It has now been two years (almost) since the Eagles won a game that I attended. It has been a long time since Vince Young hit Riley Cooper for that touchdown up in the new Giants stadium. Little did we know that Cooper really hated Young. I was curious how the crowd at home would react to Cooper after his videotaped outburst that I did not address. First, if he was willing to say that word in a heated argument in a public event maybe he uses the word the same way when sober at the same level. I know people who say the word but have friends of the black race. It wasn't right what he did, and that could have been anybody. Riley Cooper has to play against a majority of black people on defense, and each one of them probably puts some kind of target on his back, big or small. That is his punishment for the rest of his career. For the past two seasons, Dunta Robinson has played against the Eagles (as a Falcon) and taken out Desean and Jeremy Maclin with hits that knocked those guys out. Dunta Robinson, who I think is a legit scumbag like Brandon Merriweather, comes to Philadelphia on Thursday night as a Chief. Goodnight, Riley Cooper. I have seen this coming since the Chiefs signed Dunta Robinson, probably as a preemptive move by Andy Reid to help take out another weapon for the Eagles.
Now, with that out of the way, it certainly felt good to be back at the stadium. I went with Kim's brother, Joe, and we sat in traffic than the parking lot. I didn't have time to get beer the night before, so luckily there was a pack of college kids next to us. I asked them if they wanted to sell me some beer and they did the typical college retort of, "Hey how the fuck don't you have any beer???!! You're at the game bro." I said, "I'm a father and I couldn't take my kid and his friend to the liquor store. This is your chance to make some money, so what do you say." $10 later and I had me some Rolling Rock Pounders, of the six-pack variety. Also on the menu were burgers. When deciding which to buy, and considering only 2 people would be eating, I didn't want to go with the Bubba Burger 6 pack, and instead chose the Cal Ripken labeled "Ripken Burgers." Stick to baseball, Cal. These burgers were good, but the flip flopping aftermath of the burgers in my stomach is something never encountered with a Bubba burger. Maybe it was the fact I ate two of them. Maybe it was the fact that I piled the last 5 pieces of cheese on said second burger. I don't know. I'm no gastrointestinal doctor. I do know it was a struggle to drink even one pounder before the first snap. So I chugged it down and drank a second on the way to the stadium.
People in line to get patted down were complaining about how long the line took to move. I don't know. It was a big line, but moved fast enough that we were there by kickoff. These people must suck to sit with in a traffic jam.
I had standing room only tickets, and a sprained ankle. Joe has bad knees. He was actually sitting at some points to watch the game through the railings. Either way, for just over 50 bucks a ticket, you can see the whole field. I've been to many standing room games, but this one had so much energy that you could feel echoing through the stadium. It hasn't been since 2010 (my first game) that I heard such a clatter there. Fans were JACKED, even after the Chargers scored a couple times.
The game itself had some bright spots like the offense. BUT, Chip Kelly has stated in interviews that time of possession doesn't matter to him. The Eagles had the ball for about 20 minutes and the Chargers for 40. You cannot let the other team hold the ball for 40 minutes with your defense. A defense that believes in only getting to the ball once it lands in another person's hands. Carrie Williams was the only one attacking the ball in the air, and he had three pass interference calls. Brandon Boykin made some good tackles, but that was after the guy caught a ball at least 2 yards in front of him. They had blitzes that are called delayed blitzes, but why did the delay have to last until the following play? The starting left tackle for the Chargers is King Dunlap. He is statistically one of the worst players from the Eagles last year. The Chargers had been described as having one of the worst offensive lines in football, but they looked stellar on Sunday.
Something to consider is that Ken Wisenhunt used to be the head coach of a Billy Davis defense. Perhaps he knew what Davis would do to them and that's why Philip Rivers could stretch 33 points over his 40 minutes of possession. Reality hit in two ways on Sunday - 1. The Eagles a far cry away from being serious contenders and 2. The Washington Redskins suck out loud. For the latter, the Eagles appeared to let up on the Redskins, allowing 20 almost unanswered points in the second half. Pretty much what the Packers did after shutting them down the whole first half, just like the Eagles had done. For the former, we have to consider over half the starters on the Eagles defense is new, the system is new for EVERY player, the coaching staff is completely new, and some players are in positions that are new to them. They will adjust. Billy Davis may have had some bad defenses that helped make the NFC West a laughing stock for years, but what he left behind there and in Cleveland has been strong units. Maybe this group is the one that clicks better by the end of the year rather than the end of his tenure. It also helps a defense to play better when they are on a team that can score more than 17 points a game. The Eagles right now average 31.5 points per game. They should be in most of them.
The offense looked good but we didn't see much hurry up. The hurry up was criticized on the radio for getting the Eagles to score quickly with just under two minutes left. They could have had some runs or small passes to give the Chargers maybe less than one minute instead of double that. Hindsight. You would think your professional defense should be able to realize they can still sneak out a win on not their best day.
Back to the offense. Vick has the best QB rating in Eagles history and had his best game ever. Desean, if he caught two of his dropped passes or his first TD counted, would have had over 300 yards receiving and Vick would have had almost 600 yards passing. This was a weekend where Aaron Rodgers, Rivers, and Vick threw for over 400 yards without an interception, a first in NFL history. And when two of those players are in the same game, some team had to lose. The Chargers just played like the better team the whole game.
It was exciting though. I tried everything on the line of superstition I could. Rubbed my sunburnt head. Tapped my head on the hand rail. Hopped on my bad foot. Nothing. When the Eagles tied it with a field goal, the stadium began to empty. Holy Hell did people see that loss coming. The Eagles ended the game with a too choreographed play to scramble around the field, but it did get them almost 40 yards downfield. Clock expired. Week is ruined.
The energy in the game by the fans was surreal. I got the goosebumps when the Rocky music began. The crowd was HOT. The energy faded some time in the third quarter when we were all going nuts for the defense, and 9 plays, a couple penalties, and 3 first downs later that energy waned big time. The Crowd didn't resurge until late in the 4th quarter, but it was too late.
It is always a privilege to get to go to a game. Even last year, I was like one of 10 people left when the clock struck 0:00. I did the same this week. My chances of attending another game are slim, unless they start to tank again and head toward 6-10 as I predicted. Bitch of it is this game sets them back to 5-11. Maybe some adjustments get made, but it may be too little too late as the schedule gets only tougher from here on out.
On a side note, we saw a group of Chargers fans walking down the concourse behind us. One of them was a man, relatively stocky, in his 60s. Some young fans were jawing at them, so the Chargers fans began walking back up the zig zag concourse. The old man leading the way. The man looked at the kid, shoved him in his face, and the kid RAN AWAY!. Like one of those hold your beers out so it doesn't spill kind of run. His friend engaged the old man and began to wrestle him. A couple of other younger guys came in and a small mild brawl ensued. But one of the kids landed a punch straight on the jaw of the old man, who mind you did not throw a punch. The man went down. Suddenly a plain clothes guy pulls out a badge and security gets up to arrest people. I think the chargers guys were those undercover cops. Joe didn't think so, but I later looked down to the ground level from our spot in the concourse and saw the Chargers "fans" shaking hands with cops and the plain clothes guy. The pack of Chargers fans continued to roam the stadium, almost looking for trouble. Now, I don't know the start of it, but the kids were yelling shit to the Chargers fans when they walked by to begin their descent of the concourse. The old man instigated the fight. If they were undercover cops, why did they have to instigate the fight? The kids obviously have the "let's fight just to fight" mentality and probably helped other people in the stadium avoid some trouble, and I by no means feel sorry for anybody who punches another person voluntarily when not in self defense, but the kids felt a little set up. The plain clothes guy who brought the party down then turned to a couple standing above us and asked why they didn't do anything. The man of the couple said something like, "I'm here to enjoy the game, not do your fucking job." The plain clothes guy verbally went off on the man, who laughed him off. I fully agree with the man. Don't set up a fight amongst fans and expect somebody who paid good as money as I did to STAND and watch a football game to miss the action. The plain clothes guy threatened to THROW OUT the couple because of the man cursing at the cop. Look, plain clothes guy, maybe don't let an old man be the bait for you to arrest somebody and get angry when people want to stay away from physical violence. I know of too many people who go to break up a fight and get knocked over and have died or been severely injured. Sometimes you just don't get involved except for getting those trained to stop the melee to do their jobs. My hat goes off to you, man who argued with plain clothes guy, but I wish I kept my hat because my head is beat red.
Whew. Maybe not an entertaining entry, but if the Eagles won perhaps I would be in a better mood whilst writing. The worst thing I did on Sunday though was call up Pudding who wanted help with his fantasy team. As the commissioner, I can adjust lineups for those who aren't able to. I talked him into starting Russel Wilson. Who did I convince him to start Wilson over? You guessed it, Frank Stallone. No, Philip Rivers. He would've won the game in a big way. But that is how my luck is sometimes.
Moving on, the Eagles may be in big trouble. Andy Reid has a fiery Chiefs team playing top football right now. Their defense is one of the better units in the NFL. The offense is what it is, but against the Philadelphia defense, they can be super. I expect a very hard fought battle. But remember, Thursday night games typically bring out the worst in teams. Unless they play the Eagles. I felt going into Sunday I did not have a good feeling about this next game. I still don't. It is solely on the players who want to win, not just show they are better off without Andy Reid. The fans will be NUTS on Thursday as they retire McNabb's number and welcome back their long-time unappreciated head coach. It will be a hostile crowd. The defense is probably going to look even worst after being in the last game for 40 minutes on 3 days rest to play a dink and dunk team that spreads the ball through the middle of the field, when the Eagles secondary lines up deep in the back of it. But, look on the bright side, at least the offense is rested!
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