagles got most of the bounces today, the opposite of last week.
• We could have used a replay on Celek's drop in the endzone and Vick's kicking of I don't know what on the sideline by the cheerleaders after that long run. He appeared to be apologizing for whatever he did.
• Reid et. al were out adjusted at the half again.
• McCoy's poke of Reid in his big fat belly was like poking a life-size Pillsbury Doughboy.
• Eagles seemed a little too happy after winning. Or maybe I'm a little too bitter.

If they win, only 1 game out of first!*

10/16 1:00 PM ET	Opening	Legends	5Dimes	SBGGLOBAL	JustBet
Philadelphia @ Washington	47.5 0	47 1	47 1	47 1.5	47 1.5

Matchup

Bonus Question: Who will make the idiotic play that sets another new standard of stupidity and carelessness this week?

*If the Bills beat the Giants too.

Season is over

Nice try Eagles. But only playing good on occasion during a 60 minute game doesn't work. Sure the Bills got every lucky bounce in the book on the majority of the turnovers, but the defense can't stop anything 90% of the time and the team is stacked with high paid morons and a defensive coordinator that is completely overmatched.

Maybe next year.

Other notes:

• Juqua Parker is a fucking idiot.

The Dream Rotation

All that excitement from last Winter's signing of Clifton Phifer.... Remember it? In case you forgot:

HERE IT IS

Yup, he musta really liked here even though he could have stayed where he was or gone to NY. Not like NY would have gotten him a championship this year, but Texas very well could pull that off. They're in it beyond the first round anyway.

Here's another good one: "But should I even be thinking about the offense at this point when it looks like the rotation will consist of Halladay, Lee, Hamels and Oswalt?" The answer to that question is now known: YES. (Even though Howard was the last heartless sell out to stand at bat for the Phils, he at least didn't strike out this year.... LOOKING....) I think my original reaction is captured well in my response to that blog entry: "This is the weirdest feeling right now. I should be nothing but excited, but my mind is worried. Is that cuz I live in Philly and have to sports-worry, or what?" I'm still feeling the same way. Or maybe this is the clincher, "I think this is a GREAT move, but I don't think it changes last year's postseason one bit." Others made some similar comments about the offense in that entry too. Man, Ron hit it dead on, except the boring part: Even more meaningless regular season.... [for the same outcome]

Bummer. That one hurt. Sports are indeed dumb. Stand by for the Cards to win the whole World Series, so we can once again be the doormat for a Champion. No other reason to predict that other than the fact that it's a live trend.

NOvember

Remember spring training, when everyone just wanted to skip to the playoffs? It's going to be like that times 100 next year, because regular season wins will mean nothing.

They didn't mean a ton this season either — it was World Series or bust from day 1. But at least we had that shiny "four aces" rotation to enjoy and a Jayson Werth-less lineup to monitor/complain about/be happy about when Hunter Pence was acquired.

Now it's going to be World Series or bust, but with a much more negative tone.

If there's anyone to blame for the Game 5 loss to St. Louis, it's clearly "Senor Octubre" himself, Carlos Ruiz. Had he gotten on base just once, Roy Halladay surely would have homered to give the Phils a 2-1 win.

I don't know what more you could ask of Halladay, he was awesome tonight. He only gave up one run in a first inning that saw him throw 138 pitches (estimate). After that point, though, he was dealin'.

His best moments came in the top of the eighth. Having allowed a leadoff single to Chris Carpenter, Ruiz let a bunting Furcal to reach by stupidly trying and failing to nail Carpenter at second. Two on, no outs, and another run ends the game early. But Halladay put the team on his back squared (because it was already on his back) and somehow got out of the inning — fanning Lance Berkman after a sac bunt and getting Matt Holliday to fly out. It was bigtime hero pitching.

As awesome as Doc was, though, Chris Carpenter was awesome-er, going nine innings for the win. There was only one time he looked to be in any trouble. In the fourth the Phils had two on with two outs before Raul Ibanez sent one deep, but for an out. Utley being thrown out trying to steal ended any momentum in the sixth, and his leadoff deep fly to center in the ninth looked good off the bat, but was caught at the wall.

And that was about it for the Phillies offense, which outside of Game 1, was terrible in this series. And not too hot for much of the season, as well. The pitching truly carried this team — aces, fill-in starters and surprising bullpen performers all.

The Phillies will be a playoff contender again next season, but now have a lot of issues to deal with and not a lot of wiggle room to do so. If there was any goodwill left outside of the most ardent apologists, it would seem to gone now.

NOTES:

• Adding injury to insult, Ryan Howard looks like he may have torn his Achilles on the last swing of the Phils' season. Let's hope it's not that bad.

• Most disappointing loss since the Eagles lost at home to Tampa Bay? It's hard to have a five-game series loss be as devastating as a single game in which the Eagles jumped out to a lead, but it feels close to that considering what the Phillies were bringing to the table.

• I'm not blaming the five-game format at all, but do you think they should go to full seven-gamers at the division series level?

• Lots of people are going to kill the offense, and they should. But this series turned when Cliff Lee's gave up a 4-run lead in Game 2 — and then was cheered off the field for some reason. I would think that kind of thing will not be seen next season — unless it's Cliff Lee, of course.

Week 5 and it might already be the last game that matters

10/09 1:00 PM ET	Opening	Legends	5Dimes	SBGGLOBAL	JustBet
Philadelphia @ Buffalo	48.5 3	49.5 1	49.5 1.5	49.5 1.5	49.5 3

Matchup

Bonus Question: What stupid, unnecessary gimmick play will blow up in the Eagles face this week?

Squirrelly

What an incredibly annoying game.

It started off well enough, with Jimmy Rollins doubling, Chase Utley tripling and Hunter Pence singling off of Edwin Jackson to grab a 2-0 lead with no outs in the first. But things went downhill from there. Which was too bad really, as the entire game was still to be played.

The umps, maintaining their lousy performance in this series, wrung up Ryan Howard on what looked like an outside pitch, and called out the running Pence at second despite him beating the throw. And so a Cardinals starter was again let off the hook early in the game. Why Pence was running with strikeout machine Howard at the plate, I don't know, but it should have been first and second with no outs.

That said, the Phillies offense had the rest of the game to produce, and did next to nothing until the top of the eighth when they pushed their third run across with some help from the balking, wilid pitching Fernando Salas. But when the game was on the line, Pence grounded out and Howard struck out to lefty reliever Marc Rzepczynski.

All my hopes were in Pence at this point, because I had zero confidence in Howard coming through against Rzepczynski, who dispatched him on three pitches. And I don't think Howard had any more confidence then I did.

It looked like Howard was seeing the ball well in the first two games if not always hitting it, but he's been overmatched since. He needs to be dangerous for this offense to work, and he's not right now.

It's back to Philly Friday for Game 5, Roy Halladay and Chris Carpenter again at 8:30 p.m.

NOTES:

• Lots of other crap happened in this game, but most was too annoying to dwell on. OK, real quick: Utley made a bad play trying to first-to-third on that grounder to short, but Albert Pujols made a great play coming off the bag and nailing him at third. He could just as easily played it safe and taken the out at first before throwing to third, which likely would have been late.

• Most people, having just fallen on their butt at the edge of the warning track, would stand back up before attempting to throw the ball back into the infield. But most people are not Shane Victorino.

• A ninth-inning rally against Cardinals closer Jason Motte does not look likely, if necessary, at this point. Let's hope it's not necessary.

• The Phillies actually outhit the Cardinals 7 to 6. It sure didn't seem that way.

• Dick Stockton is old.

• Squirrels!

• Les Bowen makes a good point.

• Roy Halladay: Do the damn thing, son.

Ben there, done that

There were a few tense moments early on, but for the purposes of this review Game 3 of this series began with a Shane Victorino leadoff single in the seventh.

After a passed ball, Victorino was on second and almost got tagged out returning to second after John Mayberry flew out to right. It was a "Victorino being Victorino" moment that wasn't, thankfully, because it would have killed the inning and let a tiring Jaime Garcia off the hook. But he was safe, and Garcia intentionally walked Crlos Ruiz to face a pinch hitter — maybe because Tony La Russa wanted Cole Hamels definitely out of the game, maybe because he just thought Ruiz was better than anyone coming off the Phillies' bench.

Boom. Three-run home run from Ben Francisco.

I thought La Russa actually made the right call on the intentional walk. But for a guy who was more than willing to shuffle bullpen guys in to face a single hitter, he curiously wasn't even considering a reliever in this spot. And it hurt, because Garcia left a lazy fastball up to Francisco for the homer, and had to stay in against Jimmy Rollins, who cracked a double.

Maybe La Russa — in a 0-0 game at the time — was thinking about the possibility of extra innings. But his pen did have a day off Monday, and he seemed to go against his own style in leaving Garcia out there.

Of course, that wasn't the end of things. Just as Victorino's leadoff hit finally put some pressure on the Cardinals, the Red Birds got their first leadoff hit in the bottom of the seventh off of Vance Worley, and ended up scoring a run.

This is when I started to think Charlie Manuel might have taken some crazy pills today. Or forgotten to take them, whichever is applicable.

Despite Worley struggling to get through the seventh, Manuel sends him back out for the eighth, and hitting machine Ryan Theriot promptly singled. Now, Manuel probably figured to send in Bastardo to face Jon Jay no matter what happened — but why not just start the inning with him? Bastardo's fastball is much more electric, and Theriot — despite being the aforementioned hitting machine in this game — really doesn't handle the hard stuff.

Nick Punto hit for lefty Jay, flied out, and Matt Holliday — possesor of a sore finger that's kept him out of this series so far — comes in as a pinch hitter. What does a guy with a bum hand probably not want to face? Mid-90s fastballs on the inside corner. But he didn't have to worry about those as Manuel pulled Bastardo for Brad Lidge.

I don't care if it was a righty on righty matchup, I thought this was a mistake. Bad tie wearer Bob Brenly thought it was a mistake. And Holliday proved us right by hitting a slider for a single. Furcal — hitless from the right side up to this point — hit lefty off of Lidge and singled, loading the bases.

So, with five outs to go and the bases jammed, Manuel naturally went to closer Ryan Madson. What?!?!

In retrospect, I guess Manuel might have figured it was all going to hell, so let's get the team's best reliever out there. But I could have sworn the writer of the "Where it all went wrong for Charlie Manuel" chapter in the history books was cracking his knuckles readying his pen and ink at this point.

Oh me of little faith. Allen Craig did the one thing that could stave off disaster and hit a bullet grounder to Chase Utley, who turned a double play himself. Some Cardinals got on in the ninth, but after that eighth I couldn't muster the energy to get worried.

Roy Oswalt and Edwin Jackson in Game 4 tomorrow, tentatively set for 6 p.m. but dependent on tonight's Brewers/Diamondbacks result.

NOTES:

• Some stuff happened before the seventh, but it was mostly good pitching from Hamels and Garcia. Hamels got a deserved win for his efforts.

• Madson came to the plate in the ninth with 2 outs. Did anyone else think La Russa might have considered hitting him with a pitch in an attempt to get him out of the game? Would any baseball manager have ever done it? Nah.

Saints alive

It's late, I'm tired and may want to watch Breaking Bad before turning in, so I'll keep this brief.

That great Game 2 pitching matchup didn't really materialize. The Phillies lit into Chris Carpenter — who started on three days rest because Tony La Russa is such a genius — in the first inning. Cliff Lee started strongly, but blew up in the fourth and sixth innings, handing St. Louis a 5-4 lead. Only some clutch relief from Brad Lidge kept the Phils' deficit that small.

Both teams' bullpens were very good, and since the Cardinals had the lead they won, with Jason Motte picking up an impressive four-out save.

The Cardinals had pen troubles all season, seemingly, but actually seemed to figure some things out in their run toward the post season. The revolving closer door got back around to Motte, and he settled into the role down the stretch. Octavio Dotel, Mitchell Boggs and Marc Rzepczynski have done well in their roles as late, too, with left hander Rzepczynski especially giving the Phillies headaches.

Cole Hamels and Jaime Garcia for Game 3 Tuesday at 5 p.m.

NOTES:

• That home plate umpire missed too many blatant strikes to count. La Russa was whining early and, at the risk of being biased, had much less to complain about compared to the Phillies later in the game. But either way, for a playoff umpire, a lot of those calls were pretty alarming.

• Damn shame the Phillies wasted a great play at the plate — in which Carlos Ruiz took an elbow to the head while tagging out Jon Jay, preserving a then 4-3 Phillies lead — in a loss.

Overrated frauds

The Dallass of the 2011 season blew another game today. This was worse than the 2 before it. The Eagles blew a 23-3 lead to a west coast team at home by allowing 21 unanswered points in the second half. Brutal.

The defense is absolutely atrocious and a complete joke. GEE, WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED? Once again the lowly, know-nothing fans know more about football than Andy Reid and the morons in the front office do. But we're not geniuses, it's simple basic common sense:

• an offensive line coach is not a good candidate for a defensive coordinator.
• Not having competent linebackers and safeties is a recipe for disaster.
• Starting a season with rookie kickers will cost the team a game or 2.

Once again execrable red zone execution by the offense. Did anyone think they were going to score a TD on that 3rd and goal on the 6 inch line? Again, bunched in tight and again slow handoff for a run up the middle. What Brown was doing nobody knows with his attempted pass, but then to challenge it when a backwards pass is always a lateral?!?! A team of idiots led by an idiot.

So a team that put up 513 total yards loses to a scrub team led by a rookie coach and Alex Smith, 24-23.

Other notes:

• Coming into the game the 49ers were the worst rated offense in the league.
• Eagles were 2 for 7 in the redzone. Absolutely pathetic again.
• Eagles have been outscored 36-0 in the fourth quarter in the last 3 games.
• Eagles have given up double digit leads in 3 straight games now.
• Fifth straight loss at home.
• Up big and still throwing the ball every damn play. Typical Reid.
• Early in the game they were forcing the ball to Jackson and on those 2 50/50 balls he didn't get either and one led to an interception.
• 49ers defense isn't that good, but they hit way better than the Eagles do. I miss that.
• In other words, Eagles defense is as soft as cotton candy resting in a pool of melted butter, which coincidentally is Reid's favorite snack.
• There was only 1 positive play for the Eagles in the entire third quarter on both sides of the ball - the desperation heave to Jackson that worked.
• McCoy needs to trust his blockers more and stop trying to dance and freelance.
• Babbin showed up on defense, but nobody else.
• Eagles tackle like a high school team.
• The Fox direction of this game was terrible - needed a replay to see if Jackson complaining about interference was legit, needed one on the late hit on Vick out of bounds, needed to see McCoy's injury replay again.
• I would have predicted McCoy would have fumbled the ball away the way he carries it, not Maclin.
• Stolen from Twitter: When the Cowboys play the Eagles, both teams will be too busy rolling over to play the second half. (I would have used choking.)
• Time for the Andy Reid Error to end.

Yoffense

The Phillies' 2011 postseason didn't start too smoothly.

Roy Halladay gave up a single and steal to Rafael Furcal, pitched around Albert Pujols for a walk, and then put a fastball on a tee for Lance Berkman, who smacked it off the facing of the second deck for a 3-run homer and Cardinals' lead in the first.

Thankfully, there's more than one inning per baseball game. The Phils' bats woke up a bit in the fifth, when Shane Victorino drove in a two-out run. And they really woke up in the sixth, with Ryan Howard and then Raul Ibanez sending Kyle Lohse change-ups way out to right for three- and two-run homers, respectively.

Now with a lead, and Lohse out of the game, the Phillies stepped on the Cardinals' throats, posting 5 more runs in the seventh and eighth innings.

Halladay rebounded from a bad first to pretty much dominate the Cardinals' lineup the rest of the way, exiting the game after eight innings.

The ninth inning took a while as Michael Stutes let a bunch of Cardinals on base before Ryan Madson annoyingly had to be called in to close it out, but the Phillies opened up their playoff run impressively with a blowout.

Cliff Lee vs. Chris Carpenter in a great pitching matchup for Game 2 tomorrow night.