Sunday Notes
Posted: September 18th, 2011 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 38 Comments »Here’s my PE.com column previewing the Eagles/Falcons game.
Also from PE.com, here is Cosell and Caplan talking about our passing attack and how it matches up against the Falcons pass defense.
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Caplan had a real interesting note on our old buddy Stew Bradley. He’s going to start today, but only due to injury. Right now he’s a backup when everyone is healthy. And Stew might get cut after the season. Wow.
I had some interest in the Eagles re-signing Stew, but only on a 1-year deal. I wanted to see if the old Stew would show up or it would be the guy from 2010. When he signed with Arizona I was hoping he’d bounce back. Playing in a 3-4 should fit him well. Doesn’t sound like that is happening. I still hope Disco Stew gets things turned around. Good guy.
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Interesting stat from Dave Spadaro: “With those 5 sacks (vs Rams), the Eagles improved to 25-4-1 under head coach Andy Reid when the team has at least 5 quarterback drops. ” I know one of the losses was the 2006 game vs Eli when we lost in OT. I’ll have to think about the other 3.
Last week the Falcons gave up 5 sacks and 11 QB hits to the Bears. My take on this matchup…me likey.
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We get to spend today watching other teams. Chicago / New Orleans is the most compelling early game. As for NFC East teams…the Skins host the Cardinals. I can see WAS winning that game. The Cardinal defense looks horrible, especially the secondary. The Cowboys play at 4pm, out in SF. They’ve got injuries, but I expect a bounce-back game from Dallas.
Make sure to watch MNF. That game is STL/NYG. We have the Giants coming up next week. How sweet would it be if the Rams were able to beat the G-men?
Able to watch other teams today? Speak for yourself! My little 6-year-old “social butterfly” has birthday parties to go to… IF YOU LOVE FOOTBALL, DON’T HAVE KIDS. She’s lucky the Eagles play the night game today.
RE: Stew Bradley
Big disappointment. The same fans who are overreacting to Casey Matthews were the same fans who wanted us to re-sign Stew. It seems more and more like there weren’t as many options out there at MLB this off-season than a lot of us perceived. It’s clear now that Stew wasn’t a great option. Lofa Tatupu hasn’t even been signed yet. Other than Tulloch, there just wasn’t a great fit for us this off-season.
RE: Sunday Night Game
Any idea what our record under the lights is?
Eagles went 3-0 on SNF last year
– Kolb vs SF
– Vick vs. NYG (game1)
– Vick vs. Dallas (game1)
1-0 on MNF
– Vick vs. Redskins (game 2)
1-0 on TNF
– Vick vs. Houston
We did lose the Tuesday Nighter, but that was a special circumstance.
Hey, brother in Eagles-fatherhood. Took my son to watch his first game with my buddies when he was four. It was the 44-6 smackdown on the Cowboys in 2008. The kid must be born under a lucky star. I threw him in the air every time the Eagles scored. Couldn’t lift my arms the next day. Also had to make sure he didn’t chant “Cowboys suck!” the next day in pre-school.
Have a good time at the b-day party. Have the birthday girl wish for the Lombardi when she blows out the candles. Maybe it will help.
Some general comments about the game. There’s too much concern about the Falcons offense. As for Matty Ice, give me a break, the guy has yet to win a playoff game. Matter of fact, he played lousy in both playoff losses. I think people are still enamoured of his BC days. Put him in a playoff like situation — prime time, Sunday night, Vick’s return — and I think we’ll see more of the same. People may soon be comparing him to Romo. As for Turner, he looks slower and less able to break a tackle. If you’re a Falcons fan, wouldn’t you rather have Vick and McCoy than your guys? I like Tony Gonzales, he’s got game, but the guy is 35 years-old now. He’s not the same player he was, and Chaney or NA should be able to handle him. Their new wrs are talented but our d line and cbs are just too much for their passing game.
There is no way the Atlanta D can keep up with the Philly receivers. Expect big games from multiple receivers. Vick won’t need to run as much because he should have 300+ yards passing.
The Falcons have lost the last six times they’ve been on the field. Yea, this includes this pre-season, but they were also slammed by GB in last year’s playoffs and the Bears last week. They are motivated and playing at home. Without going on, I say “So what?” They simply don’t have the talent to play against the Eagles.
In the sky, the eagle is larger and stronger than the falcon. I think we’ll see a similar dynamic on the football field. The Eagles are the better team, they are motivated, and there is no reason they shouldn’t handle the Falcons like they dealt with the Rams.
I had my first moment where I got concerned about Danny Watkins today. I was reading Reuben Frank’s column and read the quotation from Watkins about being benched: “Honestly, I’m kind of glad that it happened.”
I’m not usually someone who overreacts to things, especially when it comes to rookies, but I agree with Frank: I wish he was more pissed about the benching. Linemen are supposed to have a nasty mentality, right? Contrast Watkins’ attitude with JamJax’s. Jamaal’s been pissed since August about being shoved aside for Kelce.
With that said, it’s just one quote from one game. Watkins appears to be mature enough to develop and grow as a player.
He’s also Canadian. Those guys look at things different than us. Right, eh?
He’s got a very good work ethic so that makes me comfortable with the situation. If he was a flighty kid with a reputation as an underachiever, that quote would scare the hell out of me.
Rex Grossman already threw a RZ pick today. Good to see him rounding into shape.
Rex just had a pass over the middle get bobbled by WR and picked off.
I’m not getting the Skins game where I am but it sounds like all is going well so far :).
We can’t lose. A loss for ARZ helps our 2nd round pick from them. A loss for Skins means we get to watch them/their fans suffer. 🙂
Frankly I’d rather watch Grossman implode at this point in the year… I’m shocked he’s held up this well through 1 and a half games.
McNabb with a worm burner in the end-zone. Well, I guess you can’t call it a worm burner if he’s playing on turf… polypropylene burner?
Shaving the carpet, maybe?
Perv.
How about Cam Newton and the Panthers leading GB at the half… Newton gonna make a lot of draft guys eat their words at this pace.
Cam is playing well. So is Panthers D. Looks like McDermott may have learned some lessons from last year’s games with GB.
Someone tell Morton that Gabe Carimi got hurt, therefore, he is a bust.
Really not fair what the Titans just did to Baltimore’s D.
They LITERALLY brought in a Ringer on 4th and 1 and got a TD.
RE: Jags/Jets
You know, it’s hard to believe cutting their starting QB a few days before the season opener hasn’t paid off for the Jags.
I love watching Bears linemen stare at each other as Cutler gives up a sack/fumble and Saints dive on the loose ball.
That is a beautiful thing.
Someone should tell the Kansas City offense that the NFL season started already.
KC has 10 points and 8 turnovers so far this year. Not good.
ok, went and did something for an hour, come back and the whole world is topsy turvy. Arz leading Wash, Tennessee somehow beating Baltimore, Tampa Bay coming back huge over minnessota, and Buffalo now leading oakland.
Anything else I missed or were 3 or 4 huge 2nd half comebacks all?
Yeah, it’s been a crazy day.
Watching DAL/SF reminds me how much I love outdoors football. Sunny day. Green grass. Thank god tonight is our last dome game this regular season. SB is in Indy, but I think I could suffer through that.
I was thinking the new review-every-scoring-play rule was weird, because it only applies to scores and so can only be used to take points off the board. That didn’t seem to fit with the NFL philosophy of trying to have more and more scoring in games.
What seems to be happening instead is they are just basically skipping the reviews unless it’s incredibly obvious or meaningless. The TD in the Pats-Chargers game was just simply not reviewed, and there’s nothing the Chargers can do because trying to force a review gets them a penalty and a guaranteed no-review.
So unless they actually start reviewing every scoring play, the net result seems to be more scoring after all.
Interesting take.
Question, though. Aren’t the TD replays reviewed by the guy upstairs and not the on-field officials? I don’t think that guy has to stop the game to let us know about the review. He checks out the play and then calls down if he sees something.
I guess we’ll figure out exactly what’s going on as the season moves along and we find out more details on the process.
I pretty sure a review official sits up in the replay booth and review every TD and only if they see something, the call down to the ref.
But let’s say the problem was that the receiver stepped on the sideline before crossing the plane. The upstairs guy never looks at that because he’s looking to see whether the receiver fumbled before he crossed the plane. He determines he didn’t, so lets things go forward.
In a challenge, you can indicate what you want them to look at. If the upstairs guy doesn’t even consider a certain aspect of a play now, there’s nothing you can do.
That is true. We have to trust the officials … for better or worse.
But if we trusted the officials, why are there challenges and reviews to begin with? 🙂
Because live and slow motion is different
It’s possible that they are actually being reviewed quickly. Definitely can’t rule that out.
I’m just not really sure why that penalty even exists. It’s not inconceivable that the upstairs guys would miss something, especially if they’re trying to review it fast to keep from stopping the next play. But even if they always get it right, what’s the harm in allowing a team to blow a timeout if they think they saw something?
I’m calling it right now. At some point a Patriots player will go down at the one yard line after a questionable play so the other team doesn’t get the auto-challenge.
Boys are in trouble, I like the look of the NFC East landscape right now. The Skins will be laughing big time to have a 2 game lead over the boys
SF gave them a gift with offside on 3rd/9. Next play was long TD. Niners aren’t good enough to make big mistakes like that.
When is Norv Turner going to be shown the door? It seems like year after year they find a way to beat themselves. Not necessarily the Pats game today because the Pats are good & Norv didn’t make Tolbert fumble, but geez it feels like that team never plays up to its ability.