The Blogg

Last night’s overtime loss was disappointing, but you cannot be too upset about losing a great series against a great team to end a charmed playoffs. I watched more hockey this year than ever before, and I’ll have these fond memories of the season for a long time:

• Wondering why on earth successful goaltenders Biron and Niittymaki were allowed to leave and replaced by questionable Ray Emery and career backup Brian Boucher.
• Coach John Stevens being replaced by Peter Laviolette, under whom the team struggled for weeks before adjusting to his scheme.
• Playing the NHL Winter Classic at Fenway Park and losing on a goal by former Flyers star Mark Recchi.
• Watching Richards, Pronger, Timonen, and Tollefsen competing in the Olympics.
• Dan Carcillo figuring out how to control himself and turning out to be a pretty talented winger, while still having more fun than anyone else on the rink.
• Emery getting hurt, then his replacement Leighton, then *his* replacement Boucher, then !his! replacement Backlund, then Boucher getting hurt a second time on the day that Leighton returned from injury.
• Blair Betts and Ian Laperriere’s superb penalty killing.
• Leighton nearly scoring an own goal, hitting the post while trying to direct the puck behind his net.
• Nervously watching the standings as the Flyers seemed to skid out of playoff contention through the last month of the season, eventually winning their last game in a shootout for the 7th seed.
• Losing Carter, Gagne, and Laperriere all in the first round and thinking we had no chance of moving on without them.
• Unknown rookie Ville Leino playing like a superstar throughout the playoffs.
• Losing the first 3 games of the series against Boston, improbably evening the series, going down 3-0 in the first period of game 7, and clawing back to win the game and the series 4-3.
• The 7th seeded Flyers and 8th seeded Canadiens making the Eastern Conference finals.
• Winning two of four tightly contested games in the Stanley Cup finals before falling apart in game 5 and rallying to tie what had been a poor performance in game 6 before eventually losing.

Yesterday’s Super Bowl was not a great game like several recent ones, but a good game. I do not think many people picked the Saints to win by 14. (My prediction was Colts by 7 or less.) Although the second quarter looked one-sided, both teams were in this to the very end. The call to open the second half with an onside kick was bold — I am not sure I could have done that myself. It was a strange game in several ways. No turnovers in the first 55 minutes, and the Saints won even though their defense has been build around turnovers. Very few penalties, and only one instances of a player not getting right up after a play. What is wrong with the announcers? On the 2 point conversion try, as soon as they showed a replay all of the males in the room where I was watching were yelling “Challenge! He crossed the plane,” while Simms was spouting off about needing to maintain control while going to the ground. Is it that difficult to find a crew that at least knows the rules as well as the average fan? At least when Madden was making inane comments it was humorous. They should have Ron “Jaws” Jaworski work every game.

I am a big fan of the The Who, and thought they still sounded great 9 years ago at the Concert for New York City, but the last decade has not been kind to them at all. Losing Entwistle was a major blow, obviously, but Daltrey is the real problem. Maybe he has just decided to change up his timing a bit in recent years, but it sounded to me like he was actually missing cues, most noticably at the beginning of “Baba O’Riley”. The guy they had playing drums was like an anti-Keith Moon: calm and efficient. Townshend can clearly still play his old riffs, but I think it is time to hang up The Who and go on solo tours.

Continuing the trend of last year, I think more than a third of the advertising was for the host network and its shows, implying that they could find no buyers willing to pay the steep price tag. There were a few memorable advertisements, and a few disappointing reruns of ones that have been in use for a while. I particularly liked the Doritos spot with the no-bark collar, the Volkswagen one (although everyone knows it is only the Beetle that earns punching rights), the Dodge Charger ad, the HomeAway.com spoof of the National Lampoon’s Vacation series, and the three Denny’s clips (especially the third).

I told my father-in-law that I would be satisfied even if the Eagles did not win last night, but played a competitive game. I was not satisfied. I think this game was actually worse than the week before. Now the Eagles front office (without Tom Heckert, if rumors are true) has the unenviable task of adjusting an average or good team in ways that will make it into a great team instead of a poor team. If they make too many changes too hastily, they could end up with a much, much worse team, but something clearly has to be done. A lot of the sportswriters I have read today seem to blame the defense most of all for yesterday’s loss. While giving up 34 points is unacceptable and there are certainly changes that need to be made on that side of the ball, I thought the offense had much more significant problems. When you keep having to defend a short field on no rest because the offense turns the ball over, chances of success are very low. Following are the positions in order from most in need of action to least, in my opinion

Quarterback: While the rest of the team did not do him any favors, McNabb was flat-out awful yesterday. The problem is, as terrible as McNabb plays sometimes, he is still one of the top 16 quarterbacks in the league. When he is playing well, he is among the very best. If you can get somebody who consistently plays at 75% of the “good” McNabb and never has those terrible days it would be a good move, but there is a real danger of making a major downgrade if you switch to someone else. Vick does not match the pass-happy philosophy and personnel here, so hopefully another team is willing to trade a draft pick for him. I think the best option here is to draft a quarterback this year to get him acclimated to the system, have an open competition between McNabb and Kolb in the following year, and ship out whomever loses that competition with the second-year guy as the backup.

Offensive Line: For a group that has been a priority in drafts and trades ever since Reid arrived here, there sure are a lot of issues here. The Eagles have a lot of money tied up in players that have demonstrated an ability to play at a high level but whom cannot be counted on. I think they have to keep the Andrews brothers here, but also have to have starting-quality backups in the likelihood that neither of them come back from injuries to play well again. Winston Justice is a free agent that they have to sign or replace with a player of similar quality. Max Jean-Gilles they can probably afford to let go of, assuming that Nick Cole moves back to his usual guard position. Drafting a good center to fill in until Jackson is healthy and possibly to replace him would be a very good idea.

Safety: None of the players they brought in to replace Dawkins has been acceptable. Mikell should remain the strong safety, but they have to upgrade the free safety position. Signing Darren Sharper would be nice, but most likely this will have to be a rookie with Demps or Harris as a backup plan.

Linebackers: Trotter is nothing more than a stopgap at this point, and many of the players that rotated through the starting lineup this year are free agents this year. You cannot afford to let Gocong, Gaither, and Jordan all go in the same year. I have never been sold on Gocong, but I would keep the other two. Hopefully Bradley comes back from his injury with all the ability he showed two years ago, but again you have to be prepared for the very real possibility that he does not. At the end of the previous season this position looked like one of the Eagles great strengths, but they were one of the biggest problems this year, and the front office is going to have to do something creative to fix it for the future.

Fullback: Leonard Weaver has been an absolute pleasure to watch this season. The Eagles need to do whatever is necessary to resign him to a long-term contract. They need to stop using him so much as a single back, though. His touches should come as misdirections when he is the upback.

Tight End: Celek is the best player we have had here since Chad Lewis at least, but there is currently no depth at all behind him. If Cornelius Ingram is not going to be the guy, we need to find another capable #2.

Cornerback: It sure would be nice if he made a serious attempt at tackling, but you are not going to be able to improve significantly on Samuel and Brown as the starters. Hanson is not a good nickelback, and there is no one behind him that I trust. If they can resign Hobbs to be the third guy that would work, or it might be time to look at a younger player.

Kick Returner: If Hobbs is resigned and healthy, this becomes a non-issue. None of the other players who filled in here during the season showed much to be excited about, but if they get an entire offseason to work on those skills they might be acceptable.

Halfback: McCoy has shown himself to be a good runner, and with another year he should be better in protection and as a route runner. Westbrook can still be very useful to this team if he chooses to play another year, but I think he needs to be used more sporadically. If he wants to continue to be an every-down back, we should try to send him elsewhere. Buckley has not had many opportunities, but looked good in the preseason. As long as they keep McCoy, I think they will be ok regardless of what other moves they make.

Defensive Line: Trent Cole and the tackles are fine. The rotation at the other end spot has worked, but it would definitely be an upgrade to find another great player at that position. How many players have we brought in thinking they would be that guy?

Wide Receiver: Jackson and Maclin could very well be the Fitzgerald and Boldin of the next decade if they keep playing at the same level and get consistent quarterback play. Avant is a free agent who they should keep as an excellent third receiver. After that it trails off a bit, but Curtis and Brown are capable backups.

Punter: Rocca has been inconsistent but not awful since they brought him here. I will not care much one way or the other whether they resign him or pick up someone else.

Placekicker: There was a time when I was concerned about Akers, but he looked fine this season.

Punt Returner: I don’t know who the backup is or how well he would play, but Jackson is excellent.

Of course, none of this may matter if the league and players’ union cannot agree on a new contract.

Even Michaluk has to have enjoyed this game, which was always in reach for both teams. There was a lot to like for the Eagles: the offensive line was dominant, McCoy and Weaver made good use of the holes available, Jackson was uncoverable as usual, and Brown, Avant, and Celek chipped in as needed. McNabb had two miscues, but otherwise was very solid, and Vick did what we needed. The return game was very good. The run defense was good enough against a monster of a back. But there were also some scary things. The coverage teams were fairly bad, and the secondary was terrible. The safeties could not make tackles and the corners had Giants receivers behind them half a dozen times and were saved only by bad throws and/or butterfingers. Superstar Trent Cole was an absolute idiot throwing punches in the last seconds of the game. If he gets suspended for week 16 or part of the playoffs that act may well cost the season.

Can you imagine if the team had kept Dawkins? Sure he is not much in coverage anymore, but Sean Jones never has been. Dawkins would be making those tackles, and threatening to force a fumble while he was at it. Speaking of safeties, think about this. Favre, Manning (Peyton), and Brees have certainly made a good case for being the league MVP. But I tend to think of the most valuable player as being one whom the team simply cannot play without. This year the Steelers are 4-0 in games where Polamalu played more than one series and 2-7 otherwise, including losses against some very bad teams. He is not responsible for the team’s offensive collapse, but he alone makes the difference between that being probably the best defense in the league and being far below average. If there were a least valuable player award I would call it similarly – a player who may be very good but who is not really needed by their team. This year, our own Brian Westbrook might qualify, as the offense has very smoothly moved on without him.

In other sports, I cannot understand how poorly the Flyers have played throughout the last month. I think their goaltending is a bit worse than last year, but that has not been the problem. Basically the same offensive players that were among the best teams last year are simply incapable of scoring goals. The coaching change does not seem to have made a difference, so what is going to get this turned around?

Considering the schedule the Eagles have faced getting to 6-4 is not something to get too excited about, but tonight’s game was easily the best this season. Shellacking the Giants was fun, but showing that we could win a close game and not rely on big play after big play is more meaningful. I have been critical of the coaching staff plenty of times, but they deserve a lot of praise for tonight. On offense they got serious about running the ball, and it opened up the field for McNabb’s receivers. On defense, with the back seven in tatters they aggressively attacked the line of scrimmage rather than trying to sit in coverage. This meant giving up two big plays, but otherwise shutting down the running game and making Cutler rush his throws to receivers that we could not have covered anyway. I will take that trade-off any day.

A good scheme is worthless by itself, but the players executed well also. I have also been very critical of the offensive line, but they were outstanding in opening up holes for McCoy and giving McNabb a chance to let routes develop. McNabb actually threw to his guys instead of around them, and the rest of the skill players did what they do week in and week out. Three turnovers are a serious problem, but on the drives that did not end that way the offense was moving fairly effortlessly. The defense made no game-changing plays, no turnovers or sacks that I noticed. But they ensured that the Bears offense would have to run through a struggling Cutler and applied enough pressure to keep him off balance all night long. The scary part: I thought the team played a great all-around game, yet they still only barely beat a very average team. What is it going to take if we make it to the playoffs and face New Orleans or Minnesota?

Elsewhere in the NFL it was also a crazy day, with lots of unexpectedly competitive contests. Unfortunately, the other three games I cared about all went the wrong way in the last minutes: Pittsburgh lost, Dallas won, and the Giants won. Pittsburgh losing to Kansas City is a bit like Philadelphia’s loss to Oakland a few weeks ago, something that should never have happened. Even with Cincinnati losing to another terrible team this week, the Steelers are not going to win their division without a lot of luck. If Roethlisberger is seriously injured and Polamalu stays out more than another game or two you can forget about them pulling a wildcard spot. How about that Matthew Stafford coming back to throw a touchdown pass on the untimed last play while obviously in some serious pain?

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the NFL RedZone channel when there is not a game I especially care about going on. Being able to follow the storyline and drama of a single game and understanding the context for each play is nice, but not having commercial breaks every five minutes is so nice and this way I get a general idea of what has happened throughout the league. I was able to watch those essential last minutes of all three of the aforementioned close games even though they were basically simultaneous.

EDIT: Last night I forgot about the sack when Trent Cole lined up like the middle linebacker and flew through the “A” gap to drop Cutler for a significant loss. Also, I believe the game ended on an interception when an incompletion would have been just as good.

First, a short rundown of my fantasy teams. I did not write my usual recap this year because I was quite busy two weeks ago. (For those who are interested, I now have an approved plan that projects me finishing my degree next summer.) In our long-running 12 team league I drew draft position 12. This is my second 12, and in 5 seasons in this league I have never drafted earlier than 6. Prior to the draft I looked at what players I could expect to be available in the 12-13 and 36-37 ranges and decided I basically had to take running backs with my first two picks; there would be good receivers left later but no good backs. I ended up taking the following players in order: Frank Gore, Brandon Jacobs, Wes Welker, T. J. Houshmandzadeh, Matt Schaub, Dallas Clark, Jamal Lewis, Bernard Berrian, Devin Hester, Chicago Bears Defense, Chad Pennington, Fred Taylor, Edgerrin James, Chris Henry, and Jeff Reed. I was not necessarily wanting to take a quarterback so early, but the pool of ones that I liked was shrinking very rapidly. So far Matt Schaub does not look like my trust is justified, but I’ll give him a few weeks to prove himself. I should not have taken a tight end so early with such a deep talent pool this year, but I was pleased to see someone I really liked there after I had filled out most of the rest of my roster.

We also have a 10 team keeper league that I started last year, so this was the first year in which the keeper rules actually applied. I thought the system we had was elegant, and after some initial resistance our owners seemed to enjoy it. Our rules were that you could keep up to three players that were on your roster at the end of the previous season. To do so, you needed to give up a pick in the round before they were drafted the year before (although a 1st round pick could be kept with a 1st round pick). It was not necessary to declare that you were keeping a player until someone else tried to draft him or it came to the pick that you were giving up. Last year I had taken Adrian Peterson in the first and Maurice Jones-Drew in the second and wanted to hold on to both of them if possible. I was able to swing a trade of my 2nd and 4th round picks for another player’s 1st and 10th. This only resulted in moving up a few spots, but gave me the two 1st rounders I needed to keep my two players. My other keeper was Ray Rice in the 8th. My full roster in draft order was Adrian Peterson, Maurice Jones-Drew, T. J. Houshmandzadeh, Kurt Warner, Hines Ward, Joseph Addai, Ray Rice, Chester Taylor, Jerricho Cotchery, Kellen Winslow, Laveraneus Coles, Matt Hasselbeck, Chicago Bears Defense, Fred Jackson, Jeremy Maclin. Once again I took a tight end far too early; guys I would have been just as happy with were available rounds later.

It seemed like an eternity between the end of last season and the opener between the Steelers and Titans on Thursday night. Fortunately, it was a great, hard-fought game between two serious defenses. It is almost impossible to overstate the talent of Troy Polamalu. I believe he had 4 tackles and a pass defensed in the first 5 defensive snaps for Pittsburgh, then later a circus catch of an interception. This defense is still very good without him, but this is going to be a tough 2-6 weeks. I find it infathomable that the Steelers had the league worst rushing attack last year, even with Parker and Mendenhall injured. While the Titans run defense is much better than average, Mike Tomlin has to be worried that things are no better this year. I loved “Fast Willie” Parker in his first two years, but he does not have that same speed anymore.

For Sunday’s early game I watched my team, the Eagles against Carolina. The only thing better than watching your team dismantle their opponent after a long football drought would be if that opponent were Dallas. I had been seriously concerned about this defense without Johnson, Dawkins, and Bradley, but they sure surprised me. I can’t get too carried away because this *is* Jake Delhomme, but they looked fantastic. Sheldon Brown’s first interception plucked from an inch off the turf with one hand was practically Polamalu-esque. I was not so excited by what I saw on offense. They certainly did what was necessary to win the game, but almost always had the benefit of a short field and a big lead. It will be much more informative to see what we do against the Saints next week. Maybe Peters and company can at least avoid multiple false starts. Kevin Kolb looked as uncomfortable as always, so it should be interesting probably not having McNabb next week. I honestly think Garcia would give them the better chance to win, but expect to see more of Kolb.

In other 1:00 action, who knew Denver’s defense could almost pitch a shutout? The Bengals offense was not good last year, but I expected them to be competitive this year. The Jets defense was also a surprise. For the sake of my Schaub pick, I am hoping they just played very well in Rex Ryan’s scheme. New Orleans tromping all over Detroit was pretty much expected, but hated Dallas over Tampa Bay is troubling. I knew that getting rid of Owens would be a good thing for that offense, but we can probably still count on them to fall apart by the end of the season.

In the late afternoon I watched the other NFC East teams square off. Hunter Smith’s nifty run on a fake field goal was fun to watch, but I did not see much to convince me Washington will not be last in the division again this year. I also saw most of the fourth quarter of the San Francisco – Arizona game. What happened to the Cardinals passing game? It isn’t like the 49ers secondary is anything to write home about. With not much else working, you would think they might have given Beanie Wells more of a chance. I did not see any of the other 4:00 game, but it sounds like not much has changed in St. Louis.

The Sunday night game was another great divisional matchup. I was very high on the Chicago defense this year with Urlacher being healthy again, as you could probably tell from my selecting them in both fantasy leagues. Now that Urlacher is out for the season, I think I’ll be looking for a replacement. Although he is not as dominant as Polamalu, I think he might be missed more because he does not have such an outstanding cast around him. Both times when I took Chicago the Eagles defense was still available and I was staying away for the reasons mentioned above. I sure would like them now. I thought Cutler’s production would drop off significantly after leaving the talented defense in San Diego, but I did not expect him to look worse than Kyle Orton. Props to Michaluk for predicting that Earl Bennett would become the go-to receiver in this offense. I do not understand why the Bears did not go for two after scoring a touchdown when down 10-2. The difference between a 10-8 and a 10-9 game is very little, while tying the game would have been very nice. I did understand the fake punt call later in the game, even if the announcers did not seem to. The five yards had nothing to do with it; that call is about the very useful free play. If you are going to do that, however, you have to actually be quick enough to catch the 12th man on the field.

Watching the Patriots on Monday night I was struck by how well their scheme fits the model of the West Coast offense, although I’ve never heard them listed among its adherents. They do run the ball and throw bombs every now and again, but the staple of that offense is Brady throwing a high-percentage 7 yard pass to one of his receivers or backs running a slant, drag, or curl. I am not a Bills fan, but it is a shame to see the underdog in position to win a game and losing it because of one stupid play by a kick returner. (Not that we saw something similar at the beginning of the Eagles season last year, or anything.) My impression of the Raiders is that they are perpetually awful and so I expected this last game of the week to be uncompetitive. With four minutes left in the first half, however, they are tied against the very good Chargers, and convincingly marched down the field on their first possession. Maybe this will be worth watching after all.

I generally do not like obnoxious wide receivers in the Owens – Marshall mold, but I have to admit I am very high on Chad Ochocinco nee Johnson this year. He may be an attention whore, but I think he is good for the league. Too many players see this only as a business, but Ochocinco actually plays like it is a game. The league should certainly fine him for his celebrations, signs, tweets, and whatever else he does that is against the rules, but I would be more concerned about the players who act violently and dangerously than the ones trying to inject a little levity into the game. It would be different if Ochocinco were not trying to be the best player he can be. You don’t split the uprights and then drill a kickoff down the field based on athletic ability alone; he has to have actually worked on it quite a bit. Kicking the ball is not part of his job description, but he loves the game enough to work on it on his own just because he wants to see if he can. We will see if he is actually productive and a good teammate through the season, but so far I like what I see.

I agree with the people saying that Philadelphia will be good for Vick, but I remain unconvinced that Vick will be good for Philadelphia, for the following reasons:

• Vick is supposedly a very remorseful individual ready for a second chance. The fact that he has convinced Tony Dungy of this speaks volumes, but I am not so sure. This was not a “mistake”, but a long-term, calculated participation in a criminal enterprise. The dogfighting itself does not bother me so much; I understand that it may be an ingrained part of the culture Vick grew up in, and is only worse than greyhound racing by degree. What does bother me are the accounts of the myriad ways in which he tortured and killed under-performing dogs. That looks to me very much like the behavior of a sociopath who will eventually escalate to doing the same sorts of things to humans.
• The team has supposedly reached out to the community regarding this, but there is sure to be some significant backlash against the move. The memory of the T. O. media circus is fresh enough in my mind to already be tired of this nonsense. Why can’t we let someone else deal with the controversy, while we focus on playing football?
• You don’t sign a guy like this to a one-year deal to have him sit on the bench and prepare to go somewhere else and be productive the following season. They have to find a way to get him on the field, and what is that going to be? You do not want to sit McNabb for any offensive snaps, because we have seen that he needs to stay in a rhythm to play well. Reid has made it clear that he considers Vick a quarterback, so it seems unlikely that he is going to line up anywhere else often. I can imagine Vick and McNabb lining up beside each other in the shotgun, but if you take out a running back to put him in, are you going to expect one of your quarterbacks to sacrifice their body to pass protect for the other?
• Getting to a 53-man roster with 25 offensive players is already going to be tricky. If you keep McNabb, Kolb, and Vick as your 3 quarterbacks and want to be able to use Vick sporadically through the game, you have to make Kolb the emergency quarterback and put yourself in a bad position if McNabb gets injured. If you keep Feeley as the third quarterback then you have to cut somewhere else to fit Vick in. One spot is reserved for the fullback, with the offensive line in such sad shape you have to keep at least 10 guys there, and you will want to carry 3 running backs, 5 or 6 receivers, and 3 tight ends. Probably the best situation is to only keep 2 tight ends with Weaver playing there in 3 tight end sets and someone on the practice squad in case of injury.

From the game, Weaver and McCoy look as good as advertised. How about that Eldra Buckley? At this point I would definitely take him over Booker. We had better get these penalties sorted out quickly, and get the starting offensive line healthy enough to get used to playing together before the first game of the regular season. The first half was a comedy of errors for the Eagles offense.