Tag Archives: eagles

Week #1 – Eagles vs. Redskins

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It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year….

While the 1963 Andy Williams hit is a popular staple during the Christmas season, and also part of a humorous advertisement by an office supplies store, it will also apply to this coming Sunday as far as I’m concerned.

On that day, I won’t walk downstairs to the kitchen but “PRANCE” (and prance is not a word I would often use unless referring to Fred Astaire).  On that day, the eggs for breakfast will taste just a little better. The sun will be shining no matter how dreary the forecast may look outside.  Even the sound of the neighbor’s dog barking won’t sound as annoying.

The start of football season, 2013 edition in Philadelphia represents an “out with the old and in with the new” philosophy.  Gone are the Nnamdi’s, the DRC’s, the Jim Washburn’s, the wide-nine, the Howard Mudd’s, and most importantly, the head coach, Andy Reid.

In is Chip Kelly, who brings a new way of thinking, and a brand new coaching staff to boot.  Like an old dishwasher that just can’t do the job any more, the Eagles of the past have been discarded and replaced with a 2013 model with all the fancy bells, whistles, and latest gadgetry.   Of course, while the packaging looks pretty and shiny from the outside, only time will tell if it actually works properly.

Most Eagles fans will unfortunately have to enjoy the Week #1 Sunday slate of games merely as an “appetizer”, since the main course, their beloved Birds vs. the Washington Redskins, won’t get underway till Monday night at approximately 7:10 PM.   But what’s an extra day when we’ve waited a whole offseason?

The 2012 edition of the Washington Redskins, like the Eagles, were both 3-6 and going nowhere fast when the two teams met on Nov. 18, 2012.  But the Redskins won that game and never looked back, winning seven straight en route to a 10-6 record and their first NFC East divisional title since 1999.

The 2013 success of the Redskins will hinge on the health of Robert Griffin, III (RG3), who tore his ACL in the wild-card playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks back in January.  Griffin has been cleared to play and will most likely start, though there is always the chance he could be quite rusty coming off such a serious injury.  If he falters, backup Kirk Cousins showed last year that he can step in and lead the team to victory.

The Eagles would do well to get a steady pass rush on RG3, which might rattle him and also help to disguise the lack of playmakers the team has in the secondary.

On the offensive side, the Eagles have the playmakers to move the ball and score, but what happens now that other teams will actually be game planning for Chip Kelly’s offense?

This will be one of only two primetime games the Eagles will have this season, (with the other coming in week #3 against the Kansas City Chiefs).  Considering that every team gets at least one primetime game (if you’re REALLY bad, the NFL Network will still put you on their Thursday night schedule at least once), a team like the Eagles that was accustomed to playing before the national spotlight multiple times every season will have to prove to the network executives that they are deserving of reclaiming that stature.

Of course, if the Eagles get off to a good start and are in playoff contention late in the season, one of their last six games could always be “flexed” (moved) to the Sunday night NBC primetime game.  But what is the likelihood of that happening?

If the Eagles finish the season at 7-9 or 8-8, it would be a noble improvement and give their fans hope for the future.

9-7 would be a pleasant surprise and a record that many fans would probably sell their soul to achieve.

Not sure what 6-10 would mean, but anything less than six wins and the offseason would be spent questioning if the Chip Kelly hire was a wise one.

In the meantime, let’s enjoy the ride of the 2013 football season.  Anything’s better than watching reruns of 1980’s sitcoms…or the Phillies.

Amit’s Marquee Matchups of the Week (all times in EST and on Sunday unless otherwise noted):

Ravens at Broncos 8:30 PM NBC (Thurs) – This game is a rematch of last year’s Divisional playoff, which the Broncos had all but wrapped up until the “Nightmare at Mile High” took place and Jacoby Jones slipped past two Denver defenders to snag a game-tying touchdown with 31 seconds left, eventually leading to a Ravens victory in the 2nd overtime.

This was traditionally supposed to be a home game for the Super Bowl champions and a chance for the hometown fans to revel in the team’s prior year success. Instead, with baseball’s Baltimore Orioles and the football Baltimore Ravens having a scheduling conflict, the Ravens were forced to start their season on the road.

My prediction – NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Orioles owner Peter Angelos won’t be meeting for crabs and beer in Fells Point anytime soon.

Bengals at Bears  1:00 PM CBS – The Bengals made it to the 1st round of the playoffs the last two years and are hoping to take the next step this year.  The Bears started strong the last two years but faltered in the 2nd half, missing the playoffs both years.   Being early September, at least wind should not be a major factor in the “Windy City”.

Packers at 49ers 4:25 PM FOX – An intriguing matchup pitting one veteran quarterback (Packers QB Aaron Rodgers) against another who seemed to arrive last year in 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick.  But can Kaepernick deliver in 2013 now that there are actually EXPECTATIONS for him to do so?

Geographically, this game also represents the “Valley of the Wines” against the “Land of the Cheeses”.  Strange – and all this time I was told by the wine connoisseurs that wine and cheese go TOGETHER??

Giants at Cowboys 8:30 PM NBC – If it seems like the Cowboys are always on Sunday night during week #1 of the NFL season, you are right…they are.  This year will make it three out of the last four, and when they weren’t on Sunday night last year, they still faced off against the Giants in the traditional 1st game of the season on NBC (for reference, see Ravens vs. Broncos above).

Guess that’s the exposure you get when you are labeled “America’s Team”.  But are you really still America’s Team when you keep choking in the final game of the regular season?  Or when you’ve only won one playoff game in the last sixteen seasons?

The Giants are getting older but still have a reliable Eli Manning at quarterback.  And these games are usually close contests so should be a good one.

Let the NFL season commence!

“As Broad & Pattison Turns” August 2013

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Amit ‘s “As Broad & Pattison Turns” August Edition

A month and a half of Eagles training camp and preseason football has come and gone, and with it, the anticipation of a new season is upon us.  Michael Vick and Nick Foles both displayed that they were capable of handling the quarterback position, with Vick narrowly beating out Foles for the starting job.

Vick looked errorless in his first two preseason games, but after he was anointed the starters’ job, went back to being somewhat inconsistent in the 3rd preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

But that is the knock on Vick…when he is under pressure to perform and to prove himself, as he was in 2010 when he acquired the starting job after Kevin Kolb was injured in the first game of the season, he can look unstoppable and run the offense like a machine.

But once Vick has the security of knowing that he is the man at the helm, he goes back to his bad habits of holding onto the ball too long and having a bad penchant for turnovers.

Eagles coach Chip Kelly did the right thing by not handing over the starting job to Vick at the outset of training camp.  Hopefully, if Vick struggles, Chip won’t hesitate to give the job back to Nick Foles, who doesn’t have the natural ability of Vick but may prove to be better at avoiding mistakes in the long run.

The rest of the offense and the special teams look to be quite formidable and have the ability to make big plays, except when running back Bryce Brown and kick returner Damaris Johnson hold the ball as if they were playing “hot potato”.

The defense, on the other hand, is this team’s “Achilles Heel”, and will be a work in progress for most of the season.  A wretched defense from 2012 cannot be turned over completely in the span of a year, and it may take some time to figure out who the keepers will be on that side of the ball.

The pass rush may turn out to be decent, and it will have to be to mask what is an unknown and unproven secondary.     Bad draft picks from the recent past such as safety Nate Allen and linebacker Casey Matthews may have their days numbered as Eagles, though Allen may be kept, just for the lack of available and experienced bodies out on the field.

The final preseason game against the Jets turned out to be a night off for the starters, but represented “one last hurrah” for those on the bubble in danger of being cut.   Who is kept and who goes will also largely depend on what players are released from other teams that may be of some help to the Eagles.  Stay tuned…

PHILLIES – Last month, I stated that we would lose interest in the Phillies by Sept. 1st.  Unfortunately, I was wrong – most of us had lost interest by August 1st, as the team lost 19 of 24 after the All-Star break, prompting management to fire manager Charlie Manual.

The writing was already on the wall that Charlie would be gone after the season, but with the Phillies resurrecting the role of “Dead Man Walking”, something had to be done to revive what was a team without a pulse.

While Manuel was never quite the baseball strategist, and seemed to struggle with the “double switch”, I give him credit for guiding the 2008 team to its first World Series in twenty-eight years.

On Sept. 10th of that season, the Phillies, coming off a 7-3 loss to the Marlins, were 3.5 games behind the division leading Mets, four games behind the wildcard leading Brewers (whom they were about to start a 4-game series at home against), and in danger of missing the playoffs once again.

The Phillies swept Milwaukee in that series, going 13-3 the rest of the way, and had a magical run through the playoffs, culminating in a World Series clinching victory in Game 5 against Tampa Bay which took two nights to complete due to the game being suspended in the middle of the sixth inning (which I was lucky enough to attend on both nights).

During that magical run, Charlie Manual kept throwing out J.C Romero in the 7th inning, Ryan Madson in the 8th, and closer Brad Lidge in the 9th….and it happened to work every night from mid-September onwards, while he allowed his talented core of offensive players to perform on the field without screwing it up.

But while I give Charlie his due, can someone PLEASE explain to me when exactly he 1) Eradicated polio from 3rd world countries and 2) Saved ten children from a burning building??  Since that is the kind of recognition he has received AFTER being released from the Phillies.

New manager Ryne Sandberg  has gotten the team playing energized baseball once again, which bodes well for 2014, since there doesn’t seem to be much room to change what is an aging core whose best days may be behind them.  The Phillies should still have a good 1-2 punch at the top of their rotation next year with Cole Hamels & Cliff Lee, but past that, who knows?  Unfortunately, for the 2nd straight year, the “Bank” shall be silent come October…

SIXERS – If the Sixers ownership and management were the Founding Fathers of our country, it would have taken them ten years to write the Declaration of Independence and another five years to announce to the British and the “New World” peeps that we had declared independence.

Actually, on the day that they were to declare independence, they would have instead announced that the local general store, which coincidentally happened to be owned by one of them, was having a 2 for 1 sale on horse and buggy supplies.

But such is the nature of the NBA in Philadelphia these days – bad basketball and bad ownership.  If the Sixers plan eventually works (which is quite possible) and they acquire the right players, the fans will come back.  But in the meantime, some positive P.R from the owners’ box wouldn’t hurt.

Then again, perhaps 1) Public Relations and 2) Analytics just don’t mix?

FLYERS – Nothing much to report here, expect that Claude Giroux’s golf game isn’t going quite as planned.

The Last Word:

While it’s great that we join a gym in order to get/stay in shape, why do we drive around for ten minutes in the gym parking lot to find a closer parking spot instead of just walking the extra few feet?