damn eagles and iran

The Eagles certainly just gave me a hell of a scare. They led 20-7 at halftime, and were up 27-10 at one point in the third quarter, but thanks in large part to a Macho Harris fumble and poor play by Donavan McNabb in the second half, Denver was able to fight back and tie the game at 27 in the fourth quarter. Luckily, after the defense stepped up and made several key stops, Jeremy Maclin made one the best catches I have seen all season to put the Eagles in field goal range with about a minute left in the game. David Akers did his thing and the Eagles pulled out a 30-27 win.

A couple of notes from todays game in no particular order:

- Brent Celek is deserving of a Pro-Bowl bid. Through 15 games he now has 69 catches for 875 yards and eight touchdowns. In my opinion the only player more worthy in the NFC is Vernon Davis. Tony Gonzales has a few more catches but less yards and touchdowns. Jason Witten has several more catches but is comperable in yardage and has only ONE touchdown. He sucks (I hate him even more because I wasted a high draft pick him in my fantasy league. And he had ONE touchdown. Gay.) Davis and Celek should go.

- Props to Champ Bailey and Andre Goodman. They played extremely well despite giving up passing TDs to Desean Jackson and Jason Avant. Neither of those Denver DBs was covering either of the Eagles WRs when they scored. For the most part they shut down the Eagles wide receivers, tackled well and never allowed the big play over the top. Champ also had a nice pick and a couple of nice pass break ups. Great game by both of them.

- McNabb needs to improve his accuracy somehow if this team is going to make a long playoff run. He played horribly in the second half and missed several open receivers. I am so tired of seeing him clap and laugh after throwing the ball at a receivers feet. Andy Reid could of helped McNabb out though by calling a little more balanced game in the second half. There was great balance in the first half, but after Asante Samuels' interception in third third quarter Reid called no pass plays on the next two possessions, and guess what? Two three and outs. On the following two possessions he called only two runs, both on first down, leading to two more three and outs. When your quarterback is struggling you've got to have more balance than that.

- Having said that, as Larry David would say, I like this team's chances next week against the Cowboys and beyond in the playoffs. They might have won ugly, but they won nonetheless. They have a chance to finish 12-4 and if either the Bears or Giants can manage to beat the Vikings, they have a great shot at a first round bye. If that happens, I think they make the conference championship at least regardless of who they play in the divisional round.

One non-Eagles note. I just want to quickly comment about what is happening in Iran. Once again the protests are heating up and pro-democracy/freedom reformists are trying to rally the nation around the ideals of freedom and liberty. These are the core values that all Americans believe in, and we should not hide our support for anyone that espouses these rights. Unfortunately, that is exactly what Obama is doing. He is more concerned with catering to needs of a illegitimate Dictator (Ahmadinejad) so that he can "engage" Iran on other issues like nuclear proliferation. Well look where "engagement" has gotten us. Iran continues to march towards a nuclear weapon and they don't give two shits that Obama wants to negotiate. Iran isn't even pretending to care what Obama and the U.N. says, they are just continuing down the path of enrichment and defiance of international law. At this point, Obama should express support for the protesters and declare that the U.S. no longer accepts Ahmadinejad as the legitimate president of Iran. In the age of global communications, this type of statement would immediately be broadcast all across Iran, especially to the protest leaders who are well-educated and most of whom live in Tehran.

Iran is the most dangerous threat to global stability in the post cold war world. If the reformers succeed in ousting this dangerous regime, world peace would be a much more achievable goal. We as Americans, and the American president, should do as much as we can to support freedom and ensure that happens.

after the games recap

Well boy was I wrong about this year's Penn State team. I guess my blind hope for a national championship allowed be look past their unproductive running game and slew of mistakes by the offensive line over the first few games. But Iowa should made everyone recognize that the offensive line is by far the biggest weakness on this PSU team. They have weapons and an excellent defense as usual, but without consistent play on the o-line they are going to lose three more games this year. The could not protect Clark, couldn't open any holes for Royster AND committed several costly penalties. Throw in a blocked punt and that is no recipe for a win. Thank God I decided not to go up for the game because if I had there would have been a chance I would never have been seen ever again after the game. Is was brutal to watch on TV, and if I had trekked all the way up there I might have run away and moved to Northern Alaska to live as a hermit where I would never be forced to see another agonizing loss by a football team I root for ever again. Book your tickets for early January in Orlando now. Penn State is Outback Bowl bound.

On a brighter note, the Eagles destroyed the Chiefs this weekend. Kevin Kolb was excellent throwing the ball to Desean Jackson and Brent Celek (who is now officially the most underrated tight end in the league), giving the Eagles a solid win heading into the bye week. This victory was huge considering McNabb, Westbrook and Kevin Curtis all did not dress. In the NFL any game where you go out and take care of business, no matter who you are playing, is a good victory, especially when you are missing your two best offensive players.

The other big news is the return of Micheal Vick. Although he only threw two passes and had one run for 7 yards, it was good to see him on the field. My bet is that each week you will see more and more from Vick, as Andy Reid works him into the offense. I also think Vick had a more limited role because Kolb was cruising and Reid didn't want to get him out of rhythm. Also, there is no reason to pull out the stops against the Chiefs, let's save the crazy "Wild Eagle" plays for the Giants and Cowboys.

It's going to be a tough football weekend this week, as the Eagles have a bye and the PSU loss has left me so devastated I am no longer excited about this team at all. I'm sure I'm being overdramatic and I will watch the Illinois game saturday, but man did that Iowa loss hurt. Not only did they beat us last year, but this loss ends any chance we had at a national championship and its not even October. Penn State just doesn't have a tough enough schedule to win it even if they somehow win out (which they won't).

I'm thinking about going to ACL instead of watching the NFL on Sunday where I would at least get to see Pearl Jam. Even though I have a ticket I probably will just stay home though since I will see Pearl Jam in a month anyway at the last ever performance in the Spectrum on October 31st. Gonna be sick. Not to mention I will be going to the Eagles-Giants game at the Linc the next day. Should be one hell of a weekend in Philly.

So anyone interested in buying my Sunday ACL ticket? Asking $200, but mention this blog and it's yours for $150.