Seventy Days is a long time. That is almost 20 percent of a year. That's 59 percent of the regular NFL season (17 weeks). More than 62 percent of the 16 weeks a team plays in the regular season. That is how long it has been since I was legitimately happy watching a football game.
When the season started, I tolerated close wins - after all the Eagles had 3 wins by a combined 4 points. Make that four wins by a combined 6 points.
And thus I cannot predict football as I have accepted that over the years. Previous incarnations of my blog have failed to capture any knowledge of what teams may actually do, as I have been wrong on in years past. I always predicted game outcomes based on what I now realize is my "homer" mentality. I honestly thought when I was writing my Bold Eagles Predictions back in April that this team stood a legitimate shot at greatness. I had them going 12-4 and 10-3 by Week 14. I thought maybe my playoff predictions were a little absurd, with the Eagles running the table to the Superbowl to face the Broncos. I may only be half right on my prediction as the Broncos are already division winners and look good. As it stands, my prediction record is as follows: Predicted the Eagles to go 12-4 for the season and 10-3 by this point, however they are now 4-9, and I predicted last week that they would lose and now be 3-10. What the Hell. I started the year out great with having the Eagles correctly at 3-1 in Week 4, albeit swapping a win over the Cardinals for a loss and vice versa against the Giants. I was correct on only 5 games - Wins against Cleveland, Baltimore, Tampa; and losses against Detroit and Dallas. My prediction percentage is 38 percent. Take away my change of heart last week and with 4 wins that would make me 30.7 percent correct. What this means is you cannot really project a season 5 months before it starts.
So, now that the actual game is in the books and reviews have been reviewed, I must say yesterday's win was a mixed bag. The Eagles started out pretty well against the Buccaneers surging offense. The defense was all over the field making key stops when needed. Vincent Jackson was a nothing. Doug Martin was relegated to just "Hamster." The announcers touched on the new hire of "first name escapes me" Brasher who seemingly abandoned the wide 9 defensive front and had a decent pressure on the quarterback. The announcers also stated that Andy Reid went to Nnamdi Asomugha and DRC saying their jobs were on the line. They played like it. For the most part. We as Eagles fans have seen far too many times Nnamdi jogging after a receiver who is heading toward the red zone because he was not his man to cover. They even showed DRC and Nnamdi dogging it together from last week. What I saw out of Nnamdi this week was something I never thought I would see him do. In the second quarter I believe Nnamdi went up to break up a pass, practically jumping over the intended receiver. He landed hard from maybe 10 feet in the air after flipping over landing hard on the ground and not moving. It didn't look so bad compared to how players go up and fall on a weekly basis, but the fact he didn't move was crazy. The announcers even had a dark tone when they came back from commercial as he was still lying on the ground motionless. Eventually I heard the Tampa crowd applaud and Nnamdi was up, x-rayed, and back in the game later. Maybe if Reid had not told Nnamdi his job was on the line he would not have come back in. I get that he has been more liability than lifeblood of the defense, but he could have stayed out. The fact that both these cornerbacks and the safeties did their damndest against the Bucs when their coach, a perceived lame duck in the eyes of the fans, responded with an honest effort was pretty good. I know that there is a lot of money invested in #24 and he may not even be back next year, and that many would argue that he should play that way every game, the WHOLE game, but he is what he is and we learned that last year. I appreciate effort, even if it should have been there the whole time. Another high priced 2011 free agent signing, Cullen Jenkins, had a sack and a beautiful follow up dance.
In Special Teams, the Eagles think they have something special with Demarus (sp?) Johnson. He returned a punt 98 yards for a near record return for the NFL, and set an Eagles record. However he badly muffed a punt and helped put the Eagles down even further heading into the fourth quarter. The offense, with mostly the youngest unit the Eagles have put out there in years, had highs and lows.
As the season started, the Eagles never carried a lead into half time. In at least the past two weeks, they carried a lead into halftime. This week, they had a 10-0 lead. Tampa was worse for wear and the boo birds were actually out. The Eagles had Clay Harbor, Nick Foles, Bryce Brown, Riley Cooper, Demarus Johnson, and a line consisting mostly of unheard of rookies and one King. They punted several times in a row and hit pay dirt in the second quarter, but all they needed to do was maintain. Tampa scored 21 unanswered points through the next two quarters, and the 21-10 lead, for these birds, seemed like the nail of death. There were 7 minutes, 21 seconds left, and the Eagles got the ball. Three minutes 26 seconds later the Eagles had moved down the field and gotten into the end zone via Clay Harbor, filling in for the now concussed Brent Celek. I was pretty stunned. There were now under 4 minutes left in the game and the Eagles, for what seemed like the first time in years, managed the clock pretty well to get the ball back in their possession with 2 minutes 44 seconds remaining. I was impressed at Andy Reid's patience in this and thankful the defense stepped it up. This has been uncommon lately in the past two-three seasons. However, the prospect of the Eagles getting down the field with rookies and other inexperienced players in 2:44 seconds after a failed 2 point conversion worried me. I knew they had nothing left to play for for the season, but I still wanted to see what they were capable of. I felt kind of cheated last Sunday night after the Eagles tickled my balls with a feather by scoring the return TD just to fail on the onside kick with 34 seconds left. The drive that Nick Foles put together was spectacular. One thing the Eagles have not done well in the Michael Vick and early years of Desean Jackson era is have sustained long drives. They certainly were not trying to eat up the clock, but essentially had only one timeout with the two minute warning remaining.
The Eagles slowly moved the ball and seemed to be stalling around the 23 yard line of Tampa. An incomplete pass with 22 seconds left on third down made it a do or die fourth down play. It was 4th and 5 to go and Nick Foles, on the run, facing pressure, hit Jason Avant down at the 1 yard line. He went down at 16 seconds and the Eagles and Tampa scrambled to lineup in a formation to spike the ball, stopping the clock at 2 seconds. At this point Kim and I were ready to leave the house to pick up our son from his grandparents, and she was cool with me seeing the end of the game (as it was 21-10 when she was ready to go). Even she was excited. I hadn't sat down in almost 20 minutes. I was on my feet getting dressed to step out when the Eagles started driving for that first 4th quarter touchdown. It was like that Bud Light commercial about superstitions. I did not want to change anything about what I was doing that had been going on when the Eagles were driving. Two seconds left. Last play of the game regardless (or second to last if they scored). My palms were sweating. I knew they couldn't convert the two point conversion earlier, so this was almost too story book of a play for both teams. Tampa stops them on a last second play, and they are heralded for fighting off a fighting opponent. Eagles score and their team rallied around the rookie and gave their all for him and each other. Foles, much like the play before, called the play to get Maclin where he was in the end zone. Maclin did what he could to make sure he was in bounds. An incomplete/out of bounds catch would have me very upset. I cheered the moment the ball left Foles' hands because I had a positive feeling. The dude looked crisp most of the 4th quarter and like he was in the zone. He seemed determined to not aim at a wide receiver if he didn't know he would catch it. For the first time in 70 days, I cheered, jumped, and was finally happy.
As an Eagles fan, even though they have never won the Superbowl, wins are almost always expected over the past decade. Yesterday's game meant absolutely nothing in the long run of the season but perhaps more so in the long run of the team. One thing I need to temper my expectations and excitement for is that this was Tampa, one of the easiest teams to pass against. They bottled up Bryce Brown for 6 rushing yards on 12 rushes, with his longest being for 11 yards. Therefore, minus his biggest play he was 11 rushes for -5 yards. Foles is not a highly touted rookie though and nobody expected this type of clutch play on the team's last two drives of the game. Great win. I legitimately feel happy today as a football high is always a very good and very close second to any other form of happiness I can draw from my family or friends. Maybe they lose out, and the misery continues, but fight for it, Eagles. You still have me as a fan. And I will see you Thursday night.
Yes, I am going back for another round of potential punishment to Lincoln Financial Field. I was going to buy some tickets and luckily came across a couple of free ones. My record watching the Eagles in person now is 3-4. Every year, I have seen the same amount of wins as I have losses. The Javon Kearse jersey must reach it's 0.500 status once again.
Week 15: Cincinnati Bengals at Eagles (TNF)This is way, way better than last year's TNF game for the Eagles. Last year, after getting gauged by the Patriots, the Eagles flew to Seattle for another thrashing, 4 days later. Yes, they went on a run to try to salvage the season, but too little, too late. The Bengals are slowly becoming a team I am more interested in because I like their style of play. I like Andy Dalton's play last year. They have some good talent on both sides of the ball, but as McNabb would say, they show their youth. This will be a tough game as I am sure the Bengals will be in the hunt all year in the AFC North. The last time they played, it was a tie. As I heard Merrill Riece say on the radio, "If a tie is like kissing your sister, than the Eagles have a very ugly sister." This is a different type of Eagles team that I think is running on all cylinders (like we hoped for last year) - the same team that demolished the Jets, Giants, Dolphins, Redskins, and Cowboys at the end of the year (and YES Giants fans, I consider Vince Young beating your team by a touchdown in their own stadium to be worthy of the term "demolish"). It will probably be a tough game at start, but the Eagles will just prove to be too powerful on both sides of the ball. As if I was not bold enough in having the Eagles going 10-3 to this point and soon 11-3, I will also predict that Brent Celek has the game winning touchdown in a late rally. Eagles 24, Bengals 20 (11-3)
Geez. Wrong. Brent Celek is most likely out with a concussion. The Eagles are not running on all cylinders, but rather all the cylinders run at different times, different frequencies. Just like the Milankovitch Cycles, these moving parts moving at different frequencies cause some catastrophic things until the apex and valley of the frequencies meet up in perfect synchronization and form a couple points of constructive interference with each other. The Bengals are hurting after a last second loss to the Eagles, and the Eagles are on a high. Typical Thursday Night Football games have featured the home team winning all but 4 times. The teams that lost include the Jets, Raiders, Vikings, and Panthers - certainly not the most intimidating lineup. These games feature mostly running plays and tight ends and are usually defensive dream matches. Perhaps the win on Sunday gives the Eagles some momentum and a positive vibe for the Eagles fans to feed on in the first home game in 3 weeks. The crowd was pretty electric for a dead season on Monday Night Football when I was there, and with these young Eagles playing for each other and as a team, perhaps they can pull it off. I will go on a limb...perhaps I am jinxing myself here, perhaps I am loyally blind to the Eagles, but the Eagles will win 20-13, and be 5-9 before the clock strikes midnight Thursday night.
