Giants at Eagles Preview

Ugh. This is going to be one of those agonizing slugfests that are painful to watch. I haven't watched much of NY yet this year, but my gut says they've got the better team . . . on average. I like Philly's upside more though. What I mean by that is that if these teams played 10 games, then NY probably wins 6 of them all by close scores, while Philly would win 2 or 3 of them in blowouts.

10 things I want to see from this game (ranked in order of preference):

10. Solid special teams coverage.
9. Another good game from Witherspoon. I really hope Monday night wasn't a 1 game fluke.
8. Good game from Akers with several touchbacks and no FG misses inside 45 yards.
7. No Wildcat plays.
6. Consistant pressure from the D-Line.
5. No more dumb penalties on 3rd downs - especially personal fouls and offsides.
4. Gotta win the turnover battle.
3. McNabb in an early rhythm.
2. Long TDs by DeSean "Action" Jackson
1. Some tasty sausage!

Sausage Fest

There are two kinds of people in this world. There are the kind of people who love the taste of sausage and don't really care how or with what it's made. And then there are the people who like the taste of good sausage, but will never fully enjoy it because of what goes into the making of it.

Personally, I love my Eagles sausage. I don't care how many penalties are included. Run/pass ratio under 40%? Meh. Is my sausage now made without my favorite defensive player? Different flavor, but it still goes down the hatch pretty well. Heck, that flavor was mostly expired anyway and was already starting to cause some indegestion (remember all those blown coverages last year?). At the end of the day, I really don't care what goes into making my sausage as long as a Win is coming out in the end.

I've come to realize over the years though that most Philly fans care more about what goes into their sausage than the taste. And that's baffling to me. I really can't understand why the ingredients should count more than the taste of the product. If you're really an "entertainment" gourmet, then shouldn't you be ingesting something a little higher quality than sausage in the first place?

I think we all agree that there's no such thing as a moral victory in professional football. Losing a well fought game is still a loss and makes it that much tougher to reach the playoffs, which is where any team has to get to in order to win a championship. But if that's the case, then there shouldn't be any such thing as a moral defeat either. If you have one, you have to have the other.

So if there are no moral defeats, then let's stop holding our noses when we watch this team. Let's stop critiquing ever little coaching gaffe or execution blunder and focus on what is truly important: This team has won twice the number of games than it's lost so far this year. And I LOVE the taste of that sausage!

World Series Scouting Reports

good scouting reports on the lineups at the ny daily news

Eagles at Redskins: Post Mortem

Good win. Any time you go on the road to a division rival and win by 10 points is a Good Win. For those who would disagree with this statement, check back later this week for my Sausage Fest post.

What I disliked about the game:

1) Wildcat plays.
2) All the penalties. They realize this isn't the preseason anymore, right? All the personal fouls are just killing this team. Along with the offsides and defensive holding and . . .
3) 36 goes down again. Stop me if you've heard this one before. And McCoy didn't jump out at me as having a great game. Not that he had a bad one, but I didn't see much burst.
4) McNabb was a little off. Several passes seemed to be well off the mark. Tough to say how much of this was the offensive line not helping him out a whole lot. I thought he looked really good scrambling around and buying time. It's night and day between him and Campbell as to how well they look when the pocket starts collapsing around them. For those who think we need an upgrade at this position, there are many, many worse QBs starting in this league than the one we've got right now.
5) ESPN's commentators (though this isn't really an ESPN gripe). OK, we get it. The Redskins have some coaching issues. And "execution" is more important than the play calling. They must either think we're the dumbest humans on the planet and need to be told something 15 times in order to understand it or that their audience is turning over every 4 plays (or waking up in the Ed Wade household).

What I liked about the game:

1) They won.
2) DeSean Jackson. I love that the law of averages with Eagles drafting WRs early finally caught up with the team. Even with the "he loves him some him" pregame bit, this kid is a whole truckload of "wow". He's an early version of Brian Westbrook. And since the shelf life of WRs is about twice that of RBs, we could be in store for literally dozens more games like this. His average TD catch is 50 yards!
3) Turnover battle wins them this game. Scored on all the of the early game turnovers.
4) Akers knocks in all his FG attempts and seemed to have decent distance on his kickoffs.

What this game tells us about the future:

1) Not a lot. The Redskins suck.
2) Not a very disciplined bunch of guys right not. My hope is that this is because it's a lot of young guys and they'll grow out of it.
3) This offense could be ridiculously good. That has got to be about the worst looking 20 points, I've ever seen an offense score. Imagine if the Eagles had been halfway decent? WAS isn't a good team, but still that has to give some cause for optimism.
4) This offensive line needs to get better fast because this is the only way #3 directly above is going to happen.

The Wildcat is Roadkill: Let it Die

This is the first of 11 regular season pleadings to outlaw the Wildcat (or Spread Eagle depending on your terminology). It's not working. They're not getting the big plays so effectively they're capping themselves out at 5-7 yards per Wildcat attempt.

So why the heck would you want that with DeSean Jackson as an option?!?!

Eagles vs. Redskins Preview

The Eagles opponent this week:

Storied franchise? Check.
Dysfunctional coaching staff? Check.
Underachieving QB? Check.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Eagles vs. Raiders: Part II

After last week's total brain fart of a game, there's no way any fan can not be extremely nervous about this game. After last week's game, there's no way this team doesn't come out and blow the Redskins off the field.

Any neutral observer has the Eagles as the more talented team as demonstrated by Vegas having them as a TD favorite on the road. There's no way Reid goes into a division game with half a game plan like last week. And I would imagine the players' pride is wounded enough to come out with several chips on their shoulders.

Eagles on MNF

How is it the Eagles only get 1 MNF game this year? As one of the four best teams from the prior year, shouldn't they rate 2 or 3? Granted they've got 3 Sunday night games, but still. Or maybe SNF is now the new MNF?

Guess who got the keys to daddy's old, unused car?

TMG decided this blog needed some fresh blood, so he invited the only Eagles optimist left to help him out. So much of Eaglesdom is doom and gloom that I feel it's my personal mission to help bring a little light to the topic of being an Eagles fan. While I'll generally focus on the positives of this team (and being a fan of them), I will be critical when needed and as objective as possible about the play on the field. But never in a WIP-fashion.

But more importantly, I promise fresh posts and new content at least weekly!