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Eagles versus 49ers, Sunday, December 20, 2009
In attendance: Due to Snowpocalypse in DC, only me and Chef Spouse
Menu: In deference to Ex-Navy Cheesehead, we froze the sauerbraten and had homemade soft pretzels (which will make another appearance next week) and cream of tomato soup.
Stud of the week: It was almost the Linc grounds crew. Seriously. That was some damn fine work getting the field ready. But ultimately, I had to go with 49ers QB Alex Smith who, with 3 picks, did everything in his power to help us win. Thanks Alex!
I expected this to be a more dominating win. Not that the 49ers are bad - their whupping of the Cardinals last week showed that they're actually a pretty decent team - but I expected more of our team.
The offense seemed a little off all day. Don uncharacteristically threw 2 picks, which he pretty much never does. He overthrew Peanut, which I didn't think was possible. Although he did run for a TD for the first time in a long time. He may be 33, but he still has some wheels! AR, in a totally boneheaded move, went for it at our 29 on 4th-and-1. Weaver had a bonehead play of his own. We're out of timeouts, donkey! Save your jawing for some other time. Although, had Big5 been able to get his attention and signal him not to move, we could've snapped for a 5 yard penalty on the 4ers without him on the line. Still, big mental mistake (and Big Red clearly gave him what for on the sidelines after). He even got a shout-out on Monday Night Countdown's "C'mon Man!" segment.
Speaking of sidelines, apparently it's now OK to hit Eagles receivers out of bounds? You did see the late hit on Peanut, right? AR sure did - I'm pretty sure he rammed the 49ers defender with his shoulder in retaliation.
And we got a little pass-happy there for a while, which was making me crazy, seeing as Big5 was not having his best night. Of course, at least we have a QB who can throw the long ball in less than ideal conditions. Not that that helps us in the playoffs this year, when we'll likely be playing in some domes.
The 49ers were doing everything they could to give us the game with 4 turnovers, and in the third quarter in particular, it looked like we were trying our best to give it back. Of course, if we're going to take a quarter off, I'm glad we're choosing one of the middle quarters, rather than the fourth quarter. But it would be better to play a full, focused 60 minutes.
On the other hand, we once again found a way to win. Unlike the Saints, Vikings, and Packers. And we've secured our 8th trip to the playoffs in 11 seasons under Andy Reid. And going to the playoffs is so routine for us now that we don't even care - we're gunning for the NFC East and maybe the #2 spot (more on that below). Way too many commentators can't seem to do basic math to figure out that, in fact, we secured a playoff spot yesterday. They're still talking like we're the team that could be out of it and that the Cowboys have the East. Um, they're a game behind us, and there is NO WAY we let them win on January 3 to take the division, if it even comes to that. Catch up, dumbasses!
Oh, and the whole snowballs fracas? IT SNOWED TWO FEET. Of COURSE people threw some snowballs. Jesus! You know what happened in the Meadowlands last week? Giants fans threw BEER BOTTLES at Peanut. And there's been NO mention of that. It was SNOW. GET OVER IT.
Around the rest of the NFL...
Colts over Jaguars. They're unbeaten. They're dull. Shouldn't those offset in some way?
Cowboys over Saints. So the Saints do have feet of clay. The Cowboys also played a pretty much perfect game. In the Superdome. Not easy. Hopefully, that was their one December win this year. I still don't know what happened there. The Saints looked totally flat and didn't get a miracle this week. Maybe that's the problem? They've resorted to relying on miracles to fix their early game problems for them? Plenty of Saints fans are crying "injured players," but come on! We're playing JEREMIAH TROTTER at linebacker at this point. JEREMIAH TROTTER. We haven't seen Brian Westbrook in over a month. Don't talk to me about injuries. I say it all the time, but while it's better to be lucky than good, it's best to be both. The Saints were not good on Saturday night. Oh, and did you hear? Shaun Suisham is now a Cowboy. Guess *anything's* better than Nick Folk.
Pats over Bills. Dear Bills: head coach. You might want to look into it. Might help with those 11 penalties for 9 million yards. It's tough to win when you hand your opponents two TDs due to dumb interference calls.
Browns over Chiefs. The ONLY interesting part of this game was that Jerome Harrison broke Jim Brown's single-game rushing record. Oh, and Mike Holmgren is headed there. Dear Eric Mangini: Nah-nah-NAH-nah, nah-nah-NAH-nah, hey-hey-hey, GOOD BYE.
Texans over Rams. Dear Team of Destiny: beating the Rams by only a field goal is NOT a good sign. You're not officially eliminated from the playoff race yet, but you might as well be.
Falcons over Jets. Upsets ahoy! The Falcons, in the last month, beat the Bucs, got KILLED by us, and dropped a close one to the Saints. They're out of the playoffs. The Jets, meanwhile, were still theoretically in the run for the division. Not anymore, particularly with the Colts and Bengals coming up. Speaking of....
Titans over Dolphins. The Dolphins were also still theoretically in the run for the division. But the Titans are also playing for their playoff lives. It's amazing to me that all these 7-7 teams are still in it in the AFC. Rob Bironas and Chris Johnson are studs, though. Everyone seems amazed at the yards Ricky Williams is still putting up at running back at age 32. Seeing as he pretty much took 4 seasons off to smoke chronic, he's actually only 28 in running back years. So the yards are not so shocking after all.
Cardinals over Lions. Yeah, but they needed a Lions screw up on their last possession to carry it off. Almost losing to the Lions? Even worse than losing to the Raiders. Trust me. Speaking of losing to the Raiders....
Raiders over Broncos. Did I mention your playoff hopes are on the line? The Broncos have only won two games since their 6-0 start. Ouch. Big game next week, with Wolverine coming home in orange and blue.
Chargers over Bengals. In fiction, the Bengals would have won this one. Just like the Redskins would've won the first game after Sean Taylor died. In reality, football doesn't play favorites, even when they really deserve it, and the Chargers were the better team. Hopefully, Chris Henry will find some peace he didn't have in life. His poor fiance, on the other hand, will have to deal with what happened for the rest of her life. Sad events, and a sad loss for the Bengals.
Ravens over Bears. Remember how I was all, "Jay Cutler is the second most overrated player in football?" Who's laughing now? Maybe the Bears should try to switch uniforms with the Vikings next week so that Cutler can complete a few passes to the right team. What a disaster!
Buccaneers over the Seahawks. Huh. Didn't see that coming. The Seahawks are a hot mess right now. Paging Mike Holmgren! Oh wait....
Steelers over Packers. Everyone's all, "The Steelers have saved their season." I think that might be a little premature. It's a long way from "beating the Pack at home in literally the last second of the game on completed pass that was more lucky than good" to "defending your Super Bowl title." They're alive for at least another week, but they need about 17 improbable things to break exactly their way. And that's already happened once this decade (for us to get into the playoffs last year, in case you forgot). Groceries is back in fine form. I was chatting with a Steelers fan recently who said (I kid you not): "Oh, Ben loves to get sacked! Hee hee!" Um, I don't have enough time to explain how stupid that is.
Panthers over Vikings. Apparently, Brad Childress wanted to get Brett Favre out of there, either because he was playing badly or because he was afraid Julius Peppers was going to put Brett in a body bag. And Brett refused to be benched. And Brad let him get away with it. End of season Brett Favre meltdown in 5...4...3....2... (which means we could take the #2 spot in the NFC! Awesome!)
I'm torn about MNF - I called the Giants, and I'd rather they get into the playoffs than the Cowboys (even though it's hard to beat a team 3 times in one season), but I'd also like the Redskins to go into next week's game against the Cowboys confident, pumped up and on a 2 game winning streak. But with a Giants lead of 14-0 at the beginning of the second quarter, it's not looking too good for the burgundy and gold.
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