The season still lives

(Sorry this is late. Had no power from 2:15 till almost 1am yesterday. How did people survive before electricity? It was so boring.)

This game was pretty much an exact reversal of the Eagles vs. Giants game that was played in Philadelphia just a couple weeks ago. This time the Eagles dominated both lines of scrimmage and controlled the game, the Eagles ran the ball down the Giants throats, the Eagles were dominant in time of possession, the Eagles had a tight end that made big plays, and the Eagles had the shut down defense that made the opponent's offense look pathetic on 4th and short..

Of course this all occurred because Andy Reid, who is probably still an idiot, decided to stick with the run the ENTIRE game, despite it being a "failure" early - but keep running those end arounds! The last two convincing wins happened because Reid did what every pundit and knowlegeable fan has called for over and over and over and over again till infinity - run the ball more and balance the offensive play calling. And by successfully doing exactly that, not just against the weak Arizona Cardinals, but against the Giants, the current champions and probably the best team in football, just shows that Reid's pathetic reasoning of "we saw on film the Bengals were weak on pass coverage so we thought we'd throw it 80 times" is complete idiocy. If you can do it against the Giants you should be able to do it against everyone and should have been doing it the ENTIRE season, not just when it's 30 degrees out with wind gusts of 40 mph. There's a reason the Eagles are the most frustrating team in the world. They can even piss you off when they win.

Other notes:

• Please, no more end arounds and reverses.
• Did anyone else notice after Hixon's horrible drop, on the Eagles sidelines in the background was healthy scratch Reggie Brown clapping and laughing it up?
• These refs were terrible all game but it didn't end up costing the Eagles. Except...
• On the blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown Akers was clearly blocked in the back.
• Have you ever seen an NFL game that had 3 blocked field goals?
• To me one of the biggest moments of the game was the first 3rd down conversion on the Eagles opening 2nd half drive. Blow that and Rocca comes in and boots a 20 yarder into the wind and the Giants are sitting pretty and building on their momentum.
• I don't think Rocca had a punt after the first quarter.
• LJ finally had a good game catching and even running after the catch but he still holds the ball like an idiot and blew a ton of blocks.
• Wouldn't it be nice if we could have had a replay showing what happened to Kevin Curtis?
• Eagles blew a fumble recovery they totally should have made, but worse was the botched Samuels/Dawkins interception.
• Loved that Giants (#1 rushing team in the league) 4th and 1 call. Looks like Coughlin needs to go back and study the greats like Bill Parcells and Bill Walsh like Reid did to figure out you should run the ball there.
• Did Reid outcoach Coughlin or was it Coughlin just really, really dumb?
• The Fox announcers, especially "Goose," were worse than usual.
• 2 games in a row McNabb scrambled at just the right time for first downs. So in his 10th year he's not only learned to throw the ball away, but in the 12th and 13th game of his 10th year he's also learned to take the 5-6 yards that the defense is giving him to move the chains and maintain possession of the ball instead of going for a 15-20 yard pass downfield.
• In the 2 games vs. the Giants this year McNabb didn't get sacked. Last year it was 15 or so.
• Westbrook was outgaining the Giants offense by himself until that last garbage time drive.

Is there a real reason to get excited?

NYG-Eagles Mid-Game Rants

Post 'em here!

A shot in the dark

12/07 1:00 PM ET	Opening	betED	Logans	5Dimes	SPORTSBETTING
Philadelphia @ NY Giants	44.5 -9	44.5 -7.5	43.5 -7	43.5 -7.5	44 -7.5

Matchup

BONUS QUESTION: How many Giants need to shoot themselves to give the Eagles a chance to win?

Winner, winner turkey dinner

Call me a Negadelphia cynic, but this game is just a mirage. The Cardinals are frauds, their only quality win was against Dallass, who sucks, and they were in a bad position as a team - short week after a confidence crushing loss, on the road, West Coast to East Coast, etc. and played as bad as they probably have all season, especially in the first quarter.

Warner had a McNabb-esque start throwing 2 horrible interceptions on the Cardinals first two possessions and his receivers, especially Bolden, did their best imitation of the Eagles receivers by dropping a ton of very catchable passes. And the Cardinals defense, which isn't that good to begin with, was equally as bad. Bad coverage, bad tackling, and they even let the Eagles convert several times on third and short with running plays. Now that's bad. And to top it off they even fell for the shovel pass. Somehow they missed that tendency.

I'm reluctant to give McNabb that much credit either. The pressure is off because the season is all but mathematically over and just like last season, suddenly he has the most complete game of the year. Only this time it comes at Thanksgiving instead of late December. But to be fair, the offense executed really well and had very few penalites, nobody dropped any passes, they scored points every quarter, McNabb was pretty much on the money, there were no wasted timeouts, and most importantly there was a BALANCED attack and holy crap, that turned out to be a winner! Nobody could have predicted.

Other notes:

• For my money, the play of the game was by Eckel, who has been on the practice squad all year, taking the handoff and converting on 3rd and 1 with a 2 yard run on the first drive drive of the game. This set everything in motion. The mock cheer with a standing ovation was the cherry on top.
• The runner up play of the game was Hanson picking off Warner's 3rd pass. Another thing that hasn't been happening recently. This fueled the Eagles momentum.
• Notice the Westbrook run where Tra Thomas was standing there all alone with nobody at all to block? Good defense there.
• Refs gave the Cardinals their first TD with that bogus holding call on Hanson.
• Should I be impressed the Eagles once again drove for points at the end of the first half? It's almost a trend now.
• Akers kickoff to start the second half barely made it to the 18. Weak.
• Mikell had a really good game and several nice hits including one on Bolden that apparently brought back some very bad memories and made him forget how to catch.
• Despite the offensive success, there were still very few significant yards after the catch until the mid third quarter when things started going a little better.
• Lito was terrible. He had coverage on all 3 Cardinal TDs and gave up that long 40 yarder to Fitzgerald as well. I wonder what his trade value is now.
• LJ Smith broke a tackle! Things are definitely going the Eagles way this game.
• How come on intentional grounding calls there always has to be a referee conference to decide if it's a penalty or not?
• Worst series of the game for the Eagles came after the Cardinals had just made it a 14 point game. First play a pass and a 20 yard loss because of intentional grounding call. Second play, 2 yard pass that Avant takes out of bounds to stop the clock again. Third play, semi-successful screen. So to staunch the Cardinals momentum the Eagles produced a 3 and out that lost yards and took a minimal amount of time off the clock. Andy Reid is still an idiot.
• Bolden had a terrible game - lots of drops and a crushing fumble that allowed the Eagles to "seal the deal" after the Cardinals had gained some momentum. Look for idiots like Eskin to try and score some kind of points because we all know 1 bad game means he sucks and the Eagles were right to not pursue him.

Am I wrong, or is there a reason for hope?

A Favorite?

11/27 8:15 PM ET	Opening	betED	Logans	5Dimes	SPORTSBETTING
Arizona @ Philadelphia	46.5 -3	47 -3	47 -3	46.5 -2.5	47 -3

Matchup

BONUS QUESTION: How will Reid Reid it up this week?

Quoth the Ravens, "Eagles suck."

Once upon a gridiron dreary, while I watched, weak and weary,
Over many a dumb and curious play call thinking what for,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a mention,
And then the question, "How does this team get off the floor?.
"'Tis no mystery," I muttered, "show McNabb and Reid the door -
Only this, and nothing LESS."

Yeah, that was terrible, but it's still way better than the Eagles.

Reid has lost it and has lost the team. He's pretty much Hitler in his bunker as WW2 was coming to its end and instead of doing the right thing - surrendering- he refuses to admit defeat and instead has decided to take everyone down with him and will destroy this team.

After McNabb's horrible interception to Ed Reed I jokingly said, "Put Kolb in to start the second half." I had no idea Reid would actually do it especially since the Eagles were only losing by 3. But Reid is panicky, he's erratic and irrational, he's making even less sense than usual. Last week it was the insane pass to run ratio and the desperation gadget plays followed up by nonsensical claims in his press conferences. I can't wait to see what he does on Thanksgiving knowing the game is keeping him from a giant table of food waiting to be drowned in gravy.

I don't feel like recapping anything else so onto...

Other notes:

• Fox was horrible with the replays all damn game. Was Klecko down when he fumbled? How did Bunkley get hurt? What was the 15 yard penalty on the Eagles bench? How about showing that Ed Reed did not lateral the ball forward? There are a dozen examples.
• Another week, no turnovers. Although the Eagles had chances.
• "Donovan McNabb can handle no huddle no problem!" Then right on cue, delay of game. McNabb can't do anything "no problem" these days.
• On the 3rd and 1 long bomb to Jackson that was an interception, Westbrook was wide open in the flat.
• Lucky for the Ravens Buckhalter got hurt otherwise they'd have suffered a heavy dose of Buckyball I heard. He would have had 3 touches.
• Moron McNabb throws a horrible pass which is picked off by Ed Reed who then moronically LATERALS the ball BACKWARDS to an unsuspecting teammate who then knocked the ball forward which prompted the moron refs to blow the call as a forward pass which then moron Reid failed to challenge thus giving the Ravens a TD. Fox announcers are clueless. Nice job all around. Everyone, take a bow.
• How come I know you can't challenge the stopping of forward progress but Andy Reid, who sits on the rules committee, does not?
• Fall on the damn ball Abiamiri. So stupid. You know that fumble recovery might have changed the outcome of this game? Eagles would have had the ball in position to score. Instead not recovering sets up the blocked Rocca punt.
• These refs were terrible. Holding on one of the Eagles ends on almost every pass play and no call. Then they call one on Runyan that wasn't even close.
• Nice blocking on the punt that was blocked.
• If you QB sneak on 1 play and make half a yard, why would you pass on the next play from 6 inches out? Oh yeah, Andy Reid is a complete and total idiot.
• Did you notice LJ Smith chased Ed Reed the entire length of the field? That's why he was franchised.
• How come the Ravens defensive backs have better hands than the Eagles receivers?
• Sheldon Brown had a real bad game.
• New worst ad - McDonalds R&B joint. Looking forward to the T-Pain remix though.

The Andy Reid era is over?

The Dumbest Ever!!!

One knucklehead on the bench, the other still with the headsets. This game, the second half, was all about the future, and after a very nice drive down the field with plenty of time on the clock, AR calls for a pass play by newb Kolb???? Freakin' retarded. Was he really a QB coach for a SB team? I admire Favre for developing DESPITE Reid.

No other game summary necessary. Sorry, Ron. Just retarded. #5 and AR need to get the heck out of town!!!!

Why do we watch

11/23 1:00 PM ET	Opening	betED	Logans	5Dimes	SPORTSBETTING
Philadelphia @ Baltimore	39 0	39.5 -1	39.5 -1	39.5 0	39.5 -1

Matchup

BONUS QUESTION: Will Reid decide to run the ball this week? It would only make sense since it's the last thing Baltimore, the 3rd best run defense, would expect! Coaching genius.

ZZZZZZZ

Wow. This game was so bad and boring with both teams playing so poorly it would have been a shame if somebody had to go home with a win. A rare display of fairness by the football gods. And another thing to thank them for: we were blessed with a bonus 15 minutes of suck. Of course the refs did their part to contribute to the horrible with a brutally bad roughing the passer call on Sheldon Brown late in OT that almost gave the Bengals the victory. But Cincinnati showed why they have only 1 win and missed the makable game winning field goal.

The McNabb led offense was brutal at the start of the game as usual, but remained so throughout all 75 minutes of play. Here is the entire output of the first quarter:

• Badly thrown swing pass to Westbrook to start. Who could have predicted.
• Wide receiver screen for 0 yards.
• Curtis is open but McNabb misses him badly.
• Punt.
• Next series starts with a 1 yard run.
• 5 yard bad pass and drop by Celek.
• Bad pass to Avant followed by the pathetic "please throw a flag Mr. referee" hand motion from McNabb and Avant.
• Punt.
• 4 yard Westbrook run
• 1 yard run.
• McNabb starts running and once again fails to put the ball away and predictably fumbles, Bengals recover on the 1.

What made the offense even more pathetic all day were the gadget plays. Flea flicker failure, end around failure, "wildcat" formation failure - in overtime? The gimmicks were done in desperation. They were not part of any game plan or strategy and they predictably failed. Writing this I just found myself sighing unconsciously again. That seems to be the lone emotion this team arouses in me anymore.

The defense was decent I suppose, but didn't make any game changing plays and did give up a TD with under 2 minutes to go in the first half, their one lapse in the game. The special teams were ok but Rocca's terrible punts in the 4th quarter and overtime were pushing it. Akers did make a 42 yard field goal into the wind which was a positive.

Coaching? Andy Reid has got to go.

Other notes:

• First good play of the game for McNabb came at 9:08 of the second quarter - a 17 yard pass to Jackson for a first down.
• Believe it or not, this game could have actually been worse, but the "saved by zero" commercials were strangely absent.
• Bad roughing the passer call on Cole.
• Runyan's hustle saved 4 points against on McNabb's fumble.
• Samuels blew an interception he should have had.
• Buckhalter had the 1 really nice play of the first half and then back to the bench.
• Just have to laugh at the 3rd and 1 failures. It's all you can do at this point.
• Did they ever say what happened with the guy taken off the field on the stretcher?
• The Fox robot had a leaf blower today. I hate leaf blowers.

Season is over.

At least we're not the Bengals

11/16 1:00 PM ET	Opening	betED	Logans	5Dimes	SPORTSBETTING
Philadelphia @ Cincinnati	43 9	42.5 9	42.5 9	42.5 10	42 9

Matchup

BONUS QUESTION: Can Andy Reid take his game to the next level and find a way to lose to the Bengals?

Once again, same old crap from the most frustrating team in the world

Once again the Eagles need a yard or two late in a game. Once again they have a couple of shots. Once again they run it despite having almost no success running it all game. Once again they FAIL miserably, not even gaining a yard. Once again they lose another incredibly frustrating game. Once again, pathetic.

And of course, once again Reid takes responsibilty. But what does that mean? Are there any consequences? No, none at all. So who cares if you take responsiblity, Reid. It means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. So shut up or fire yourself.

Ok, back to the game. Giants did what I thought they'd do – run the ball down the Eagles throat with ease. On the majority of runs, whoever it was, but it was mostly Jacobs, the back wasn't even getting touched by an Eagles defender until he had already gained 5-7 yards. It was ridiculous. Yet somehow the Eagles (thanks to capitalizing on turnovers) were still in the game till the end despite being dominated. And man, I wish the Eagles offense was like the Giants. It would be so satisfying to run the ball for huge chunks of yardage at will. A 6 yard run up the gut is so much better for your football soul than a 6 yard DeSean Jackson end around and scoot out of bounds or a slant pass to whoever. It also has the added benefit of being a strategy that wins football games, especially in the playoffs and crunch time, something Reid will never ever learn.

While the Eagles run defense was horrid, the Eagles offense did way better than I thought they would. Well except for the dismal end of game failure that they've pulled repeatedly in recent history. If the Eagles could run short yardage or goal line, their season wouldn't be over. But the offense did put up 31 points, took advantage of turnovers with touchdowns, and even did well in the redzone for a change, but just couldn't get it done with the game on the line.

Now to the refs, I agree with the replay overturning Manning's over the line of scrimmage penalty. But on the Giants next drive, Jacobs CLEARLY fumbled the ball before crossing the goal line on the Giants final TD. How the replay official blew that is beyond me. That call gave the Giants 7 points when they should have had none. And Bradley, on one of his rare tackles, did not grab Jacobs by the facemask as called. That blown call gave the Giants a first down and ultimately led to a field goal.

But in the end, despite playing poorly but scratching and clawing enough to be in position to steal the game, the Eagles didn't deserve to win. The Giants crushed the Eagles on both lines of scrimmage, and as the cliche goes, that's where games are won and in the Eagles case, lost.

Other notes:

• Lucky, but great play by Patterson on his interception.
• Memo to Jim Johnson: Dawkins should not be isolated on a wide receiver, especially the #1 receiver.
• Plexiglass had 1 catch, his TD.
• What's this position #38 on the Giants plays? Full-back? What a great, innovative idea by the Giants. Eagles should steal that. Since the NFL is a copycat league I predict other teams get a Full-back too.
• Eagles had a total of 5 offensive plays for 12 yards in the first quarter but also a TD. This foreshadowed the time of possession for the entire game - 39:10 for the Giants to 20:50 for the Eagles.
• I was impressed by the Manning pass to Boss for the TD. Can McNabb make that pass? Could any Eagles TE catch it?
• The Gocong hit to cause the fumble is why we watch football.
• Terrible "up for grabs" interception before the half by McNabb that gave the Giants a FG. But then after the kickoff he took the Eagles down the field with around a minute left for a field goal of their own. This inconsistency is another source of frustration, like McNabb's horrible starts and finishes of games.
• Wow, Buckhalter got the ball a couple times and did good. Then back to the bench.
• Westbrook only had 26 yards rushing. Giants had 217.
• What was Baskett's best catch this week, his touchdown or his fiance?
• McNabb did not get sacked this game.
• Why is Greg Lewis still on this team? Stank Daniels as well with another idiot play.
• Reid's first challenge was imbecilic, reeked of desperation, and stupidly wasted a timeout. The next challenge was legitimate, but on that one he got jobbed.
• Memo to McNabb and Reid: YOU HAVE TO GET A PLAY OFF BEFORE THE 2 MINUTE WARNING. Especially since you only have 1 timeout left. Instead they just stood around and didn't even try. Pathetic.
• Time to admit these linebackers suck – can't tackle and can't cover tight ends.
• Looks like the small defensive line philosophy is another patented Reid failure.
• Reid and McNabb are good, but aren't going to win a Super Bowl. Neither of them have it, whatever "it" is, so they gotta go.

Who gets the most blame for this loss and is the season over?

What are we missing?

11/09 8:15 PM ET	Opening	betED	Logans	5Dimes	SPORTSBETTING
NY Giants @ Philadelphia	43.5 -3	43.5 -3	43.5 -3	43 -2.5	43.5 -3

Matchup

BONUS QUESTION: How many catches will Pro Bowl talent LJ Smith have?

You know if Andy Reid ran the Phillies Adam Eaton would have stayed in the rotation and Joe Blanton would still be in Oakland.

A.I. Yo!

Allen Iverson is back in the Eastern Conference. And while I still have visions of Brad Lidge sliders and Chase Utley speech highlights dancing in my head, I can definitely see the Sixers and Pistons matching up again in the playoffs.

Last year didn't work out so well though the Sixers held their own as a young squad entering playoff waters for the first time. But their personnel is better this year, and I think the team will improve as the season goes along, provided our own A.I. can figure out his role on the court.

According to this column, the Iverson/Billups trade is as much designed to stage Detriot for a LeBron James landing, but I think the shakeup will help the Pistons this year too. And as they may be out of Detroit after this season, Iverson and Rasheed Wallace might be that more motivated to win this year. Should be interesting.

Oh, the post title is a reference to The Wire. If you haven't seen it, get on that, gump.

A victory

Much like last week, the Eagles were horrible to start the game, especially McNabb. And Reid called the usual overwhelming number of pass plays to runs. The play that finally got the Eagles rolling was a 44 yard catch and run by the player of the game, Brent Celek (6 catches, 131 yards), which came a few plays after McNabb's first completion and the Eagles first, first down. Unfortunately McNabb threw a horrible pick in the endzone the next play. But the engine had warmed up and the Eagles scored a TD on their next drive and took control of the game and continued to score on almost every drive thereafter.

Aside from Seattle's very first play of the game - a 90 yard TD pass play - the defense shut down Seattle and barely let them cross midfield. Seattle kept shooting themselves in the foot with stupidity, drops, and dumb play calls. You can see where Reid learned it from.

Akers had a great game making all his field goals and even one from 40.

Other notes:

• Way to break away from the Titans-Packers OT game, Fox as the Titans were lining up for the winning field goal for 3 straight minutes of ads. Idiots.
• Nice replay on opening kickoff return, Fox. Idiots.
• Will McNabb ever learn to put the ball away when he's running the ball? That was the first of 2 Eagles fumbles that luckily rolled out of bounds.
• Seattle's first play, a 90 yard TD pass, was all Lito's fault.
• Celek had more big plays this one game than LJ has had the last 2 years.
• Franchise Herremans?
• Fox robot was looking very patriotic today, but got schooled by the Burger King.
• Awesome groin injury graphic.
• Eagles once again failed to convert a 3rd and 1 but were able to finally convert a 4th and short for the first time this year.
• Remember when Julius Jones sucked on Dallass? He sucks on Seattle too.
• Darren Howard played pretty good today.
• Eagles ALMOST had ZERO penalties - way to blow it Bradley on the 2nd to last play of the game. Guess who they played last year that they did have zero penalties against?
• I hate the Burger King commercials with the faux folk singers.
• I hate the Toyota "saved by zero" commercials.

So the Eagles deserved to win this game, but had a big assist from the Seahawks ineptitude and plethora of injuries to key players. Next will be a real opponent, who just destroyed the pathetic, no heart Dallass, who sucks.

While Mets fans were at work

We had a championship parade.



Got on the R3 in Elwyn which is the beginning/end of the line figuring space would be at a premium on the train and it was. The Elwyn stop filled the seats, the Media stop filled the aisles, and from there the train didn't stop again until 30th Street. Got off at Suburban Station and made my way across Market down 16th and then cut over to Broad via Chestnut and took up a space in the crowd around 10 AM.

You can see me in this picture standing on Broad in front of "fye." to the left of the traffic light pole. I'm wearing a maroon Phillies winter hat on top of my Flyers baseball cap, holding up my camera toward city hall taking one of many parade pictures, the best of which you can view in my championship parade set at flickr.

Highlights of the wait were a dude in a Phillies hat driving a seafood delivery truck stopping in the middle of Broad, opening his door and standing up pumping his fist while laying on his horn. The crowd, ready to cheer anything, roared until a cop told him to get going. The guy was so happy. Also a kid rode a wheelie on his BMX for the entire block until he lost it and then got booed. Lowlights were latecomers trying to weasel their way in closer.

Eventually the parade started. Oddly, Burrell was the leadoff man and was all alone on some faux Budweiser beer thing with his wife, dog, and 2 dudes pretending to be horse drivers. The rest of the players were randomly mixed on floats and were overwhelmed in numbers by people that nobody knew. I never even saw a bunch of players or Charlie Manuel in his gangster suit because they stood on the other side of the flatbeds. Oh well.

There were cheers, pictures and video shot, and then after 15-20 minutes or so the parade was gone. Most people then wanted to leave so they could take a whiz after a morning of steady drinking, but where I was nothing was moving. After about 10 minutes the cops opened the barricades and people flooded onto Broad Street and then the fan's parade began.

I walked down Broad Street as far as Washington, mainly hovering around this marching band style drum section that was playing some celebratory beats. One beat made a guy literally get stupid as he hopped onto the back of a police paddy wagon and started to bounce to the beat which made cops rush out out of the van and throw him in the back of it. I booed the cops while others mindlessly cheered. The cops didn't have to arrest the guy, just tell him he was stupid. Other than that, the cops I saw were cool. They were mainly hanging out and talking, not trying to be tough guys or busy bodies.

Eventually I made it back to center city and the Market East station to catch my train back home. The platform for trains going north was packed and there were long lines just waiting to get onto the platform. For my train there was nothing but just waiting for it to show up at its regular time. So when it came I hopped on it, rode back to Elwyn, and got back to my car around 3:30 just in time to surprisingly hear that the ceremony at the stadium was just starting. So I bought a cheese hoagie on my way home, flipped on the TV, poured a Coke and enjoyed my lunch while watching the ceremony and the raising of the 2008 championship pennant. What could be more perfect ending to a great day than that?

Here are some other Flickr sets of the parade I found that are worth viewing:
Mr. Biggs'
hyperconnected08's
transposition's
Ronnie Bruce's