Weekend Thoughts

sorry for the lack of activity, got a new job (same company) and a little swamped with the transition... besides there isn't much to get excited about until the nfl draft. sixers are going nowhere and the flyers are an abomination right now.

highlight of the weekend (if you are a tiger woods fan) was tiger woods winning the buick invitational with his c-game. the guy is just sick.

Wednesday Links

- don's rehab (the most important offseason issue for the eagles) is apparently on schedule

- penn state jumps into the top 5 with yesterday's commitments from antonio logan-el and phillip taylor. here is the entire class so far.

- michaels trade on hold for now, phils talking to mike piazza

- jack mccaffrey thinks it's not unreasonable to think that brett myers will grow into the no. 1 role

PSU Revival Continues

apparently pat devlin is going to penn state! seems like the turnaround is going to be more than just a one year thing and continues the trend of high profile local recruits starting to choose psu again.

the downslide for penn state started when the best players from their traditional recruiting base (pennsylvania, new jersey, virginia, maryland) started choosing other schools. i've always thought that moving to the big ten was a strategic blunder for penn state for a few reasons:

- it's better to be the big fish in a little pond. in the big ten, penn state will never be more than the third biggest fish -- at least in the big ten universe. they'll never have the cachet of michigan or ohio state and will have a much harder fight toward a national championship whenever they are a contender.

- losing recruits to east coast teams. what does a kid from new jersey or virginia care about iowa or wisconson or northwestern? penn state was the 600 lb gorilla of college football in the northeast, so they dominated recruiting in the east. moving to the big ten allowed teams like boston college and virginia tech to convince recruits to stay closer to home.

- losing recruits to big ten teams. moving to the big ten allowed michigan and ohio state establish a bigger prescence in pennsylvania since michigan and ohio state have a strong national recruiting presence.

- not gaining recruits from big ten states. penn state recruited primarily in the mid-atlantic region, so they didn't gain many recruits by moving.

it's no coincidence that the recent change in fortunes started with their ability to start getting commitments from the best players in the area instead of letting them escape to other schools. maybe the concerns i listed above were really just a short term hit? i hope so/it seems so. there is a nice positive trend recently (derrick williams, justin king, dan connor).

Conference Championship Thoughts

the conference championship games (and most of the playoffs games to this point) re-emphasized for me that the three most impactful aspects to a football game are: 1) QB play, 1a) offensive line play, and 3) defensive pressure on the QB.

you don't *have* to have stud wideouts to win (e.g. darrell jackson), you don't *have* to have stud running backs to win (e.g. bettis and parker), but you do *have* to have good QB play.

are roethlisberger and hasselbeck actually better QBs than delhomme and plummer (probably true in the case of plummer) or did they just get better protection? did hasselbeck actually get over his propensity to make the critical mistake or did he just get better protection? did plummer actually get over his bad habits or did they just focus more on protecting him? (though i think yesterday's game gave us a pretty good idea).

chicken and the egg, i guess. even with good protection a bad QB cannot win games. once you get above a certain competency threshhold though, the offensive line is a big factor in determining the winner and the loser.

the eagles have the QB, a big, big question for next season is whether or not they can protect him.

pittsburgh at denver
- can we officially stop calling mike shanahan a genius now? what the heck kind of gameplan was that? after spending the whole season keeping jake out of trouble, shanahan builds the whole gameplan around plummer? broncos run on the first three plays, have success, then turn the game over to jake the snake with predictable results.

carolina at seattle
- interesting to see holmgren back in the superbowl, one year after everyone was speculating that paul allen would fire him. i hope andy takes a cue from his fat mentor and gives up GM duties to focus on coaching.

Bill Simmons Feedback

did anyone read the recent article from the (self-proclaimed) "sports guy?" you know, the one where he goes on and on about the terrible injustices that were perpetrated on his patriots in their game against the broncos? wow.

i run hot and cold with him, but today is definitely cold. very cold. the guy is a weenie, plain and simple. are you kidding me? how could you *possibly* complain about having a terrible call made against the patriots when for 3-4 seasons they've been the most fortunate team in terms of officiating that i have ever seen? this is a joke right?

To my father, who waited 18 hours to call me after Saturday night's crushing Patriots loss, finally calling during the Panthers-Bears game, and then started the conversation by calmly muttering, "Kevin Faulk ruined my winter ... he ruined my winter ... he ruined my whole winter ... "

wah! my team didn't get the breaks this time. waaah!

To me and every other Patriots fan -- we've been walking around like zombies for four days and counting.

oh my gosh. the *horror*. it must be unbearable to see the patriots not win the superbowl.

Hey, we want to seem like good losers -- after all, the Belichick-Brady teams won more than a few games in which they outplayed a more talented team simply by sticking together and not screwing up, and we always bristled whenever the fans from a vanquished opponent played the whole "we gave that gave away, we were better than you" card. At the same time, that was a Hall of Fame "No F-ing Way Game," between the killer turnovers and the consistently ludicrous officiating (did Jeff Triplett bury Ed Hochuli in a shallow grave or something?), only none of us could hit the reset button and start the game over. Unbelievable. I still can't get over it. One of the toughest Boston losses ever. Grace period, schmace period.

so what you're saying is that it sucks to be on the other end of games like when the patriots "beat" the rams in the superbowl? or when the patriots "beat" the raiders in the tuck rule game? or when the patriots "beat" the eagles last year? games where the patriots were outplayed but "won" because of opposition mistakes and/or bad calls? i'm shocked.

Did the Broncos do a terrific job of banging bodies, punishing Brady, avoiding turnovers and taking advantage of mistakes? Absolutely. They were a better football team on Saturday night. But I will go to my grave wondering what would have happened if Kevin Faulking Faulk didn't fumble with 1:54 remaining in the first half. All season long, this Broncos team was fearing a situation in which Plummer had to make plays in the second half to win a game for them. The Pats were one more quarter away from making that happen. And they blew it. Aaaaaaargh. I can't talk about it anymore

...and yet you continue to blather on and on and on about it

I swear, I'm not blaming the officiating for the Pats' loss. Really, I'm not. I know it seems that way ... I just can't handle it when my favorite team gets screwed over by bad calls. For my sake, let's look at the Bailey fumble logically, and only because I slow-mo'ed it on TiVo 345,323 times this weekend before ultimately bludgeoning myself with the remote.

look you puss, i think that was a horrible call and agree completely that it should have been a touchback. that said, the standard is "indisputable video evidence" and based on the replays available, that standard was not met. there was no angle available that showed you exactly where the ball crossed the goal line. deal with it. stop your foul whining. you're worse than my 2 year old daughter.

you're funny most of the time with your "sports guy" schtick, but times like these your whiny, weasely nature shines through and irritates me.

Sixers... Ugh

sixers are dying a slow death right now. how the heck are they going to fix this?

AI's still spectacular, but he's getting frustrated with his teammates again and slipping back into bad habits (quick shots, hogging the ball unneccessarily). the team has no energy, cannot defend, and cannot rebound. what the dilly-o!

blech, they are unwatchable right now.

More Manning

meant to post this yesterday. apparently i hit save as draft instead of publish.
-----

thinking about this more, the most interesting part of peyton manning complaining about "protection issues" is that HE CALLS THE PROTECTION! that's what half those ridiculous gesticulations at the line are supposed to be, no? he's supposed to identify and point out all of the potential blitzers.

what a jackass.

Forsberg Feedback

from ben schuchardt:

I get your point with Forsberg. You want the “best player in the world” to be the Great One, or the Great One you don’t remember, Bobby Orr. Guess what? He isn’t that good. Neither are other countless “best players in the world” who occupy the slot because somebody has to. Larry Holmes wasn’t one of the best fighters of all time, in my opinion, but he was clearly the “best fighter in the world” when he held the championship. Tom Watson was never Tiger Woods, even though he damn sure was the “best player in the world” for a time. Peter Forsberg has been the best player in the world for several years now. He isn’t heads and tails above everyone else. He has a peer group. Tough break.

What angers me about your post is the gratuitous comparison to Brett Favre, who was arguably the most overrated player of all time, but was never “the best in the world” by a long shot. You could have been fairer by choosing any number of players that were in fact the best for a period of time, but not of all time.

If not for the herd-think of NFL watchers who are overly influenced by John Madden, Brett Favre would be just some guy with a strong arm who caught lightning in a bottle from time to time. Think Kerry Collins with a little more consistency.

i certainly didn't mean to anger anyone and i'm sorry if my off the cuff comments offended, however, i don't think comparing forsberg to favre is unreasonable. while favre has been unjustifyably given god status by the media, IMO he was for a time the "best QB in the world". i'd say for the period between 1994 and 1998, there wasn't a better QB on the planet. favre wasn't head and shoulders above his peers during those years (aikman, young, elway), but neither has forsberg been head and shoulders above his peers during his period of dominance (as you mention above). i'm as sick of the brett favre worship as the next guy, but he was 10x the player kerry collins was.

i think it is more unfair to categorize forsberg with tom watson and larry holmes than favre. while watson and holmes don't compare favorably to the greatest players ever in their respective professions, both of them were head and shoulders ahead of their competition during their careers. you cannot say the same thing about forsberg. those guys were clearly the best, while forsberg was/is arguably the best.

you're right that expecting to see someone as impactful as 99 is unreasonable, but i do expect someone being billed as the best player in the world to be obviously impactful every game. i don't see that with forsberg right now. i don't say that with any sort of malice or agenda, i'm just talking about what i am seeing. as a flyers fan, i'll be glad to be wrong. maybe my expectations for the "best player in the world" are too high? i don't think they are, but that's a possiblity as well.

bottom line, i still root for him, i still like having him on the team, and i still wish we hadn't traded him away in the first place. i'm a peter forsberg fan. i'm just questioning this notion that he's the best player in the world (with the caveat that i admit i didn't get to see enough of him in his prime).

Peter Forsberg Follow Up

after watching peter forsberg closely for most of the game against the avalanche (a game that he should have been pumped to play), i still think he's a great player and i'm still happy he's on the flyers... but i continue to think that he is *not* the "best player in the world."

for each spectacular play he makes, he makes 2-3 bad ones. i'm not talking about plays where he tries something and it didn't work, i'm talking about plays where it would have been better had he not tried something at all. one play in particular i thought was pretty bad, he carried the puck into the zone 1 on 4. he stopped just past the blue line and waited for help... and waited for help. when two defenders went after him and started pressuring him, he blindly passed the puck into the slot and it was easily intercepted by a defender who started the rush the other way. without any help from his teammates, the right play would have been to dump the puck in the zone and allow the flyers to regroup. instead, he made a wild pass to no one that had no chance of resulting in a positive outcome. he did have a goal and an assist, so on the scoreboard that will go down as a good game but i don't think he had a very good game.

i know i shouldn't judge him based on what i've been seeing over 2-3 weeks and maybe his groin is still bothering him, but the comparison that jumps into my head right now is brett favre from 2 seasons ago. still puts up great numbers, but is no longer able to do some of the things he used to do, takes too many chances, and can no longer carry a team.

i hope i am wrong.

NFL Divisional Playoff Thoughts

this weekend was the nfl's worst nightmare. not only didn't they get the patriots at colts matchup that they desperately wanted, but the nfc championship game is a complete dud.

washington at seattle

- shaun alexander is as big of a p*ssy as he's made out to be. unless he comes back from the concussion and has a monster game against carolina, i think he cost himself some money this offseason.

- matt hasselbeck has become a big time QB. when did that happen? i didn't get the memo. i know that he had a great statistical year, but i was surprised that he didn't make a single boneheaded decision against the redskins (and they had decent pressure on him all game).

- watching mack strong play makes me wish the eagles had a fullback on the roster.

new england at denver

- pressure makes any QB look awful, even the great tom brady. denver was in his face most of the game and made him look pretty pedestrian. brady did get hot in the second half, but the killer interception to bailey wouldn't have happened without pressure.

- wow, ben watson comes out of nowhere to tackle bailey at the goal line! talk about hustle. tough break for new england on that bailey fumble tough. it was clearly a touchback and bailey should have been the new leon lett.

pittsburgh at indianapolis

- anyone who thinks peyton manning is overrated and/or a media darling fraud looks pretty good today. i'm eagerly waiting to see how the media spins this latest manning crash and burn. the guy has *zero* courage in the pocket. this is the same problem his younger and less talented brother has, so i continue to have no fear of eli.

- best part of the game was watching peyton refusing to accept blame for the loss. i'm paraphrasing, but after the game peyton said something to the effect of "i don't want to be a bad teammate and i don't want to point fingers... but we had some protection issues out there." ha ha. think his o-line wants to block for him today? if i were jeff saturday, i'd be stuffing peyton's gigantic forehead into the toilet right now. are you kidding? yesterday was the first time your uniform got dirty all season and you start pointing fingers? pffht! this is a *big* reason why he's not a winner. "i don't want to be a bad teammate..." lol. best moment of the day.

- i wonder if the new england loss had any negative impact on indianapolis. a matchup against the patriots would have been their superbowl, so i wonder if watching the pats go down caused a fit of overconfidence or took some air out of their balloon.

- i'm not saying that the officials tried to fix the game, but the only plausible explanation for troy polamalu's interception (and it was an interception) getting overturned is that the nfl wanted to keep the colts in the game. there is no way an unbiased official (and one identified as one of the best in the nfl) looked at that replay and saw "indisputable video evidence" to overturn that call.

- troy polamalu is the best safety in the nfl right now and may actually be better than b-dawk was in his prime. there are a lot of really good safeties in the nfl right now, i can't remember a time when there were as many good players at that position.

carolina at chicago

- rex grossman looked pretty good considering he still hasn't started more than a handful of games in the nfl.

- brian urlacher is fast, but does not tackle well and gets manhandled by linemen and fullbacks. how the heck did this guy win nfl defensive player of the year? media darling fraud.

- steve smith is unbelieveable.

NFL Misery Index

espn ran this a couple of days ago, but i have nothing to say today and a lot of work to do.

the eagles rank 9th in espn's estimation for causing the most fan misery over the years.

while the eagles 6th in the fan poll.

Is Peter Forsberg Really "The Best"?

in his column today, sam donnellon uses the notion that the flyers have the "world's best player" on their roster as a plus for bobby clarke. i certainly think signing forsberg was a good move on clarke's part (albeit one that fell into his lap rather than one he conceived), but after watching him for a while now, i'm not so sure he is actually the "best player in the world."

forsberg is wonderfully talented for sure, and he is without a doubt the best passer, puck handler, and playmaker that i've seen on the flyers... but the best player in the world? eh. i'm a little underwhelmed at that notion. if he's the best player in the world, then the best player in the world has lost some of it's luster imo.

forsberg is great, but he's certainly not on the level of gretzky or lemieux... or even jagr when jagr wants to play. he just doesn't dominate the game the way the best player in the world should. he's terrific at what he does, but i haven't seen him, for instance, will his team to victory. does he have that in him? maybe, but i've never seen it. i only got to see him play 3-4 times a year when he was with colorado, but i never saw it then either.

love having him on the team. great, great, player. best is the world? not sold yet.

Draft Dilemna

with the eagles picking in the middle of the draft and lots of impact underclassmen declaring for the draft, the chances of having an impact player fall down to them is increasing daily. every vince young, lendale white, and reggie bush that declares effectively bumps the birds up a slot in terms of talent pool available when they pick. the chances are getting pretty good then, that an impact defensive tackle will be available when they draft. ray didinger keeps talking up this mario williams (who i've never seen), but if ray likes him then i like him.

what happens if d'brickashaw ferguson is also available at the time? who do i root for the eagles to pick? their area of greatest need or the player with the most ridiculous name i've ever heard? it's going to be a tough decision. drafting d'brickashaw will provide years of entertainment for me on top of the fact that he's supposed to be the highest rated o-lineman in the draft.

dilemna, dilemna.

Thursday Links

- as phil mentioned earlier, the birds signed 12 players, including timmy chang

- seems like nfl players are showing their support by voting for don for the bart starr award. never heard of it before, but it can't be a bad thing i guess.

- sam donnellon has an interesting perspective on billy king, first comparing him to head wade then to bobby clarke. i don't know, even head wade never built a team as bad on defense as this sixers team. the second half of last night's game was awful. i had to turn it off.

- why is this a story? doesn't everyone already know that bush is going to declare? that he won't make the same stupid decision that matt leinart made (costing himself tens of millions by choosing one more year of partying over going pro)?

- gillick is having a tough time trading abreau and/or acquiring pitching. seems like his plan is to sit tight and wait for next offseason when the salaries of bell, leiberthal, and wolf come off the books. if that's his plan, i'm fine with it.

Screamin' A's Latest

yo screamin', TO's leaving town. you can stop gobbling his knob.

For nearly one year now, Terrell Owens has been frustrated, disgusted, insulted, annoying, belligerent, dysfunctional and downright divisive. Now, after being exiled for two months, labeled the ultimate malcontent and branded as a cancer by the good ol' boys club of NFL executives, it's time Owens makes sure stupid isn't the latest term added to his list of his character flaws.

just to be clear, TO was first "annoying, belligerent, dysfunctional and downright divisive" then we started insulting him, not vice versa. he's not being "labeled" the ultimate malcontent, he's proven that he is. he isn't being "branded" as a cancer, he wrote it all over himself with a sharpie. only in your mind full of man-love for ME-O could exist the notion that he hasn't already proven that he is, in fact, a dumbass.

Times have changed now, though. The Eagles just might be the ones left sweating instead of Owens. Assuming that Owens plays his cards right, of course. ... It's time he stops exhausting himself and Rosenhaus and let the Eagles do some legwork.

screamin', FYI the birds don't have a lot invested in TO (brandon whiting and a 5th round pick). i don't think they're sweating anything. they'll sit on him as long as they can just out of spite at this point and rosenhaus knows it.

from profootballtalk.com

Of course, using the right words sometimes requires using some colorful words. We're told that Childress uttered what would have been the line of the year, if anyone had known about it at the time, during his testimony in the Terrell Owens arbitration hearing in November.

While being pressed by T.O.'s lawyers on the whos, whats, wheres, and whys regarding the events that culminated in the suspension of Owens, Childress summed it up succinctly.

"The Eagles don't have a lot of patience for assholes."

Marty Mornhinweg

i think this is a non-issue. despite the bleating of that moron angelo cataldi, i think it was clear when they hired mornhinweg last season that he was here to guard against the eventual departure of childress.

has andy ever hired a bad coach? i can't think of one. why would he hire one now in his time of need?

what evidence does cataldi have that mornhinweg isn't a good coach? angelo cataldi is a schmuck. let me repeat, angelo cataldi is a schmuck. if it's coming out of his mouth, it's almost a guarantee that it is wrong. opinion or not, he has been wrong *WAAAAY* more than he has been right.

angelo cataldi is an arrogant jackass who only cares about his own ratings. if everyone stops listening to him, we can get him off the air.

Analogy Time

the new jersey devils are to the philadelphia flyers as:

a) jerry is to tom
b) road runner is to coyote
c) bill belichick is to peyton manning
d) lou lamoriello is to bobby clarke
e) all of the above

the answer, sadly and obviously is e) all of the above.

a) the devils are jerry to the flyers tom because they seem to always play a smarter game. is it because they have a better gameplan? i doubt it. they've had what, 5 coaches during this stretch of dominance over the flyers? is it because they have smarter players? maybe, though they've had a huge roster turnover during this stretch of dominance. not sure why, but whenever they meet, the devils usually make more smart decisions than the flyers do.

b) the devils are road runner to the flyers coyote because they always have a faster team than the flyers do. always. the flyers usually have one or two guys with speed on their team, but i bet if you match up the historic rosters man for man in order of speed the devils would be slightly faster up and down the lineup. they get to lose pucks, they recover when they are out of position, and they get more "odd-man" rushes than the flyers.

c) the devils are bill belichick to the flyers peyton manning because the devils are in the flyers' heads. the flyers start to sweat and panic as soon as they fall 1 goal behind the devils. just like the way belichick frustrates manning by forcing him into a slow down game, the devils are able to impose their will on the flow of the game.

d) the real reason for the devils dominance over the flyers (and the difference in their overall success over the last decade) is lou lamoriello. he just flat out knows talent better than bobby clarke and understands how to build a team better than bobby clarke. there isn't a single comparison i can think of that goes in clarkie's favor. team results favors lamoriello. head to head results favors lamoriello. olympic results favors lamoriello -- clarke put rob zamuner on his olympic team for cripes sake. team payroll goes in lamoriello's favor. drafting goes in lamoriello's favor. coach selection goes in lamoriello's favor -- think lou would have hired winners like bill dineen, terry simpson, wayne cashman, and craig ramsay? clarke has too many personal biases -- hates russians, hates small players (which is funny because he was a small player!) -- and is too insecure (as evidenced by his history of hiring weak and inexperienced coaches) to be a winning GM. no matter what happens this season, i still feel comfortable saying CLARKE MUST GO!

NFL Wild Card Playoff Thoughts

take heart eagles fans. from an eagles perspectives, i see nothing but positives coming out of the wild card weekend.

washington at tampa
- not sure exactly how washington managed to win this game, but hey, i give them credit for doing so. i think it's a testament to their defense certainly, but the redskin offense is nothing special.
- tampa got jobbed on that 4th quarter review of the touchdown pass to shepherd. not sure why the rules would categorize that as an incompletion. to me, it clearly looked like he got possession, got two feet down, then got a knee down, and only then started losing the ball. seems like a bad rule or a bad interpretation of the rule.

jacksonville at new england
- this was one of the two games that i was absolutely sure of coming into the weekend. i thought jacksonville had no chance to win.
- although the game was much closer than the final score, i don't think there was ever any danger of the patriots losing this game.

carolina at new york
- this was the other game i was absolutely positive i knew the outcome.
- carolina took away the running game and exposed eli for what he is... a young QB who is not ready for prime time. i still maintain that eli manning will not have a much better than average career, but time will tell. i think if manning has a jake delhomme type career he'll be lucky. i don't think manning has delhomme's toughness, so i doubt it. have no fear eagles fans. despite all the midseason hoopla produced by the new york hype machine. this guy is nothing special.
- this game was still close and winnable until eli crapped himself after his first pick. after he threw that first pick, he was mentally out of the game. i saw the same thing from him after he was the only guy to fall off the wall during the offseason AFC vs. NFC superstars style competition.

pittsburgh at cincinnati
- i had to turn off this game after the second play. poor bengals, poor palmer, blah blah blah.
- poor me! in my two fantasy keeper leagues, my QBs are peyton manning and carson palmer. what the dilly-o?! $*%&(*^*&$#&#$">$*%&!
- bengals do seem to be cursed though... i'm glad i don't root for that team.

Friday Links

- not too surprising, but it seems that the vikings will be introducing brad childress as their new head coach soon

- paul domowitch thinks westbrook should ask tiki barber for advice. in one of domo's notes, he mentions that a number of nfl players have dropped drew rosenhaus recently... to bad our friends at firedrewrosenhaus.com aren't around to celebrate.

Several players have bailed on agent Drew Rosenhaus. Eagles offensive tackle Tra Thomas, who hired him last year, has gone back to his original agent, Peter Schaffer. Packers wide receiver Javon Walker dumped him last month. Walker's teammate, defensive tackle Grady Jackson, followed suit last week. "Like I told Drew, nothing personal," Jackson said. "It's just a move I feel like I had to make"

- phil jasner thinks that AI has more fans in LA than kobe has in philly... you think?

- bill conlin isn't too happy about the ryan franklin signing

- flyers stole a win from the rangers last night with good goaltending, good power play, and a couple of great individual efforts. the rangers controlled the pace and the flow for much of the game, basically lived in the flyers defensive zone, and outshot the flyers 34-23. i'll say again that it's nice to be on the other side of these types of games that have been so typical of the clarke era (only in reverse). unbelieveable end to end rush by kim johnsson, if you haven't seen it, try to catch a replay.

Pat Gillick Thoughts

after taking a look at gillick's comments on why he signed ryan franklin, the one word that jumped out at me was "gamer." i think this is an important word (certainly at this stage of undoing the mess that head wade left), because it seems like injecting this team with heart is step one in pat gillick's plan and is a higher priority right now than improving the talent on the team. i don't have a problem with this.

on the way in to the office this morning, i heard that the phils are talking to the orioles about an abreau for tejada swap (ostensibly to fill the hole at third). wow, if gillick can pull that off i'd have to give him a pretty long period of immunity. that would be the perfect move because it eases some of the logjam the phils have in the outfield, while plugging a gaping wound in the infield... not to mention the fact that tejada is a gamer while abreau is the antithesis of gamer.

good luck pat!

Better QB = Wins

one thing that last night's rose bowl re-confirmed for me is my belief that simply getting mcnabb back healthy and happy is going to make the eagles a playoff team again. the QB position, probably 10 times more than any other position, can itself decide the outcome of a game by itself. if the talent on two teams is close (or even remotely close), the team that gets the better QB play usually wins.

this notion that the talking heads are always spouting about running the ball and defending the run winning championships is hogwash. if you can't pass the ball, you can't win... or at least it's *very* difficult to win.

you *can* win a superbowl with a great running game and an all-time type of defense (2000 ravens and 1990 giants), but those kinds of teams are few and far between and one of those teams had a great QB (simms).

personally, i don't think teams can afford to take a running back with the number 1 pick in the draft unless it already had a stud QB in place -- and any team that passes on young, should he choose to come out, to take reggie bush is nuts. a team can win a superbowl with a stud QB and not much else (81 niners with montana and nothing else), but i can't think of a team that won a superbowl with a stud running back and not much else.

imo you can win in the nfl with just these four things:

- QB
- offensive line
- defensive line (replace defensive line with linebackers for a 3-4 defense)
- secondary

you contend for superbowls when you start adding in difference makers at the other positions.

this season's eagles were lacking in the top three items on that list. i think they'll be fine once they get mcnabb and the o-line healthy and are able to address the issues on the d-line.

i am not saying that they don't have other problems to correct. i think they do have issues to address, but i do think that they still have the foundation of a good to great team once they get everyone healthy and fix the d-line.

Thursday Links

- vince young... wow. after all the matt leinart and reggie bush hype we've been inundated with over the last two years, i think it was pretty clear who the best player on that field was last night. wow.

- JJ, crotchety old man that he is, apparently isn't interested in the rams head coaching job

- add tom brookshier to the list of ex-eagles who hate jeff lurie

- paul domowitch says you don't need a number 1 wideout to win in the nfl, but you do need difference makers in your offense. interestingly, he quotes someone in his article saying that don is a good, but not great, QB. that he's doesn't make people around him better like tom brady or peyton manning. i chuckle when i hear stuff like that. he may not throw the prettiest ball and his mechanics may not be as good as those guys, but don't tell me that getting to three straight nfc championship games with the worst offensive supporting cast of any contender in recent memory isn't "making people better".

- reuben frank says the mcnabb injury was what hurt the birds the most

Orange Bowl Thoughts

holy moly that was a long game last night. maybe it wasn't well played, but it was a close and exciting game from start to finish.

- it seemed to me like joepa definitely wanted to see kelly kick the winning field goal as it didn't seem like they were trying to score a TD on that last possession

- penn state o-line got manhandled after the first quarter. it seemed like there was at least one florida state player coming free on every play.

- what's with this joepa and bowden are such good friends routine? everything i've read says that joepa *hates* bowden and thinks bowden represents everything that's wrong with college football. paying players, not suspending them for getting arrested, not graduating them. i've read that joepa has hated him back to bowden's west virginia days. now all of a sudden they're best friends?

- i've also read that joepa is none too happy with bowden's wins in I-AA counting toward his total

- hope poszlusny's knee isn't wrecked

- i think tamba hali hurt his draft position last night as he had only a minor impact on the game. the tackles dominated in the middle though.

- seemed like the fla state coaches did not trust weatherford to throw in the middle of the field. every pass play was to the outside where penn state was waiting

- if anwar phillips wasn't a pro prospect before last night, he certainly should be now. that's probably the best performance by a penn state corner i've seen in a long time. maybe ever.

- all in all, i'm glad that penn state didn't go undefeated and make the rose bowl. beating the criminoles is a much more satisfactory ending than getting creamed by USC.

Tuesday Links

- nd kalu blames TO for ruining the team chemistry. sheldon brown, who's emerging as the new troy vincent, says the season didn't really go in the sh*tter until TO got into the scrap with the bad-ass-ador. the important thing going forward will be learning from the mistakes they made during the TO soap opera so they can nip it in the bud next time.

Kalu noted that every team, when a key player goes down, says it still expects to win. Like many others, he found the notion of Owens taking offense bizarre, but he said that once that occurred, the Eagles' plans to get back to the Super Bowl quickly began to go awry.

- i agree with rich hoffman that the key to next season is how don returns from his sabbatical, but i don't think the situation or outlook is nearly as bad as rich seems to believe. i'm sure don will be able to handle his end of the bargain.

- jerome mcdougle says he'll be back next season, meanwhile the birds believe mcnabb caused the sports hernia with excessive weightlifting last offseason

- jack mccaffrey agrees with pete barr and thinks the birds "need to have the courage" to get a good backup QB on the team. i still submit that getting a top flight backup is a move that looks good on paper but ultimately is not a good strategic move if you want to build team and fan unity.

- flyers keep winning. the biggest difference maker on this team is ken hitchcock (aka mike keenan lite. just as much genius but 1/3 less jackass than your regular keenan)

- i'm glad derian hatcher has made me look foolish for my initial pessimism over his play. he's been the flyers best defenseman over that last few games that i've watched and i think it's having a trickle down effect on the entire defense corps. even fan whipping boy chris therien has been playing pretty well.

Hoping for Cataldi's Last Radio Show

i was driving in to work this morning and i heard the overlap portion of the morning show. cataldi and rhea hughes were asking paul jolowicz (sp?) whether or not he thought this year's eagles were an aberration or whether this was a start of a long downcycle. jolowicz said he thought it was an aberration and that he thought the birds would win the division next season. cataldi and hughes got all over jolowicz, "you're crazy" and "you're on drugs".

you've never heard two people *so* giddy that they were finally right about something. after years and years of predicting the demise of the eagles because of the people they let go... or the wrong person they drafted... or the wrong free agent that they didn't sign, they *finally* got one right and they couldn't have been happier -- cackling like a bunch of jackals.

they brought up the fact that the eagles "hadn't spent all their cap money" as one of the reasons why the eagles did so poorly this season. ok, let's forget for a second that the cap is an accounting number and isn't an indication of cash flow -- the eagles are in the top 6-7 teams in terms of salary dollars spent on players. how would spending money blindly have prevented this season? seriously. how?

who was available in the offseason who would have improved this team?

would giving corey simon -- who had *zero* sacks this season -- more money have saved the season?

would paying some journeyman players a ton of money have prevented TO from going insane?

would it have shut rosenpuke's mouth?

would paying extra money have healed the multiple sports hernias?

who should they have paid to keep mcdougle from getting shot?

what a schmuck and a public nuisance.

cataldi also announced that he had done his last TV show. can't wait for the day he does his last radio show.

Game 16 Thoughts

some good and lots of bad in today's game. overall, i thought the team played hard and took it to the skins, but in the end the lack of offensive talent cost the team a win.

- 6 turnovers, holy crap. a fitting end to this season i guess.

- did mcmullen and wynn cost themselves roster spots yesterday? even if you discount his fumble, mcmullen just struggles to catch the ball. he fights the ball into his hands and double clutches everythings. is that something you can work through? wynn isn't a good enough corner to merit a roster spot if he isn't a difference maker as a return guy.

- i certainly hope parry finally cost himself a roster spot -- 2 false starts yesterday and one that called back a touchdown.

- there is no reason for reno mahe to be on this team next season. anything reno can do, bruce perry can do better.

- not that he was playing well, but why did andy pull mcmahon at the end? not quite sure i understand the motivation for that.

- looks like the birds will pick between 11th and 14th depending on reverse strength of schedule.