Eagles Crush Cardinals . . . and I'm Mad

It was a dominant effort from start to finish on both sides of the ball . . . so why am I angry? Because it's probably too little too late, because this is the team they should have been all season, because this is the way they are capable of playing when their heads are in the game and the coach isn't going brain dead. The Cardinals were overrated anyway coming out of the dismal NFC West, but to dominate any NFL team like that takes the type of talent we've known they possessed all year. That's what makes this victory more frustrating than gratifying, knowing what should have been. Yeah, it was fun to watch this game (Westbrook gets more than one consecutive carry and look what happens!), but also bittersweet because they still have almost no shot at the playoffs. It reminds me of last season when the Eagles were playing the best football in the NFC over the final third of the season when it didn't matter anymore.

So Reid may get them playing well enough down the stretch to save his job (not that his job is ever in much jeopardy with Lurie being so in love with him), but what's the point? It's going to be the same crap next year when Reid reverts back to his stubborn, pass-happy self, making the same lousy decisions he makes every year . . . only this time he won't have McNabb to scapegoat since Donovan will likely be somewhere else helping some other team make the playoffs . . . and we'll see for perhaps the first time in Reid's career what kind of coach he really is when he doesn't have a stud quarterback to make his predictable, one-dimensional offense look good.

By the way, the refs were flat-out awful in this game. This has to be one of the worst officiated seasons I can remember.

Reid Loses His Mind

First off, I would like to thank the Ravens for putting Eagles fans out of their collective misery. Now that we know the playoffs are over, we don't have to spend the rest of the season biting our nails only to have our hearts broken at the end. And better yet, we can now enjoy Thanksgiving with our families without worrying about getting home in time for the game against Arizona.

On to Reid. I knew it would happen eventually and he finally did it. Reid finally made Donovan McNabb the scapegoat for all of his own shortcomings, and in the process he threw away the game and the season just to make a point about nobody's job being safe. Only a complete moron would pull his starting quarterback at halftime of a 10-7 game with the season on the line. Was Donovan playing well? No. But the defense was playing well and they were THREE POINTS DOWN!!! That's not the time to make such a drastic change when you still have a shot at the playoffs! Who in their right mind would throw an inexperienced quarterback to the wolves like that against a defense like the Ravens? Did Reid honestly think Kolb would provide a spark? Please. It was nothing but a desperate move by a desperate man who has simply run out of answers.

Most coaches get better with experience but Reid has regressed (a delay of game penalty when you're running a no-huddle offense? Really???). He makes mistakes that rookie head coaches make. He doesn't know what the hell he's doing anymore and it's painfully obvious that things will never get better as long as he's the coach. Yes, he brought us several successful seasons, but this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league and he will now have missed the playoffs for three out of the last four years. At some point you have to realize that it's not working anymore and that it's time to move on. I wish Lurie would show some guts and fire him tomorrow. The season is already lost anyway, so what's the point of keeping him around? Let Jim Johnson take over. Even if it's just for the rest of this season, he has earned the opportunity to finally be a head coach in this league. If Lurie lets Reid keep his job after this embarrassment, he's an even bigger idiot than Reid.

As for McNabb, he is not blameless in what has become of this dismal season, but no quarterback is going to be successful in a system that requires you to drop back to pass 60 times per game while paying nothing but lip service to any semblance of a running game. I really don't want him to go, but perhaps a change of scenery is what he needs. In any event, it looks like the cabal of McNabb haters in Philly will finally get its wish after this season. If this is indeed the end of the McNabb era, I wish him well. I am sure that he will start somewhere else next year and have tremendous success . . . and those same McNabb haters suffering through a 4-12 season with Kolb at the helm will rue the day he left.

Eagles Beat Bengals

At least that's what the headline should read. Today's game has caused my mind to break with reality, and I now live in an alternate universe. In this happy place, my beloved football team did not tie the cellar-dwelling Bengals, they blew them away. The Eagles' offense did not look like crap all game, they came out and took care of business like the playoff-bound team they are.

In this blissful nirvana, McNabb did not drop back more than 60 times to pass. On the contrary, Andy Reid took the pressure off his struggling quarterback by giving Brian Westbrook more than 20 carries . . . and he actually handed him the ball more than once in a row on several occasions!

In this euphoric world, Reid finally discovered that running the ball is a strategy, not an afterthought. He realized that he has the largest offensive line in the NFL and he rode them to victory. He allowed them to fire off the ball instead of dropping back into pass protection all game, wearing the other team down so that when he needed to convert a third-and-short, it was no problem because the Bengals' defensive line was on its heels from being pushed backward all game.

Yes, all of this happened in my happy place.

Now, back to reality.

They say in sports that a tie is like kissing your sister, but I don't think that applies here. When you need a missed field goal to barely escape losing to a 1-8 team, you are kissing something much worse than your sister. And to quote Forrest Gump: "That's all I have to say about that."

Ban the Shootout

Once again this week we had to watch the Flyers lose an overtime game via the dreaded shootout, one of the many idiotic "improvements" Gary Bettman has made to the NHL. I won't even get into the myriad other ways he has destroyed the sport (like expansion run wild, turning the NHL into the No Hit League, or letting stick-swinging cheap-shot artists run amok because players can no longer police such incidents without facing suspension . . . and does anybody remember the glowing puck?). It's as if Bettman's ultimate goal is to turn the NHL into a live-action video game.

I'm not just against this format because the Flyers' all-time shootout record is 8-20 (though that certainly contributes to my discontent), but because it's ridiculous to decide a professional sporting event with a gimmick that favors individual achievement over teamwork. It doesn't matter that the teams battled back and forth all game to arrive at a stalemate, we're going to decide the winner by letting a bunch of finesse players flash their skills. It would be like deciding a basketball game with a slam dunk competition, a football game with a field goal contest, a baseball game with a home run derby . . . or home field advantage in the World Series by the winner of the—umm, never mind.

In the Flyers' latest shootout loss, they had stormed back from a 3-goal deficit against the high-flying Penguins to take a one-goal lead, only to have the Pens tie it late and send it into overtime. A game like that deserves to be decided by the teams on the ice or not at all. Expand the overtime from five to ten minutes, and if it's still tied, let it remain a tie. Don't reward one team for having more finesse players—it's an insult to true hockey fans as well as to the players who busted their tails all game long. The NHL would never decide a playoff game with a shootout, so why should the regular season standings be affected by such a farce?

Here We Go Again

The media just can't resist a juicy story about those "boorish" fans from Philadelphia booing somebody. In this case, the claim is that they booed our Vice President-elect...
Biden Booed

Yeah, they're really going to boo the guy they just voted for. This is another idiotic non-story by media morons who don't do their homework.

The fans were booing the call on the field. Eli Manning had just thrown a ball into the dirt that should have been intentional grounding. It wasn't called, which caused the fans to boo at the same time NBC happened to be showing Biden on TV. Then the fans saw the replay on the jumbo screens and began to boo even more. And each time the replay was shown, they booed even more. In fact, I doubt the fans even knew Biden was on camera at that time. When you're at a sporting event, you don't see what the people see on TV at home, and any reporter doing just the tiniest bit of research would know that. But they'd rather just jump on a sensationalist story, because hopping on the "bad Philly fans" bandwagon is the easy thing to do—it doesn't require any actual journalism.

I remember when I was watching it last night thinking, "Oh great they have to show Biden at the exact moment the fans are booing a call. The media is going to jump all over that." And sure enough, they did. Nice job, CNN.

By the way, according to some people who were actually at the game, Biden was cheered when he was shown on the big screen at a different moment in the game. Nuff said. Next non-story, please.

I'm Done with Reid

When Reid called those two runs at the end of the game I literally screamed. As badly as the Eagles were outplayed for most of the game and as horribly as their run defense was gashed by the Giants' running game, they still had a chance to win at the end. McNabb had just led them to a score, the defense came up with a huge stop, and McNabb was marching them down again for the potential game winning touchdown . . . so what does Reid do? He takes the ball out of McNabb's hands, just as he did against Chicago and Washington, and the results were exactly the same—a loss. How can you not give McNabb the chance to win the game???? Again????? And people wonder why he hasn't had a 4th quarter comeback in so long.

Here is what I wrote after the Chicago game: "McNabb got the team down to first and goal with a chance to win the game but he wasn't even given ONE opportunity to throw the ball. He's your best player, put the ball in his hands!!!"

And here is what I wrote after the Washington game: "On top of that, pass-happy-Reid has suddenly become Mr. Smashmouth at the goal line, as the Eagles were once again stymied from in close on consecutive running plays. Has Reid lost all confidence in McNabb's ability to make something happen?"

Sound familiar? Reid did the same thing again tonight, only this time it was on his own 43-yard line and he had no timeouts, which makes the run calls all the more mind boggling. I have to ask again, does he not trust McNabb to win the game for him? Or is he just incapable of learning from his mistakes? My vote is for the latter. Case in point: he once again made a frivolous challenge that cost his team a pivotal timeout. The second challenge was necessary, but the first one was just plain dumb.

His mismanagement of Westbrook throughout the game was a disgrace as well. I love Jackson as much as the next guy, but Westbrook is what makes this team go. Sometimes Reid gets too cute with Jackson (like with that ill-fated screen pass in the first half) and completely forgets about Westbrook. Reid should have been running lots of screens to Westbrook to counter the Giants' pass rush, but the Eagles' most dangerous weapon only had three receptions all game. He didn't catch his first pass until the last drive of first half and had just one catch in the entire second half.

The broadcasters kept talking about the running game not working, but that's just B.S. Of course the running game isn't going to work when you NEVER try to run (except when the game's on the line, of course). When the 4th quarter began, Westbrook had a grand total of NINE carries—in a game they were never out of. And the carries were so spread out that he never had the chance to get into any kind of rhythm.

Despite all of that, the Eagles still could have stolen this game at the end, but as I've said before, "woulda coulda shoulda" is the realm of mediocre teams, which the Eagles have proven themselves to be. Even with a 5-4 record, the odds are against them making the playoffs. Forget about the division, that's over, but their wild card chances are looking pretty remote as well. The Eagles have the third toughest schedule for the remainder of the season, they have three teams in their own division ahead of them, and they have horrible division and conference records. They need to go at least 5-2 (maybe even 6-1) for the rest of the season to even have a shot, but the more likely scenario is that the Eagles will miss the playoffs for the third time in four years.

Reid is obviously not the only reason they lost tonight (the so-called 8th-ranked run defense played the biggest part), and he's not the only reason they are sitting at the bottom of the NFC East, but his awful decisions add up over the course of a season (and a career), and those two running plays at the end were the last straw for me. He has driven me crazy over the years with his often baffling play calling, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt because his teams were always competitive and he reached four straight championship games and a Super Bowl. But it is painfully apparent that he has reached a plateau as a coach and he's not going to get any better. He doesn't learn from past mistakes and rarely adjusts to what's happening during the game. He still has good qualities in a coach, but play calling and game management have never been among them, and he's had ten years to improve. Unless he is willing to give up the play calling once and for all (which he won't), I want him gone.

Beautiful Day

I wake up on November 5th, 2008
And look out the window.
Dark clouds loom overhead
But my eyes see a bright blue sky.

I open my front door
And walk into the morning.
A chilly rain beats down
But my skin basks in the glow of a blazing sun.

In the words of Harrison:
It's been a long cold lonely winter
But here comes the sun
And I say it's all right.

Is this possible?
Can we as a people change
A bitter frost
Into a warm summer breeze?

Yes we can.

Notes from the Championship Parade

By now everyone has seen the amazing footage of the Phillies' championship parade through streets filled with what some estimates have put at over two million people, so I'm not going to spend time rehashing what other journalists have already discussed. Instead I am going to write about my experience from a personal perspective.

When the tickets became available online for the parade I tried simultaneously for tickets to both Citizens Bank Park (the main show) and Lincoln Financial Field (where, at the time, all we knew was that we would be able to watch the festivities on the giant screens with the possibility that a couple of players might stop by). I was unable to obtain tickets to the Bank, but managed to score two lower-level tickets to the Linc. The tickets to both parks, by the way, were free, so kudos to both parks for not gouging the fans. At the same time, shame on some of the parking vendors who were charging as much as $30, and an even bigger thumbs down to the a-holes who were selling tickets to both parks online for hundreds of dollars within moments of getting them for free. Most of the true fans were shut out of the celebration because of these greedy bastards. One guy actually made the trip to the Linc and had his young son stand outside the gate holding up a sign that said: "Have Tickets, Make Offer." Real classy.

So I printed out the two tickets to the Linc and crashed at my buddy's house that night in South Jersey so I wouldn't have to wake up as early (being a very late night owl, getting up an extra hour early to make the trip down from Central Jersey would have been rough). As it was, I only managed three hours of sleep, but I wasn't driving into the city so I didn't care. We decided to leave around 9-9:30am to avoid the worst of the traffic. We had considered taking the high speed line in, which many city officials were recommending due to the expected heavy traffic volume but I'm glad we didn't—reports had waits of over two hours to even get a seat on the train.

By driving we got into the city very quickly, though parking was already filling up everywhere. We entered a free parking lot, but when no spots were available we decided to park on the side of a road exiting the parking lot behind a locked gate. The guy who parked in front of us said they never ticketed there and he was sure the gate would be open at the end of the day, so we took the chance, and it wound up being a good move as we were able to zip right out of there on our way home.

Anyway, it was around 10am and we decided to walk around for a while soaking in the atmosphere. The streets and lots around the stadiums were already flooded in a sea of red— people cheering, high-fiving, and waving at all the cars driving by beeping their horns. Everybody was friendly, chatting with strangers as if they were the oldest of friends. It's amazing what a championship can do for a city, though I would point out that, contrary to popular myth, the majority of Philly fans are always friendly, but it was definitely ratcheted up on this day.

A man was walking around snapping photos for the Phillies web site, and he took the following shot of me and my friend, Bruce. The Linc is in the background and we're holding championship signs that were being handed out for free. It wasn't until later that I realized the signs were from a [gag] country music station. Oh well. I'm wearing an old raggedy Phillies hat barely held together in the back, as it is the only piece of Phillies paraphernalia I own. Most of my stuff is Eagles and Flyers, which is why I am wearing an Eagles jacket over a McNabb jersey, but I wasn't the only guy there with Eagles gear on, so I didn't feel out of place, and since my tickets were for the Linc anyway, it seemed an appropriate mixture of the two sports.

They put a giant "PROOF" over the picture in order to force you into buying something, but it's good enough for the purposes of this blog. I foolishly forgot to bring my camera, so this is currently the only shot I have, though Bruce and my uncle (who we met up with later) both took a lot of photos throughout the day and have promised to send them to me.

After a while of walking around we met up with my uncle at the Linc gate. He had managed to secure six tickets for his entire family, though the tickets were only available in pairs so we would all be sitting separately. In the meantime we got lunch at the concessions (a cheesesteak, fries, and snapple for $16!) and then hung out together in the lower level since the stadium wasn't full yet. After a while we realized that the stadium probably wasn't going to fill to capacity as many people had likely got the free tickets and then decided not to come, while others had only got the tickets with the intention of selling them and had hopefully ended up stuck with them. Thus, my uncle decided to stay where he was with his family while Bruce and I headed to our assigned seats.

We were about 20 rows up from the field in the shaded end zone so it was pretty cold. I noticed many empty seats down lower in sunny sections, so we decided to move all the way down to the bottom of one of these sections right next to an entrance tunnel and hang out there until somebody came to kick us out. As it would turn out, nobody ever came to boot us out so we got to enjoy all the festivities from fantastic seats. My uncle and his family were able to eventually join us (the beauty of cell phones) so we all ended up getting to sit together.

We soon learned that not only were some players dropping by the Linc, but the entire team would be coming to do a victory lap with the trophy and make speeches, so although we were shut out of the main event, we were getting a nice ceremony of our own, making the trip more than worth it. Then we just sat back and watched the parade on the giant screens, reveling in the cheers of the crowd as each new player showed up on screen. This was when the championship really hit me. Of course I was happy and jumped out of my seat when Lidge threw the final pitch to clinch the World Series, but over the next day I wasn't feeling as euphoric as I thought I would. That all changed when I was able to experience the celebration among thousands of fans in the stadium, and millions in the streets.

Finally, the players arrived. The coaches led the procession, coming right up to the stands, where I high-fived Milt Thompson as he walked by. Next came Charlie Manuel on a cart that held the championship trophy. Then the rest of the players followed on foot, doing a victory lap around the stadium before winding up at the podium, where we heard speeches from Manuel, Victorino, and Moyer, to thunderous cheering and applause. After the festivities ended we decided to leave and listen to the main ceremony on the radio so we could beat the worst of the traffic. We got to see a championship ceremony live, so we didn't feel the need to watch another one on TV from across the street, and we could always catch the highlights later.

Beating traffic, however, was easier said than done. It still took us a good hour to get out of the city, but considering how bad it would later get, that was nothing. Overall, it was a tremendous experience and I'm glad I went. If you live within driving distance of your favorite sports team and they win a championship, I highly recommend attending at least one victory parade in your lifetime, especially if it's in Philly, where our two-million-strong, multi-stadium celebration dwarfed any other city's.

Now I want to see another parade in February—Go Eagles!

Solid Win for Eagles over Seahawks

It took a while to get going, as the Eagles once again played a shaky first quarter, allowing a long touchdown and doing virtually nothing on offense. After that, however, it was all Eagles as they dominated the rest of the game on both sides of the ball, as well as special teams, with Akers finally seeming to get on track after a two-season slump. McNabb was near perfect after the first quarter and Curtis looks like he is back at full speed from sports hernia surgery, but the star of the game was Celek. I've liked him from the beginning, and remember thinking last year that he could be special if given the chance.

Celek was a big reason why I couldn't have cared less whether they re-signed LJ this past offseason. He doesn't have the speed and physical gifts of the elite TEs, but he catches everything you throw at him, and he was certainly fast enough to make some big plays today. However, we need to be realistic—Celek is not going to put up huge numbers like today very often, but I'll settle for a guy who's dependable and can stay healthy, something LJ has never been able to do. Chad Lewis was a guy without great physical tools, but McNabb knew he could count on him when he needed a big catch, and that is something that has been missing from the Eagles' arsenal ever since Lewis left. I believe Celek can be that guy for McNabb, and sooner rather than later. LJ may have the talent of an elite tight end, but we have rarely seen it during his tenure in Philly, whether due to injury or inconsistency. I know LJ is making a lot of money, but at this point Celek has earned the right to show whether he can be the long-term option. We already know LJ won't be.

It's still hard to get a good bead on the Birds though, as they have now won three straight over mediocre-to-lousy teams. Next week will certainly give us a good idea of where the Eagles are when they host the Giants. I am still not convinced the Giants are as good as their 7-1 record, but it will nevertheless be a big test for the Eagles, and it is a must-win game, as a loss would essentially knock them out of the division race.