Gut Check Win in Washington

Hoo-boy....had to sweat one out in Washington this morning. Oh jeez. I tell you what


Things I liked:
- Goal-line D....stiffened when it needed to....down 22-20, the Redskins had at least 7 plays inside the 10 and couldn't punch it in. Heck, it was only a spectacular save by Portis that prevented the Skins from coughing up a fumble. Anyway, holding them to a FG was HUGE. Score 25-20 after that, and a couple plays later, Brian Westbrook is taking a screen-pass to the house for a 26-25 lead.

- Brian Westbrook. Best all-round back in the NFL right now. Period. He just tied Thurman Thomas and Wilbert Montgomery for the having the most games (9) with both a rushing and a receiving touchdown. That a Hall of Fame player and the Eagles all-time leading rusher. That is pretty good company. 183 total yards and 3 touchdowns. Not only did he give my fantasy team a huge boost, his performance today may be a catalyst for the Eagles to sustain some momentum. We've got winless Miami next week.
Image courtesy AP
- More aggressive play-calling in the second half. With Carlos Rogers out and Fred Smoot visibly limping around, the Eagles played timid in the first half. And it showed. The Eagles were down 15-7 at the half and looked pretty frickin' bad. In the second half, the Eagles began taking some shots. Not all of them worked, but they don't ALL NEED TO. Its set a tone, it tells the opposition they can't just cluster the line of scrimmage and play the short pass.

What I didn't like:
Donovan McNabb's inaccuracy. Weird to criticize a guy who goes 20/28 for 250 and 4 TDs, but there were critical plays in the game where Don just looked bad. The pass to Celek on the 3rd possession. Wide open TE...could've set up a scoring opportunity - easy - but whoops! Horrible throw and BOOM goes the punt. There were also a few of McNabb's patented gopher balls thrown in there. It may be nit-picking because we won...but seriously....It was very frustrating.

McNabb's almost game-choking fumble, Jeez oh man, another criticism of the QB? Yup...the defense hadn't done DICK. Nothing to stop the 4skins. And with the Skins up 22-20 and driving, the Eagles force a fumble by Ladell Betts at their own 25. Woohoo, Eagles ball and hope springs eternal.

Next play - McNabb scrambling around and coughs up a cheap fumble...To give the ball RIGHT BACK after that shit. DAMMIT. The Defense managed to hold (see above) them to a FG, but I tell you what, that could've been a killer. A real game-killer. It wasn't, but it almost was.

Will James....holy shit dude. YOU SUCK....James boasted about being a starter in the off-season, but it looks more like he's the second coming of Izel "Toast" Jenkins.

What's in a Championship?

I'm going to put the "rings clowns" to bed once and for all. What are Rings clowns, you ask? Well they're trolls mostly - that is fans from team that who's primary response to most any argument about football resorts to: My teams has X (where X = the number of Super Bowl ring their team has won) rings, nyah, nyah, nyah - yours doesn't, your team sucks.

And yeah, its as juvenile as it sounds.

It is used most commonly in my experience, by Dallas and Steelers fans, who's teams have won 5 Super Bowl titles (and occasionally by Redskins fans who have three to their credit). But here the primary flaw in the argument - these douchebags deliberately neglect to account for football championships earned prior to the name change. Its as if the game went through some dimensional portal in 1967 (the first year the NFL Championship was called the Super Bowl).

This makes no sense (kinda of like most Dallas trolls on the Philly.com message boards)

The formal list of NFL Champions can be found here:
Let me save you the trouble: The Green Bay Packers have bragging right over everyone with 12; Chicago is next with 9, then the New York Giants 6, then Colts, Steelers, Niners, Cowboys and Redskins are next with 5. For the record, my team, the Eagles are tied with the Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots and St. Louis Rams with 3.

This is no about refuting bragging rights with the NFC East. Hell, if anything it irks me that some useless NY fans have it (better than braindead 4skins though, I guess) - its the repudiation of the idea that somehow only Super Bowls count...You see, I-like-it-up-my-bum Cowgurl fans make this point the most: probably because it lets them lord it over Redskin fans and the rest of the NFC East. But its fallacious logic to argue that a name change should be the basis for the creation of a new era in football. A new era which discards all the previous achievements. Its not.

A more logical breaking point for era within football would be the widespread implementation of the forward pass (going WAY back for ya)....Getting closer to modernity: a better division, say defining the "Current" Era we are all enjoying in football, would be the institution of a change that altered the landscape of football. I prefer Free Agency...(there's a little gray area here. Plan B Free Agency began in 1989, the Plan A wide-roaming Free Agency we know today began in 1993). Other era break-points? We'll that's an argument/discussion for another day.

Ok - so if you what to start calculating, who got this, we got that and all that malarkey. Do it from a more logical point, like that than from an arbitrary, hey-they're-calling-it-the-Super-Bowl-now? moment. Regardless, I find the use of the "rings" line tired and the tool of, well, tools who lack the brain power to muster a real argument.

So what does that all mean for NFC East fans? It doesn't change a thing: The Eagles still need to win a couple before they catch up total-wise, and I'm quit sure this post will do nothing to deter the mush-brained ambulatory lunchboxes who'll insist on spouting off about how many "rings" they got. If you break it at the formal beginning of Plan A FA - then the Cowboys are the only team to have won (twice in 1993 and 1995). If you include the gray-area back to 1989 - then the Cowboys have 3 and the Giants/Redskins 1 each.

But to be honest: the only team with current bragging rights is the Indianapolis Colts. Period. Said done. The next team to claim the honor will have to earn it in Arizona....

Go Eagles Baby!

Some off-Season Thoughts

A Recent Post about the Eagles at Spliterati made some of the local message boards. Its basically about how the Eagles, in the NFC East, may have won the 'losing battle' because they didn't lose that much, talent-wise, in the off-season.

I think its a bit half-three-quarters-full type argument myself. We Philly fans have a tendency to sour quickly on players about to leave or already out the door. Now this is certainly deserved in some cases. I mean lets be honest, fans were calling for the ouster of Mr. Air Banjo, Dhani Jones, for quite some time, and his departure certainly fall in the "don't-let-the-door-hit-you-in-the-ass" category. As does former safety Michael Lewis...He went the Pro-Bowl, had a down year in 2005 (who didn't?) and then left his confidence/brain in the locker-room last year. Maybe a change of scenery will do him good, but he'd become a liability in the Birds secondary. Period.

As for some others who got no love from the other site. Hmmm. I liked Rod Hood and Jeff Garcia. Hood was a great success story, from undrafted free agent to very capable 3rd corner for the Eagles. If we could've kept him for back-up money, he'd still be in green. Fact is, he hit free agency at a very highly paid position, and the Arizona Cardinals stepped up with starters' money for him. His departure hurts (its NOT crippling), because he's not a guy who went from good to regular toast like Lewis. We just have to do what we've done several times before, groom a young guy to step up. Is it Joselio Hanson? Maybe...one of the draft choices? Barksdale maybe? Dunno....or will it be a guy like Hood or Al Harris (the other 3rd corner made-good after cutting-his-teeth with the Eagles)? I'll say this. They will find someone.

As for the rest of the NFC East:
The Giants - I'll say this. I am much happier facing a backfield of Droughens/Jacobs backfield than a Tiki/Jacobs backfield...that little TV-bound fucker was a thorn in our sides his entire friggin' career. As Eli continues to spin his wheels (and he best be spinning them fast, because the Giants didn't do a whole lot to fix the sieve-like Offensive Line), I am struck by this: a few years ago, the Giants future looked bright, they had a top-pick QB named Manning taking the helm, and the Cowboys and 4skins seemed content to play out seasons with recycled fossils at QB (Testaverde, Bledsoe, Brunell). Everyone acknowledged McNabb was the dominant QB in the NFC East and there really wasn't any team close to challenging that.

NOW - Eli continues his one-step-forward-two-steps-back "progress" and the its the Cowboys and Redskins that arguably have more hope for their young QBs than New York. I'm not a big Jason Campbell fan (but not a big detractor either), he's raw. Got some talent, but who knows how far he'll develop. It looks like he's destined for a coaching-change down Washington way as St. Gibbs wears out his 2nd-tour welcome with a rudderless team that hasn't learned how to win (but sure knows how to lose). As for Tony Romo. Well I will say this, the Pro Bowl nod was wholly and completely undeserved and he didn't provide Eagles fans with an ever-lasting moment to gloat with that all-time choke fumbled snap on a gimme-game-winning-FG against Seattle in the playoffs. And while he'd never live that down in Philly, I have a feeling that if he WAS an Eagle and had performed like he did in the REGULAR season, that there would be a lot of hopeful Romosexuals buzzing around Philly talking about how much potential our QB had.

So there it is, in two years, the team I considered to be our closest competitor and toughest foe for the NFC East has completely changed. Bye bye NY. Dallas is clearly the team the Eagles need to be most concerned about. How will Big D deal with Wade Phillips? Will MEO implode/cause another season of distraction? Who knows. Who cares. The 'Boys have talent and we need to take care of business.