Coming Off the Ledge

from bumble:

haven't seen any action here this week, but let me pose this, was anyone else furious when McCoy got cut. I know some idiots were probably snickering that he got axed for a cheap shot on the Vikings punter, but not me. No i wanted to punch Reid in the mouth for blowing yet another high draft pick on a crap player no one else wanted. Just makes my point further about how poorly he's drafted the last few years.

sorry for the lack of activity on my part, i'm focused on work and really in a wait and see mode on the birds. while i'm still mostly frustrated with andy reid's strategic and in-game weaknesses, i'm back to being torn because he's so damn consistent and is a winner. other than a few good coaches (who are not available) who's been a better coach than reid?

someone pointed out the other week,"The Eagles are 2-4. And they're boring. Enough said". while that is definitely true, it's really short-sighted and is too small of a sample size to draw any conclusions. the number to focus on is this one: 83-52, which equates to a .615 winning percentage and is better than bill belicheat's .595.

if reid stinks and mcnabb stinks, then how do you explain that winning percentage? the anti-reid/mcnabb contingent will credit the defense for the winning percentage. the defense should definitely get its share of the credit, but it hasn't been the best defense in the league at any point during the reid/mcnabb era yet the eagles have posted a top three overall record during that time.

but back to the point at hand, which is bumble's continued assertion that reid is not a good drafter, and that is simply not the case. sure they've blown some picks, but i wish we could stop trying to hold reid to perfection on drafting. he's blown fewer than most. the cutting of mccoy doesn't change that (especially because he was already counted as a blown pick - a "1" - in the previous analysis).

Done with Andy Reid

andy reid is dead to me. while i still dispute bumble's notion that the team is lacking talent, i'm done with andy reid the coach. d-u-n.

i'm sick of his playcalling mix
i'm sick of the worst coast offensive
i'm sick of his press conferences
i'm sick of the horrible clock management
i'm sick of jim johnson
i'm sick of charles johnson and torrance small
i'm sick of small, quick guys
i'm sick of slant passes
i'm sick of blown timeouts
i'm sick of playaction passes to the running back
i'm sick of laughing and joking on the sideline after a horrible series
i'm sick of the injury brothers at QB and RB
i'm sick of hearing about andy's punk kids
i'm sick of being BYU east
i'm sick of wasted sundays
i'm still sick about january 12, 2003

winning doesn't cure all ills, but it certainly makes dealing with a generally unentertaining product more palatable. not sure if that's enough anymore. even if they do turn it around and make the playoffs, it's hard to get behind this team. it's just not likeable or entertaining enough.

much like recent phillies teams excluding this season's edition, i find this eagles team to be a heartless and lifeless snooze fest.

Getting Caught Up

back in town and trying to get caught up, but wanted to take a few minutes to continue the conversation started about the eagles.

the bottom line is that they're losing because the offense is playing horribly. it's unlikely to continue like this all season.

mcnabb is coming off a serious injury and as he gets healthier he'll play better. as with many things in life, it all comes down to expectations. despite his history of coming back from injury and playing pretty well, we should have expected a significant drop-off in his play. unfortunately, i didn't, so now i'm disappointed. like him or not, when he's healthy, he is still the best QB in the division. i haven't seen anything from romo, manning, or campbell that indicates it's going to be any different if mcnabb's able to get healthy. of the three other QBs in the division, i think campbell has the most potential (i'll elaborate why i think so in a later post). btw - interesting article on james andrews (the surgeon who did mcnabb's surgery). espn.com did a profile of him a while back too.

what's maddening is that the coaching staff knows this and sees this too, yet continue to trot out the same pass heavy gameplan. in some ways, they're stuck between a rock and a hard place because they can't run westbrook more as he's an injury waiting to happen and has already missed a game this year, but i don't see why buckhalter isn't getting the ball more. he's been very productive so far this year. i know he has his problems fumbling and in pass protection, but you can't ease some of the burden on the gimpy QB?

they might not get any more exciting, but by the end of the season, they'll be better and will likely sneak into the playoffs (as badly as they've played, they're ranked 11th in team DVOA). won't matter because they're not anywhere near the class of new england or indianapolis.

to address some specific points made:

I can't figure out how they're winning when Kearse, Gocong and Gaither are giving them so little that they're basically playing 8 on 11.

i think kearse is in a similar situation as mcnabb. he's been playing better every week so there's room for hope. agree on gaither, he's a perfect 4th linebacker, not a starter. gocong i'm actually pretty happy with all things considered. he hasn't made any obvious errors (as far as i've seen) and he's made a few plays that were eye opening (good example, in the giants game there was a run off the left guard with the fullback leading, gocong reads the play and stuffs the play by not only taking on the fullback, but actually pushing him back into the hole).

The Eagles are a mediocre team, and more to the point provide virtually no entertainment.

while i think they'll be a better team and probably be a playoff team by the end of the year (9-7 probably gets into the playoffs this season), i don't think we'll be seeing a more entertaining team until there is a regime change. the win against the jets was exactly the type of grind it out game the eagles have been famous for under big red. they'll win more than they lose and do it in the most boring way possible.

He can also take his QB who got a $20M signing bonus after LOSING a playoff game with him (that was after loss to Rams the 1st playoff year).

not sure what the point is here, but $20 mil signing bonus was the going rate, especially for a 3rd year qb whose LOSING playoff game that you cite was the nfc championship game against (at the time) a potential dynasty rams team. you can continue to not like him, but he's consistently been a top 3-4 qb in the nfl while he's been here.

Blow it up and start rebuilding. Mc5 and Reid do NOT win a Super Bowl. Not in Philly, probably not together somewhere else, probably not ever.

i'd like to see a regime change because i'm not entertained by andy reid's style of offense, but the reality is that coaching in the nfl is a difficult job and unless we're guaranteed to get a coach that is better than reid, i'd just as soon stay with him. do you seriously want to risk going back to the days of kotite? no one knows whether or not he's going to win a SB. i think it's likely he'll probably win one in his career eventually (like dungy and cowher did) because he's a good coach. not great, but better than all but a handful. unless we can get one of that handful, i'd prefer to stick with the devil i know.

I wanted to show how far the Birds have fallen just in the division as far as talent goes, so I am going to try to do a talent comparison by position

i don't think what we're seeing is a talent problem -- the birds are more than competitive in terms of overall talent. even in your overview potentially skewed by the negativity of the slow start to the season, the eagles come up middle of the pack and the cowboys at the bottom. the visual problem is that the team lacks flashy players, having invested in fat guys by design.

Scrapplelog on Hiatus

scrapplelog is on hiatus for a couple of weeks due to overseas travel for work.

go phils!