An “exciting” comeback

What do the “Washington” Redskins and Washington Nationals have in common? (remember the Redskins don’t play in Washington D.C.)  1. they play in the Washington D.C. area, 2. they both suck, 3. they used to occupy RFK Stadium, and 4. they both play their Philly rivals tough.  Remember those several Nats-Phils games which were about 15 innings long and almost 5 hours in length?  Also the NL East clincher from 2008 and the game when the Nats hit 5 HRs and score 11 runs but the Phillies would beat them 13-11 and hit 2 grand slams earlier this season?  This Redskins-Eagles game was a bit crazy too.

The Eagles gave the Redskins a TD early in the game when the Skins recovered a trick onside kick to start the game and it was returned to the Eagles 19.  3 plays later, Jason Campbell would run in for a TD to make it 7-0 Skins.  On the Eagles first possession, they had big plays of 19, 15, and 18 yards to get to the Redskins 10, but would only gain 9 yards.  The Eagles went for it on 4th down and 1, and scored a TD to tie the game, but it was brought back because of an PI.  So the Eagles settled for a field goal instead.  On the Eagles following possesion, they got great field position on a DeSean Jackson 29 yard punt return to bring them at the Eagles 49.  The Eagles would gain 16 yards and would get a TD on a McNabb 35 yard pass to Jackson.

On the Skins next drive, they converted 3 third downs which led to a touchdown and the Redskins took a 14-10 lead.  Two Redskin possessions later, Jason Campbell was picked off by Assante Samuel on a 3rd and 2 play at the Redskins 21.  That pick would lead to a field goal as the Eagles could not get another TD in the red zone.  Luckilly, on the Skins next possesion, it was deja vu as Samuel intercepted another Campbell pass and returned it to the Redskins 28 which led to another Eagles FG to take a 16-14 lead.

The third quarter was ROUGH for the Eagles.  They had 3 3 and outs, and only got 13 yards of offense.  The Redskins in the meantime were 4-5 on third down and scored a TD to make it 21-16 Skins.  To make matters worse, DeSean Jackson left the game with a concussion!  Things did not get any better in the first possesion in the 4th quarter for the Eagles.  After they forced the Redskins to punt, McNabb’s pass was intercepted on a 3rd-7 play by Justin Tryon and was returned at the Eagles 23.  That would lead to a Redskins field goal.

After that FG, the switch turned on for the Eagles.  They started at their own 10 and Jason Avant made 2 back to back receptions of 46 and 20 yards which catapulted them to the Skins 24.  Later in the drive, they converted a crucial 3rd-2 play at the Redskins 16 when LeSean McCoy ran 3 yards.  On the very next play, Leonard Weaver ran 12 yards to get the first down which brought the Eagles to the 1.  On 3rd-1, Eldra Buckley ran it in for his first career TD to make it 24-22 Skins.  Of course the Eagles had to go for 2 to tie it up and McCoy made an exciting run since he was on the verge of going down and the conversion was good.

On the following Redskins possesion, they could not do anything offensively but punt.  The Eagles would drive down the field to the Skins 14 yard line and a key play was a Jeremy Maclin 35 yard reception which brought them to the Skins 28.  Despite the Eagles not converting on 3rd-6 inside the 2 minute warning, the Eagles kicked the go ahead FG to take the 27-24 lead.

McNabb was 21-35, 260 yards, and had a 80.7 rating.  Campbell was 22-37, 231, 73.1.  McCoy had 17 carries for 76 yards.  Jason Avant had 5 receptions for 94 yards.  The last time the Eagles won back to back games by coming from behind in the 4th quarter was Week 7 and 8 of 2003 at the Giants (Westbrook’s miraculous 84 yard punt return) and vs the Jets.

MS/FB status: “Slammin comeback Eagles! For some reason, the Skins are like the Nats– both are from the Washington area, and even though they both suck, they both play the respective Philly teams hard.”

It is about time!

Remember 2 recaps ago when the Eagles lost to the Cowboys on Sunday night and I wrote about how much the Eagles sucked on Sunday Night Football?  Going into this game, they were 0-7 on Sunday Night Football on NBC.  Note: that does not include the NBC Christmas special in 2006 against the Cowboys in which the Eagles won 23-7.

Last year on Week 4, the Eagles and Bears played on SNF in Chicago and the Eagles lost 24-20.  That game was mostly remembered for the Eagles not being able to convert on short yardage at the end of the game on the Bears 1 yard line.  In addition, DeSean Jackson muffed a punt earlier in the game which led to a Bears TD.

However this year, the Eagles won this time by the same score, 24-20.  The offense was more balanced in this game than in most other previous games– 33 pass attempts to 30 running plays.  LeSean McCoy ran 20 times for 99 yards.  DeSean Jackson had 8 receptions for 107 yards.  The Eagles were 7-15 on 3rd down vs. the Bears 3-16.  In addition the Eagles were 2-3 in the red zone which was a huge improvement from the previous week.

The Eagles started off slow by putting together a 9 play, 68 yard drive.  Half of those runs came on a Michael Vick run on a 3rd-1, Eagles 34 play which came on the shotgun.  The drive stalled at the Bears 7 and the Eagles settled for a field goal which was a ghost from the previous game in San Diego.  After the Bears punted, the Eagles would score a TD from the Bears 13 on a Jason Avant reception to take a 10-0 lead.  Jason Avant also had a 21 yard reception on the drive.

After the TD, the Bears chipped away at the lead by kicking 3 field goals in the rest of the 1st half as the Bears defense kept the Eagles off the board.  The Bears kicked a go ahead FG in the 3rd quarter to take a 12-10 lead.  2 Eagle possessions later, the Eagles quick strike offense came back as DeSean Jackson had a long 48 yard TD reception on a drive which only took 2 plays and the Eagles retook the lead, 17-12.  The Bears would get that TD back on the following possession and went for 2 to take a 20-17 lead.

In the Eagles first full possession in the 4th quarter, LeSean McCoy fumbled the ball and it was recovered by the Bears at the Eagles 37.  The Bears only picked up 7 yards but came up empty as the 48 yard field goal attempt by Robbie Gould was blocked.  The Eagles would pick up momentum from the blocked FG as they put together a 11 play, 62 yard, 5:30 drive.  LeSean McCoy would run for a 10 yard TD to take the 24-20 lead.  After both teams traded punts, the Bears did not have any more timeouts and it was after the 2 minute warning.  The Bears had one more chance to score a touchdown but Jay Cutler was picked off by Sean Jones which ended the game.

MS/FB status: “It is about time the Eagles win on SNF in a much needed game!”

“Charged” in the red zone

The Eagles problems from early 2007 plagued the Eagles in their game against the Chargers.  On Week 6 in 2007 against the Jets at Giants Stadium, the Eagles were 0-4 in the red zone.  On one of the possessions, they could not get the ball in from the Jets 4 yard line and had to settle for a field goal instead.  Luckily, since that was the Jets, the Eagles held the Jets to only 9 points in the field goal fest and won 16-9.  Not scoring TDs in the red zone is similar to not getting a run in with a runner in scoring position which was one of the Phillies main problems during the baseball season.

On Sunday against the Chargers, the Eagles had their share of red zone problems haunt them again.  After the first 3 Eagle possesions of coming up empty and the Chargers were up 14-0, the Eagles drove the ball deep in Charger territory.  McNabb threw an incomplete pass from the 11 yard line, but thanks to a PI penalty, they advanced to the 1 yard line.  They could not punch it in during the first 3 downs, so instead of going to the TD to cut the lead in half on 4th down, Andy Reid chickened out and decided to go for a chipshot FG instead.  When you are down by so many points it is more prudent to go for the TD instead of the FG unless it is near the end of the first half.  After the Eagles forced the Chargers to go 3 and out, they put together a 14 play, 87 yard drive which brought them to the Chargers 9.  The only yards they got from the 9 was only a lowly 2 yard gain.  Once again with 11 seconds in the half, they went for the FG to make it 14-6 Chargers.

After the Chargers scored another TD in the 3rd quarter to make it 21-6, Jason Avant had an excellent 58 yard reception to bring the Eagles inside the red zone once again.  However that came to waste as the Eagles could not convert a 3-1 from the Chargers 7 (and of course, they used a pass play a la game against the Bengals last year which did not work.)  So Akers would then nail a 25 yard chipshot FG.  Luckilly, the Eagles would finally decide to score 2 TDs in the red zone to close the Charger lead to 5 points after the Chargers scored another TD to make it 28-23.  However, after that least Eagle TD, the Eagles D could not force a 3 and out and the Chargers were able to get a FG to make it an 8 point lead.  The Eagles had one last shot at tying the game with no timeouts left on a 32 yard drive which started at their 34 yard line and ended at the Chargers 34, but  McNabb threw an interception to end the game.

FB status: “wonders when Andy Reid will start RUNNING the ball more. Also how could the Eagles make 3 trips to the red zone and only come up with FGs?! Feels like 2007 again!”

and the SNF woes continue

Remember in the last SNF game that the Eagles played against the Giants last year?  The Eagles lost that game due to 2 back to back lost challenges and not being able to convert short yardage.  In that game, the Giants were 7-15 on third down while the Eagles were only 3-11.  The Eagles could not convert a critical 4th-1 near midfield at the end of the game.  Also, the Giants had the ball for about 2/3 of the game.  In addition, the Eagles lost two critical back to back challenges about 5 minutes into the 4th quarter and the after the second lost challenge the Eagles only had 1 timeout left.  The second challenge was costly because it allowed a touchdown.  There was another thing to note about that game, one play in the third quarter, Eli Manning made a pass that was originally ruled illegal because he was past the line of scrimmage however, the Giants challenged and that got reversed.

Put together everything in the last paragraph, and you will get something similar to the Week 9 game against the Cowboys.  The Cowboys were 7-15 on 3rd down while the Eagles were only 4-12.  The Eagles once again lost two challenges on short yardage plays on 3rd and 4th downs on different drives.  To make matters worse, the second lost challenge costs the Eagles possession of the ball AND their LAST timeout.  After the first challenge which was not converting a 3rd-1 around their 40, they were going for it on 4th down, but a false start penalty forced them to punt instead.  In the 4th quarter, the Eagles were going for it on 4th-1 near midfield, but they could not convert (in fact, they could not get 1 yard on 2nd and 3rd downs neither).  Once again, the Eagles challenged and lost that challenge which meant they gave the ball back to the Cowboys and they were out of timeouts.  As for the illegal foward pass penalty as I mentioned in the last paragraph, the Cowboys challenged a McNabb forward pass early in the 3rd quarter which would score a touchdown for the Eagles.

With the Cowboys up 20-13 in the 4th quarter the Eagles had the ball on the Cowboys 34 on 4th-11 with 4:33 left to play and no timeouts.  Instead of them going for it, they decide to kick a long 52 yard FG which was good, but the needed a touchdown to tie the game.  I have no idea why Andy Reid decided to kick the FG with no timeouts and they were down by a touchdown.  It is one thing to do that with timeouts, but when there is no timeouts, it is not a wise thing to do.  Since they were out of timeouts, they needed to force a 3 & out on the Cowboys, but the Eagles were not able to do that as the Eagles defense could not stop them and the Cowboys were able to eat up the clock.

MS/FB status: “This was so funny and true, I have to repost this from one of my Eagle FB friends: ‘Eagles should tell the NFL that they refuse to play Sunday Night games.’” (the only good thing about SNF games is if I work on a Sunday, I can still catch the game after work).

Trading Ws

As you would know, November 1 was a “New Jersey Turnpike” doubleheader and FOX was happy since in the middle of the NJ Turnpike games was the “Farve Bowl” (except for San Diego, Nashville, Charlotte and their secondary markets and Phoenix).  Too bad Tony Siragusa did not eat up Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

Despite the Giants having the ball for 35:33 and the Eagles having it for 24:27, the Eagles still beat the Giants by 23 points.  That was because they scored a lot of times, but did not take off much time off the clock.  They received the ball to start the game and from the opening kickoff, they had excellent field position (Moose was talking about that for most of the game) as Ellis Hobbs returned the opening kickoff 35 yards to the Eagles 40.  3 plays later on the Giants 41, Leonard Weaver had a huge 41 yard touchdown run (1:34 drive).  That play set the tone for the whole game: the Giants were falling apart while the Eagles were flying.  On the Giants ensuing possession, Eli Manning threw a pass intended for rookie TE Travis Beckum, but it was picked off by Asante Samuel and brought it to the Giants 10 yard line for a 37 yard return.  The Eagles would convert that into another TD and that put the Giants in an early 13-0 hole (missed PAT, 0:52 drive).

In the 2nd quarter, after the Giants scored a TD to make it 16-7 Eagles, Ellis Hobbs had another fantastic 39 yard kickoff return which brought him the the Eagles 46.  In the first play of the drive, McNabb completed a 54 yard pass to DeSean Jackson to score another TD (0:16 drive).  On the second play of the Giants ensuning possesion, Manning threw another interception to Quintin Demps at the Giants 43.  On the second play of the drive, McNabb threw to Jeremy Maclin for 23 yards for a TD which put the Eagles up 30-7 (0:29 drive).

On the Giants kickoff return of the second half, Domenik Hixon fumbled the return and it was recovered by the Eagles at the Giants 21.  The Eagles would get a field goal out of that fumble recovery (0:48 drive).  The Eagles had one more big play in the beginning of the 4th quarter when LeSean McCoy had a 66 yard run for a TD (1:41 drive).

The absence of Brian Westbrook was not a problem for the Eagles.  McCoy had 11 carries for 82 yards and the entire Eagles offense had 24 carries for 180 yards.  McNabb was 17-23, 240 and threw 3 TDs and had a 146.7 rating.  Too bad the Giants gave their offense to the Yankees later that night.

MS/FB status: “At least the Eagles beat up the Giants 40-17 for their third straight loss!! (my status, my rules)”

DeSean and D peel Skins

For the first half of the Eagles-Redskins game on Monday night, the Eagles offense was explosive.  In the first drive of the game, the Eagles put together a 4 play, 81 yard drive which was capped by a DeSean Jackson 67 yard TD on a reverse play.  After the Redskins punted, Brian Westbrook was taken out of the game due to a concussion.  Two Redskin possessions later on 2nd-8 on the Redskins 11, Jason Campbell threw it to the newly acquired Will Witherspoon who took it back for a TD to make it a 14-0 game.

In the next Redskins possession, on 1st-10 on the Redskins 38, Witherspoon forced Jason Campell to fumble and Quinten Mikell recovered.  The Eagles would settle for a 47 yard FG to make it 17-0.  After the Redskins scored a touchdown and the Eagles went 3 and out, Antwaan Randele El muffed the punt and the Eagles recovered at the Skins 25 which led to another Eagles FG.  After another Skins 3 and out, the Eagles put together a quick scoring drive which took 3 plays and 1:07 long and was capped with a DeSean Jackson 57 yard TD reception to make it 27-7.  The Redskins would get a FG at the end of the half.  Despite the Eagles offense being shutout in the second half, they would hold on to win the game 27-17.  The second half was ugly for the Eagles.  They punted the ball 5 times and got only 5 first downs.  The closest they got was to the Redskins 41.  Luckilly, the Redskins could not do anything offensively themselves either.  They punted the ball 3 times and fumbled the ball in the red zone.

The Eagles learned from their miscues from last week and had about a 50/50 pass to run ratio.  In addition, they ran the ball 27 times for 122 yards and threw it 26 times for 140 yards.  LeSean McCoy ran the ball 14 times for 37 yards.  McNabb was 15-25 and threw for 156 yards.  His counterpart, Jason Campbell was 29-43 and threw for 284 yards.

MS/FB status: “Thank god the Eagles had the big plays and excellent D since their offense was still not excellent. Oh, and the Redskins (and their stupid fight song) suck!!”

But that makes sense!

The week before the Eagles played the Raiders, the Raiders got ran over by the Giants at Giants Stadium, 44-7.  The Giants also outyarded the Raiders, 483-124 and got 27 first downs to 7.  They ran the ball 41 times for 220 yards and 3 TDs and only threw it 24 times for 2 TDs.  Also as most football fans know, the Raiders are an AWFUL team.  From the beginning of the season to the Giants game for the Raiders, they only scored 4 TDs which is less than what the Eagles scored in their first game against the Panthers (5).  So Sunday would come the Eagles would beat up the Raiders by by the score of 56-6.

That would have been the case as the Phillies beat up the ex-Los Angeles Coliseum tennant the Los Angeles Dodgers later that night.  However, since that was the case, the Eagles “donated” their offense to the Phillies for that night.  In the Eagles game, the Raiders outyarded the Eagles, 325-283.  The Eagles ran the ball 14 times for only 67 yards (Brian Westbrook had 6 carries for 50 yards) and was 22-46 in passing plays.  The Raiders has the one of the worst run defenses in the NFL.  So throwing the ball 46 times somehow made sense for Andy Reid.

After trading 2 punts with the Raiders to begin the game, JaMarcus Russell was picked off by Assante Samuel at the Raiders 28, but the Eagles came up empty as David Akers missed a 43 yard FG.  After another Raiders punt, the Eagles were on their own 14 when McNabb threw it to DeSean Jackson for a long 51 yard reception which brought the Eagles to the Raiders 35.  However the Eagles could only settle for a 45 yard FG to take a 3-0 lead.  On the Raiders next possesion, Russell connected to Zach Miller for a 86 yard TD reception for the Raiders to take a 7-3 lead.

The rest of the game was just a disaster for the Eagles offense since they could not get anything done except for getting 2 more FGs.  David Akers had a rough day as he was 3/5 in FG attempts.  McNabb was sacked 6 times.  There were 15 combined punts in the game (8 by the Eagles).  The Eagles would lose 13-9.

MS/FB status: “RATS!! The Eagles had to pay the Raiders for helping them get in into the playoffs last year!”
“Slammin blowout Phillies! Hey Eagles, you should have did that to the awful Raiders today, but I gusess we can’t have everything…”

Welcome back McNabb!

Note: please excuse the “rapid fire” for the next 6 posts.  I saved them as drafts from week 10 to week 5.

The Eagles finally got revenge to the Bucs after that extremely heart breaking 62 YD FG, dissapointing the first ever regular season game at the Linc and beating the Eagles in the 2002 championship game.

Despite the Bucs leading in TOP 34:33 to 25:27, the Eagles still won the game due to some quick drives.  After the Bucs went 3 and out to begin the game, the Eagles had the ball at their 36.  On the very first play of Donavan McNabb’s first game back from his Week 1 injury, he ran 13 yards to the 49 yard line.  On the following play, McNabb went long to rookie Jeremy Maclin in the endzone to take a 7-0 lead on a 40 second drive.  That was Maclin’s first TD in his career.

The Bucs had trouble in the 1st and 2nd quarters against the Eagles D.  They could not convert on a 4th-2, and after a long 9:41 drive which was 56 yards to end the 1st quarter and to start the 2nd quarter, the Eagles D stopped them again on 4th-1 as Josh Johnson (the Bucs QB, not the Florida Marlins pitcher) fumbled the ball and Akeem Jordan recovered the fumble and returned it for a TD.  Tampa Bay challenged the ruling, and the TD was brought back, but the Bucs still lost on downs.

The Eagles would then have the ball on their 24 yard line and would then get a TD on Leonard Weaver’s 20 yard reception to make it 14-0 Eagles.  A key play was a 38 yard Brent Celek reception on 2nd-10, Eagles 24.  After the Bucs answered back with a TD, the Eagles had a great Leonard Weaver kickoff return which put the Eagles at their 43.  McNabb had a 17 yard run which put them at the Bucs 40, then Maclin had another TD reception which put them up 21-7.  The Bucs were about to get another TD before the half, but Assante Samuel picked off Johnson in the endzone to end the half.

After the Eagles punted twice to start the 2nd half, Assante Samuel picked off another Johnson pass on a 3rd-10, Bucs 23 and Samuel returned it to the 27.  The Eagles would get another touchdown when Brian Westbrook would 7 yards on 2nd down.  The drive took only 50 seconds.  Johnson was picked off once again by Sheldon Brown in the next drive which led to a 44 yard FG.

McNabb was 16-21, 264 yards and threw 3 TDs.  His rating was near perfect at 157.2.  Rookie Josh Johnson on the other hand was only 26-50, 240, and threw 2 TDs but was picked off 3 times which led to 10 Eagle points.  Jeremy Maclin had a huge day with 6 receptions for 142 yards and 2 TDs.

MS/FB status: “What a long game (4:06) in sub freezing weather, but it was worth catching it! Congrats to Andy Reid for his 100th W for the Eagles and going 11-0 after bye week!”

RATS!!!

Game 6 was not a good day for Phillie fans in New York.  As the Phillies lost that game, I wonder what was going on in Wogies (Phillies/Eagles bar) in Greenwich Villiage.  I bet there were Yankee fans going by there bragging about the Yanks (IIRC, on the day the Eagles tied with the Bengals last year, I recalled some Giants fans walking by showing off their jersey, smh).

Anyway, after a neat 1-2-3 13 pitch 1st inning by Pedro Martinez, he started running into trouble.  He gave up a leadoff walk to A-Rod in the 2nd then DH (boo!) Hideki Matsui made Pedro pay by hitting a 2 run HR.  Pedro would then get the last 3 Yankees out in order.  In the next inning, he struck out Brett Gardener, then Derek Jeter singled, Johnny Damon walked, and Mark Teixeira was hit by a pitch to load the bases.  After Pedro struck out A-Rod, Hideki Matsui hit a 2 run single to make it 4-1 Yanks.  Pedro pitched a 1-2-3 4th for his last inning and he threw 77 pitches in the 4 innings he pitched.  Despite this being an elimination game for the Phils Pedro probably should have pitched another inning, because Chad Durbin and J.A. Happ allowed 3 more runs in the 5th inning.  Two of those runs came on a Matsui 2 run double off Happ.

The only runs the Phils got was a sac fly in the 3rd by Jimmy Rollins which followed a Carlos Ruiz triple, and a Ryan Howard 2 run HR in the 6th.  Mariano Rivera closed the game out by pitching 1 2/3 innings and like the NLDS in 2007, Shane Victorino made the final out when he grounded out to second base.

Whenever I feel like it (remember my blog, my rules), I will add another post about a review of the season.

caught: 5-3
missed: 4-3

MS/FB status: none

Here is a neat tidbit: the times of the WS games were:

Game 1- 3:27
Game 2- 3:25
Game 3- 3:25
Game 4- 3:25
Game 5- 3:26
Game 6- 3:52

Note how the games the Yankees won all have the numbers 2, 3, and 5 in them.

The Yankees are the only team to win a WS in their stadium’s first year for more than 1 stadia.  The Yankees also won their first WS in 1923 which was the first year of Yankee Stadium.  The other teams were the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field (Forbes opened midway through the 1909 season), the 1912 Red Sox at Fenway Park, and the 2006 Saint Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.  The 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates came close to winning the WS in Three Rivers Stadium but Three Rivers opened the year before in 1970.

Lucky Lee

Cliff Lee was excellent once again.  He pitched 7+ innings and allowed 5 runs on 7 hits and walked only 3.  Through the first 7 innings, he allowed 2 runs on only 4 hits.  The first run he allowed came on a 2 out double by A-Rod which scored Johnny Damon.  Lee did not allow a hit to the next 14 Yankees he faced.  After walking ex-Blue Jay and Ray, PH Eric Hinske (who made the last out in the WS last year), Derek Jeter singled and Hinske scored on a Johnny Damon RBI groundout.  In the 8th, Lee allowed a single to Damon, a double to Mark Teixeira, and a 2 run double to A-Rod to make the score 8-4 Phillies.  Chan Ho Park took over for Lee and got Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano, and Brett Gardner out.  Park allowed another run via a sac fly.

In the 9th inning Ryan Madson came on for the save.  He gave up a leadoff double to Jorge Posada and a single to PH Hideki Matsui to put runners on the corners with no outs.  Luckilly Derek Jeter hit into a 6-4-3 double play which made it a 2 run game, but was huge for Ryan Madson.  After Damon singled, Teixeira struck out to end the game.

A. J. Burnett only lasted 2+ innings and allowed 6 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks.  In the 1st inning, he allowed a 3 run HR to Chase Utley to make it 3-1 Phils.  After not allowing a hit in the 2nd, he walked Utley and Ryan Howard to leadoff the 3rd before allowing back to back RBI singles to Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez to make it 5-1 Phils.  Burnett’s other run came on an RBI groundout by Carlos Ruiz off David Robertson.  The Phils added 2 more runs in the 7th when Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez hit a solo HR.  Chase Utley was 2-3 with 4 RBI.

caught: 5-2
missed: 4-3

MS/FB status: none for mojo reasons