Benched

I don’t even have words for the performance the Eagles put forth yesterday. This team looked absolutely pathetic. So pathetic, in fact, they couldn’t even put together one offensive scoring drive. No touchdowns. No field goals. It was downright disgraceful.

Yesterday’s benching of Donovan further points toward the fact that his tenure with the Eagles is over. Yeah, he’s going to start this week against Arizona, but that’s probably just out of habit. His time here skidded to a halt at halftime yesterday.

Let me just take one last opportunity here to beat the dead horse about Donovan and Andy Reid.

I’m not a huge Donovan supporter. I’ve bashed him countless times for his inconsistency and the fact that, save for one NFC Championship game, he never came up big when it was needed. However, I also don’t think its fair Donovan will end up being the scapegoat for the ineptness of this team over the last few years. He’s simply a victim of Andy Reid’s flawed system. How did we expect him to win when he was asked to throw the ball 70% of the time? That said, how did we expect him to be successful when he was supposed to throw to guys like James Thrash, Jason Avant and Greg Lewis? How did we expect him to establish a decent passing game when he had a completely non-existent running game? The answer to these questions is simple. We couldn’t.

Look what happened when the Eagles armed Donovan with a good receiver. He won, thus proving that Donovan isn’t completely at fault here. Andy Reid’s system put unrealistic expectations on Donovan without even giving him any of the tools needed to carry out that system. Considering what Donovan has had to work with over the course of his time here, I think he’s done pretty well.

The bigger problem with this team is Andy Reid and his stubbornness. For the last four seasons, we’ve watched this guy undermine one of the most solid principles of winning football: You set up the pass by establishing a good running game. In all this time, Andy dismissed this notion despite the fact that his pass-first philosophy clearly hasn’t worked. He’s refused to change his thinking and that has killed this team. Unfortunately, I don’t think the front office understands this. Andy is their boy and he will probably remain the coach. The Eagles won’t publically say it, but the implication will be Donovan couldn’t handle Andy’s system. Then, Andy will spend the entire off-season telling us Kevin Kolb is perfectly suited to handle the West Coast offense. With that, the process will start over again. Andy Reid is here to stay. We need to get used to it. Also, on 950 tonight, Sal Pal made a great point by citing the fact that Andy has three years left on current contract. You think the Eagles brass will part with this guy when they are still on the hook for three years? I don’t thinks so. We’re in for at least another year or two of the Andy Reid show.

Alright, there’s my final rant on Andy and Donovan. I don’t think I can say anything new about this situation at this point, so hopefully the subjects of my posts vary a little bit in the coming weeks.

Tie Eagles Tie...You Don't Get a Victory

This week, the Eagles invented a new way to make themselves look stupid – a tie with the lowly, 1-8 Cincinnati Bengals. The loss, I mean tie, just about puts the nail in the coffin for this Eagles season.

Listen to WIP for five minutes and you’ll realize we’re all pretty sick of the Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb show. This era needs to end now. Ten years is enough. The Eagles won't regain any trace of their early 00s sucess with a coach as stubborn as Andy and a QB as inconsistent as D-Mac. The philosophy of this team is tired and needs a change. That much is plain to see. Now, someone needs to convince Jeff Laurie of this. So much for the gold standard.

Anyway, here are some thoughts on Sunday’s disgusting Eagles tie:

• Where is the logic in throwing the ball 58 times in that kind of wind? I’ve never played or coached a minute of organized football in my life, but I know enough to realize if the wind is swirling around like it was in Cinncinnati the other day, the passing game probably won’t be too effective. Somebody should let Andy know that.
  


• Speaking of bad play calls, Andy Reid pretty much waived the white flag when he decided to punt on 4th and 1 with about a minute and half left in overtime. By punting, Andy proved he has no confidence in the offense and he was content to settle for the tie. I still don’t think he understands how detrimental this tie was for the Eagles.
  


• Once again, Donovan gets off to a slow start and the offense suffers. He kills this team with his erracticness (if that’s a word). Like most fans, I think we’ve seen the end of the Donovan McNabb era in Philly. I volunteer to help pack his bags and drive him to the airport.
  


• As for the D-Mac exit plan, I sit on the fence between starting Kolb now or letting McNabb play out the remainder of the season. On the one hand, I’m anxious to see what Kolb has. And if it turns out he doesn’t have anything, we’ll at least know that heading into the draft. However, I also tend to think sitting McNabb now might lower his trade value. Maybe now that the season is virtually over and the pressure is off, he can go on some kind of out-of-world tear. If so, the Eagles could fool some team into over-paying for him.
  


• The penalty on Sheldon Brown for the hit on Fitzpatrick was ridiculous. Apparently, you can’t even sneeze on a QB anymore without getting a personal foul.
  


• Finally, how do NFL players not realize the game can end in a tie? And if you didn’t know it, why would you admit in the press conference? Donovan just made himself look ridiculous in that press conference.

Andy Reid...Worst Coach in the League

I planned to lay out about 500 words tonight on why Andy Reid needs to go after this season. Then, I came across Jason Whitlock's piece which ranks Big Red as the worst coach in the NFL this far in 2008. Generally, I'm not a huge Jason Whitlock fan, but, in the interest of my laziness tonight, I think I'll just paste his description here. In this case, he's right so I'll go with it. Plus, he gets paid to write about this stuff. I don't so here is goes:

"Twice this season Reid has taken the game out of the hands of Donovan McNabb and tried to win at crunch time with his running game. Here's a coach who loves to throw on damn near every down except when the game is on the line. I also blame Reid for the Eagles failing to trade a second-round draft pick for Tony Gonzalez. Other than the one season with Terrell Owens, McNabb has made a living throwing the ball to the James Thrashes of the world. It's ridiculous. I'm convinced the Eagles don't want to win it all.

More Disappointment

Different game, same result for the Eagles last night in a 36-31 loss to the Giants.

Yet again, short yardage kills this team. A team with playoff hopes must be able to pick up crucial yardage in a key situation - whether it be puching one into the end zone from the goal line or moving the pile for a key first down. This season, the Eagles have failed in both of those instances. The latest being last night's 3rd and 4th down debacle in the fourth quarter. For plays like this, a team needs a legitimate power back (duh, maybe a fullback??) who can plow through the pile and pick up those last few needed yards. Until arrogant Andy and Joe Banner realize the value of a runner like this, we should expect the same results in this type of situation.

Now, the Eagles must fight an uphill battle to even make the playoffs. To get to 10-6, the Eagles must go 5-2 the rest of way, which won't be an easy task. They should bounce back next week and grab a win at Cincy. However, the Birds still have the Giants, Washington, Baltimore and Arizona remaining on the schedule. So, they definitely have a tough road ahead.

Eagles Vs. Giants

By 11:30PM Sunday night, we should have a much clearer picture of where the Eagles stand in NFC race. With a win against the 7-1 Giants, the Eagles can solidify themselves as legitimate Super Bowl contenders. A loss, while not season-killing, may reveal this team just isn't among the top tier of the NFC.

For the Eagles to win this game, they must stop the run and force Eli to throw the ball. Most of the Giants' success this season has come from its stellar running game led by Brandon Jacobs. If the Eagles can at least contain Jacobs and make Eli throw, the Birds stand a pretty good chance in this game. Of course, the easiest way to accomplish this is to jump to a early lead and make the Giants play catch up all night.

The line has the Eagles favored by 3 and I'm pretty comfortable with that. If you ask me, the Eagles are a good bet in this one. I'll take the Birds 20-16.

Phillies Hangover

Have you come down from week-long Phillies high yet? Although I've started my descent back to reality, I still plan to ride the excitement a little bit longer. The last eight days have been quite the euphoric blur. From the wash out on Monday to the cold celebration on Wednesday to the historic parade on Friday, the week provided quite the whirlwind of excitement.

As far as the celebration goes, I chose the quiet route. On Wednesday night, I just watched the TV coverage after the last pitch and traded phone calls and text messages all night. I didn't feel the need to rush out to streets. I was content to just sit home and enjoy everything from the comfort of my own couch where I watched so many games this season. For most of Thursday, I debated the parade and even took Friday off just in case I decided to go. Ultimately, though, I realized I would be absolutely miserable in a crowd of that magnatude. Again, I was perfectly fine watching the coverage from home on Comcast Sportsnet. I did, however, start to drop on small fortune on championship gear. To be honest, I think that habit will continue for weeks to come. I still think the World Champion flag will look pretty good in my garage.

Anyway, as we return to earth almost a week later, here are a few thoughts on the whole experience:

• Amazingly, Phils fans took a complete 180 in their view of Charlie Manual. We finally warmed to this guy a little bit and I'm glad we did. I think he understands the comittment and hustle we demand from our teams. Granted, Charlie will never be a strategic baseball genius. However, Charlie's gut-instinct approach has worked out pretty well so far.


• Who would have thought pitching would carry this team through the World Series? Earlier in the season, I wrote the Phillies would not win many 3-2 or 2-1 games. Like most, I thought this team needed to score 8 runs a night to win. Well, I was wrong. The Phils lacked big-inning punch during the series and, thus, relied heavily on small ball. The stellar pitching during the series enabled the Phils to win those games despite an abysmal offensive output for the most part. So, here's to Cole, Jamie, Joe, Ryan, Brad, Brett and the rest of the staff. Well done, fellas.


• I never thought I'd say this, but a huge thank you must go to Chris Wheeler for not ruining Harry's last out call. Wheels maintained his vocal composer and let Harry handle the call for the historic strikeout. As much I love LA, I'm not sure he could have pulled this off if he was along side Harry. Plus, we got a youtube video that will provide entertainment for years to come. Everybody's doing the Wheeler.





• Judging from the TV coverage, the parade was everything we hoped it would be. Some of the aerial shots of the crowd along Broad St. were downright jaw-dropping. Throughout my entire sports fan life, I heard about the Phillies 1980 parade and the Flyers parade that drew over 2 million people. Now, our generation has a parade of our own. I loved Pat Burrell on the lead float too. That was a fitting gesture for a guy who endured a lot of ups and downs during his time in Philly. I'm glad he finally secured a decent spot in Phillies lore.


• Sure, the Chase Utley comment was inappropriate, but it was fun wasn't it? Chase definitely capped off the day with that speech. Of course, that's definitely easy for me to say since I'm not the father of some 7-year-old kid who now is dropping the F-bomb every other word. I'm sure that guy has a different opinion.

Now, new GM Reuben Amaro has the unenviable task of keeping this team together despite the huge raises a good number of guys will require. For the record, the Phils need to back the truck up and drop loads on dough on Cole Hamels' lap. That guy will dominate for years to come. The Phils need to commit to this guy and give him whatever he wants. Even if that means hiring a team chiropractor. Whatever happens though, we will witness one helluva off-season.

Oh yeah...

WORLD PH*CKING CHAMPIONS!