EAGLES WORRIED ABOUT THEIR GUARDS

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/06/29
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , . 4 Comments

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THREE weeks ago I took heat from some fans when I said that Guard would be a problem for the Eagles this year. At the time Evan Mathis was still an Eagle, but I said he wouldn’t be for long, and I was right. No miracle there, since the Eagles had been doing everything to make that a reality. Also I’d already said that last year. (Said that about Todd Herremanns too.)

Fast forward three weeks and now it’s clear that “the roster currently has a major problem at offensive guard.”  Oh really?? You don’t f****n’ say.

Look, the point of this article isn’t to say I told you so. Well, it’s not the whole point. The primary point of this article is to brace my fellow fans. Honestly, at this point regardless of anything the Eagles do between now and Week One, the Guard position will still be a problem in 2015. Let me break it down to a point beyond debate.

We’re stuck with bad options: There are better players out there than the guy we’re signing today (John Moffitt), but each of them comes with a drawback that would preclude a wise team from investing long-term in them. Unlike Moffitt who has to prove that he’s back, the remaining players may be reluctant to play just one year in a scheme they don’t know.

All of our depth is bad: Were signing Moffitt today with the hopes that we’re getting a steal. That however only pans out if he starts. That means we have to start him to get any value out of him. Starting him means that we have to sit either Matt Tobin or Allen Barbre. So Tobin will sit.

Hey! Here’s a great question. If you’re willing to bench your starter for a guy who just spent 2 years on his couch, what does that say about your starter? Here’s another question. If you have to sign a guy off his couch instead of elevating someone else on your roster, what does that say about your depth?

GAME TIME! QB Sam Bradford needs a pocket to step up into, right? This is where it gets contentious between me and some fans. Some fans assume that the line will just come together since they’re all professionals. Those fans are pinheads.

The offensive line needs to communicate well to be able to function well. These guys hardly know each other, and their first significant live action won’t come until Week Three of the preseason. Oh, and by the way, the defensive players they’ll be facing are also professionals; and our division is returning mostly intact units manned by players who DO know each other.

We’re already at a disadvantage here both from a time and talent perspective. There is simply no way to catch up in 2015. When the Draft ended without a Guard being selected, the position’s 2015 fate was just about sealed. Now we’re getting signings like Jared Wheeler and John Moffitt served up to us. The pinheads can pretend to like it if they wish, and they can polish that turd to a high gloss if they like, but the truth is unless we trade for some SERIOUS help, Guard is dead weight for our team this year.

GIANT PUTO STEVE WEATHERFORD SPEAKS

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/06/28
Posted in: Crazy Talk, NFL, Players, Rants. Tagged: , , , , . 3 Comments

Until they beat us

THEY GOT MY BLOOD UP! I looked in on some of my Facebook groups only to find that giant puto (giants punter) Steve Weatherford was talking smack about our QB situation. And after what just happened to them at our hands in 2014?!?! Man, I’m just glad I don’t have his nerve in my tooth!

Look here, I don’t think much of our QB situation either, but I’m also not talking smack about a team that by all rights destroyed me last year either.  Look around and you won’t find me talking shit at all about the Packers. People bring up the Pack and I shut up; but when they leave, I be talkin’ again.

But the idea that a guy who plays for a bottom feeder, thinks he can score shots off us in the offseason is crazy. His team started in the basement and then kept digging until they hit RGIII. If not for that, the giants would be at the Earth’s core by now.

This is made worse by the fact that he plays on the same team with the Human Turnover Machine (a.k.a Eli Manning). Aside from being given Super Bowl MVP credit for two miracle catches (on badly placed balls), the HTM leaves his teammates little room to talk about someone else’s QB situation. Yet there was Weatherford with his gums flapping in the breeze.

I guess it was his way of ducking any questions about his own team. You know how haters are, they try to build themselves up, by pulling you down. My guess is that the giant P feels empty inside, and so he hopped on our team to give him that feeling of fulfillment that he isn’t getting at home. Notice how he couldn’t keep us out of his mouth?

But let me rest. Like I said, they got my blood up.

PETERS AND COX, COME ON MAN!

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/06/23
Posted in: Crazy Talk, Defense, Offense, Players, Rants. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 Comments

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EARLIER this month I was glad that Cornerback Byron Maxwell said he sees the Eagles in the Super Bowl this year. The thing is, Maxwell has been to the last two Super Bowls, so why would he set his sights lower now? Personally I loved the confidence.

But I think a couple Eagles players need to dial down the chest thumping a bit. Specifically I mean Left Tackle Jason Peters, and Defensive End Fletcher Cox.

Peters made news by saying that the Dallas Cowboys Offensive Line “can’t touch” ours. If you’re the sort of fan who gives merit to non-NFL rankings (and I don’t), then you may know that the Cowboys O-line was ranked above ours last year. If you go by NFL stats and standings (and I do), then you may know that our line finished behind the Cowboys in Rushing, gave up more sacks (actually just 2 more), more hits on the QB (64 to 53), and got our starter injured for half the year. Oh, and if you go by wins, we also lost the division to them.

Cox recently said that he believes our front seven should be ranked as the number one unit in the NFL. The Eagles had 49 sacks last year, but then again so did the Ravens, while the Bills grabbed 54. More than that, both teams gave up fewer yards rushing per game than the Eagles (Ravens 88.2, Bills 106.4, Eagles 110.7). That right there is two teams that out-performed our front seven. A solid argument could be made for the Jets, Lions and Broncos having stronger front sevens as well.

I’m all for a guy showing confidence in his team and unit, but you need to have something to hang your hat on when you shoot your mouth off. Maxwell can say that he knows what it means to get to a Super Bowl; but neither Peters nor Cox has ever won as much as a single playoff game between them. Peters has had 3 cracks at it (2009, 2010, 2013) and lost in the Wild Card round, every time. Cox was here for the 2013 loss to the Saints. So the stats nor the wins support their statements.

Look, if you can walk it, you can talk it. You can burn it, if you earn it. However, if all you can claim on your resume are failures, then all that squawking is just bullshit. It’s false bravado. Peters and Cox should be popping off about staying hungry, not imagining fake laurels to rest upon. Leave the predictions, and high-toned mouthing off, to the proven winners. Everyone else needs to be about the business of earning it.

LIKE JARED WHEELER? BACK UP A MINUTE.

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/06/15
Posted in: Conversations, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 Comments

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THE Eagles released Pro Bowl Guard Evan Mathis this week, and filled his spot with another Guard in Jared Wheeler. By all accounts Wheeler is a big guy coming in a 6’4 or 6’5 (depending on what you read) and 318-319 pounds. Beyond that there’s nothing really impressive here.

Wheeler was an undrafted free agent pick-up after last years Draft and since then he’s been on 4 rosters (San Fran, Seattle, Buffalo and Carolina). Philly makes his 5th stop. Since he was coached for a couple years in college by Eagles Offensive Line coach Jeff Stoutland, maybe that will help him, but I doubt it. In college Wheeler was a back-up player and Special Teamer, playing in 38 games at Miami but only starting 6. All 6 of his starts came in 2013, with zero in his final year. That’s pretty significant considering that that is when teams try to push players that they feel could make some hay at the pro level. Again, Wheeler was allowed to sit.

So what we have here is a career college back-up, who’s bounced onto 5 rosters in just over a year, and been bounced off of 4 of them so far. I get the impression that we are dealing with a camp body here. If we’re gonna be diving for pearls, I’d keep my eye on Cole Manhart. I told you about him already (remember this) . I’m not claiming he’ll be a Hall-of-Famer, but he’s worth a long look at least.

LOVE MY EAGLES, KELLY NOT SO MUCH

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/06/12
Posted in: Coaching, Fans, Rants. Tagged: , , , , . 9 Comments

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CHIP Kelly hasn’t done shit yet, but there is an entire section of the Eagles fan base (I’ll call them the Chip Worshipers, C-dubs for short) that has decided that unless you agree with everything Kelly does, you’re a bad fan. If you disagree with anything Kelly does, the C-dubs go right to saying things like “You miss Reid, don’t you?” or “You’re still bitter over Reid, aren’t you?”. They’re our version of Cowboys fans who can’t go 30 seconds without saying “5 rings” or the word “hater”.

The truth however, is that I’m an EAGLES fan, not a Kelly fan. Until he actually gets my team where I want my team, I owe him nothing. This isn’t about Andy Reid, or Ray Rhodes, or Rich Kotite, or even Buddy Ryan. It’s not even about Chip Kelly, really. It should be about the Eagles. I’m invested in my team getting better, not in Kelly or his methods being proved right. Yet that’s where the discussions keep being centered. But let’s step back and just look at the team under Kelly shall we.

In two seasons he’s gone 20-12, mostly feeding off of sub .500 teams, and being manhandled by teams that would eventually see the playoffs. His best season so far was the one where he kept Reid’s roster mostly intact against a near last-place schedule, then rode it to 10-6 and a playoff appearance. That had the look of promise and since I was against his hiring to begin with, I was putting on my bib to eat some crow. (FYI: I was also not a fan of Reid’s hiring, but Big Red won me over in the middle of his first year.)

Kelly’s second season was riddled with subtle regressions, but the C-dubs saw 10-6 again and that was enough for them. All year long, regardless of QB, our offense would stall and sputter. All year long our defense failed to make adjustments. Brian Dawkins himself weighed in on that one . We had big holes on either side of the ball that opponents kept exploiting and it led to our collapse.

The Eagles added a lot of shiny pieces this offseason, but by and large we have gotten fundamentally worse over the last two years. By “fundamentally worse” I mean in the trenches. Fans of this sport are familiar with the axiom “games are won or lost in the trenches”. So let’s look at our lines shall we.

Our Offensive line led the league in rushing yards with 2,566 yards in 2013, they were 9th in 2014 with 1,992 yards. That’s less productive. Though sacks and hits went down from 125 to 96, that had more to do with the ball coming out quicker, which is also why our yards per pass dropped from 8.7 to 7.4, and our passes over 20 yards dropped from 98 to 76, along with a QB rating drop from 102.7 to 84.8. This is also less productive. (Before you lay this decline at Mark Sanchez’s feet, know that he was actually the better of our two QB’s last year.)

Almost none of our defensive playmaking is done by our starting defensive line. I use the word ‘starting’ for a reason and I’ll come back to that. Although our sacks ratcheted up from 37 in 2013, to 49 in 2014, that is almost entirely attributable to our OLB’s and back-up Defensive End Vinny Curry. Curry has out-performed every pass rusher on this team for two years except for Connor Barwin, yet still sits on the bench waiting for some other team (maybe the giants) to give him a chance to start.  In the meantime our starting line’s sack production dropped from 6 sacks in 2013, to 5 in 2014, a mere 11 over two years. Put in perspective, Chiefs NT Dontari Poe has amassed 10.5 sacks in that time frame. Meanwhile Curry still sits.

These are not improvements. They are clear slides. Worse still, despite the Offensive Line’s slide from 2013 to 2014, we just lost both of our starting Guards for 2015. This team has only gotten soft in areas where playoff teams tend to be strong. In particular those areas are the stabilization of their offenses, and the maintenance of their defensive explosiveness. Chip Kelly’s teams don’t do these things and the C-dubs can’t stand when you bring that up.

You may ask, “Why or how could a fan say these things?” Simple. Because they happen to be the truth. I want my team to be better, and when I don’t see that happening I want it fixed. If a loved one was screwing up you’d say something, right? Well I love my Eagles. That Super Bowl parade fans want so badly, won’t happen if the team doesn’t become good enough to win one. Because unlike some fans, our rivals aren’t resting on what they did last year.

If you know football and aren’t concerned with ratings or sales, then you can be brutally honest about what is clearly spray-painted on the wall. Most sports experts won’t flat out say that what Kelly is doing is wrong; instead they generally opt for “We’ll see” type statements. Watch any national NFL coverage and you’ll see examples what I mean. The reason for that by the way, is that Philadelphia is the 4th largest television market in the U.S., so sports shows have no interest in pissing us off, for fear that we’ll tune that show out for one that talks “nicer” about us.  

I don’t operate by ratings or sales, so I can say things that you don’t want to hear. Instead of merely entertaining you, I can inform you. Unlike the Spadaros and Lawlors of the world, the Eagles don’t pay my bills, so I don’t have to talk around the obvious holes and attempt to spin shit into gold. I can rah-rah as hard as anyone, but when truth needs speaking, I’m pretty much the only person who’s going to say certain things to you.

Here’s some perspective. You may love America, but hate Barack Obama. That doesn’t mean that you’ll give up your citizenship just because he’s the President. You just decide that you’ll wait this administration out because he can only last (8 years) so long in office. Same thing with Chip Kelly. I’ll be an Eagles fan long after he bails on us for the collegiate ranks, so basically I’ve decided to wait him out. I love my Eagles. Chip Kelly? Not so much.

CARY WILLIAMS MIGHT BE RIGHT

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/06/11
Posted in: Coaching, Conspiracy Corner, Defense, NFL, Players. Tagged: , , . 10 Comments

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THIS week Cary Williams said that Chip Kelly’s conditioning system “didn’t necessarily work”. Considering that this team has run out of steam down the stretch for two straight years, (especially the Offensive and Defensive Lines), I’m thinking Cary Williams might be right about that.

You can line up with Kelly if you want, but from where I sit, it looks like Williams knows more about winning in the NFL. Williams has won a Super Bowl as a starter. In his only playoff game, Kelly failed to make any decent adjustments at home, against a dome team that was running an insultingly vanilla gameplan against their strengths. To see the playoffs and advance through them, Williams had to beat good teams repeatedly. Kelly is outcoached by +.500 teams on a regular basis.

Only one of these men has proven himself worthy of the NFL’s best.

More than that, upon our release of Williams, a team that has made a habit out of Super Bowls didn’t hesitate to snatch him up and peg him as a starter. Sorry folks, but I’d say Pete Carroll knows a bit more about what it takes to win in the NFL than Kelly does. Argue that point at your peril.

Kelly came to the NFL looking to change how some things are done, or to show that he knows a better way of doing them. So far he really hasn’t. Fact is, until he produces enviable results, his methods are largely going to be seen as quirky instead of innovative. I have yet to hear any sports pundits dismiss Kelly’s methods, but I have yet to hear anyone embrace them either.  

Kelly’s conditioning system was built for players 17-21 years old, who only had to last 12 games, on a roster twice the size of an NFL roster. You can run those guys into the ground and if one or five guys can’t go, you’re drowning in depth anyway. The NFL includes guys in their mid 20’s through late 30’s, many of whom have injury histories, and depth is far more limited. Running your roster into the ground, instead of resting them… You can only push the human body so far before it stops building up and starts breaking down instead. You can get away with more of that when people are younger. (Remember being 17-21 years old?) Imagine if at your current age you had to do your work day TWICE a day, for the same money you’d make to do that same job ONCE if you worked anywhere else. Now imagine that despite all the extra work you put in, your rivals (working half as hard) reaped better results.

This is where the player’s questions come from. This is where their doubt comes from. This is where Kelly needs to step back, look at his results and at least consider, that Cary Williams might be right.

LINE RILEY COOPER UP ON THE OUTSIDE

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/06/09
Posted in: Conversations, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

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NELSON Agholor starting at WR on the outside is almost a given at this point. Many fans are split over whether or not Jordan Matthews should play the other outside spot, or remain in the slot. (Personally I like the idea of him on the outside, as I said in this past article. ) Other options that fans are discussing for the outside, are Miles Austin or Josh Huff due to their speed and ability to potentially stretch defenses.

What I find curious is the way fans seem to have just written off Riley Cooper. We all know that the contract extension he got last year, makes it stupid to cut him right now due to dead money (see the contract) . That all-but guarantees him a roster spot in Philly this year, unless some team is willing to trade us for him. Whether people like it or not, Cooper got that extension because the coach sees something that he likes in him. But what could that be? Let’s take a look.

Cooper has a few things in his favor actually. Standing 6’4 and 230 pounds, he is the most physically imposing WR on the roster right now. His run blocking is generally well regarded. Since being called upon as a starter two years ago, he has never missed a game. His first fumble as an NFL player came last year, during his fifth season. He’s used to catching wounded ducks from Tim Tebow. If DeSean Jackson can keep drawing double-coverage, Cooper could have another year like…Oh wait. Never mind.

To be honest even Cooper’s best year wasn’t that big of a deal considering the circumstances surrounding how it happened. Under those circumstances another WR would have made more of Jackson drawing so much attention. In fact, Jeremy Maclin frequently did just that. The boiled down truth is that the Eagles should have let Cooper walk last year, but instead they shot themselves in the foot, and gave themselves little flexibility with him.

Today it would be an extra two million and change to free up a roster spot by cutting Cooper. However, it could be looked at as an investment! Look, given the commitments to players like Agholor and Matthews, the blatant favoritism of Huff, the upside of rookie Devante Davis, and the speed and kick return experience of Quron Pratt, eating three million or so (only for this year), by cutting Cooper and Miles Austin now, frees up practice reps and time to develop all of these young receivers. It allows us to potentially field a stable of young studs.

People aren’t discussing Cooper because they have too many other reasons not to. We know what he is, and more importantly, after five years, we know what he isn’t. The smart play for the long-term, is to line Cooper up wide. I mean wide like way wide. Not just along the hash marks, the numbers, or even the sideline, wide. More like the parking lot, wide. Like playing bocce ball at 10th and Carpenter, wide. Or waiting for a cab at Chelten and Germantown, wide.

The wider out we can get Cooper (and Austin) the better for this team it’ll be in the long run.

EAGLES FANS: GUARD YOUR OPTIMISM

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/06/06
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , . 4 Comments

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ALL the talk about Sam Bradford, and DeMarco Murray has Eagles fans giddy for the 2015 season. Because RB Murray is an undoubtedly talented player and QB Sam Bradford is a former #1 overall Draft pick, many fans look at these additions and feel like were gonna make some noise this year. At first glance it does looks like we upgraded at QB, and got a decent replacement for LeSean McCoy, but if you look a little deeper the are some big questions. The biggest question is how good can we really expect the Offense to be if the Offensive Line is only so-so?

Yes, I said Offensive Line. You remember them. Five guys who stand about yey high, and have some input on the success or failure of every single play the Eagles run all year long. Yeah those guys. Fact is, only a couple of them are really all that good right now.

We released long-time starter Todd Herremans this offseason, because it was time to. You can hardly fault the Eagles for that. We’re also (for some reason) in the process of trying to give away Pro Bowl G Evan Mathis. Considering that C Jason Kelce isn’t the most (ahem) “physical” blocker, it makes me wonder where Murray’s success running the ball inside will come from, as well as the protection for a delicate Bradford.

I have no issue with the idea of the Birds moving on from players. Just make sure you get a DECENT replacement at least! We made no such move this offseason and now we’re stuck with a handful of Guards who run the gamut from career back-up to undrafted project.

Offensive Line coach Jeff Stoutland is under the impression (read here)  that career back-up/journeyman Allen Barbre is underrated, but will be the LG for the foreseeable future, and that Matt Tobin is the answer at RG.

That concerns me a bit, since Tobin played well enough last  year to be demoted for Andrew Gardner. Gardner was so impressive that it took him 5 years to start a game. He started 2 then was put back on the bench until Tobin was demoted. After that Gardner would start 6 consecutive games, while finishing out the year at RG. He was so impressive that now he’s behind the guy he was promoted over. Exciting stuff.

Either that or there is no depth chart depending on which paragraph from the latest report out of Eagles camp you choose to believe. On the one hand Stoutland has all the confidence in the world about certain guys working with the Ones, then later he says things like this: “I feel good about the guard situation. We’ve got a lot of good players around here,” Stoutland said. “Right now it’s to find the right person, the right people, to play those positions. There’s no depth chart right now. Right now we’re trying to find the right mix, so every day it’s a different person in there, getting a look at him on film and just evaluating the critical factors as they are in there.”

Here’s the truth: Question marks at ANY position make that position a weakness and not a strength.

Here’s more truth: DeMarco Murray had the year he had last year behind what many say is the best O-Line in football.

Little more truth: This unit was ranked by at least one publication as the #2 in the NFL in 2014; but if you’re an Eagles fan you SAW how those games actually went, and how this unit performed in big moments or against good teams. And I’m gonna leave that right there.

So yeah, we added a few shiny new weapons, but if we can’t keep our pocket QB’s upright, what are the odds that Tim Tebow can make much use of those weapons? If you’re banking on the Eagles having a dominant line with 2/5 of it being less than true starting quality, then you’re probably thinking that Sam Bradford will play all 16 games too. Just some friendly advice if you do: You may want to put away your valuable or breakable possessions before the season starts.

THE 46 DEFENSE BACK IN PHILLY

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/06/02
Posted in: Coaching, Crazy Talk, Defense, Fans, NFL, Players. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 Comments

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THERE’S talk of the Jets possibly running the 46 Defense this year, and as an Eagles fan (of a certain age) I can’t hear the words “46 Defense” and not smile and think back to a simpler time. A time when the NFL was afraid of our team, our fans, and even the turf in the stadium.

Teams dreaded having to play the Eagles. It wasn’t just “Oh man they’re so good, they’re gonna kick our butts” type dread. It was ‘BodyBag Game’ type dread. It was “Seth Joyner  twisting up Jeff Rutledge’s facemask” type dread. It was our career-ending, “Knee-eating turf” and “700 Level” type dread. Big, strong, alpha males from all over this country, outright FEARED coming here.

The words “46 Defense” has the ability to take some of us back to a time that almost seems like a fairytale when we reflect on it. If you became an Eagles fan after Buddy Ryan, then you have no frame of reference to compare it to. Nothing Jim Johnson (god bless him) ever did could compare to the unit we had from about 1989 to 92. And everyone to follow JJ so far has ranked somewhere between the Eagles either playing a joke on us fans or sucker punching us while we kneel in prayer at church.

It got me to thinking about how leaky our defense is now, and how it would be great if we could put our 1990 Defense on the field with our 2013 Offense. That would be awesome wouldn’t it? (For one it would mean that Reggie White and Andre Waters were still alive.) Also with as good as that defense was at causing three-and-outs, the Eagles would seemingly always have the ball. And with LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson still in Eagle green, a triple digit score wouldn’t be out of the question.

BUT, since we can’t pull out a defense from a quarter century ago, why not just think about who we’d like to replace Bill Davis with when he’s fired after this season. Now is also a nice time to think about what kind of system we’d like to see run here. Personally, I’d like a 4-3 Monster instead of a typical base 4-3. The only problem is I think we’re a 3-4 team as long as Kelly is the Head Coach.

That said, I can’t think of a 3-4 system that I really like. I can think of 3-4 defenses I like, but that has far more to do with the players (generally LB’s) than necessarily the system they ran. Fan’s here seem to think our 3-4 will be better this year with Kiko Alonso being added, Brandon Graham now starting and DeMeco Ryans returning. Maybe it will, but I seriously doubt it.

The problems with Bill Davis’s system are in base principles of how to apply pressure and what is sacrificed in order to do so. It works fine against bad teams, but in San Fran, Arizona and now here, it can’t run with the big dogs. When your biggest issues are your core principles, who you plug in really doesn’t mean much.

However when you play sound, solid football… Man, I’m telling you, I do miss those days.

REAL EAGLES PRIDE

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/05/30
Posted in: Crazy Talk, Fans, Players, Rants. Tagged: , , , , , . 1 Comment

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YESTERDAY I wrote an article about Eagles CB Byron Maxwell guaranteeing that the Eagles will play in Super Bowl 50. While I was not a big fan of the Maxwell signing originally, I was glad to see him put that pressure on himself and his teammates. Other fans were not so happy, and would have rather Maxwell not said anything at all.

While I made mention of the positive effect that publicly stating a goal can have, some fans were quick (too quick) to point out the Vince Young “Dream Team” comment from 2011-2012. Because the Eagles went 4-12 that year, some fans are now afraid of the notion that an Eagles player would make plain what should be the goal and the attitude of EVERY NFL player. Especially in the month of May, for fuck’s sake!

I see Eagles fans running their mouths about the team “gonna win the division” and “go 14-2, 15-1, 16-0” every year. But GOD FORBID a player does it! They’re just the people who’re actually supposed to produce the predictions that fans keep running their mouths about. Apparently people who watch the game get to publicly have expectations, but people who play aren’t to do the same. I call bullshit on that.

Personally I’m sick of feeling like I want to win more than the players do. I’m tired of all these humble, good-guy types who don’t have enough inner fire to win a playoff game. Meanwhile Seattle and San Francisco, Baltimore and New England make a habit of playoff runs. I’m actually glad an Eagles player is stepping up. And you know what, if you’re one of those loudmouths who like to tell rival fans that we’ll win the division, you should be too. Hell, all the player is doing, is backing up what you said. Unless you didn’t really mean it when you said it.

Some fans have been scarred for life by the words “Dream Team”. The media hopped on two words from a newly signed, back-up QB who was trying to rebuild his career and his life; and fans are hurt because they chose to run with those words, instead of dismissing them as the words of a newly signed back-up QB who was trying to rebuild his career and his life. Meanwhile today Vince Young’s words are treated like nuclear waste, when his only crime was publicly stating his belief in the team he played for. Shame on an Eagles player for doing such a thing. That’s the attitude of some fans. Not me. How about you?