Redskins @ Eagles Post Mortem

Version 1 of this post started during the early 4Q included the following comments:

1)Are you EFFING kidding me?!?!
2) Offense lost this game because of too many penalties.
3) Defense lost this game because they could not get off the field on third down.

Comments after they pulled out the win:

1) McNabb again comes up big in the 4th quarter. This is the second week in a row for those keeping count at home.
2) McCoy is becoming a stub. Witness the 2 point conversion in which he was stopped 2 yards short yet got it in anyways. All heart.
3) Ditto Avant. He may never be a superstar in this league but he'll play for 10 more years because all he does is get 1st downs. He has more heart than any other 2 players on this team.
4) I don't mind the onsides kick. Just because it didn't work doesn't mean it shouldn't have been called. Replays clearly showed they had it. Just a freak execution issue where it hit an Eagles player.

Finally, this is a game they had to win. Had to. No margin of error left. This is also a game this team doesn't win a month ago. Today? They squeek out the win. Is it meaningful? It definitely would have been (and not in a good way) if they had blown it. Since they won, we won't know for sure until we see how this season turns out. But we still have some hope. . .

Redskins @ Eagles Preview

This is yet another Who Shows Up type of games. The upside is Washington seems to have as many of these as the Eagles do.

Reasons why Philly will win:

1) Home game for Philly,
2) Eagles have the most explosive player (DeSean),
3) Jason Campbell is starting for WAS,
4) Eagles are getting healthier and Redskins aren't (Hayneworth likely out).

Reason why Philly will lose:

1) We haven't seen Bad Eagles for a while and are due to rear their ugly head.

Really that's it. This is a game that Philly should win and must win in order to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Reason #27 Why I Love Football

I won't post much about teams other than the Eagles, but this is just impressive as heck:

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-films-sound-efx/09000d5d8147c551/Sound-FX-Matthew-Stafford-mic-d-up

Eagles at Bear Post Mortem

Tasty. I was watching the game thinking they were going to let another one slip away, but they didn't. And while it's WAAAAY to early to be following this, they're in as the wildcard if the season ended today.

Random Comments

• McNabb orchestrates a game winning drive, in the 4th quarter, on the road, in prime time. Not too shabby.
• I was watching the game thinking the D was going to blow another one and then I looked who was back there: Peterson, Harris, gimpy Brown. Yikes. How did they play that well?
• Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. The offense can't keep giving them up and the defense needs to start creating more. This and not penalties is the reason for the past month's woes.
• These late games kill me. I am o-l-d ancient. Middle age is gonna suck, isn't it?
  

Eagles at Bears Preview II

I don't think there's much point in doing these previews anymore. This team's just way too inconsistent so basically you've got to do 2 previews:

Preview A: Bad Eagles (aka Oakland Eagles)

This team will move the ball up and down the field. Score 20-25 points and lose a close game on either a turnover returned for a TD or long return punt/kickoff return.

Preview B: Really Good Eagles (aka NYG Eagles)

This team wins by 17-20 points via 2-3 timely turnovers and several quick strikes by 5/DeSean. The game's never really in doubt after 1Q and the team just coasts to a W.

There is no middle ground. Or at least there hasn't been a middle ground recently. There is no Good Eagles team. I'd blame the inconsistency on age, but I've already shown this isn't a young team. I guess you could blame it on coaching or lack of leadership or "other".

The fact is though that now (late November) is when Andy Reid coached teams start to gel and put on win streaks. He has won at least 5 of the last 7 games 6 of 9 times since 2000 and barely missed last year (4-2-1 ). Can he do it again?

Eagles at Bears Preview

Eagles realistically need 5 more wins (10 total) to make the playoffs. They have 7 games to do it. Can't lose this one no matter who it's against.

Fake Life

The reason I like football so much is that it's like life in so many ways, but it's not real. You go through life making friends, hanging out with family, and generally trying to accomplish something. The media gives us so much information about football players these days that we probably know more about them than we do some of our friends and family. We like and dislike these guys. They're fun to get to know.

The players are even like kids. They enter the league as newborns (sometimes they're a little late getting out of the womb a la Michael Crabtree this year) and we learn about them. Sometimes they grow up to be superstars (McNabb). Sometimes they're just neat role players (Reno Mahe). Sometimes we never really understand what they turn out to be (Shawn Andrews).

The coaches are like the fathers (Head Coach) and uncles that we all have. I could go on with the analogies here, but I think we all know who our favorite and crazy uncles have been over the years.

I don't have any hobbies so it's nice to be passionate about something that doesn't really matter. I can care deeply about my fake life and I can bond tightly to it because it's not real. I can shape it to what I want out of it. Whether it's just a couple hours of hope on a Sunday afternoon or it's an in depth analysis of where this team is going. I can focus on the positives if that's what I'm in the mood for. Or complain to high heaven about the nagging penalties, inability to run the ball, and constant injuries to the LBs.

The best part is that I can detach myself from football when it gets too depressing. Eagles just toss up a choke job against OAK? No problem. I can avoid reading anything about the team for a whole week. I can ignore it with zero negative consequences. How cool is that?

We all have so much emotionally invested in this team that at times it can feel too real. It's not. It's times like these that we need to remember why we've picked this as “our” sport and specifically the Eagles as “our” team. And it has nothing to do with a team's style of play or who coaches the team or plays a given position. These will change over time. We'll like some of the changes and dislike others. The reason I watch is because I love FOOTBALL. 11 on 11. I love the strategy. I love the violence. I love that my TEAM can go out on Any Given Sunday and put on a show of entertainment that I'll be talking about for weeks or months or years to come.

Some of this entertainment is good (playoff wins against division rivals) and some of this entertainment is very, very bad (never winning a SuperBowl). At the end of the day though, the Philadelphia Eagles win more than they lose. And can you really ask for anything more than that out of life? Fake or otherwise?

Check back for an upcoming post:

Should We Conditionally or Unconditionally Love the Eagles?

Eagles at Charges Post Mortem

And there goes the career of Brian Westbrook. After all is said and done, this will be the most memorable thing to come out of this game. This is very sad. Much more sad than whether the Eagles won or lost this game.

36 is hands down the best running back since I've been following the team (mid-80s) and has passed even Duce from a likability perspective. All heart and his professionalism is top notch as witnessed by his willingness to train his replacement (McCoy) this year.

My favorite memory is the way he single handedly won the Giants game several years back with the punt return. This was especially meaningful because he hadn't been the main guy for some time. Reid stuck him back there to spark things and boy did he.

He was a bit injury prone (never played a full 16 game season), but there's no doubt that he was the primary offense weapon during his entire career (including the TO period). He was the next and closest thing this league has seen to Marshall Faulk since Faulk left the league.

Good Health Brian Westbrook.

Eagles at Mid-Season Review

They are who we thought they were!

This is a good, not great team. Obviously, great teams don't lose to OAK nor do they lose division games at home. Good teams win more than they lose and that's what they've done going 5 and 3. I guess we all hoped they'd be 6-2, but 1 game isn't too far off the mark.

The biggest letdown has got to be their inconsistency from week to week. They go from blowing one team off the field to losing by double digits to crushing a division leader to losing to another division foe. Everyone's obviously blaming one player for the Ls, but this is a team game. If he's not being praised for those Ws, then you can't dump on him for the losses.

Outlook for the second half of the season.
Uh-oh. They've already played TB, KC, OAK, CAR and 2 of 3 home games against the division. The second half is going to be brutal compared to that. Going 5-3 is going to be pretty tough unless their play picks up vs. 1H.

Being The Happy Apologist, there are 2 reasons to look upon the upcoming games with optimism and not angst.

1) This team has shown flashes of dominance on both sides of the ball. The offense can score points in bunches literally from anywhere on the field. The defense has been very good at collecting turnovers and getting pressure on the QB. So the upside is there if this team is on its game they can play and beat anyone in this league. The question isn't so much can they, but will they.

2) Andy Reid coached teams despite their faults, typically play better later in the year than earlier. Case in point is last year where they were dreadful (tie anyone?) for long stretches then when on a tear and made the playoffs. This team can get hot late and win the games they need to. And they need to.

There are much worse places to be than right now. No one has made the playoffs yet and the Eagles are in position to do that. It will assuredly take better team play, game planning, and execution. This team MUST play better in order to make the playoffs. The good news is if they do end up making the playoffs, then they'll be playing better which will give them a shot at going all they way and winning a SB. This is not a team that's going to back into the playoffs and then be one and done.

Personally, I'll take the over with this team.

Cowboys at Eagles Post Mortem

Tough loss.

Ranked reasons why we lost:
1) Sheldon biting on the double move. That 7 points is why the Eagles lost.
2) Offensive turnovers. 1 was 5's fault, other Maclin's.
3) Poor game plan.
a) Didn't call the right pass plays early and did nothing in 1Q.
b) Running game was working when they tried it, but took too long to get there.
4) O-line regressed back to OAK game.
5) Defense didn't create any turnovers.

Additional Comments on the Game:
I don't mind Reid calling for a FG there at the end. He was playing to win. He needs 2 scores and had 4th and long in FG range. You take that and lean on your D.

Tough to say where the fault for the dismal offensive performance truly lies. I'd say equally with 5, o-line, WRs, and game plan.

Upcoming posts:
1) Outlook for the 2nd half of the season.
2) Fake Life.

FO says what?

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teameff

For some reason, the Eagles always end up highly ranked by their stats. The really interesting thing currently though is that they're #2 because their D is #1 in DVOA, while the offense is only 12th. Gotta love those turnovers.

Cowboys at Eagles Preview

Reasons why Dallas will win:
Eagles are awful against TEs and Witten is a top 3 TE.
DAL can get great pressure from DEs.
Romo is on a roll.
PHI is getting a lot of points of turnovers - is this sustainable?
DAL has very good running game.

Reasons why Philadelphia will win:
Westbrook is coming back.
OL is getting healthy and starting to gel.
DeSean is consistently making big plays.
PHI defense has been playing well over past month.


Keys to the game:
PHI wins if they can make Romo look like Eli did last week.
DAL will win if they can exploit PHI's linebackers.

This game could easily play out like last week's game. I like the Eagles' upside here but they have to start fast. If McNabb starts a little slow, the Dallas D could make it really hard for PHI to catch back up.

It's not an Age thing

OK. Here are the stats for the average age of NFL teams. Hey, guess who's the oldest?

Average Age	Birth Date	Team
28.1	10/03/81	WASHINGTON
28.06	10/19/81	NEW ORLEANS
27.84	01/05/82	ARIZONA
27.84	01/06/82	DETROIT
27.77	01/31/82	SEATTLE
27.74	02/12/82	CLEVELAND
27.69	03/01/82	DENVER
27.63	03/25/82	NEW ENGLAND
27.62	03/28/82	SAN FRANCISCO
27.61	03/30/82	PITTSBURGH
27.59	04/08/82	MINNESOTA
27.58	04/10/82	ATLANTA
27.53	04/29/82	TENNESSEE
27.51	05/06/82	NEW YORK JETS
27.24	08/14/82	Average
27.18	09/04/82	SAN DIEGO
27.16	09/12/82	OAKLAND
27.12	09/25/82	Median
27.09	10/07/82	PHILADELPHIA
27.08	10/11/82	CHICAGO
27.02	11/03/82	INDIANAPOLIS
27.01	11/05/82	HOUSTON
26.98	11/17/82	BUFFALO
26.97	11/19/82	BALTIMORE
26.95	11/26/82	NEW YORK GIANTS
26.9	12/14/82	DALLAS
26.86	12/28/82	CAROLINA
26.77	02/02/83	JACKSONVILLE
26.75	02/10/83	CINCINNATI
26.68	03/06/83	MIAMA
26.66	03/14/83	TAMPA BAY
26.52	05/03/83	KANSAS CITY
26.5	05/09/83	GREEN BAY
26.43	06/05/83	ST. LOUIS

Couple observations:

1) There's only an 18 month difference between the oldest and the youngest teams. And the standard deviation is 6 months. These are pretty small numbers if you ask me. Is there a material difference between a 26 1/2 year old and a 28 year old? Um, not in my opinion.

2) Philly's about as close to the middle (median) as you can get.

3) Giants and Cowboys are only 2 months younger than the Eagles so for all basically the same age.

I started to look at wins per age group but didn't see much correlation outside of the bottom 4. Also tough to make material judgments considering some teams have had byes and others have not. Oh, and we're not even halfway through the season.

I considered looking at these numbers only on a starting or skill position basis but thought it might be too much work vs. benefit for the following reasons:
a) A material portion of any game is special teams, which are all the young guys.
b) Only looking at skill positions leaves off the O and D lines (which win games if you believe the talking heads).

So I guess my take away from this information is that age is not a determining factor.

Giants at Eagles Post Mortem

Just what I said. More upside. What an enjoyable game to watch. There weren't many things that I disliked about this game so let's go straight to what I liked:

Big plays to DeSean, McCoy, Maclin, and Weaver for crying out loud.

No Wildcat plays! Vick in for one play, but a decent call with him running wide. He's lost at least 1 step if not 2 while in prison. Does not bode well for the rest of his career.

Very solid special teams play outside of the botched kickoff late in the game. Great returns, long punts with limited returns, Akers has no missed FGs.

Won the turnover battle. And still converted most into points.

I hate to say that the Giants lost this game rather than the Eagles winning it, but it just seemed too easy. Boom and they're up by 16 points. Then just when NY tried to make a game of it late in the first half, 14 more points. I really think the mark of a good team is making games look too easy. And Philly definitely did that this week.

All in all, a very tasty win.