Every four years, for one Sunday I live in a household divided. My love is a Steelers fan, and this past Sunday was the long awaited battle for bragging rights. I didn’t make out so well this year. A close, hard fought game went against the Eagles and there were a few things to pick out of the rubble of the loss that drops them to 3-2 on the year. Continue reading
football
Eagles and NFL in review – Week 4
So that’s what an Eagles game without turnovers looks like. Philly stretched its record out to 3-1 with a mistake-free 19-17 win over the Giants. They’ve become the first team ever to win each of their first three games by two points or less. Fun television watching for me, but I look forward to a blowout win sometime soon to enjoy.
Eagles and NFL in review – Week 3
There really isn’t much positive to say about the Eagles loss to Arizona. As a fan, all you can hope for is that it’s just “one of those games”. Now three games into the year, I’m not so sure this is a one-off performance, especially on the offensive side of the ball. There were a number of worrying signs:
- Michael Vick – I said at the start of the season that I expected this year to be a referendum on his future tenure as QB and so far it’s not going well. The two 4th quarter comebacks notwithstanding, he’s still making the same poor reads, he’s holding onto the ball far too long and he’s a turnover machine. Vick will always be a high risk / high reward type QB. Those tend not to be the guys you win championships with. His durability also has to be called into question. He was hit more than 15 times against Arizona and more than half of those were his own fault. His performance vs. the blitz was awful. Top QBs welcome the blitz and make big plays. Vick was 5/21 and sacked twice when blizted.
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Eagles and NFL in review – Week 2
Two weeks. Nine turnovers. 2-0.
It doesn’t really compute, but after the 24-23 win over the Ravens, the resolve of this year’s Eagles is impressive in the early going. That resolve is going to be tested even more in the coming weeks with the season ending injury to their best offensive lineman. Here’s what I saw in Sunday’s dramatic win:
4th quarter comeback #2: Vick hasn’t been a clutch late game performer in his career with the Eagles, but led a long game-winning TD drive for the second week in a row. Very encouraging.
Balance returns to offensive play calling: The Eagles called more runs than passes, and although the run game statistically didn’t deliver exceptional results, the threat of the run opened up large areas in the middle of the field for Vick/Celek to take advantage of. The Ravens pass rush was relentless and Vick took a number of big hits, but the threat of the run game (and Vick’s scrambling) kept the rush just enough at bay to allow for bigger plays down field.
Eagles and NFL in review – Week 1
That was an ugly win. The Eagles did just about everything in their power to give away a week 1 game against a very inferior opponent, but pulled out a last minute TD drive to start out on the positive side of the ledger. Here’s what I saw, moving from bad to good:
Vick: Four interceptions, three of which were of the “cover your eyes bad” variety. He looked rusty, and my hope is that this was a week of him shaking off the lack of pre-season preparation and not a sign of a continuation of his turnover prone ways. Perhaps more troubling is his decision making tendency of always looking for a big play. Many times against the Browns there was at least one check-down receiver wide open who he ignored. He’s got to start taking the easy yardage that defences are giving him.
10 more NFL predictions
I’ve already made my first set of ill-fated 2012/13 NFL predictions on the order in which the teams will finish. I must be a glutton for punishment, because here are ten more predictions involving stories that I think will emerge this season.
1. By the end of the season, the story around Michael Vick will be whether the Eagles will pick up the next season on his contract or if the organization will wash its hands of him and move on. Even though I’ve picked the Eagles to win the NFC East, I’m hedging with this prediction. I can see Vick having another middling season where he’s either hurt and/or continues to turn the ball over at a frightening clip. I really hope I’m wrong.
A new year. A new set of predictions.
The morning air is crisper, and that can only mean one thing – the start of football season is upon us. Before the start of the season last year, I made an attempt to demonstrate my football predictive prowess. Looking back on the results, I’m not sure why I’m going to try it again. Making predictions about a football season is a fool’s game. I know that, but I just can’t resist. Like last year, I’ll take a stab at how I see teams finishing the year, as well as a few storylines that I think will play out over the season.
For this post, I’ll cover how I see the teams finishing by division (* indicates my pick for the wildcard playoff spots) Continue reading
Off-season thoughts: New rules
I don’t get too wrapped up in the small rules changes that happen each NFL off-season, but there are two changes this year that I think will sacrifice some of the entertainment value of NFL football:
1. All plays that might have been scoring plays and all turnovers will now automatically be reviewed. Why is this a bad thing? First, replay reviews slow down the game. A football game now very rarely ends in less than 3 hours – this rule change will probably add a few more minutes to the average game length next year. Secondly, it’s entertaining to watch coaches incorrectly challenge calls and makes for great post-game second guessing of decisions. Thirdly, although you want to have every call correct, a few missed/incorrect calls adds some drama and intrigue (football is, after all, entertainment). I want to see a perfectly officiated game, but in lieu of that, a game that ends in 3 hours with a bit of added drama isn’t a bad alternative.
2. Changing the OT rules – This is a subtle change to make overtime more fair to both teams and to align the rules for regular season and post-season games. That sounds good, but dig a little deeper. Overtime in the regular season will now last longer due to multiple possessions. When overtime lasts longer, a likely outcome is an increase in tie games. A four hour game that ends in a tie doesn’t make anyone happy.
Eagles off-season: 5 outstanding moves
Last year’s off-season for the Eagles was all sizzle. Asomugha, Jenkins, Babin, Brown, Rodgers-Cromartie, and of course, Vince Young, the man who applied the unfortunate “dream team” label in his first press conference. Five months later sporting a .500 record, it was clear that the off-season approach wasn’t successful.
This off-season is much more in line with the Eagles historic organizational philosophy of building from within. I’m really excited by the moves to date, most of which haven’t garnered much attention from the media. I think the Eagles have made 5 outstanding moves so far:
1. Long term deal for DeSean Jackson – I was somewhat surprised when I initially heard he was signed to a longer-term agreement. I thought the Eagles would have him play out the 2012 season under the one year deal he signed after receiving the franchise tag. However, looking at the longer term deals other WRs received this off-season, Jackson came at a bargain in market value terms. If he can get his head out of his backside, play fearlessly and be a good teammate (those are BIG ifs), this will turn out to be a great signing. If he doesn’t, the Eagles are out a couple million dollars and can kick him to the curb after one year.
2. Extending Todd Herremans – Outside of Philly and die-hard NFL fans, people wouldn’t recognize his name. His signing of a long-term deal is great news for the Eagles. He’s versatile and can play 3 or 4 positions on the OL. As the elder statesman on a young OL, he brings a mean edge and a great team first attitude.
3. Extending Trent Cole – Another great current player signed to a longer-term contract. I think he’s the best all around defensive lineman in the NFL. He doesn’t put up eye popping stats because he plays such a balanced game. The guys that get all the attention are those racking up sack numbers (usually at the expense of defending the run). Cole consistently gets 10+ sacks a year, stuffs the run, and takes up two blocks from the opposition’s OL. He’s the MVP of the defence and now he’ll be around through 2017.
4. Re-signing free agent Evan Mathis – If there is an underrated player in the NFL, Mathis is it. Interior offensive linemen only get noticed when they screw up, and he went an entire season without getting noticed in 2011. When you look at the play by play ratings of NFL lineman, he was the top rated OL in run blocking and second in the league in pass blocking in 2011. This was the guy I was most worried the Eagles would lose to free agency. When he visited Baltimore, I was already seeing a huge void on the left side of the OL heading into training camp. When he announced he was returning to Philly, I was elated.
5. Trade for DeMeco Ryans – Ryans gives the Eagles a legitimate middle linebacker for the first time in years. He didn’t fit the Texans system, but I see him slotting in perfectly for the Eagles. He comes with a steep salary, but the Eagles needed to make this bet. Not only does he fill a hole, but it allows the other linebackers to settle into the outside LB positions which are more suited to their abilities.
The focus of the team will now turn to what to do with Samuel (trade, release or keep him and his large salary cap hit) followed by who to select with a high first round draft pick where they’ll be in position to grab another impact player for the upcoming season.
Off-season check-in
It’s been 7 weeks without football. I’m well past the withdrawal symptoms and have actually made great progress enjoying the extra day in my weekend with which to accomplish things. The NFL purposefully stretches out a very long off-season by giving its fans bits of interesting things to chew on every few weeks through the winter and spring:
The Combine for incoming players from college – This is worse than watching paint dry. About the only interesting thing is seeing 300 pound linemen run as fast as they can for 40 yards. That’s not enough entertainment value for me. I take a pass on this each year.
Free agency – This can be a sexy and exciting time for the fan until you realize that just about every team that makes a big splash in free agency generally fails to live up to expectations in the coming season. Teams that win Super Bowls generally build from within using the draft (see: Giants, Patriots, Steelers, Packers for positive confirmation, see my Eagles last year to prove the negative side of the equation)
The release of next season’s schedule – The appeal of this for me: fall trip planning. Once the schedule is released, I start looking for appealing games/locations based on match-ups, airline points available and other events going on in cities around the game days. This year I’ve got my fingers crossed that the Broncos will be playing on one of two weekends in November that coincide with a trip to Denver. The Peyton Manning news today only makes the anticipation that much better.
The Draft – I watch the first round of the draft like some people watch the Oscars. It’s a great excuse to make football snacks, to listen to people talk about football and to think about football. For three hours, it feels like football is just around the corner, until it goes away for the rest of the spring (and most of the summer).
Against my better judgement, I’ve been paying a bit more attention to the off-season activities than usual. I’ll be writing more over the next couple of weeks looking at the changes and moves with an eye ahead to next season.
Bluenose Traveler 