Eagles favored, of course

10/09 4:15 PM ET	Opening	BetWWTS	Sportsbook	Intertops	BoDog	WSEX
Philadelphia @ DallASS	-3.5 44.5	-3 44.5	-3.5 44.5	-3 OFF	-3.5 OFF	-3 45.5

Matchup

A Tale of Two Kansas Cities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was a half of wisdom, it was a half of foolishness, it was the half of belief, it was the half of incredulity, it was the football season of Light, it was the football season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, Kansas City had everything going for them, we had nothing going for us, they were all going direct to the Super Bowl, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest fans insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

The defense was horrible, then the defense was great. Priest Holmes was running through the Eagles with ease for early part of the first half and picked up most of his 87 yards. The Chiefs' play calling and formation shifting was keeping the defense off-balance and on top of that they weren't ready to play. The defense couldn't stop anything. Then after the Chiefs went up 17-0 a switch was flicked. FOX reported from the sideline that Dawkins told the defense that Kansas City isn't going to score on them again -- and he was almost right. Sheldon Brown started the Eagles resurrection by tricking Green into thinking he was covering long but then covered short, read the play, and returned the interception for 6. The special teams immediately squandered that momentum however by botching the extra-point and even worse, allowed a TD on the kickoff return. But Kearse, who finally had an impact game, disrupted the play on the Larry Johnson fumble which Rayburn recovered and the Eagles got the momentum back and scored off the turnover right before the half. By the second half things had turned around so well for the defense that Brown got another important interception off a lucky deflection. This never happens. Usually those deflected and tipped balls fall harmlessly to the ground, always a few agonizing inches out of reach.

The offense wasn't horrible, just sputtering and not warmed up, then the offense couldn't be stopped. Kansas City probably wanted to cover Owens but then again maybe it was their plan to leave him constantly wide open. And the amazing part is that if McNabb was more accurate with his long throws the Eagles could have had 50 or more points. The Chiefs did shut down Westbrook and the Eagles paltry running game, but that's all they did. And by focusing so much on Westbrook they allowed LJ Smith to have a big game. Once the Eagles started coming back, the Chiefs defense became panicked and clueless. McNabb and the offense did anything they wanted, and the bounces all went their way too. McNabb's final stats were 33 of 48 for 369 yards and three TDs. Imagine if he wasn't hurt.

The special teams were "special", then the special teams were special. In the first half the special teams were directly responsible for a swing of 19 points - kickoff return fumble that led to 7 for KC, blocked field goal, botched hold on the extra point, and a momentum killing kickoff return for a TD in which an Eagle didn't get within 4 yards of Dante Hall. In the second half though, they got it together. France put some nice field goals through (notice some actual animation and encouragement on the sideline from Andy Reid?), the punt returns were getting some yards, the kickoff and punt coverage became stingy, and things turned around so completely they recovered a Dante Hall fumble that led to points. They also recovered the onside kick with ease and Mahe very smartly ran out of bounds with the ball to essentially end the game.

Questions: Why aren't the Eagles ready to play at the beginning of games? Why did Kansas City use Gonzalez as a blocker and not as a receiver? Should Gordon get more touches? Was that Greg Lewis' first stupid mistake, trying to run with the ball before he caught it and costing the Eagles a first down? Did Reggie Brown get a catch? Is Kearse back? Will LJ Smith ever learn to keep 2 hands on the ball, especially on the 2 yard line? What if McNabb was healthy and more importantly, will he stay healthy enough to continue playing at this level?

Eagles road underdog

9/25 4:15 PM ET	Opening	BetWWTS	Sportsbook	Intertops	BoDog	WSEX
Philadelphia @ Kansas City	46 -2.5	45 -2	45 -2	OFF	OFF	45.5 -1.5

Matchup

ACHERS!*

This game was weird starting with the opening kickoff. Why was Akers kicking off if he's supposed to be gimpy? And to compound the mistake why did he kickoff the second time? Sometimes Reid just doesn't think. Fortunately Akers had enough to dramatically sneak through a 23 yard game winning field goal in the last seconds to win the game but he really needs to sit out and heal. And maybe McNabb does too as he was obviously hobbling in the pocket, had little mobility and was inconsistent passing the ball. Until he started using his lower body to throw in the second half, the offense was sputtering. Which brings up 2 more questions - why so many pass plays considering the circumstances and why have McNabb be a lead blocker on that Greg Lewis running play? Sometimes Reid just doesn't think.

Other questions: When are they going to sign Westbrook long term? Why did the defense blow a 10 point lead in the fourth quarter? Why so many stupid penalties? When is LJ Smith going to learn to protect the ball? He always looks like he's going to fumble to me. Can the offensive line play this good for the rest of the year? Will Kearse get a sack this year? Why run 3 consecutive (incomplete) passing plays at the end of the 4th quarter when you have the lead and you're trying to eat the clock? Why do I still hate that special teams guy even though he's no longer on the Cowboys? Are Enberg and Dierdorf the most clueless and worst announcers doing games at any level? On their own they both are horrible, but together they create an execrableness greater than the sum of their parts.

Sorry I seem rather angry even though the Eagles won the game but there are problems. The offense was great at times but still lacked consistency with Westbrook being the exception - he was great. Both teams "left points on the field;" the Eagles via turnovers, the Raiders via Janakowski. The defense stuffed the Oakland run game and only allowed 19 total yards and kept Moss under wraps. But then again they blew the 10 point lead. The special teams however are pretty mediocre right now and with Akers injured the field goals are now really iffy. All in all I'm not very confident going into next week.

*OB suggested this post's title and predicts it will grace the cover of tomorrow's Daily News.

UPDATE: OB was totally correct in his prediction.

Why the NHL sucks

I went to a hockey game last night and a baseball game broke out. I went up to Trenton to watch the Flyers play the Islanders in an exhibition game which the Flyers won 2-1 in a tedious and boring fashion. The reason it was tedious was because every 10 seconds the refs were calling a penalty, 26 total for the game, and play stopped. It was stoppage after stoppage and bad song after bad song on the arena sound system which only made things worse. The longest stretch of uninterrupted play was 6 minutes. 6 beautiful minutes stadium jam free. There was more skating to the penalty boxes than there was up and down the ice.

The NHL can't do anything right. In an attempt to increase speed and flow to the game by calling every obstruction, interference, hold, and hook that occurs no matter how minor, the NHL has made the game even more slow and awkward. Previously, at one extreme, everything was let go and now everything is being called to the other extreme. Why can't there be a middle ground? Imagine if the NFL refs called every hold or illegal contact that they see, that's what the NHL refs are doing. Two things will probably happen though. In the past the refs just stopped calling stuff after awhile (and that even happened to an extent last night) or the refs will continue to call everything and after 20 or so brutal games the players will have changed and adapted. But last night it seemed to me the refs called penalties when players were just fighting for the puck in good, legal one-on-one battles. And most of the penalties that were called the crowd missed completely because they were so minor or not even near the puck. The crowd did however indicate it's readiness for the regular season with lots of hearty boos. If you can stay awake, the NHL has videos to watch that explain all the new rules.

The other big rule changes didn't seem to have much of an effect on the game though. The allowing of 2 line passes didn't result in much. This was either because the players stunk and/or the defensemen just drop back to the blue line now instead of the red which isn't that big of a deal since the neutral zone is now smaller. The shootout is stupid and it will always be stupid.

Players that played good for the Flyers were Gagne, Richards, Sim, and Niittymaki. Richards had a surprising fight against a bigger dude and pounded him and was the main excitement of the game. Pitkanen was struggling again like he did at times during the regular season for the Phantoms. It's like he lacks confidence and hesitates and messes up because of it. Therien was just mediocre, not therienable, but I'm sure that will come as he will suffer the most because of the new rules since he's so slow. Anyway, the opening game is October 5th and it's going to be interesting how this all plays out.

Eagles favored again

9/25 1:00 PM ET	Opening	BetWWTS	Sportsbook	Intertops	BoDog	WSEX
Oakland @ Philadelphia	47 -7.5	46.5 -7.5	46.5 -7.5	OFF -7.5	OFF	46.5 -7.5

Matchup

An idea

A coworker thought this up and I'm just embellishing it. Instead of having the Saints playing a "home" game in their opponent's home stadium, which is idiotic and unfair, the NFL should have scheduled the game in Philadelphia. The game probably would have sold out and the Eagles, who have a pretty good marketing department, could have made it something special. And most importantly, the Saints would have had the crowd behind them like a team playing a home game deserves. Game promotion could have been tied into the bushclintonkatrinarelief stuff and the "Be a Saint" commercials I saw running last night and had that Sean idiot dressed in a Saints football costume. The could have made it Mardi Gras night as well and even had Mummers in attendance. Ok, maybe not the Mummers. No matter how it was promoted I'm sure there would have been less than 10,000 empty seats than there were up in the Meadowlands which is pathetic. And talking about pathetic, how about the quality of play in both games last night? But you have to love Washington winning in Dallass on the night they honored Aikman, Smith, and Irvin. Ha ha.

Decimation

All you really need to know about this game is total yards; Eagles - 583, 49ers - 142. San Francisco had nothing. McNabb had only 6 incompletes the entire game while Rattay had more interceptions, 3, than completions, 2, at the half. There are some questions though. What's up with Akers, was LJ Smith's game his annual one good performance a season or is there more this year, is Simoneau now a folk hero, is Kearse on the downhill, can the offense stay on a roll, and how come no end arounds yet this year and where's the patented 2 and 11 play?

Eagles big favorite

9/18 1:00 PM ET	Opening	BetWWTS	Sportsbook	Intertops	BoDog	WSEX
San Francisco @ Philadelphia	43 -13.5	41 -13.5	41 -13.5	OFF	OFF	41 -13.5

Matchup

The blame game

The Eagles beat themselves tonight starting with Trotter getting himself kicked out before the game, but there is plenty of blame to go around.

1. McNabb
   In one of his worst games in awhile, McNabb was pretty bad - 24 for 45, 257 yards. Lots of terrible passes (maybe due to injury?) but more frustrating was his stupid decisions. I can't decide which one was worse; the play where he tossed the ball backwards to Westbrook for a turnover, the play where he stood still for 20 seconds on a 3 step drop waiting to get drilled so he would fumble, or the play late in the game where he was one on one with a big fat guy and instead of running by him for probably a 15 yard gain and a crucial first down, he threw the ball into the defenders upraised arms.


2. Andy Reid
   Aside from the one drive that resulted in a touchdown, Reid's play calling was bad - 45 passes, 14 rushes, terrible balance. Why wasn't Westbrook utilized more? How does this team get 4 illegal formation calls? Totally unacceptable. One hallmark of a Reid coached team is a minimum of suicidal mistakes. But in this game there were terrible penalties, terrible turnovers, and once again poor clock management and wasted timeouts. That's on him and he's going to have to go back and take a look at that and do a better job. Reid did do a nice job challenging that terrible spot but blew not challenging that "incredible" catch Crumpler made. He didn't catch that.


3. Offensive Line
   The big fat guys did a terrible job picking up the blitz, protecting McNabb, and run blocking. Nice false starts too at the worst possible time.


4. David Akers
   If Akers makes those field goals the Eagles win (probably). I heard he was making them from 85 yards in warmups though. Crappy kickoffs too.


5. Special Teams
   Marginal kickoff coverage, marginal to terrible punt return results, especially since their punter was putting up 35 yarders. You can't let that one roll for 60 Dexter Wynn. Nice play by Rod Hood on that big hit on the punt though but overall need to be way better.


6. Wide Receivers
   Where were they aside from Owens? And even he dropped some right in his hands and had communication problems with McNabb.


7. The Defense
   Well not totally to blame, but the Falcons got over 200 yards rushing (which is partly due to Trotter being ejected) but then again all the Falcons' points were scored in the first quarter and nothing at all the rest of the way. Dawkins was great, except for that long bomb. Kearse was pretty bad and Kalu outplayed him. Defense did keep the game in reach by forcing turnovers but really didn't shut the Falcons down consistently.

Other notes: Dear refs, spearing Donovan McNabb in the chest is a 15 yard personal foul, brushing Vick on the shoulder is not. Vick is totally overrated but at least he runs the ball when his receivers are covered. Dawkins was the player of the game, not the Falcons secondary, John Madden. Where was Ike Reese? Atlanta must still be kicking themselves for letting Simoneau get away. McNabb was the Eagles medallion to collect today. Is the medallion the new curse? Who is it next Sunday? Should the Eagles be worried about the 49ers?

Best baseball call ever

The only reason I spend any time at all watching a couple at bats of a Phillies game is to hear Harry Kalas. The man has one of the classic broadcasting voices of all time. During last night's predicatable loss via blowing a one-run lead in the ninth inning, Kalas was at his finest.

<CRACK!>

You're kidding me... (other announcer, "oh no, no")
You are kidding me.

Home run, Craig Biggio to give the Houston Astros an 8 to 6 lead.

I can not believe what I am seeing.

All the runs are unearned.

But so what.

I wish I had an mp3 I could post because the transcription doesn't come close to doing Kalas justice.

Eagles slight road favorite

9/12 9:00 PM ET	Opening	BetWWTS	Sportsbook	Intertops	BoDog	WSEX
Philadelphia @ Asslanta	-2.5 42.5	OFF	-1 41.5	-1 41.5	-1.5 41.5	-1 42

Matchup

archived PDF of predictions

Predictions

Below is the Eagles Schedule. In the comments make your season long, game by game predictions. Also I'd like to know what teams everyone thinks will be in the AFC and NFC championship games as well as the 2 worst teams from each conference.

Sep 12 @ Atlanta 9:00pm (Monday night)
Sep 18 San Francisco 1:00pm
Sep 25 Oakland 1:00pm
Oct 2 @ Kansas City 1:00pm
Oct 9 @ Dallass 4:15pm
Week 6 BYE
Oct 23 San Diego 1:00pm
Oct 30 @ Denver 4:15pm
Nov 6 @ Washington 8:30pm (Sunday night)
Nov 14 Dallass 9:00pm (Monday night)
Nov 20 @ N.Y. Giants 1:00pm
Nov 27 Green Bay 4:15pm
Dec 5 Seattle 9:00pm (Monday night)
Dec 11 N.Y. Giants 4:05pm
Dec 18 @ St. Louis 4:15pm
Dec 24 @ Arizona 4:05pm
Jan 1 Washington 4:15pm

archived PDF of predictions

Detmer

I like Koy Detmer, especially after I saw the picture above in the paper taken during last year's training camp, but if you watched him play during the preseason you have to come to the conclusion that he sucks. During his brief appearance last night his throws looked no better than Widener's starting QB's but they did get my yelling at the TV form in shape for the start of the season. McMahon, a mighty Rutgers grad, performed way better. Too bad he was usually throwing to McMullen and the soon to be cut Carlos Perez all preseason. On any other team Detmer would be cut but I guess he will stick around as long as Akers does.

Eagles will probably sign McCants

Darnerien McCants will probably be the WR the Eagles sign as insurance against TO blowing up again. Here are his lame stats. But I'm really making this post so I can be the first to suggest calling him McCants-catch after he drops a couple.

Also it looks like I was wrong saying Corey Simon gambled and lost. The Colts signed him and are paying him a bunch - 5 year deal worth $30 million with $13 million in bonuses.