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.

weapon x returns

As soon as the 2009 NFL schedule was released, this week's Denver game was the one that jumped out at me most. Well maybe not the most. Next week's week 17 match-up in Dallas may have been a little more noticeable especially because of the Week 17 game between the same two teams last year, although it occurred in Philadelphia. For those that don't remember that game, I will tell you about it because it was one of the best regular season games of all time. After getting some help from Oakland earlier in the day, the Eagles had a de facto playoff game against the Cowboys with the winner getting a wildcard spot and the loser going home. Since it was basically a playoff game, you can guess how Tony Homo and the rest of the Cowgirls played; they laid one of the biggest eggs of all time in NFC East play, getting smashed to the tune of 44-6. The Eagles forced five turnovers and at one point scored TDs on two consecutive Cowboys possessions. And believe me, I have full confidence that the Eagles will do it again this year. Don't think the Cowboys are for real just because the caught the Saints sleep walking through the remainder of the regular season (The Saints should have lost their past three games). The Eagles are the hottest team in football right now that is not named the San Diego Super Chargers or quarterbacked by Payton Manning.

But back to the Denver game. Obviously regardless of the playoff seeding and potential first round bye implications, this game matters because B Dawk is going to be wearing a different colored jersey than the usual Midnight Green this Sunday at the Link. Dawkins had been the heart and soul of this franchise for far and away the best overall span of football in its history. In all honesty Brian Dawkins may be the only Hall of Fame player that played for a significant amount of time for the Eagles during that time period. McNabb has a chance, but unless he wins the Super Bowl, its hard to make the case for him in my opinion. The only others that have a chance are probably too young to know for sure. T.O. will make it, but he was only an Eagle for a year and a half. Players like Sheldon Brown, Brian Westbrook, and Desean Jackson could all potentially be in Canton one day, but they would need to continue to produce at a All-Pro level for several more years. But Brian Dawkins brings much more to a team than just great play at the free safety position: his is an emotional leader that leads by example and simply wills the players around him to perform at a higher level. Just look at Denver this season. They are not that great on paper, but Dawk has the defense flying around the field, and they have the third best defense by total yardage in the league. Dawk is just one of those type of players, and an even better person.

But obviously this game is important for several reasons unrelated to the return of Brian Dawkins. A win coupled with a Cowboys loss to the Redskins (and don't count out the Redskins: they are coming off the most embarrassing game in the history of the NFC East that wasn't the Eagles-Cowboys 2008 Week 17 game cited above, and the Cowboys once again are think way too much of themselves after beating the Saints. This is a division rivalry - anything can happen) would clinch the division for the Eagles. Additionally, if Minnesota loses one of its remaining two games and the Eagles win out they would get the two seed in the NFC and a bye in the first round. Obviously that is hoping for a lot, but it is definitely possible. If the Giants take care of business this week against Carolina, they will face Minnesota in Week 17 with a playoff birth on the line. The Vikings could definitely lose that game. But first the Eagles need to take care of business against a Denver team with a lot on the line. The key to this game for me is getting pressure on Kyle Orton. I think Denver is going to be able to run the ball, but I think the Eagles should be able to score on Denver as well. The offensive key is balance. Brian Westbrook will be back this week, and I would love to see him on the field at the same time as Lesean McCoy. That could create match-up nightmares for the Broncos linebackers. If the Eagles are able to put points on the board they should be able to force Denver into more passing situations, taking away their strength running the football. If they can put some pressure on Orton at that point, I see him having at least two turnovers. I think that will happen, and my prediction is a big win for the Eagles, with the final score being Eagles 27, Denver 16.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

what the fuck eagles?

The Eagles are really starting to piss me off. First, take Sunday's disaster against the Cowboys. The Eagles looked absolutely hapless on offense, and most of the blame for the ineffectiveness has to fall on Donovan McNabb. Although I won't blame him for the first interception, the second, which occurred during a critical portion of the 4th quarter when the birds led 13-10, was all on McNabb. He predetermined that a delayed fade to Jeremy Maclin would be open, and it absolutely was not. Cannot make that throw up by three in the fourth quarter. That pick led to the game tying field goal. I understand why fewer shots were taken down field: the Cowboys were double teaming Desean Jackson and keeping the safeties deep, but McNabb should have adjusted and gotten the ball to Brent Celek more often. Jason Avant was also open on at least three occassions I can remember, and McNabb never even looked his way. Not to mention McNabb could not seem to make any good reads when the Cowboys brought a blitz. Both his picks came when the Cowboys brought extra pressure. In my opinion, with the increasing frequency that defenses are blitzing as total passes increase, the most important attribute for an NFL QB is the ability to read pressure and react quickly, and McNabb simply did not do that effectively Sunday.

Now I'm not saying its all McNabb's fault. Injuries to Jason Peters and a few other lineman made it difficult to find a rhythm, and a lot of blame needs to be put on Jackson for not getting open. If he wants to be an elite receiver he will need to beat double teams from time to time, and he has the tools to do it. And don't forget that Jerry Jones paid the line judge and replay official a combined $12,345,000 to mark that fourth down attempt short and ignore obvious video evidence from the replay during the challenge. If they get that simple call right, the Eagles would have had the ball on the Cowboys 35 yard line with the game tied at 13 with less than 9 minutes to play. Chances are good we win in that situation.

Things are not getting an easier for the Eagles either. Phillip Rivers and San Diego are coming to town, and the Eagles just lost Ellis Hobbes to IR and Joselio Hansen has been suspended by the League for four games for violating the League's substance abuse policy. Very gay. Stopping Vicent Jackson and the rest of the "Andre the Giant" type receivers on the Chargers without our #3 an #4 corners is going to be difficult to say the least.

But don't get me wrong. I still think the Eagles are the third best team in the NFC. Maybe second best depending if Brett Favre reverts to his old self in the playoffs and throws about 2.3 terrible picks per game, with 1.3 of them coming in crunch time. We have the fire power on offense to keep up with everyone, and although I think the defense is the real strong point for this team, injuries have proved extremely costly. A loss against the Chargers won't be the end of the world. They are an AFC team (means less for tie breaker scenarios) and the next two games are at Chicago and home against Washington, which are winnable games. I just hope the Eagle's can end one of the most devastating sports losing streaks of my life: Phillies lose World Series, Penn State loses to Ohio State, and Eagles lose to Cowboys. Ouch.

E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!