EAGLES FAN WEIGHS IN

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/09/25
Posted in: Coaching, Conspiracy Corner, Fans, NFL. Tagged: , , , . 14 Comments

the big bird

 

EAGLES TO FINISH 7-9???

 

MONEY in my pocket, my team is 3-0, free time and I’m out of the house. Sound good right?

After running some errands today I decided to show my face at the bar and have a screwdriver. Of course Rhodie was there holding court over why they will never get around to doing the part of the Broad Street Line that’s supposed to go from Broad and Erie, up the Boulevard and out to Grant. (Really. That’s actually a thing.)

Upon seeing me, discussions about city planning were shelved, and people started acting like I was Paul Domowich or somebody. Except I still had to pay for my booze.

People almost never get to stick it to Rhodie, because he’s usually right about sports, but I had to rib him on that whole “7-9 if we’re lucky” prediction. I started right in with “We’re 3-0, you flea covered coot!” Out of respect I didn’t take out my tape recorder because sticking it to him is one thing, but recording it would be too much like trying to embarrass him. Then he says: “Get your recorder out.”

I don’t even get a question in and he starts. “So you think 3-0 seals the deal? We’re 3-0 so everything is perfect? I seen what you wrote on your site about us playin’ shit teams, and the problems we got. I saw what you wrote about the practices and how the players feel like they’re being worked too damned hard. What do you think happens when they get a decent team, and they fall back by 20 early?”

He had me there. I’m glad for the 3-0 record, but I’m under no illusions about it and how we came by it. But 7-9? C’mon man. I offered him the chance to adjust his prediction.

“Adjust my prediction? What, are you doing me a favor? 7-9 like I said. I rooted for this team even before the coach was born, before the Linc, before the Vet, before any of the candy asses who read newspapers on a computer. I know a train wreck coming when I see one. Chip Kelly didn’t re-invent football, it just that fewer and fewer people know anything about it.”

I happen to TOTALLY agree with that by the way. Leave it to Rhodie to say in a sentence what most of us writers can’t say in a page. But a train wreck? I asked him about that.

“The players feel overworked. As long as they’re winning, everyone’s gonna talk about how good Kelly practice style is. Other teams are gonna try to duplicate it…You see where it goes? The players have to make Kelly see what he’s doing don’t work.”

He was suggesting that players would throw games to force Kelly to change. I told him he was nuts to think that.

“It don’t all have to be quit. That’s the thing. If he’s running them down, it’ll show up anyway, both in guys who bought in and guys who didn’t. Throw in just a few downs where some of ‘em give less than 100%, and people over his head are gonna ask him some tough questions, and tell him to make some changes. Something you left out in your other article there. These guys are multimillion dollar investments. Those bodies are investments. This ain’t college.”

I’d like to dismiss it, but I remember Rich Kotite’s last year here, when the team quit on him to finish (ironically) 7-9, primarily because they didn’t like how he was running things. Sometimes perspective is a gift. Other times it’s a curse. Especially when others lack it. Once again Rhodie had schooled the ‘young buck’. And this time he used my own words and convictions to do it.

I’ll be watching for signs of quit now. Funny, just a day ago it wasn’t even on my mind.

14 comments on “EAGLES FAN WEIGHS IN”

  2. Every time the Eagles win it’s luck or shit teams. You’re boy is an old coot. For the record I excepted 10-6 and that was when I thought they would be 2-2 after 4 games. Now they could end up 6-0 by the bye week. Can you realistically see this team winning only 4 more games considering they still play the Giants, Cowboys (twice), the Skins again, the Rams, Houston, and Tennessee???

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    • YEP! He kept saying something along the lines of “we could do 9 or 10”. I almost wrote about it in the Yard, but felt it would be stupid to write about something that I STRONGLY disagreed with myself.
      What I find funny and I was talking to another guy who (like me) only occasionally pops in, even when we think the guy will be wrong, people generally lack the balls to lay money against his word. I won’t bet on sports in the first place, but with his track record if I did…

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  3. There are only 3 NFL teams who are currently undefeated and the only team with a quality win would be the Cardinals and they’re arguably the worst of the three undefeated teams. By the way I wouldn’t just disregard the Colts as just a bum team. That was a quality win against a playoff team that beat your favorite coach Andy Reid. The Colts had to face the Broncos and the Eagles in back to back games. Not a favorable draw for any NFL team. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Colts win 3-4 straight games.

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  4. Maclin looks better than I thought he would and the defense is really stepping up but what the phuck is up with Foles and McCoy. They stunk the joint up. Foles missing big play opportunities and McCoy looking downright pathetic. I was ready for chris Polk , Brad smith casey or anything. The run game is beyond bad. Honestly , I have no proof but Ive seen athletes roid in my days and McCoy looks like a shell of his last year production. I can only speculate but am I just imagining the shrinkage?

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    • Usually players start the year bigger and play their way to being smaller. With as hard as Kelly pushed them last year and is pushing them now, Shady may just be tired and too proud to admit it.

      He logged a lot of touches last year and is logging a higher touch per game average than he did last year.

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