2009 Week 8 Recap

Eagles versus Giants, Sunday, November 1, 2009
In attendance: just me & Shoegal to start (Chef Spouse left at 5 am for San Antonio), but The Executive Committee and the Mad Kitchen Scientist showed up before halftime and hung out awhile.
Menu: homemade chili and cornbread, beer, ginger molasses cookies (Life-Long Eagles Fan Mom's favorites), Shoegal brought a bunch of yummy snacks (including some deliciously spicy hummus), the Mad Kitchen Scientist showed up with bread and a block of yeast for my future bread-baking experiments, and a little Eagle Rare 17 with one (ONLY one) rock to celebrate our win.
Stud of the week: It is really REALLY hard not to pick DMac, who had a pretty much perfect game (guess that rib's feeling way better), but I have to give the shout out to Leonard Weaver, who had his biggest day as an Eagle and scored our first TD of the day, setting the G-men back on their heels. 3rd offensive play of the game for us, 41 yards, longest TD run of Weaver's career. Good job, baby!
So let's get back to DMac for a minute. Wow. Just wow. I love how Tommy breaks it down - we tried to play small ball, 24 runs to 23 passes, long, slow drives where every single play doesn't have to be a Big Play, and the Giants just wouldn't let us. They blew coverage left, right, back, forward, up, down, inside, outside - pretty much every single way coverage can be blown.
All three phases were clicking - we had FIVE different guys with TDs: Maclin, McCoy, Weaver, Celek, and Peanut (of course - he hauls in a 50 yard + TD every damn game). The Giants apparently have no defensive secondary. Rocca punted well. Akers kicked well, other than a blocked extra point. Ellis Hobbes has redeemed himself since the opening kickoff of the second half of the Saints game. Our D pressured Eli all day and didn't let him get comfortable. Brandon Jacobs, other than one decent run, got precisely nowhere. The Giants seemed to get a little momentum toward the end of the first half when they finally scored, and then we rocked out two TDs in under two minutes. It was really never even in question after that, but LeSean McCoy sealed it with a final TD early in the 4th. Hell, even Peanut's TD celebration was pretty good.
And speaking of, is it just me, or does he have like two entire gears that no one else on the field has? Could he be any faster? And, as I'd hoped, Andy and Marty quit screwing around with Vick and the wildcat (although one of the other Eagles fans at last Monday's matchup with the Redskins was heard to remark that in Philly with Vick it should be called the mad dog offense) now that things are Getting Serious.
Inside the Iggles has a good player by player breakdown. A few shoutouts in particular: our young (other than the QB) offensive skill players are good now. Give them two more years together, and they'll be awesomesauce. You heard it here first. I adore Brent Celek. He busts his ass for the first down, even when we're ahead by a million points and just trying to run out the clock. Bullshit horse collar call on Jason Babin taking down Eli clearly by just his jersey and clearly when he was still not out of bounds. Apparently, if your last name is "Manning," you aren't allowed to be touched. A Jason Avant sighting! On a key 3rd down! Hopefully, Andy and Marty will remember that he's still playing for us over the next 9+ games (because there will be a plus this year, I think). I never thought I'd see a day when our O played like that without Westy. And it's just in time, because I love him, but he is wearing down for sure. Is this his last year? I wouldn't be surprised.
One thing that annoyed me was that we got the ball back turned over on downs inside the two minute warning at the end of the game. AR was all ready to knee it out, and you could see on Eli's face that he did NOT want to go back out on the field. Tom Coughlin took all their time outs, even though they were down 40-17, and made the offense go back out. I was yelling at the TV that I wanted a career ending injury for as many key Giants offensive players as possible. I mean, really, why are you doing that? There is literally NO POSSIBLE WAY to win, we're trying to be nice, every single play is a risk in football, and you're being a jackass.
So Chef Spouse, HA! You were wrong. Gotta believe, man! The Giants may not miss Plax most of the time, but I'll bet they miss him against us and our midget secondary. And in the end, they aren't all that. Bring on the Cowboys, because you know who's been their daddy in the the Tony Romo era? If you guessed E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES! you would be right.
Around the rest of the NFL...I pretty much blew all my picks. But I got the key one right, so who cares? I'm only out $5 in the weekly office football pool.
Ravens over Broncos. The Ravens not only BEAT the Broncos, they DESTROYED them. The Broncos weren't going to go undefeated, and the Ravens REALLY needed this win (at home), but still. The Broncos could not make anything happen on offense. Yes, defense can win you games, but generally speaking, the offense still has to score SOME points.
Texans over Bills. Team of Destiny! Also, did you know that that was where Ryan Moats went? Because I did not, until I saw him romp into the endzone - THREE TIMES - on the game highlight reel. In other news, I think TO's done.
Bears over Browns. Who just fired their GM. And, according to NFL.com, escorted him from the building. Ouch.
Cowboys over Seahawks. Yeah, the NFC West is still pathetic. In case you were wondering. You know, the Eagles kicked Giant ass all over The Linc yesterday, so there was a lot of conversation about the NFC East. You know who all the conversation was about? The Cowboys. F the Cowboys. They didn't get past the Giants.
Dolphins over Jets. Wilbon pointed out that this was an NFC-level nasty, hard-hitting game. Funny, I've always thought that the AFC is the big-hit conference, what with the Steelers and the Ravens and all, but I guess they're also the land of the Colts and the Patriots and, I don't know, apparently nicer teams than what you usually see in the average outdoor NFC stadium in late December.
Colts over 49ers. What was surprising was that it was such a close game, and the 49ers mostly kept Peyton out of the endzone. Some better teams should definitely study that tape. Hard.
Rams over Lions. On the MNF pre-game "Come On, Man!" segment that I love, the Ram s got called out for dumping, like, two cups of water and 12 ice cubes on Spags on his first win as a head coach. "Come On, Man!" indeed. That kind of half-assed effort is why you're 1- 7 (in case you were wondering).
Charger over Raiders. How did we manage to make JaMarcus Russell look like he might be a competent QB? Such promise, and it's just not panning out. I don't know if it's an Akili Smith situation or if it's bad coaching or what, but regardless, it's a shame. Also, the assault allegations against Tom Cable keep mounting. I know the Raiders fans love their thug image, but this is taking it a little too far.
Titans over Jags. Hm. Maybe Vince Young was the answer all along. What are the odds?
Vikings over Packers. Not only do the Packers lose to Brett Favre in a purple uni at home, but Aaron Rodgers is starting to show wear and tear from the beating he's been taking. Could they maybe try to find that poor kid a little protection? And it sounds like the locker room is not exactly unified. Problems up in Green Bay.
Panthers over Cardinals. Did I say Jake Delhomme has had it? Well, actually, maybe he has, but Kurt Warner threw about 3,657,237 picks, and it's hard for any team to recover from that.
We're just over 2 minutes from the half of Falcons/Saints, it's tied up, and the Falcons are doing WAY better than I anticipated they would. Colts and Saints are the last of the undefeated teams. Not that I think the Falcons are going to pull this out, but any given Sunday, and twice that for divisional games.