Eagles Bashing

i saw this and ignored, but phil suggested it's worth a post.

jeff chadiha on sportsillustrated.com says the birds are already out of the running.

If I'm an Eagles fan, I have some major concerns about this offense. It's starting to look a lot like it did back in the days before Terrell Owens blew into town. There isn't a receiver who really scares a defense.

oh yeah, the pre-ME-O days... you mean like the days when the eagles scored a record number of points (virtually the same as they did the season with me-o), with the pitiful james thrash and pinky as their starting wideouts? at worst, reggie brown is a step above james thrash.

the birds will be just fine jeff and my prediction is that they are going to win this competitive division.

Josh Parry Feedback

from mrs. josh parry:

Are we watching the same game? Or are you guys really that dumb? I think Parry is an awesome fullback and one of the best in the NFL. I have watched Parry pick up not only his man but also helped others-like Runyan. Furthermore, McNabb's career would of have been over after the first game if it was not for Parry's read on the blitzes! He is a great player but maybe that is why he is playing and the nonbelievers are sitting on their couches watching the game they wish they could play! I am a huge Parry fan and I think that he is great! Please Mr. Dave Barr write something you know about rather than something you think you know something about because it really is hard to read!

right. umm, ok. the o-line sucked last year, that is true, but that doesn't excuse having a sub-standard fullback on the team. that statement above could only have been written by two people: josh parry's wife or josh parry's mom. there is no way any real football fan could possibly consider parry to be a decent nfl fullback let alone "one of the best in the nfl"... well unless you think that "one of the best" means you are in the top 30 fullbacks.

i'm sure parry is a great guy. i don't have anything personal against him. i've never met him, but i've certainly seen him play enough to know that he's just not very good. let's go through the skills you want to see in a fullback:

- run blocking - josh is clearly substandard here. he just doesn't bring a load at the point of attack. he does a decent job of picking the right defender to block, but he almost never is able to blow that guy backwards. good fullbacks do this all the time (e.g. lorenzo neal, cory schlesinger, mack strong, william henderson just to name a few), but josh parry almost never does. he just doesn't have the athletic gifts to be a great run blocker. specific example: in the superbowl, westbrook gets the ball sweeping left, NE defender (i think colvin) meets parry in the hole and just blows him up. knocks josh straight back into westbrook and stops brian dead in his tracks. loss of 3.

- pass blocking - you must be able to select the right blitzer and you must be able to stop that guy at the point you make contact. josh is a better pass blocker than run blocker -- it is true because pass blocking is more about technique than run blocking is -- but again where josh struggles is when guys bullrush him. he does not have the strength to hold his ground effectively enough. he gets pushed back into mcnabb, breaking don's concentration. two specific examples from the superbowl: a) NE defender comes on a blitz (i think vrabel) and josh picks him up, only vrabel runs right through him, literally pancakes josh onto his ass and just runs over josh like he wasn't even there. i don't remember if that was a sack or not, but it was horrible nonetheless, and b) NE defender comes on a blitz (don't remember who, could have been bruschi) and pushes josh right into don's face. looked like he just picked josh up and carried him into don's lap.

- pass catching - josh fights the ball into his hands. you can see the color in his face drain every time the ball is thrown to him. i'm not saying i can catch the ball any better than he can... but i'm not trying to make an nfl roster (and neither is dave barr). he is a converted linebacker... there is a reason he played defense all the way through college. he doesn't have the skills to play offense.

so let's get this straight. you submit that this guy who cannot run block, cannot pass block, and cannot catch the football is "one of the best in the NFL"? no way. josh parry is not an nfl caliber fullback.

Back Home

finally back from my trip to india and romania. it's nice to be home.

of course what i come back to is dreck. seems like the phils are back to playing the same old brand of heartless ball as ever. will gillick fire manuel? can anyone think of a worse leadoff hitter than jimmy rollins? will someone decide to move abreau to leadoff?

i've been thinking about what to do with my boy. do i turn him into a philadelphia sports fan? is that the right thing to do knowing that he'll be in store for a lifetime of disappointment? should i let him pick his own teams? i probably won't but the thought does cross my mind from time to time.

btw - the kid measured 30" and 23.3 lbs at his 9 month checkup.

It Starts...

just one day after david aldridge almost suggested it, sam donnellon is writing that the sixers should not only rehire mephistopheles, but they should also give him part of the team -- yikes.

in his article, he discounts the value that pat croce brought to the sixers. being a happy guy brings much more value to a team than sam seems to realize. look at the team across the street. do you honestly think that if aaron rowand acted like beelzebrown that he would be having the impact that he is having? anywhere close to that impact?

stop with the nonsense sammy, larry brown is the devil.

Stop Right There, Dave

david aldridge stops just short of suggesting that the sixers would be a good fit for the devil's next "last coaching job". (shudder)

i suspect there is probably going to be a lot of speculation about this, actually. the general consensus is going to be that beelzebub and AI clash off the court but are magic on the court, and maybe another shot is worth it since AI only has a few season left.

you know where i end up when i think about that possiblity? pat croce made that relationship work. why doesn't his name come up any more when talking about the sixers run of success? he was the aaron rowand for the sixers.

everyone should note that the sixers started to head downhill the very season after their finals appearance. yes the sixers were a little older and yes the sixers were a little more injured, but please note that the lord of lies was still with the team. one big thing that was missing that season was croce. make no mistake, croce was the glue that held the sixers together... as a family. he was the charisma. he set the tone. once he left, all that remained was dour, sour, woe is me larry brown. yech.

larry brown is the devil. what comcast needs to do is sh*t can snider, clarke, and king and start all over again with croce.

Tuesday Links

- more balanced playcalling may not just be lip-service this season. let's hope westbrook can take the pounding.

- wile e gillick... soooper-genieeeeus. one friggin' guy makes this much difference? this is something head wade would never, in a million years, have comprehended. he just didn't get it - you cannot play GM like it's paint by numbers (making only the obvious moves). if anything i hate him worse now that we have something to compare him against... that rat bastard.

Off the field, Rowand gets teammates together to bowl, play laser tag and to race radio-controlled cars that have become the terror of the park's basement corridors and a bane to the groundskeepers. He had a barbecue at his house, about 40 minutes from the ballpark, and just about everyone showed up. This represents a major change for a team that has often divided into cliques and sometimes wouldn't walk across the street to exchange handshakes.

Phils On Fire

ben schuchardt notes that the phils are on pace for 96 wins. after the dreadful start, i'd say that's pretty good. i've missed the last several games (working in india and romania for a few weeks), but i am sure they've been enjoyable.

the team's character is completely different from past seasons, and with the emergence of players like utley and the addition of players like rowand, they actually seem to have a personality again.

past phillies teams were some combination of:

- surly
- aloof
- arrogant (based on what success i don't know)
- lackadaisical

which reflected the personalities of both the gm (head wade) and the team's stars (rolen, burrell, abreau, and to some degree jimmy rollins). with the head gone, gillick has changed the flavor of the team much quicker than i had thought possible.

exciting times lie ahead.

Fullback Woes

dave barr notes a dave spadaro report from mini-camp:

I wouldn't say that either Josh Parry or Thomas Tapeh has jumped out at me as the clear-cut leader at fullback. It's going to be a close call, and rookie free agent Jason Davis is an athletic, live body.

This cannot continue to be a problem for them. They need production at this position to move the football. I am irate that Parry will be back as he is dreadful.

-----
agree completely, dave. this is probably the single biggest area where i just don't get what big red is thinking. he can see for himself that parry is not an nfl caliber player.

i suspect that they think tapeh will be a stud if/when he ever gets healthy, but can they afford to wait? can you continue to watch parry get steamrolled and let blitzers run free at don?

The Thing

little wonder why they call him "the thing"















what the heck kind of fat guy is this? this guy is not fat at all!

i have high hopes for the lines this season. high hopes.

JR Reed Coming Back?

seems like jr reed is going to attempt a comeback this season? wow, this is a pleasant surprise. it still doesn't look hopeful, but i think jr's injury was the very first thing bad thing that happened in last year's succession of bad karma events.

maybe this is the first sign of a return to good karma. i hope so.

Statement Game?

was last night's game an indication that these phillies are, in fact, not the same wimpy crew we've seen year in and year out?

- brett myers coming up big in a big spot. has he turned the corner? is he actually becoming the "can't miss" pitcher he was supposed to be? the biggest thing i saw last night was that his brain didn't turn to mush after giving up that late homer. toughing out the rest of that inning was a big, big step in his development, imo.

- getting to pedro early in the game was huge, and was something that wouldn't have happened with past phillies teams. two things to note here: a) it was the new team backbone aaron rowand who started it and b) messers burrell and abreau had no impact on last night's game... though i do give abreau credit for busting it down to first on the 5 foot dribbler he hit in the ninth.

- past teams would have waved the surrender flag after watching tom gordon vomit on the mound like he did last night. again, the winning rally was started by a newcomer as yet uninfected by the wussiness.

Hamels Debut

here's some baseball talk for you.

cole hamels is supposed to make his major league debut on friday, sending madson back to the 'pen.

Tuesday Links

some interesting stories today

- billy wagner is now claiming he wasn't a fan favorite. not quite sure where that one's coming from, i remember the city being all aflutter when they traded for him and there's no way in heck that *anyone* in this city told him they wished we still had mesa.

- jeremy bloom has a chance to become the most popular eagle ever. i'm not kidding about this. a) he's a low draft pick so anything he does is going to exceed expectations, b) he's white, c) he's little, and d) his dad a huge eagles fan so he's excited to be here.

- even though the birds had a good offseason, they couldn't close the deal on a few other moves that could have made it an unbelieveable offseason. not getting finneran made getting javon walker a possiblity, so i'm not complaining. actually getting walker would have been nice but realistically green bay wasn't going to trade him in conference.

- i wonder how many athletes have to manufacture adversity to keep themselves motivated? it seems to me the number is increasing or i am just more aware of it than i was before. tom gordon appears to be one of those guys. same mantra here as in new york. the media hates me. the fans hate me. yadda yadda yadda.

- next year's madden is going to have blocking! that's pretty neat. i may have to buy a game machine just to check that out. (link found on footballoutsiders.com)

Run the Ball You Fat F*ck?

can it possibly be true? from the delco times:

"Coach (Andy) Reid said he was going to hand the ball off a lot this year, so I’m trying to get ready for that," Westbrook said. "And I’m definitely working forward to it. I’ve always said the more I touch the ball the more I get into a rhythm, and the better I will be as a player. Last year I didn’t touch it as much in the run game as I wanted to, and pretty much every game we already had a great player on our team with T.O. And Donovan was able to make plays, as well. "

Baseball Streaks

i've never quite understood the fascination that baseball has with individual streaks.

- cal ripken showed up to work for a bunch of days in a row... big f'ing deal. many of those days, he was hurting the team just to keep "the streak" alive.

- joe dimaggio got a hit in 56 straight games. why is this a bigger deal than ted williams hitting .406 in the same season? dimaggio won the mvp for a season where he hit .357 with an ops of 1.083 (obp .440 slugging .643) and 152 runs created. in the same season, williams hit .406 with an ops of 1.288 (obp .553 slugging .735) and 184 runs created. during the streak, dimaggio hit .408 (only .002 higher than williams hit for the whole frigging season). it's not even close, williams' 1941 season is a much more impressive feat.

team win streaks i can get excited about. individual streaks? yawn.

Break 'em Up!

wow, 8 straight wins for the phils. is it time to get excited yet?

like pat gillick's theory about not really knowing about young pitchers until they've been roughed up, i think we'll see the true measure of this team after the hot hitting streak ends. will they fold up like past years or have the tweaks that gillick made actually changed the mental makeup of the team?

could the simple act of replacing a clubhouse cancer like lofton and an enabler like jason michaels (part of pat burrell's crew -- apparently, pat is the biggest cancer on the team) with a gamer like rowand make all the difference?

if cole hamels is as good as they say he is and he can stay healthy, they might make a run at the postseason yet. i think ben's prediction of 94 wins is improbable, but not impossible.

btw - how good is gillick. he takes the "untradeable" jim thome and turns him into two pitching prospects and a center fielder who is changing the mentality of the team.

Eagles Draft - Video Clips

1. brodrick bunkley - foxsports.com, yahoo.com
2. winton justice - foxsports.com, yahoo.com, nfl.com
3. chris gocong - philadelphiaeagles.com
4. max jean-gilles - foxsports.com
4. jason avant - philadelphiaeagles.com, yahoo.com
5. jeremy bloom - nbc, colorado.edu
5. omar gaither - yahoo.com
6. lajuan ramsey - nada