Eagles defense lays down and Addais

Dawkins sets the tone for the game and the defense early by blowing the first tackle of the night on ROOKIE running back Addai. Rod Hood feeds off Dawkins' effort with a missed tackle of his own on Addai's first, and least easy TD run of 15 yards. And another game, another opening drive for a touchdown.

Eagles offense starts with 4 straight successful plays to Westbrook. The Colts are dumb. Who else do the Eagles have but Westbrook? Nice to see the quick pass to the sidelines make an appearance in this drive. I really missed that. A nice catch by Mr. Softee on 3rd down is the big play in the drive that ultimately ends with the second bad snap in 2 weeks on a FG try which results in an Akers miss. Nice job field goal team. Pathetic.

Next Colts drive is just like the first - more horrible run defense, more horrible tackling. But no bad tackling on Addai's second TD run of 10 yards because nobody touched him.

Nice return by Mahe sets up the Eagles but a stupid trick play is called that is executed horribly and easily intercepted.

In the middle of the following Colts drive which was a repeat of the previous two, Trotter made the FIRST defensive play where the Colts lost yards and he followed it with an axe chop. Trotter, you're an idiot. A few plays later Addai made his third TD run and this time he was actually touched during his 15 yard stroll into the endzone. I believe it was an index finger.

Next Eagles offensive drive Reggie Brown made the best defensive play of anyone in an Eagles uniform so far.

Defense makes a stop which is followed by a nice Eagles TD drive. I'm pleasantly surprised. Terrible special teams coverage on the following kick off gives the Colts a short field for a half closing field goal.

I lost the motivation to pay attention for the second half so just a few notes.

Another nice drive by the Eagles and Garcia with several nice passes and catches leads to another TD. Eagles look competent and are actually competing on offense.

The defense follows up with a nice Pro Bowl like play by Lito, first and only good play by the defense all night. The pick sets the offense up nicely and shock of shocks, the offense takes advantage right away and punches it in for another TD. Eagles are only down by 10!

Colts take the kickoff and go right down the field with no difficulty at all and Addai gets his fourth TD. I think someone made a quick swipe at him on his way in but that was it.

Eagles offense gives up another meaningless defensive TD late in the game.

Thomas Tapeh sighting with 2:35 left.

Other Notes: Play calling was actually decent if you forget about the trick play. The offense surprised me and looked pretty good at times. The longest Eagles pass play was 19 yards - a short one to Buckhalter that he ran with. The longest actual pass completion was probably the one to Baskett that went for 16 yards. The defense was brutal, absolutely pathetic and execrable though. Manning is good, but he is the most annoying QB ever and I hate all those TV ads where he mocks the common man doing their mundane, crap jobs. How about some replays NBC? - Did Stallworth shortarm that one pass? Who cares about the Chris Collingsworth and the Broncos QB controversy. Can anyone name all the clowns in the man rules group? I can name 4.

Flyers win

Much like the game before Thanksgiving, the Flyers played well enough to win the game. Except today they actually did win as the unlikely combination of Pitkinin and Richards combined for a thrid period score. Flyers actually looked like an NHL team in the past two games, albeit not a very good one. They are now able to bring the puck out of their own zone and have not been giving up 10 or more odd man rushes per game. The 1-2-2 zone/trap or whatever it is that Stevens has installed seems to have stopped the bleeding and having Foresberg back has helped the offense. Still the Flyers are a long way from turning the season around. With the return of Ferdoruk, Picard, and Carter imminent, the Flyers have some decisions to make personnel wise. Frankly Calder sucks and should be off the team, but with his salary he cannot be moved. Interestingly he played over Meloche today. I assume Picard will replace Lars Johnson in the line-up, and I would play Fedoruk over Kane. Nedved was particularly bad vs Ottawa (2 minor penalties that were just plain lazy) and Hatcher looked good. Today Hatcher looked bad and Nedved pretty good. Flyers need consistency from all of their players if they expect to win. Any opinions?

Game #2 on the way to losing out?

11/26 8:15 PM ET	Opening	BoDog	Sportsbook	Pinnacle	WSEX	5Dimes
Philadelphia @ Indianapolis	46 -13	44 -9.5	44 -9	44 -9	44 -9.5	44 -10

Matchup

BONUS QUESTION: Will Garcia complete a pass in the air for more than 20 yards?

Go Phillies!

Sure, we need some pitching, a solution to LF, and another bat in the lineup, but here's to the best news in Philly right now!!! (Of course, no, it doesn't involve hardware for the city, but you gotta like the guy and take some joy in this, kinda like Hexy back in 87 getting the Conn Smythe Trophy.... ah, maybe not that good, at least the Flyers were in the Finals back then and got trounced by a dynasty team at its peak.)

Dirty Waters No More

I think I'll watch the Body Bag Game tonight in honor of the REAL #20. There certainly isn't any green Kool Aid around anymore to drink to ease the sorrow.

Why do the Eagles suck?

• Defense gives up a TD on the opponent's first possession, one of their specialities.
• Offense struggled mightily to go a measly 12 yards after the fumble recovery.
• No QB sneak on the 1/2 yard line instead a pass play that is intercepted when McNabb lobs up an airball that flies about 12 feet too short.
• Dawkins drops an interception that was a sure TD.
• Sheppard drops an interception that was a sure TD.
• Greg Lewis, who sucks, drops a first down.
• Reggie Brown, who is overrated, drops what was probably a first down.
• Defense give up a long drive for points right before the half with several third and longs converted, one of their other specialties.
• Reno "Asteroids" Mahe is the only Eagle that came to play this week. That's sad.
• Mahe's kickoff return gives the offense great field position but they do NOTHING with it but lay a turd.
• Punter punts it into the endzone with a 10 yard penalty tacked on for a net of 10 or so yards.
• Next play is a simple run up the middle for a 70 yard Titan TD featuring a mini clinic on how not to tackle by the Eagles defense.
• Mahe's kickoff return gives the offense great field position but they do NOTHING with it but lay a turd. Again.
• Next play is a punt return for an 90 yard Titans TD featuring a mini clinic on how not to tackle by the Eagles special teams.
• Special teams follows that up with a blown field goal snap.
• After Eagles finally score a TD, defense immediately gives up a 40 yard play.
• Third and 1 can't run it for a first down and also lose 30 seconds off the clock.
• Can't snap it to Garcia in shotgun who can't easily recover a fumble, Titans pick it up and run it in for a TD.
• All of this against the 32nd ranked defense and the 27th ranked offense.

I thought the season ended with the loss to Tampa Bay and if not then, certainly after the loss to Jacksonville. And if anyone still thought the Eagles had a chance this game surely has crushed any last vestiges of optimism you might have had. And I'm probably not alone in getting the feeling in the first quarter that the Eagles were on their way to losing this game. You could just sense that they were going to do nothing all day but suck, and that was before McNabb went down, probably for the season with a Buckhalter knee.

Other notes: Anybody else that can take over calling the plays? If the Eagles can't score on a big play, they can't score. Reid has never beaten Jeff Fisher. Young only completed 8 passes and won the game. How's that flex schedule look now NBC? The Eagles "window" is closed and locked shut.

Flyers are chum(ps)

Flyers are back to sucking. Sharks first goal - typical Flyers. Sharks easily keep puck in the zone. Flyers gain possession but of course fail to clear and Esche gets scored on once again by a shot from the point that gets deflected in front.

Sharks second goal was a great pass by Thorton but Freddy Meyer just lets the guy go right by him to the net unmolested. Flyers are down 2-0 already and have no shots themselves. Eager decides to fight at this point and loses.

Flyers get a powerplay and their first shot of the game results in a goal thanks to a lucky bounce but overall the Flyers are still somnambulant. Soon after Thorton begins the Sharks parade of cheapshots by drilling Umberger into the short sideboards from behind. A worse hit came later in the game when Picard was drilled from behind by Bell and his head nailed the dasher and he needed to be helped from the ice. Both hits only resulted in minors. This is why the new NHL is a sad, pathetic joke. A little tap with the stick on the hip is equal to crushing someone from behind into the boards in penalty time.

Flyers get another powerplay and Forsberg, who played pretty bad, gets too cute and gives up a Flyers specialty - the shorthanded breakaway for a goal. Nice job. Flyers down 3-1 after 1.

Sharks fourth goal came on a powerplay. The Flyers just let the guy walk in and shoot and Esche lets him score on a bad angle to his shortside. Nice job.

The fifth and sixth goals were the result of the Flyers leaving a guy barely covered as he came down the slot. More nice defensive efforts. After 2, losing 6-1. Nothing happens in the third even though retribution for the earlier hits was promised.

To summarize the game - Flyers approach the blue line and the Sharks stand up and force a crappy pass or a dump into the corner which the Flyers rarely get to or win the battle for. Sharks approach the blue line and Flyers D backs in lets them easily set up or get a clear shot on net. Sharks win most of the battles for the puck. Repeat 40-60 times.

Let's hope the Eagles are more interested than I am

11/19 1:00 PM ET	Opening	BoDog	Sportsbook	Pinnacle	WSEX	5Dimes
Tennessee @ Philadelphia	42.5 -13	43 -13	43 -13	43 -13	43 -13	43 -14

Matchup

BONUS QUESTION: Is Reid being purposely vague about who will be calling plays this Sunday so Tennessee will have to figure out the tendencies of Mornhinweg and Reid or is he just being stupid?

Waah!

The question has been asked, "Why isn't McNabb beloved?" The reason I don't particularly like the guy has nothing to do with his performance as a quarterback, which has been as good as you can get without winning a championship. The reason I don't like him is his "woe is me" act which never ends. The guy was a first round draft pick, is a millionaire many times over, plays for a very successful team, is a perennial pro-bowler, has one of the top 10 selling jerseys nationally and probably the top selling jersey locally, has an unpaid shill on the radio from 3 to 7 Monday through Friday touting his greatness, has 60,000+ people cheering him on at the stadium each Sunday and millions more in front of their TV sets, but 30 drunks booed him when he was drafted 7 years ago. Never mind that their boos were directed at the Eagles not McNabb. And just forget that the booers and their ringleader apologized and admitted to being wrong. Never mind that thousands more have cheered him since and wear his jersey, bought his bobble-heads, and other assorted McNabb related crap. None of that counts apparently because 30 people booed the Eagles on draft day because they wanted Ricky "sticky icky icky" Williams. Nevermind that booing at the draft happens almost every year. Also, after all the time McNabb has been here it's astounding that he's hasn't caught on that Philadelphia sports fans are emotional and say and do things without thinking. And if by some miracle the Eagles ever win a Superbowl he will be the beneficiary of all that irrational emotion for the rest of his life.

Flyers win!

The Flyers may have crushed the team with the best record in the west but the Flyers sucked just as much as usual. Don't let the 7 goals fool you. For this game, and probably this game only, something odd happened - everything the Flyers shot was into the top corners instead of into the goalies chest, opponents' skates, or "just" wide. Miraculously they also were 3 of 5 on the powerplay. Maybe Calder being scratched had something to do with it.

The Flyers did play really good in the first period but once the Ducks realized they were in a hockey game they dominated for the last 2 periods and ended up having 41 shots to the Flyers 16. The Flyers only had 2 shots each for the last 2 periods but they incredibly scored on both of them in the third.

Also for the 2nd and 3rd, the Flyers were absolutely pathetic on defense and couldn't clear the zone or the front of the net if their lives depended on it. The Ducks blew tons of chances to score. I can't count how many unmolested wacks they had at loose pucks in the crease or how easily they set up in front of Niittymaki. There were times in the second and third periods where it looked the like the Ducks had a 2 man advantage when it was even strength.

I'm still amazed the Flyers won 7-4. This is a weird, weird season. Hopefully the Flyers can build on this offensively but man, their team defense is still the worst.

Crosby is a Pussy

Yet another loss. Flyers were thoroughly outplayed in the second period. Shots were like 18-3. Flyers could not complete a pass, let alone attack with speed or forecheck. Still they entered the third period down by only one goal. The Flyers played better in the third and tied the game by, amazingly, going to the net. Still the Flyers could not get the lead, mostly because the power play is the weakest attempt at hockey you will ever see. Seriously they had 4 powerplays and did not get one shot on goal. Anyway Pittsburgh won because Sidney "Crybaby" Crosby blatantly interfered with Freddy Meyer, which allowed Recchi to feed that Russian kid for a nice shot that beat Niittymaki. After the game Stevens gave his usual speil about competition, and the lack thereof

"I'm having trouble understanding it, to be honest with you. We've got to play for 60 minutes. We've got a chance to win the hockey game because we played for 20 minutes in the third period on the road and to me it should have been for 60 minutes."

I like Stevens but I doubt he will be back next year. Some positives from last night. The penalty kill was good (no goals given up), as was Niittymaki. Hatcher actually dropped the gloves and wanted to crush Whitney (Who attacked Meyer after he was assessed a bogus boarding call). The Grant-Roy fight was entertaining. Also entertaining was Crybaby Crosby ended the game on his back after (1) eating a slapshot from the point and (2) getting pushed down by Sami Kappeneen, who Crosby had given a two handed slash. The bad- everything else, especially the play of Calder, who missed an optional practice to rest up and was a -2. I believe he was even benched because I did not see him on ice in the thrid period. VS also did a feature on Mike Richards fights to fire up Philly. Of course this begs the question, if Richards is going to fight everytime the Flyers fall behind by 2 goals, will he have 200 penalty minutes by the years end? Game summary is here, but if you've read one of these already this year, it just says the same thing. But there is hope for the Flyers- The fridge is back! Yes, Todd Fedoruk, last seen getting his face crushed, is returning to Philadelphia. I like the Fridge, and he is certianly a player that will play hard and be a leader, but he won't be scoring many goals. Welcome back Fridge.

Tracking A New Era?

Big Daddy B's finest takeaway from yesterday's game will rest in what Andy Reid revealed after the game, that he turned over the play calling to Morningweg. Now I'm not sure if this is a permanent change. And, no, I can't believe for a minute that MM is going to turn this team into a running team (BDB doesn't necessarily want that, nor does he think this team should be that). In fact, MM will probably target 60% passes per game. But, what I think it offers hope for is a future where the Birds will integrate the run into the overall play calling, and more importantly situationally make the right play calls. Heck, DMac might even have more time to set his team up at the line, read the defenses, and not blow timeouts.

For WWEW readers, BDB has updated his run chart for the Reidian Birds, which shows just how broadly out of control the guy had gotten, far beyond merely beginning or ending a season (ouch those latter games are hard to think about) in hyper-pass mode. Let's see how MM does in balancing the run game moving forward.

It's not about words, it's about energy

Dhani Jones is a clown, but the opening of his smacked-ass voicemail message is appropriate for this team. Tired of hearing from the 4 and 4 Eagles how great they are, it was time for them to show up and act like they wanted to play. And while the Eagles won and played a much improved game, they still didn't give a full effort for 4 quarters and probably would have a tougher time earning a win if the Redskins weren't so abysmal. Eagles also got some breaks and the Redskins got none since they depleted their supply last week vs. Dallass. One impressive aspect and big plus that happened in this game was the final Eagles drive which ate up the remaining 8 minutes plus of the game. Nice job Westbrook.

Other notes: Why didn't the Redskins just run the ball up the middle almost every play? Eagles should try tackling without grabbing a facemask or collar. McNabb threw a perfect pass to Stallworth on that bomb. The receivers had ZERO drops. Reid said in the press conference that Mr. Lucky, Reggie Brown fumbled the ball. It was not a play and he wasn't trying to lateral to Buckhalter. Reid also said Marty Morningweg called the plays all by himself this game. I don't think I'm right, but did the offense ony get one penalty all game - a false start? Dawkins played great and then kind of disappeared after getting shaken up on that huge play he made in the endzone. Lito owes him a dinner. Trotter also had lots of nice plays in the game early. Since when can you challenge "down by contact"? And Westbrook did fumble that and the refs blew it, even though there shouldn't have been a challenge allowed. Why can't the Eagles get 2 yards when it's first and goal at the 2? Special teams on kick-offs was weak in the first half but improved in the second. "Moose" Johnson was absolutely right criticizing the Eagles when they repeatedly did nothing after getting the ball inside Redskins territory. Tony Siragusa is boring. And Fox, where was the Clinton Portis's wacky costumes for the press conferences feature? I really missed that.

Battle of the Disappointments

11/12 1:00 PM ET	Opening	BoDog	Sportsbook	Pinnacle	WSEX	5Dimes
Washington @ Philadelphia	43.5 -7.5	43 -7	43 -7	42.5 -7	43 -7	43 -8

Matchup

BONUS QUESTION: Is it good the Eagles locked up Patterson and Cole for the next half century?

Another sad loss

In regards to the Flyers complete and pathetic inability to score Coatesy says, "It's unbelievable, it's uncanny!". No Coates, the Flyers just flat out suck. Flyers are 6th in the league in shots but dead last in goals, mainly playing against backup goalies. That means you suck. And that doesn't even count all the shots they take that are blocked or simply miss the net.

A positive about this game though, if you discount the typical first period sleepwalk, is the Flyers resembled an NHL team and actually outbattled and outworked an opponent for significant chunks of play. They even outshot the Leafs 17-3 in the second. The Phantoms lead the way while the so called stars did nothing. Eager got the lone goal after finishing his check, one of the few on the team that does, and was set up right down the slot with a nice pass from Meloche which he buried instead of shooting into the mythical 6 hole. The stars meanwhile squandered chance after chance and powerplay after powerplay. Pathetic.

And any Flyers game review would be remiss if I didn't mention that Pitkanen sucks and so does Calder.