Sunday Schedule: November 15, 2009

I know, I know - I'm running a little late here. Business trip to Chicago got me all off schedule. It's the battle of two good teams that are really, really hard to predict. What I know is that we really, really need this win. Unfortunately, so do the Chargers.

TNF: Bears/49ers. Also, if you're just checking in now, you missed it.
1 pm: Redskins, schmedskins. We're watching Bengals/Steelers, yo!
4 pm: Eagles/Chargers
8 pm: Colts/Pats. Also, possibly a preview of the AFC Championship game. Which is pretty much potentially true every year with these two.
MNF: Ravens/Browns. Whose bonehead idea was it to put the Browns on Monday Night Football?

Menu: Chef Spouse says roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable or two yet to be identified. Bring something that will go with!

Finally, in other AFC North news, the NFL has fined Ocho Cinco $20K for his $1 bribe joke (and thanks to Shoegal for the heads up). "No ma'am, we at the NFL have no sense of humor that we are aware of."

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2009 Week 9 Recap

Eagles versus Cowboys, Sunday, November 8, 2009

In attendance: Big weekend! The 'rents were in town, and we had a good crew over the course of the day - in addition to Chef Spouse, Life-Long Eagles Fan Mom, me, and You-Two-Calm-Down-or-I'm-Turning-Off-the-TV Dad, Shoegal, Ex-Navy Cheesehead, Tall Drink of Water Cousin, Wingman and Mr. Wingman all spent at least part of the day hanging out and watching the games.

Menu: Life-Long Eagles Fan Mom made AWESOME brisket and beans, Shoegal brought a yummy broccoli casserole to go along side, Ex-Navy Cheesehead brought a bunch of pies and some really cute football sugar cookies, and we had all the usual pre-meal snacks, including Chef Spouse's patented guacamole. It was delish. Which is a good thing, because the game was a big stinking pile of crap.

Stud of the week: I was going to say Ellis Hobbes for returning the opening kick off the second half for a TD, only it was negated by a holding call that none of our crew nor Al and Cris could see, even with replaying on our nice big HD TV multiple times. And then I was thinking maybe Sheldon Brown for the pick and great 54 yard run back, but that was negated by a low block penalty on Moise Fokou. And he got burned by Miles Austin for what turned out to be the winning TD. Then I was going to pick David Akers, but that's way too easy, even though he did make a pointless 52 yarder when Andy should have gone for it, because it was clear, at least to me, that with only about 4 minutes left in the game and no timeouts, this was our last offensive possession. Or I was going to choose McNabb for the plow ahead QB sneak on 4th-and-1 to keep our critical first drive of the fourth quarter going just after Dallas had tied it up, but the zebras inexplicably spotted the ball about 2 yards short of where it should've been and refused to fix it, even after Andy burned our final timeout and his final challenge trying to get them to correct an obvious mistake. So I picked safety Sean Jones, who in just his second start with the Eagles had 4 solo tackles, 1 assist, and a pick. Good game, man! Sorry it didn't work out better for us all.

I feel like I've pretty much already recapped the game. We weren't terrible, we weren't great. But it's damn hard to overcome two picks, although one was clearly Maclin's fault and one was about 50/50 Maclin and McNabb. But on that second pick, Maclin draws a 15 yard face mask to add insult to injury.

Another weird one? Asante Samuel draws a taunting penalty WHILE HE'S GIVING A MARION BARBER HAND UP. Explain that to me, please?

And speaking of weird, what about some of those coaching decisions? We put Mike Vick in for a play, presumably so that McNabb and Reid can chat some things over without taking a time out. Then McNabb goes back in and we have to call a time out. Then we go to McCoy on 3-2, he doesn't get it because he has to come back for the ball and his field awareness is not great. Andy challenges and loses, then we decide to go for it on 4-1 to try to draw the Cowboys offsides, we DO draw them offsides, but Jamal Jackson doesn't snap the ball, and we get called for a false start.

I do understand the challenge on the McNabb sneak, because that was the WORST spot ever, but the officiating crew was calling so much inexplicable shit that Big Red should've realized that God himself (aka Vince Lombardi) could've come down from heaven and told them they had it wrong and they wouldn't have moved it. And the officiating was bad both ways, but the zebras seemed to have a particular propensity for making bad calls that killed any momentum we started getting any time we got it.

And I really don't get that last field goal, either. And why are we starting games so pass-happy? We either score in 3 plays or we go 3-and-out. How about a nice slow first offensive drive for once?

In the end, it just felt like one of those nights where nothing was going to go right. McNabb had some off passes, but Brent Celek, Mr. Clutch, and Jason Avant, Mr. Third Down, both dropped more than one pass that was right to them, AND when our young receiving corps had problems, it felt like EVERY SINGLE deflection went right to a Cowboy defender. We had plenty of "almost got there" on D.

But we couldn't win a close divisional game at home for the lead in the division. That does not bode well for the rest of the season, including the playoffs that I'm still confident we'll reach. Wilbon had it in 1 in Sunday's WaPo: the Eagles are the hardest good team to figure out. Which is, as per usual, giving us all fits. But I do totally agree with these guys: let's not panic. We're still #2 in the division and we're only 1 game back with half the season still to go. Were the season to end today, we'd take one of the wildcard spots. And Reid and McNabb are still the winningest coach/QB we've ever had (and even with his two picks last night, McNabb still has the best TD to INT ratio in the HISTORY OF THE NFL). Some days you're the windshield, some days, you're the bug. It was our day to be the bug.

Just to refresh your memory:

Win Percentage:

Andy Reid - 61.8%
Wade Phillips - 58.8%
Tom Coughlin - 55.3%
Jim Zorn - 43.5%

Career QB rating

Donovan McNabb - 86.2
Tony Romo - 94.9
Eli Manning - 77.6
Jason Campbell - 81.4

Around the rest of the NFL...

Falcons over Redskins. Well, yes. Know what was ridonkulous? DeAngelo Hall on SportsCenter trying to play off that he was just trying to break up the sideline fight and 50 year old, no-pads-wearing Falcons coach Mike Smith was the one who came after him. OK, MeAngelo. The Redskins offense actually looked non-rancid for a while there. But I think it's too little, too late, both for their season and for their beleaguered head coach and starting QB. And they're about to go into a BRUTAL part of their schedule - Broncos, Cowboys, us, Saints, Raiders (which should be a win since everyone but us beats them), Giants, Cowboys, Chargers. Ouch. 3-13 is not out of the picture.

Cardinals over Bears. I TOLD you so! Kurt "Silver Fox" Warner and Larry "Best Buns in Football" Fitzgerald will not be denied. Seriously - have you checked out Fitz's rear view? Yummy!

Bengals over Ravens. I ALSO told you so. It's official - I'm no longer renting the Bengals. I'm buying. The difference between Ocho Cinco and TO is that, while they're both totally arrogant, 85 has a sense of humor about it. Which is why I love him and think his antics are hilarious. I probably wouldn't be so forgiving if he played for the Eagles, but then again, how many TDs would we be talking in one season here?

Colts over Texans. Damn. I was sure this was the one for the Texans. As, in fact, it almost was. Not that you want to bet on being able to beat Peyton Manning in OT, but I was sure it was going there. Think they made Kris Brown walk home? Also: WE're pass happy? Peyton threw, what, 4,967,352 times in the first half? (actual number: 40. Which is still a little unbalanced. And I say this after 11 seasons with Andy Reid.)

Jaguars over Chiefs. You know what's weird? The Jags only won by 3. Poor Maurice Jones-Drew really needs to get himself traded to a decent team before he burns his whole career with those bozos. Matt Cassel's not looking so magical without the rest of the Patriots, is he? Speaking of the Patriots...

Pats over Dolphins. Damn. I was sure the Dolphins could win this one. Obviously, my omniscience quotient is at an all-time low. I caught some of Tom Brady's post-game press conference. Anyone who's read my blog for any length of time knows I think he's an idiot. I may have over-estimated him. It's a good thing he's pretty and can throw a football.

Bucs over Packers. Wow. THIS was the upset of the week. The Bucs get their first win, and the Pack drop two really tough losses in a row. And Aaron Rodgers is getting sacked seven ways from Sunday. Their O line has to figure things out or they're not gonna have a QB in a few weeks. He's about to look like, to quote Keith Olbermann, a bag full of mashed up Aaron Rodgers.

Saints over Panthers. Can the Saints come from behind? Yes, apparently they can. Bet Sean Payton's glad to get that monkey off his back. Can the Saints be stopped? I don't know man - it's not looking like it. It's the best start in the history of the franchise. Geaux Saints!

Seahawks over Lions. Whatever. Isn't there a mercy rule that could let both these teams out of having to play the second half of the season? Stafford: 5 picks? Really? And yet the Seahawks were down by 17at one point? Bad playing worse. Ugh.

Chargers over Giants. Now THAT was an exciting game. Particularly since the Chargers pulled it out, with about 20 seconds left. You know, more teams get burned playing prevent defense at the end of the game. Why do coaches keep thinking it's going to work? Prevent, prevent, prevent, but the team on offense (in this case, the Chargers) eats up the field and the clock in equal sized chunks, leaving the team on defense (in this case, the Giants) NO time to score when they get the ball back. Honestly, it may be more effective to let the other team have the big play and score fast so that you still have some time left. Has anyone done the math on this?

Titans over 49ers. Maybe I'm wrong - maybe Vince Young is the answer. He was the answer this week anyway. Also, the 49ers coughed it up 4 times and the Titans scored off every single one. The 49ers were looking pretty good, but maybe I was blinded by Frank Gore.

And so far, Broncos/Steelers has been turning out about how I expected - big defensive battle. Gruden's about to bust a gut. They need to make him have a few beers before the telecast or something.

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2009 Week 9 Picks

Last week, leading up to the matchup with the Giants, all the commentators were all "Giants Giants Giants." Then we BEAT the Giants. And now they're all "Cowboys Cowboys Cowboys." Man, you lose ONE game to the Raiders and it dogs you out FOREVER.

That's OK, though - everyone should definitely keep focusing on all the other teams in the NFC East - even the poor benighted Redskins - because we like being the underdog. First the Giants were the best team in the NFC East. Now it's the Cowboys. Whatever. We'll see what y'all have to say after we spank the Cowboys on Sunday.

Who am I picking? Please. Do you even have to ask? Get ready to cry, Tony, because you know how much we love that.

Redskins/Falcons. Falcons. Duh.

Cardinals/Bears. This one is interesting. Both teams are maddeningly inconsistent this year, beating tough opponents one week (Giants for the Cards - although maybe they aren't as tough as everyone once thought - and Steelers for the Bears - although no Troy Polamalu that week) and dropping games they should win the next (How did the Bears lose to the Packers when they still had Brian Urlacher? How did the Cards lose to the Panthers? Wait - I know this one. 5 turnovers.) I'm going to call Cardinals, but this one really could go either way.

Colts/Texans. Texans! Team of Destiny! (Really, they're probably not going to win, but you never know.)

Ravens/Bengals. A month ago? I would definitely have called Ravens. Today? I'm calling Bengals, man. They seem to finally have their collective act together.

Chiefs/Jaguars. Jaguars. The Chiefs are terrible.

Packers/Buccaneers. The Pack will bounce back from their disappointing loss at home to the Vikings last week by KICKING THE BUCS' ASSES. You heard it here first.

Dolphins/Patriots. I know this is crazy talk, but I'm calling the Dolphins. I just have a feeling about this one.

Panthers/Saints. The Saints have to drop a game eventually, but it's not going to be this week. Saints.

Seahawks/Lions. Ugh. Seahawks. And whatever you do, DO NOT watch this game. Seriously. I fear for your mental health.

Titans/49ers. 49ers. Vince Young was the answer last week against the Jags, but he's not The Answer.

Giants/Chargers. The Giants do have the advantage of being at home, but I don't think it's going to be enough of an advantage, particularly the way they've been playing lately. Chargers.

Steelers/Broncos. Hm - are you sure there's no way BOTH teams can win? The Steelers are my Pennsylvania-homer AFC team, but the Broncos have Wolverine. It's a tough choice, but I do think the Broncos will pull this one out.

On bye: Bills, Browns, Vikings, Jets, Raiders, Rams

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Sunday Schedule: November 8, 2009

Life-Long Eagles Fan Mom and You-Two-Calm-Down-or-I'm-Turning-Off-the-TV Dad will be visiting this weekend! So if you've been thinking about joining us but haven't made it out this season yet, this Sunday is THE time. Game schedule:

1 pm: probably Redskins/Falcons, but I'd be open to argument for one of the other 1 pm games
4 pm: Chargers/Giants
8 pm: Eagles/Cowboys!

MNF: Steelers/Broncos (which I'll be watching from Chicago)

Menu: Life-Long Eagles Fan Mom is bringing a brisket! Get excited, and come hungry! With something that goes with brisket.

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A Modest Proposal

Advice from Chef Spouse for the next Redskins coach (because even if ZORN! lasts the rest of the season, there will be a new Redskins coach sooner rather than later):

• Get yourself a good contract - man's gotta eat. And buy a house in the DC area, which is not for sissies. Or poor people.
• Make a new GM an absolutely non-negotiable part of your employment
• Write in a $100M bonus that is delivered if and only if Dan Snyder interferes in any way with the team. Don't even let him speak to any players or draft prospects other than to say "nice game, X!"

Whoever you are - and at this point, probably the only people clueless enough to be willing to TAKE the job are currently coaching high school teams - it's your only chance.

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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.

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2009 Week 8 Picks

The Giants got off to a hot start, winning their first five games. But in that five game stretch, they beat only one team with a winning record (Cowboys) and four dogs (Bucs, Skins, Raiders, Chiefs). Don't get me wrong, we couldn't handle one of those dogs, so my house is far too made of glass to run around throwing stones. But since then, they've played two good teams - the Saints, who also beat us, but by nearly an identical margin with K2 making his very first start, and the Cards, who we haven't faced since the damn NFC Championship game last year - and dropped both games.

So they're not nearly as unbeatable as they looked on November 12 - that sobriquet is reserved for the Saints in the NFC this year - but coming up as Giant-killers will not be easy.

Many people have said that the NFC East has two good teams, one schizo team, and one bad team this year. Now's our chance to prove that right. I think we can do this. Chef Spouse is not feelin' the love, but he has pointed out that it's a matter of which team shows up. And he's not loving the play calling this season, and, as you know, neither am I. But I think this Sunday is when Andy and Marty quit screwing around and get serious. Chef Spouse is not so sanguine.

I'm calling the Iggles, partially but not totally because I'm a total homer. And for it to happen, Winston Justice needs to have a BIG game containing Osi Umenyiora. Did you hear that, Winston? I'm expecting big things of you.

Broncos/Ravens - If we weren't playing opposite, this would DEFINITELY be on the big screen. As it is, this will DEFINITELY be on the 'puter on SuperCast. I think the Broncos take this one, but this is going to be a gooooooood game.

Texans/Bills. Texans! Team of Destiny!

Browns/Bears. I think the Bears have finally found an opponent they can handle. Bears.

Seahawks/Cowboys. I SO want to call Seahawks, but I just don't see it happening. Sigh. Cowboys. (Seahawks, please PLEASE PLEASE pull it together and prove me wrong.)

Dolphins/Jets. Record says Jets, but the Dolphins did pull off the win against them on MNF 3 weeks ago. Then again, that game was at home. This one is not. I think I've just talked myself into calling Jets.

Colts/49ers. I don't have to talk myself into anything here. Colts.

Rams/Lions. OH. MY. GOD. This is the official The Worst Game of the Week. For my pick, I'd like to choose "who cares?" but I guess I have to pick the Lions, who have at least won a game this season.

Chargers/Raiders. The Raiders were a trap for us. They will NOT be a trap for the Chargers. Who will win. Big time.

Titans/Jags. How the mighty have fallen! I'm calling Jags, mostly because I think it would be hilarious if, after the first 0-16 season in NFL history, we had another right away. Go for the goat spot, Titans!

Vikings/Packers. Brett Favre returns to Lambeau Field in purple. I hope the Packers SLAUGHTER the Vikings. I hope they send the team home in body bags. I hope Brett Favre is LITERALLY in PIECES at the end of this game. Think THEN he'd finally retire? You know, if he's, like, decapitated and stuff? Revenge is a dish best served cold. Which it usually is at Lambeau. Packers.

Panthers/Cards. Um, Cards. Jake Delhomme has HAD IT.

Falcons/Saints. I'm sure the Saints will have to lose a game eventually, but it won't be this week. Saints.

On bye: Patriots, Chiefs, Bengals, Steelers, Bucs, Redskins (just in time....to fire their head coach)

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