I Still Miss Him

So I'm watching the NFL Thursday night football game on Thanksgiving between the New York Giants & Denver Broncos. Sure enough every time the Giants have the ball, their is one player who seems to be in the middle of every play.

Guess who? None other than Eagles throw-off Brian Dawkins. B Dawk continues to have the keen ability to know exactly where to go to make a play. Although I cannot think of a specific game where I think he might have made a difference in turning an L into a W, his abilities are missed as are his leadership skills. It's clear to me that he still has plenty left & I think the Eagles missed out on that this season. Even as I type this, Mark Millen is talking about how he has been all over the field and his off field leadership is a big reason why his team responded so well this week and the Broncos seem to be making easy dispatch of the Giants.

Only time will tell if it will cost the Eagles this season, but I still believe that it is a shame the this Hall-of-Famer will not play his whole career as an Eagle. B-Dawk, you will always be an Eagle in my heart & I plan to wear my #20 jersey to the Linc when the Broncos play the Birds in your honor.

My Thoughts on Eagles v. Cowboys

At the end of the first half, I said to myself & the bartender at the downtown Courtyard (since I'm staying downtown for a few days), "As bad as the Eagles played, they're lucky they're only down by 4 (10-6 at half)". Unfortunately, the Eagles must have thought the same thing.

The Eagles came out blazing in the 3rd quarter and took a 13-10 lead. However, it was almost like they figured they took the lead & they would coast the rest of the way - WRONG!! At least they played that way. While the Cowboys were doing nothing special to win, the Eagles let them hang around by continuing to make stupid penalties & decisions.

The interception thrown by McNabb I think really started to turn the momentum of the game. The Eagles could have made a big play there as Maclin had a step on his defender, but Donovan under threw the ball & to add insult injury, Maclin grabbed the facemask to make the tackle. I thought that play was a perfect microcosm of the game: the Eagles had a great opportunity to put some distance between themselves & their opponent & they came up short.

I have to admit, I had no problem with Andy Reid making the first challenge. Even the second one was probably worth it when you consider the importance of the play & it being a change of possession issue. My problem with Andy continues to be his play calling. Most of the time when I think he should run, he passes & vice versa. It drives me nuts. Also, why send a kicker in to try a 52 yard FG with 4 and a half minutes left when you're down by 7 and you have no timeouts left? It means, even if you do make the long kick, you still have to stop their offense from getting one first down and the way Marion Barber was running the ball on us, I had little faith that was going to happen.

I have one other bone to pick with the coaching in the final two minutes. How do you not put someone from the jump on Jason Witten on 3rd and short. Dallas knew the 2 minute warning was going to stop the clock anyway, so why not throw a pass. And who is the one person who continued to give the Eagles fits - Jason Witten. I would have lined someone like Quentin Mikell on him from the line of scrimmage and forced him to beat one on one coverage. Instead he got a free release from the linebacker and Mikell was forced to chase him. No surprise Tony Romo found him for the first down & the ball game.

One final note - in my prediction, I said I liked the fact that the offensive line was finally giving Donovan time to throw. That did not happen tonight. Too many times he had the defenders in his face, unable to make a clear read. This inconsistency, along with Donovan's, is the one thing that needs to get fixed if they are going to make a legitimate run at a division title.

Next up - @ San Diego who just beat the Giants. So it's not going to get any easier. Here's hoping that inconsistency (& Brian Westbrook) get corrected soon!

World Series Review and a Return to My First Love

I think I can sum up the reason why the Yankees won and Phillies lost in one word - patience. The Yankees had it and the Phillies didn't. For me, the turning point in the World Series came in Game 3 in two crucial moments. Up to these two events, things seemed to be going their way since they had already accomplished a split in the Bronx making the series 1-1 with the next three games at home where they had been virtually unbeatable in the past two post-seasons.

In the first instance, the Phillies had the bases loaded with one out in the second inning. They had just taken a 2-0 lead when Jimmy Rollins worked a walk off of Andy Pettitte to force in a run. The next batter was Shane Victorino. Now after seeing his teammate get walked with the bases loaded, he should've thought to himself, "Gee! Maybe he's having some control issues & I should be selective with what I swing at.". But no, Victorino swang away at the first two pitches & they were both way out of the strike zone. Ultimately, he hit a sacrifice fly to score a 3rd run, but he was then hitting under the pitcher's terms since he was behind in the count. The Phillies only scored 3 runs that inning, but what was a good inning could have been a great inning if Victorino had a little more patience.

The second situation happened two innings later when Cole Hamels, who had been cruising in the first 3 innings gave up a walk to Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira with two outs. Cole was upset by the pitch that was called Ball 3 as he thought it was a strike and would have meant Teixeira had struck out and the inning was over. I thought replay showed that it probably was a strike, but Hamels lost his patience and delivered a poor pitch for Ball 4. He continued to "lose his cool" in his careless approach to Alex Rodriguez who ended up hitting a 2 run home run off the right field camera in the first use of instant replay in the World Series. A little more patience by Cole there could have gone a long way to settling himself down and clearing his mind to allow him to have a better approach against one of the best hitters in the game. At that point, the Phillies were up 3-2, but I did not have a good feeling anymore about that game and the series in general. Sure enough, Cole's struggles continued the next inning when I still feel like he had that defeated look and he ended up surrendering the lead which the Phillies would never get back.

Ultimately, I look at those two events as the turning point in the Series, but there were other instances where the Yankees showed patience and Phillies did not. How many times, especially in the late innings did catcher Jorge Posada talk to the Yankees pitcher and infielders to make sure everyone was on the same page. Contrast that with the Phillies approach in Game 4 when Johnny Damon got a two out single. With Mark Teixeira at the plate, the Phillies were playing the over shift for the left handed hitter and no one was covering 3rd base. When Damon stole 2nd, he saw that no one was still covering 3rd and he made a break for it. After Damon got the hit, having some patience to go over the scenario if Damon did try steal and who would cover 3rd would have avoided the whole embarrassing situation and the need that Brad Lidge felt to go away from his best pitch, the slider since there was a man on 3rd.

Patience was the difference and now patience is what we will need to wait through another offseason and listening to all those bragging New Yorkers.

Well, if anything it means I can now give my focus to my true love of the sports world - the Eagles! Just in time, they are playing the Cowboys on Sunday night football with first place in the division on the line. I am still of the belief that the Cowboys are overrated because of their name and especially their quarterback, Tony Romo. In the Giants game, the Eagles offensive line finally started giving Donovan McNabb the time he needed to throw. If that continues, look for Donovan to expose the Dallas' suspect secondary. All in all, I like the Eagles chances to give the city a much needed lift after the disappointment of the World Series.

My prediction: Eagles 34, Cowboys 20.