I know I am. I really don't want to acknowledge the fact that they've won seven in a row since I wrote them off. We've been trained to expect the worst in this city (our most recent example being Monday night) and I'm just not ready to fully give myself up to this team. They have toyed with my emotions most of the year and I'm not really sure what to expect night to night, inning to inning, let alone over 9 games.
I'm just going to leave it at that and hope they can keep raking in victories over the next 9 games and somehow claw their way into the postseason.
In one of the least shocking moves in recent club history, the Flyers announced Mike Richards will their 17th Captain in franchise history. Seriously, was their any other choice? Sure, the kid is only 23, but he is the closest thing to a Bobby Clarke/Mark Messier I've seen on this team since...Bobby Clarke! Ok, Dave Poulin and Keith Primeau were pretty good captains over the years, but neither combined the leadership, scoring and physical play that Richards brings to the table.
In the early part of his career, Richards has been the epitome of Flyers hockey. I can't agree any more from this comment from Coach Stevens:
“I just think Mike Richards is a player that has all the characteristics we want on our team. We want a guy out there, that when we see him playing, he is representative of the identity of our hockey team. I think Mike is all of that.”
I know we have a lot going on in this city with the Phils' post season push and the Birds looking pretty strong in the early season, but I'm always excited to talk a little hockey. Can't wait for training camp to get here.
By the way, I came across this picture of Mike Richards and Porn Star Gina Lynn. I guess he scores off the ice as well.
Last night's Birds/Boys Monday Night Football game, provided a ton of great, fun moments and memories, but ultimately the Birds just couldn't get it done as the Boys took advantage of a curious fumble at a very inopportune time and the defense pretty much let the Cowboys do whatever they wanted all night long.
Despite the loss, I came away from this game feeling really good about this team. D Mac looks completely healthy and has the look of a mature QB ready to lead his team to great things. Other than the ridiculous fumble in the 4th quarter, I really do not have any complaints about D Mac' s performance thus far in the 2008 season. He has the look of a guy who is ready to dominate. Unfortunately, the same thing can't be said of the defense.
Last night's loss falls squarely on the shoulders of the defense. The Birds failed to generate any pressure on the QB and had no answer for stopping Jason Witten, which maily fell to the responsibility of Brian Dawkins. While I think Trent Cole and friends will show up at some point this season and provide a better than average pass rush, I really think we have to come terms with the fact that B Dawk is done as a useful player in the NFL. In fact, if we had anyone competent behind him, I think the Birds would have done to Dawkins what they did to Trotter last year. It's sad to say as I really appreciate everything the guy did for the Birds over the years, but he's done and the Eagles would be better off with someone younger at that spot on the field.
The Birds now come back to Philly for another big time matchup against the formidable Steelers. We really could be looking at a 1-2 hole after this Sunday. However, if the offense shows up and plays similar to how they looked last night, I think we'll be ok.
Here are some other thoughts:
-I heard a rumor that the ball that Tony Romo fumbled on the Birds first defensive TD in more than a year, was the same K ball he bobbled at the end of the Seahawks/Boys Wild Card game two years ago.
-When DeSean Jackson prematurely celebrated his touchdown last evening, I thought it was the first time I had ever seen anything like it in my life. Boy was I wrong. Not only has there been several similar moments like that, but it wasn't DeSean's first experience screwing up a TD celebration.
I guess my memory is starting to go on me.
-Why wasn't one of our three main corners used to cover Jason Witten? Christ, the Boys barely have a 2nd WR option, let alone a 3rd.
-Did Stewart Bradley even suit up last night? Other than get beat deep by Marion Barber, he was inconspicuous last night.
I'm on my way out the door to meet up with my boys to watch the Birds/Boys up at Skeeter's Pub (formerly Reggie's). Please with hold your jokes as to how I weaseled my way out of the house to the end of this post.
Anyhow, before I leave, I want to put my pick up on the site.
I see an Eagles 24 to 21 victory....in overtime. Yes, OT. I just have a feeling that after a pretty dramatic week of football, the Birds/Boys will cap it off with an instant classic.
Dallas Day is finally upon us and I am beyond myself with excitement. I think we are faced with the defining game of the season. If the Birds can play with or possibly beat the Boys tonight, I really think we'll be setting ourselves up for a season of excitement.
I, for one, think we are definitely going to bring our "A game". We may lose, but the Boys will know they were in a fight.
There are two keys for me:
1) Keep the pressure off D Mac; and 2) Get after Romo.
If the Birds are successful on both fronts, we win the game. However, those things are easier said then done.
By the way, if DeSean Jackson has a big game, I'll be afraid of the hysteria he will cause in this city.
Nothing wakes up our Phils like yours truly counting them out. I had them dead and buried after losing 2 out of 3 to the Marlins. Well, lo and behold, the Phils swept four straight games from the Brew Crew to pull themselves even in the wild card race and one game back in the division. Now, they have totally sucked me back in Godfather III style...see below.
I've only given up on them once so far this year, which means I'm way behind last year's pace. I have to say that truly don't know what to expect down the stretch this year. The number of guys that have been up and down over the last month has been overwhelming. One night, Blanton looks like a bum and then today he gives a solid performance. J Roll looks like shit for 2/3 of the season, then flips a switch and now seems poised to get on a hot streak. (By the way, he had 3 walks in tonight's night cap. I'm not a stats guy. Can someone look up how many times that's happened in his career? It has to be under 10.) It took up to September, but Brett Myers finally is showing why he was named the #1 starter out of Spring Training.
At this point, I think I'm just going to enjoy these last 12 games and see if the Phils can pull out a post season spot. I offer no predictions whatsoever. It just depends who gets hot when, and Christ would it be nice for Chase to finally contribute.
Yup, things were that bad on the Banks of the Raritan last evening. As horrible as the game was, three good things did come out of it:
1) I no longer have to worry about Penn State trying to steal Greg Schiano away when Joe Pa retires. (Something tells me Greg woke up this morning rethinking his decision to turn down Miami AND Michigan.)
2) so many people left early, I was able to get home at a decent time; and
3) my schedule of Fall Saturdays just opened up quite a bit!
I don't think you guys are going to have to worry about me talking RU sports any time soon. This season is OVER for all intents and purposes.
(I wrote this after the game on Wednesday, but due to technical difficulties it is being posted today. Sorry about that!)
We are gathered here today to pay our respects to the 2008 Phillies. They officially died today in the top of the 8th inning when Brett Myers and Chad Durbin combined to give up the deciding runs agains the Marlins. The Phils are now 4 games back in loss column in both the NL East and the NL Wild Card with only 16 games left to play. We should not expect another miracle. I simply can't see the Mets or Brew Crew falling apart down the stretch like the Mets did last year when both teams have stud #1 pitchers.
We will be left wondering what happened to this year's team. At different parts of the season, the Phils had a productive offense, respectable starting pitching and a dominant bullpen. Unfortunately, they could never put it all together and the offense went ice cold at several points in the season with the bullpen absolutely shit the bed since the 13 inning game victory against the Mets last month.
I'll remember the great early season by Utley, Ryan Howard's moonshots and horrible at bats, the whacky up and downs of Brett Myers, Brad Lidge becoming the most reliable Phils' closer of all time and that crazy finish early in the season when Victorino threw a Brave out at the plate to save a victory.
However, since we are a pessimistic group of phans, I'll remember more the frustration level that I experienced with this group of Phillies. Something was missing with this group. Alas, the magic just wasn't there and now it's time to say good bye to this group as they head into the afterlife.
Tonight, Cholly Manuel and the rest of the Phils' braintrust quite possible gave away the season. Should the Phils finish a game out of the playoffs, something tells me that we'll be looking at the decision to put Kyle Kendrick back on the mound tonight as a turning point.
I am having a hard time figuring out the thinking behind starting Kendrick after skipping him in the rotation last week. Lt. Kendrick has not been the same since late June as he hasn't gone more than 6 innings since June. However, more problematic is that he gave up 6 or more runs in three out of his last five starts. Basically, heading into tonight, it was pretty clear that he's lost it and the league has caught up to the guy. Throwing him into a pennant race was down right criminal. We deserve Cholly's head on a platter.
I truly believe that J.A. Happ would have been a better option tonight. Instead of thinking outside the box a little, the Phils went with the predictable option and now we're behind the 8 ball again. To compound matters, the Mets won again putting the Phils 2 and 1/2 games back.
It's a shame how far Kendrick has fallen so fast, but I sure hope we are done with him until next year. I've seen enough from him in '08.
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By the way, when the hell did the Phils pick up Tad Iguchi? We now have the Japanese invasion on our better.
Dallas' part time cornerback and full time scumbag thug, Adam "Pacman" Jones, wasn't blown away by the aerial show unleashed yesterday by D Mac, DeSean and Co. When asked about whether he was impressed by the Birds' performance yesterday, Pacman responded:
Boy, could I have not been more wrong about what to expect from the Birds' offense today. I predicted the following:
As for the offense, I see it being kind of a struggle to score without Curtis and Brown, but I think we'll make enough plays to get the job done.
Well, the Birds had more than enough big plays in their 38-3 destruction of the Rams earlier today. After watching the Cowboys in the 4 o'clock game, I wish they had held on to a couple for this week's upcoming Monday Night showdown with the dysfunctional egomaniacs from Big D.
Today, McNabb once again showed why he is the greatest quarterback to ever play in the month of September. Of course, I have no statistics to back this up, since I have a life and no time to run queries through the NFL statistical data base. However, I'm willing to bet a very large sum of money that D Mac has the best quarter back rating for games playing in the month of September in league history. (The only hole in my theory is last September where he was mostly brutal except that Lions game where they wore the funny uniforms and blasted the Lions.)
While McNabb didn't scramble for much yardage, he certainly looked more nimble when avoiding the rush, which bought him time and enabled him to get the ball down field to his backup receivers who looked pretty damn impressive, especially DeSean Jackson.
I loved what we saw from DeSean today. I just don't know if he can keep this up all season. He is woefully small and I'm afraid of whether he can hold up to the pounding or get off the jam of corners like Al Harris, etc. However, for one day, he was electric. Undoubtedly, the most exciting receiver we've seen since that WR who must not be named.
The defense played pretty well also. The most impressive thing they did was hold the Rams without a third down conversion. That is something we must see more of this season. The only downer was the lack of turnovers which we saw way too much of last year. The law of averages has to turn around, doesn't it? In any event, today's game was more like a 5th preseason game for the defense. They'll see a much stiffer test against Romo and crew next week.
As great as the defense played, I'm pretty sure this is the only defensive play from this game that we'll remember at the end of the year:
As if we needed to be reminded again, Sheldon Brown can flat out lay the wood to people.
Today's win was a great way to kick off the season, but more importantly, it sets up the upcoming week perfectly. There is no better way for us to head into Dallas week, then to come off a pounding. Next Monday night can't get here soon enough.
Finally, week one is here and I can start talking about my beloved Birds.
Today's game will be very telling. If the Birds' defense doesn't dominate today, we could be looking at a long season. These are no longer the "Greatest Show On Turf Rams" that we recall from years gone by. In fact, if you had a Ram on your fantasy roster last year, you probably didn't make the playoffs in your league. About the only good thing I can say about the Rams is that they employ my favorite all time Rutgers player, Brian Leonard. (I hope we see the above pictured Leonard Leap sometime today.)
As for the offense, I see it being kind of a struggle to score without Curtis and Brown, but I think we'll make enough plays to get the job done. I think we'll rely heavily on B West to move the ball for us and make the big plays (like this is news to anyone.)
Overall, I see a 21-10 win. Hopefully, it will be as comfortable as I envision it.
As I detailed in my last post, I have a friggin' Christening Party today, so I don't have the time to put in a detailed 2008 Season prediction, but I do want my picks on the record before the season starts and someone has a catastrophic injury that screws up a team's season (Adrian Peterson and the Vikings come to mind).
Let's get the Birds out of the way first. I came into the preseason thinking the Birds were a 10-6 team this year and then the National media came along and for some reason anointed the Birds as this year's fashionable team to make a giant leap. I'm not sure I agree with all the love that the Dr Z's of the world have showered upon them. Where is it coming from? It's not like the Birds looked phenomenal in the preseason or added anyone of significance in the last two months. I've made up my mind that I'm not going to let this tidal wave of support sway me in any way.
So, with that being said, I'm just going to stick to my gut and put them at 10-6. I think McNabb will have a great early season, but wear down as the year goes on as he always does. I think the defense will be better than last year also. My big prediction for the season is that the Birds' 6th Round Pick, Joe Mays, will be the starter at MLB by week 8, with Stewart Bradley moving to the strong side and Chris Gocong moving to DE full time. I also think Lorenzo Booker will help the offense immensely.
I see a wild card season, with one playoff victory before losing to one of the top two NFC seeds in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. If that happens, I think we'll probably all be happy.
As for the rest of the NFL, here it goes:
NFC EAST:
1) Cowboys - 12-4
2) Birds - 10-6
3) Giants - 9-7
4) Skins - 7-9
NFC South:
1) Saints - 11-5
2) Panthers - 9-7
3) Bucs - 7-9
4) Falcons - 3-13
NFC Central:
1) Vikings - 11-5
2) Packers - 10-6
3) Lions - 8-8
4) Bears - 6-10
NFC West:
1) Cardinals - 9-7
2) Seahawks - 8-8
3) Rams - 6-10
4) Niners - 5-11
Playoff teams:
1) Cowboys
2) Saints
3) Vikings
4) Cards
5) Eagles
6) Packers
AFC East:
1) Pats - 11-5
2) JETS! - 10-6
3) Bills - 9-7
4) Dolphins 7-9
AFC South:
1) Jags - 12-4
2) Titans - 10-6
3) Colts - 9-7
4) Texans - 7-9
AFC Central:
1) Steelers: 9-7
2) Browns: 8-8
3) Ravens: 7-9
4) Bengals: 5-11
AFC West:
1) Chargers: 12-4
2) Denver: 7-9
3) Chiefs: 7-9
4) Raiders: 6-10
AFC Playoff Teams:
1) Chargers
2) Jags
3) Pats
4) Steelers
5) Titans
6) Jets
FINAL FOUR:
NFC: Cowboys over Saints
AFC: Chargers over Jags
Super Bowl:
Cowboys over Chargers (I just threw up in my mouth as I wrote this. We could be in for a long year.)
I wake up this morning excited on one hand, yet incredibly frustrated.
Today, we have an incredibly important double header for the Phils as they try to gain ground against the Mets in the NL East. We also have the Birds' NFL opener and all the fun that comes with week one of the NFL. If you care (and I do), the final "race before the Chase" in the Nascar season takes place today after being delayed a day by Hurricane Hanna. I suppose there are some people excited about the close of the U.S. Tennis Open, but I don't know of any of them.
Despite all this excitement, I am totally pissed off right now. I am going to miss part of today's Eagles' game and likely most of the first Phils' game as I have to go to a Christening party that was postponed from yesterday to today. I understand that the weather was bad yesterday, but what the fuck? How selfish a move is it to have a party on a day like today. I just got in a huge blow up with the wife over this. Of course, by not wanting to go, I'm being viewed as totally selfish and not wanting to spend any time with my daughter. I offered to take her all day and let her go to the party without me and the baby, but this was not an option.
Hey Guys, I'm finally moved into my in laws, picked a new place to live, got through Labor Day weekend, and drafted all my fantasy teams. I'm now ready to back to blogging.
Over the next couple days, I hope to get my Eagles' season prediction and a quick comment or two about the Phils. (You may recall that I broke up with them last month. Well, I'm happy to report that we may be getting back together.)
I hope that most of you come back to read my meandering musings on the world of Philly sports and promise not to leave you so long in the lerch again...At least until when I move into my next place.
(By the way, does anyone have ESPNU? I want to watch the Temple/UConn game, but Comcast doesn't have access to ESPNU. I'm really pissed off about this.)
Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We are in the process of moving. It's all I do. I work. I come home. I pack. I go to bed exhausted. I then start it all over again. Yes, I realize I sound like a whiney punk, but it's my reality and it has severely cut into my blogging time.
I'd love to comment on the Phils and how they've fallen on hard time after I dumped them, or how the Sixers secretly brought back Billy King as a consultant to help them overpay for Andre Iguodala, or how Andy Reid is an idiot for playing his starters in a monsoon, but I don't have the time. You can check here and there, but I wouldn't expect a whole lot until after Labor Day when I finally move out of my house.
I really need a break right now. I think I'm about to pass out.
In recognition of the Summer Olympics and the phenomenal Michael Phelps, I've decided to give my Top 5 Summer Olympics U.S. Athletes and/or Teams. During my research, I was reminded that Atlanta hosted an Olympic Games. Can someone explain to me how the fuck that happened? Still doesn't make any sense to me how a city that can't even sell out MLB and NFL playoff games was considered such a world class sports city that it deserved the Summer Olympics, but I digress....
Here's my top 5:
1) Carl Lewis - He won 9 gold medals and 1 silver over 4 separate Olympic Games. I'm as impressed as anyone over Michael Phelps, but I put more stock in Track and Field than swimming. Plus, he's a Philly area guy. He is a no brainer as the #1.
2) Michael Phelps - His Olympics aren't over and he still has a chance to extend his all time Gold Medal count to 14 gold and 2 bronze. At this point, he's become Tiger Woods/Michael Jordan like. When I see him compete, I totally expect thim to win.
3) The 1992 Dream Team - This was the greatest collection of basketball players ever put on the same team. The only reason they aren't #1 is that there was no one to push this group (their closest game was a 32 point win). God, I wish we still had a basketball team that routinely crushed their opponents like these guys did.
4) Mary Lou Retton - I am a child of the 80's and this chick's face was every where after winning the Olympic Gold medal back in 1984. I don't know if that qualifies her as one of the best, but who cares...it's my list.
5) 1984 U.S. Boxing Team - Of the 12 weight classes, the U.S. medaled in 11 of the weight classes with 9 gold medals. Future professional champs on this team included Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor and Pernell Whitaker. Of course, they benefitted from the Cuban and Russian boycott, but their record was still pretty impressive.
In an interview with ESPN.com, Donovan McNabb provided a startlingly refreshing interview on his past, present and future with the Birds.
Of course, you can’t talk about Donovan’s past without brining up T.O.. D Mac had the following to say about the Man That Single Handedly Ruin The 2005 Season:
"It could've been great [if they had stayed together]. What did we have, 30 TDs? You don't see that type of combination very often. That's like Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison. We would've been up there."
Thanks Donovan, not only are you a great QB, but you are also Master Of The Obvious.
D Mac further ingratiated himself with T.O. by adding these comments:
"In his situation, he's finally maturing at age 35 [actually 34]. Sometimes it's you, sometimes it's me. [T.O.] thought for so long it was someone else, but at some point, maybe it dawns on you that it's not everyone else's fault. I think once Bill [Parcells] left, T.O. realized that Jerry [Jones] truly loved him. And now he has a quarterback that he feels comfortable with. He's listening. Sometimes you have to understand the reality of the whole situation, and I think he did that."
As for the upcoming season, Donovan appears to like the Birds’ chances in the NFC this year. He confidently indicated that:
"I still put us at the top of the NFC. I feel confident in saying that because all the best teams are pretty much in our division. The Giants and Cowboys are coming off great seasons and the Redskins had a decent year."
He also claims that the injuries he played through last year will help in ’08:
"[Last year] was a grind, but the injury actually helped acclimate me to being the type of quarterback that I've wanted to be. It's helped me in certain areas."
Most surprisingly, McNabb seems to have resigned himself to the fact that his days with the Birds are numbered as he will eventually have to hand over the car keys to Kevin Kolb. Donovan added:
"I might end up somewhere else. And I'm prepared for that."
However, if McNabb keeps playing like he did Friday night and regains his ability to stay healthy for an entire season, he won’t be turning over the reigns anytime soon.
