A special night

In a break of what we've come to expect, the Eagles special teams won a game. Quentin Demps returned a kickoff 101 yards for a TD which was followed by a DeSean Jackson 76 yard punt return for a TD. In both cases crappy Patriot coverage and/or excellent blocking allowed nearly untouched runs <cliche>to the house</cliche>. Also contributing was a perfect David Akers (although his FGs were only in the 20-30 yard range) and an out of his mind Sav Rocca. Rocca kicked three straight coffin corner punts in the 4th quarter. The first went out of bounds on the 8, the second on the 9 but was negated by a penalty. He responded by kicking the rekick out of bounds right on the 1. The Eagles sideline was even excited.

But the most exciting player in the game was once again DeSean Jackson. I was very skeptical he would amount to much as a receiver, but I have been won over. He has the rare ability, at least among Eagles receivers save TO, to make the necessary adjustments to catch the ball while maintaining his balance and stride. If McNabb tosses one a little behind or down around the knees he'll just reach down or around and grab it while continuing to run. He doesn't have to fall down or slow down to make the catch. And because of that ability he also is able to make the crucial yards after catch, which he's also really good at.

Other trends in the game that were positive:

• Several Patriot runs ended up in losses. When was the last time so many opponent's running plays ended in their own backfield?
• Westbrook looked good and in form and there was even a running game. I think the first team even had 4 or 5 running plays in a row.
• McNabb was really good again and should have had 2 TD passes if Baskett wasn't a dumbass.
• Andrews also looked pretty good.
• The receivers didn't drop a pass and Avant even made a great catch for a TD.
• McDougal continues to dominate the scrubs.

Other notes:

• Again, way too many penalties.
• Patriots are doomed if Brady gets hurt.
• "In the redzone Avant really controls the hash." Is that what Shildaro said?
• Considine still sucks.
• Told you Quentin Demps should be the returner.

Various

Ah, stupid J-hole. Way to go 0-4 and hit into a double play. Way to have only 2 RBIs all August. Way to take booing personally, even though nobody was booing you personally until last night. These stupid players don't get it. When I boo I find it fun. There's often disgust, but no hatred behind it. Booing is cathartic for the fans, at least it is for me. I smile when I'm done. When I choose to boo it's either when a team is doing something stupid like wasting timeouts or throwing the ball short of the goal line with 4 seconds on the clock. Or when they are giving no effort and getting outworked. Losing by itself won't make me boo, but how it's done.

Now on to stupid football players. Ike Reese predictably went down like the Hindenburg in his softball challenge. According to the Pickens Plan, Reese, combined with the Phillies lineup, could provide at least 6 megawatts of wind energy which would power around 4,000 homes. I chuckled at every wiff on the video and was happy he failed miserably. But the best was hearing callers and Glenn Macnow spinning it that Reese was "courageous." Apparently to be a brave man you need to say something dumb, boast and dig yourself an even deeper hole, and trash talk 16 year old girls who then proceed to make a complete fool of you. Ike Reese, my hero.

But even stupider than Reese is Chad Johnson, who not only is supposedly trying to change his legal name to "Ocho Cinco" (of course, Spanish for 85 is actually ochenta y cinco), but said he could beat Michael Phelps in swimming. Apparently 85 is not only his number, but his IQ! Oooo snap! LOL!

And about Michael Phelps, sure he's the greatest swimmer ever, blah blah blah. And I'm not trying to put his incredible achievement down in any way, but give me a break on the greatest Olympian stuff. That hype is largely the result of him winning 8 gold medals this time around, but name me another Olympic sport where you have that opportunity.

And lastly, oh no about Kevin Curtis and his sports hernia. There goes a "weapon." But don't anyone panic, the deep as the Marianis Trench receiver corps says "no problem." And due to the worsening of the worst part of the team, I predict the devious football genius Andy Reid will call even MORE passing plays because that's EXACTLY what the opposition won't be expecting! Ha hah! And does anyone else think Greg Lewis is a zombie and can't be killed?

Better late than never

The Eagles rewarded their real fans that sat through the hour lightning delay, the mediocre and ugly play of the first teamers, and a boring 3rd quarter by scoring 24 unanswered points in the 4th quarter to win, 24-13. The obvious focus of the game will be how much the Eagles receivers suck and how crappy the first team offense was. The receivers had 6 or 7 drops of passes that were right on the money. DeSean Jackson had 2 of those, but other than that he played really good again. He does look like the quickest guy on the field at times. A non-issue that will be made into one is the starters returning to the field after the hour delay. Who cares, they aren't made of glass, they're football players. Anyway, McNabb was decent, Westbrook didn't really do anything, Kolb was good, and the defense as a whole was improved. They didn't even give up a TD on the first possession of the game.

Other notes:

• Good to see the special teams issues have all been solved. Nice job FG unit and Booker. Automatic Occasional Akers can't make anything longer that 40 yards any more and Booker can't catch or return.
• On the other hand, Rocca shockingly might have had his best ever performance. Long punt when it was needed and dropped the shorter ones in between the 10 and the goal line, unlike last week.
• Asante Samuels made 1 play then I never heard his name again.
• Lito, if you want your starting job back, how about making a tackle.
• Dawkins may be slower, but if you're unlucky enough to be sitting there like a duck for a hit, you should probably get ready to lay on the ground for awhile.
• Max Jean-Gilles' play depressed me.
• DeSean Jackson had a good punt return but thinks dudes in the NFL give up once he runs by them and was really lucky the Eagles got his fumble back.
• Overall, not just on returns, Booker is completely unimpressive to me so far.
• Tony Hunt had his best play as an Eagle, but he still sucks.
• Quentin Demps made some plays. Better return on a kick-off than Booker's and got the tip on a blitz that led to the interception return that sealed the game.
• What's with Fox announcing "90 second" breaks? Is it some strategy to get people to sit there and watch crappy ads?
• Fox quote of the game: "Reid is in midseason form, the Eagles have thrown the ball 71 51 times this game." I think they ended up with 73 52. I guess it was all to set up Tony Hunt's game winning run.
• Andy Reid is really fat.

J-hole

Yo, don't you have to win something for fans to actually be frontrunners?

Eagles and the Olympics

I watched some of the Eagles game. Here are some quick thoughts:

• McNabb looked good. He even threw an accurate across his body pass as he was falling backwards to LJ Smith running a crossing route.
• To my surprise, DeSean Jackson looked really good as a receiver. His most impressive catch was reaching behind him to grab an errant McNabb pass (which the announcer termed a strike). His returns sucked though, especially the one where he thought he could run backwards 8 yards and escape. That's not going to work in the NFL.
• First team defense looked OK at best. Quintin Mikell had some good hits. Dawkins looked old. The TD he gave up might have been a defensive screw up and not really his fault (although he should have just nailed the guy instead of hesitating) but his YPA definitely took a hit on that one.
• Kolb also looked good and had some nice pro QB type passes.
• Akers was kicking them from 60 in warm-ups.
• Sav Rocca still sucks.
• Too many penalties, just like last year.
• McDougle was a force going against the Steelers' scrubs.
• Spuds was in midseason shilling form doing the sideline reports. But then again, he doesn't really have an offseason.

Truth be told, I kinda lost interest in the Eagles after the first team was gone and started watching the Olympic's opening ceremony instead. I wasn't going to because China is the world's largest authoritarian regime and are evil, etc., but just flipping around the stations, the visual imagery ending up capturing my attention. If you can forget the evil like China apparently did - no Chairman Mao in their walk through Chinese history that was presented - and just look at the production as art, it was a masterpiece. I'm cynical and jaded and whatever, but the stuff they were pulling off was totally impressive. It was insane. And while it was a spectacle, it also had grace and wit and genuine beauty. Somehow they were able to avoid the corny, the clownish, and the crassness that always afflicts these kinds of things.

If the opening ceremonies could directly translate to the larger world stage, China is so gonna kick our ass.

Ok, It's Time...

To recognize that the Phillies do have issues. I've previously watched the Phils offense struggle and written it off to regular slumping that's inherent to baseball. And, while it's still possible that the offense can get clicking again, it certainly won't just happen naturally as an emergence from a slump. Something has to fundamentally change and be addressed. This offense is a mess. The fact that it continued last night against a bad opponent is even more concerning. Combine all that with their horrid record against top tier teams, particularly in the AL but not ignoring their inability to win a NYM or FLA series, and this team has batting issues. The pitching is what it is and might arguably be one of the best staffs in the NL. But this offense is a fraction of what it used to be and there's no appeasing explanation. No, I don't think they're "trying too hard." That's what happens to bring about slumps, not long drawn out droughts. Furthermore, if you'll recall during last year's playoffs, what nailed 'em wasn't their pitching, it was the offense shutting down.

Isn't Charlie a batting-minded manager? It's time for Charlie to go. He did his job, was the players' coach while they couldn't contend. Now that we need to contend, he needs to go along with his bad decision making (which makes a difference in playoff baseball).

(Oh, and I don't wear my JRol jersey as proudly as I once did... but I still wear it.)

It Makes Me Sick!

...and it's ruining football... Just when we thought it was going to be a season of moving on beyond the big Cheesehead, where the only concern would be how many times the announcers would compare current and future QBs to the legendary Brett Favor of yesteryear, his "return" is now plastered all over the stinkin' home page of NFL.com. There's no escape, hyper-Favre-ism is out of control, and the guy isn't even a starter as of now. It's sickening.

Personally, I'm w/ the Packers on this and think the league needs a new rule against coming back from retirement. If players can do this, they can retire at any time and ask for reinstatement and go to any team they want. With a salary cap, Favre is in the driver seat, as any big retirement will drastically change how a team plans moving forward. He's blown it. He should be made to sit out a full year if he wants to come back on his on terms.

On a side note: as much as I empathize that BWest is underpaid, I don't care. Play the game and quit the whining. When those players that undeperform their contracts start giving back, then we can deal with "unfair" situations like this. BWest signed his contract and took security over year by year increases. Tough luck. It's the game you play, and for teams that make good calls, hooray. For those teams that get stuck with ugly contracts, sorry about your luck, bad investing. You can't take security and then plead a cause of underpayment. I can't do that in my job, and none of my investments give me downside protection. The NFL is approaching sickening-ness.

Does This Count?

The Soul win the Arena Bowl. Aamco commercial and guitar solo to follow.

We're Not The Only Ones!!!

Who find Cowboy fans unwelcomed (Boo included)!

God Bless Hocky

I hope this song wins "Canada's Hockey Anthem Challenge."

It's All Gone!

Yup, blowing up the Spectrum! Actually, I haven't seen anything that says how it will be brought down, but the locale that holds the only memories of our championships (including the last one in 83) is going down. All the more reason for Philly to win a championship this or next year.

What is your favorite Spectrum moment? Your favorite LIVE moment you witnessed while there?

Boo?!?

Was someone actually speaking of second basemen who can pull?

Random

Phillies head into the all-star break a half game up on the Mets, which is kind of sad considering the lead they had on them just a few short weeks ago. The Mets have the better starting pitching but the Phillies the better lineup offensively and defensively. So it'll probably go down to the wire again. One thing on the Phillies side is after the all-star game they're something like 44 games over .500 under Charlie. There's that and the Mets suck.

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I've long felt Brett Favre is a fraud and his latest unretirement is just the latest chapter. Of course the national sports media just loves Brett Favre and he can do no wrong. Refuse to tutor a young QB or even act like a decent human being toward him? That's just Favre being the tough competitor he is and that's what's makes him a champion and has nothing to do with being a horrible teammate and all around d-bag. Throw horrible interception after horrible interception in game after game and in crucial playoff situations that would get other QBs crucified? That's just Favre the "gunslinger". Let's rerun the the scramble and underhand toss in the snow vs. Seattle over and over again (that no other QB in the history of football has ever done by the way) and just forget all the picks he threw the following week vs. the Giants, including the crucial second play of OT one that led to them losing the game and a trip to the Super Bowl. Which reminds me of my favorite Favre moment, the OT duck he threw up for grabs in the 4th and 26 game that Dawkins picked and Akers converted for one of the rarest of rare moments where the Philadelphia team came through with some miracle plays and luck. Can somebody upload that to YouTube?

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Can anyone figure out Holmgren's master plan? Have the Flyers improved any with their moves so far?

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I really like the Sixers' signing of Brand. The Sixers could actually resemble a real basketball team now, able to score with a set offense instead of just off a fast break. Brand averages about 20 points and 10 rebounds a game, and he'll actually take it to the rim instead of shooting fadeaway jumpers like Dalembert. Hopefully he stays healthy.

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Since it was requested, an Arena Bowl preview and prediction.

The Soul made their first ever Arena Bowl by dominating Cleveland in the conference championship game. The Arena Bowl is in New Orleans. Their competition is from San Jose, which is the closest AFL team to Oakland. Ron Jaworski is the team's president and is always wasting valuable time on WIP that could be spent talking about Wing Bowl hyping the Soul instead. This is Jaworski's chance to exorcise his own personal demons from Super Bowl XV and the Soul will come through!

And no one will care.

Linebacker Excitement?

The News Journal ran an article online that implies the Birds' LB core is at the head of the class. Normally, I'd just shrug that off and attribute it to the Summer doldrums of sports, where writers need SOMETHING to write about. Additionally, when they start focusing on the "smarts" of the players for about half of the article, you also start to wonder how much of a green kool-aid article it might just be. But, oddly enough, last week one day, I caught the end of a Merrill Reese interview in the AM as I got into my car. Surely enough, he was hot on the LB's. By itself, again, MR is a pure Eagle homer and you always have this skepticism about anything he says positive. While I won't say this LB core is awesome, it is probably the most positive forward looking group we've had in a while, but it is also the most unknown, unproven perhaps. I'd love to see what other real NFL scouting types think of it. I guess we'll have to wait a few more weeks before we see it play out before our very own eyes. Regardless, I'm ready for sports to resume a life beyond the Phils!

Lidge Staying, Myers Going?, & Baseball Bashing

Well, it looks like the Phils have made a clear statement about the fate of Myers in Philly: He isn't going to be a closer ever again. Not sure what trade value he has as a closer anyway, but it looks like he'll be traded, return as a starter (maybe this will get him over the mental hump of wanting to be a closer), or become a longer reliever / setup guy.

Now, while I normally play apologist to the mindless baseball bashing that can go on right here on wwew, I gotta admit... Watching this rain delay a bit today is fascinating. I can see why you can't play ball in the rain (heck, I've tried it before), why the field has to be nearly mud free to resume play is beyond me. Sure, injury risks are higher, but for goodness sakes, many outdoor sports could claim the same. In fact, I'd argue that the chance of injury in football is GREATER on wet or muddy surfaces. If the rain stops, get your bottoms out there and play.