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.

See ya Simon

Eagles removed the franchise tag from Corey Simon and have basically said, "Good luck trying to find another team that's going to pay you $5.13 million. Dumbass." Simon and his equally dumb agent gambled and lost. The Eagles aren't gambling at all with what looks like great depth at that position -- Walker, Thomas, Rayburn, and the rookie Patterson, etc. In fact Reid even said so: "With the great amount of depth and talent we have along the defensive line, we chose to give Corey an opportunity to sign with another team."

Simon never blew me away and I was never a big fan. He never really lived up to that 5th overall pick status. What I'll miss most about Simon this coming season is him being out of shape for the first 2 months and his constant writhing around on the ground after every third play; not because he was hurt, but because he was out of breath.

The Eagles lose, lose situation

Terrell Owens returns tomorrow to Eagles practice after making a total fool of himself last week and receiving a letter from the Eagles detailing his antics and outlining how they expect him to act, i.e. like an adult. It's pretty inevitable that TO will again misbehave, not in an outright display but in a sly underhanded way so he can say, "What? What did I do?" Then the Eagles will suspend him again, maybe for the season.

The Eagles of course are doing the absolute right thing. You can't let Owens behave like he's behaving and then give him what he wants. But by doing the right thing they are significantly damaging their chances at a championship. Fans that just want to cut him or don't want him back at all are acting almost as impetuously as TO and letting emotion cloud their better judgement. He did score 14 touchdowns in an injury shortened season and was the best Eagle in the Super Bowl. The irony of this whole situation is the fans were decidedly against management in the Trotter, Douglass, Vincent, and Taylor ordeals and decisions and those were lesser players with a much smaller impact on the Eagles overall success. Could TO's efforts be any more hamhanded and stupid? And to compound it more, not only will the Eagles not be giving him more money, the rest of the NFL seems to be turning its collective back on him as well.

The ultimate responsibility lies with TO of course but I think the Eagles players have to sit this guy down and explain to him they are tired of his crap. He either has to act like a professional teammate or get out. The players don't need the distraction and they definitely seemed weary of the situation during last night's sideline interviews at the preseason game. If TO doesn't change and isn't suspended then he becomes a <cliche>cancer</cliche> and the Eagles and the fans lose again.

Will we ever win?