schedule

All posts tagged schedule

THE EAGLES 2021 SCHEDULE

Posted by The BEAST on 2021/05/13
Posted in: Conversations, Crazy Talk, NFL, Preview, Rants, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!??? What the fuck is a Week 14 Bye?! We play FIVE, count ‘em FIVE, games in October, three of which are road games.

Here’s our October:

We start with a home game vs the Chiefs, probably getting kicked in the nuts before we head down to Carolina, in what should be a coin flip. Then on a short week, we get Tampa Bay. We follow that with a plane to Vegas, then back home to practice, then a plane to Detroit. All in a span of 28 days.

Unless we can make some hay in November, we might be already circling the drain by the time our Bye Week gets here.

What the fuck is a Week 14 Bye?! Will someone tell me that!?! Who the fuck does that to someone? “Easiest schedule” my wide, hairy ass! I hope the NFL schedule makers get uncontrollable diarrhea in a traffic jam.

The worst part is, that not knowing this coaching staff, it’s impossible to look at the schedule and forecast any W’s. At least with real confidence. It was already an uncertain year, but this schedule feels like someone handed a drowning man an anchor.

EAGLES 2020 SCHEDULE PREVIEW

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/05/08
Posted in: Conversations, Defense, NFL, Offense, Preview, Rivals, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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FIRST of all let me say, that this schedule is very nice! A Week 10 Bye would have been better than the Week 8 Bye that we got. However, with the uncertainty surrounding how much of this season will actually get played, while not perfect, this schedule is really really good.

This is a much better schedule than 2019’s, which I said last year was a trap. Because to hell with who’s on the schedule, it’s when the games fall that matters. Last year was loaded with traps. This year…not so much.

Understand, the Eagles won’t have a stout Defense in 2020. There is no feared pass-rusher. Our second level is a question mark. The Secondary just lost it’s leader. So for us to win 11 games, we’re going to have to put up a ton of points this year, and the roster has been stacked to do exactly that.

Home games. We get back to back homes games, and we get a stretch of three home games in the first half of the season. So from Pittsburgh through the Bye (W5 to W10), the Eagles never have to leave the state. As one die-hard Eagles fans pointed out,

no plane no plane

Away games. We get three sets of back to back road games. San Fran and Pittsburgh (W4, W5), are early in the year. Then coming off of our Bye (W10, W11), it’s just 2 hours up 95 to NY. The following week we don’t even break the time-zone flying to Cleveland. The only set that concerns me in terms of travel, are (W15, W16) at Arizona and Dallas.

Games that flat out concern me are

*Baltimore (W6) because running QB’s give us fits.

*Seattle (W12) because we have never beaten their running QB.

*Green Bay (W13) because it’s Lambeau in December. We beat them in 2019, but that game was in September. 

*New Orleans (W14) because like Seattle, they seem to have our number.

From a knee-jerk expectation standpoint, that still hints at a 12 – 4 record. Not bad, but let’s look closer at this thing. Let’s level the playing field and assume everybody stays healthy on all the rosters.

1. Washington. As long as they run a 3-4 defense, they’ll never beat this team. Especially without a QB. Right Alex?

Leg injury

2. LA Rams. Doug Pederson has Sean McVay’s number. Plus the Rams lost a ton of talent.

3. Cincinnati. Expect the Eagles defense to make life hard on the rookie QB.

4. San Francisco. Teams have tape on the 49ers. Andy Reid will give Doug the blueprint.

5. Pittsburgh. Getting their QB back is a plus, but now his weapons are just average.

6. Baltimore. This one will be trouble if nothing is done about our LB’s.

7. New York giants. Their new coaching staff is on it’s first short week.

garrett clapping

8. Dallas. Cowboys second straight road game vs a rested Eagles team.

9. BYE WEEK 7 – 1 (projected)

10. New York giants. Rested Eagles overwhelm inferior opponent.

11. Cleveland. Winnable game, but too much cockiness causes a needed stumble.

12. Seattle. No move in the offseason was made to shore-up their 27th ranked pass defense. The Eagles come into this game with weapons this year.

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13. Green Bay. It’s Lambeau. In December. Those four words, in that order, are terrifying.

14. New Orleans. Winnable game. Third road game in a row, for a team that had a W6 bye.

15. Arizona. Not nearly enough effort went into keeping their tiny QB upright. Big mistake. Biiiig mistake. 

16. Dallas. Our second road game in a row. Whoever needs this game more, will win it.

17. Washington. This one gets goofy. Eagles back-ups are playing before the half.

piano

Likely 11 – 5

The only game that feels like a predetermined loss is Baltimore. That too could change if the Eagles sign a LB, or one of the young LB’s prove me wrong and becomes a stud. So yeah, the Eagles had better sign someone. 

 

 

DEAR SCHEDULING GODS…

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/02/05
Posted in: Conversations, NFL, Preview, Super Bowl, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

source

EARLY Bye weeks kill Super Bowl chances. Thus, I am standing in the rain, bare-chested, appealing to the schedule gods to hear this mortal’s plea: O’ YE GODS OF SCHEDULING THINGS! Hear my plea, and give the 2020 Eagles a Bye Week during the Sweet Spot!

The Sweet Spot is that period between Week 8 and Week 12. Of the last 10 Super Bowl champions, 8 have had their Bye in week 8 or later. Even the two outliers had week 7 Byes, and each faced a SB opponent who also had an early Bye.

It’s that mid to late season breather around the holidays, which helps teams rest, and get a little healthier. The static week also allows the coaching staff to assess where the team is, and how to get the most out of it, specifically vs their remaining regular season opponents.

My wet dream is a Week 11 Bye. Ten games down with an 8 – 2 record. A guarantee of no worse than .500, but just enough losses to keep the team from dipping into arrogance, or complacency. Six games to go, chasing homefield advantage,

Then parade.

None of the Week 4 nonsense that we were served up in 2016. Bleh!

I’m hoping for another parade to come up Broad Street. History says that for that to happen, we need a Bye in the Sweet Spot. So I’m putting it out into The Universe. I’m asking for it. I’m steering it towards us. Thus, I am standing in the rain, bare-chested, appealing to the schedule gods.

THE 2019 SCHEDULE: PRETTY SNEAKY SIS.

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/04/18
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, NFL, playoffs, Preview, Rants, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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AT first this schedule looks like a pretty fair deal. On the plus side, there’s only one short week, and it’s early in the season. We open at home vs a shaky division rival. So we get a great tone setter game. We also get to play the AFC East, and the NFC North. (And any rival who points out how soft our schedule is, is also playing these teams.)

So it doesn’t look bad, until you look closer. CLOSER!

It’s a set-up! It’s a trap!

This schedule can either be our ticket to a first round Bye or the reason we sit out the playoffs.

First, those three road games in a row, jump out at you. But, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before (2017), right? In the middle of that world tour is a division rival, who can max themselves out, because unlike us, they have a Bye following the game.

Did you notice the short week before we go to Lambeau?

How about the fact that we only play back to back home games, ONCE all year long?

WHAT MADNESS

But the worst part is, the season ending on four straight divisional games. FOUR STRAIGHT DIVISIONAL GAMES! Unless the Eagles enter that stretch 12 – 0 or 11 – 1, we still have to claw to either maintain, or acquire a playoff berth, because any loss we suffer during that period would help whichever team sits just ahead of us, or just behind us.

That sort of week in and week out adrenaline surge, essentially puts the Eagles in playoff mode a full month before the playoffs actually start. That potentially means the Eagles have to burn playoff hot for TWO STRAIGHT MONTHS, instead of just one. That sort of intensity is almost impossible to sustain through a Super Bowl win.

It’s a pretty sneaky schedule.

THE 2018 SCHEDULE

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/04/20
Posted in: Conversations, Reviews, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

 

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YOU can’t tell, but right now, I’m dancing in my chair. For the second year in a row, the schedule makers have smiled upon Philadelphia, and given the Eagles a pretty good schedule. It’s not a great schedule, but it’s a pretty good one. It’s also a tough one.

While a good schedule doesn’t mean a team will win their division, a bad one can easily act as an obstacle, or magnify the effect of existing obstacles like opponents, and injuries.

This year’s schedule includes a Week 9 Bye. Not too shabby. That’s a week off, smack-dab in the literal middle of the 17 week season. Eight games on, one week off, then eight games on. While I’m glad it’s not an early Bye (meaning anything earlier than Week 6), it would be better if it it fell on Week 10, 11 or 12. But Week 9 will do.

It’s a good schedule, but we do get plucked in the eye a few times. It’s a tough run, but there are only two points where we have short turnarounds of less than 7 days:

  • Week 6 at the giants, after facing Minnesota 4 days earlier. However, that’s not so bad considering that the giants are also on a 4 day turnaround, after visiting the Panthers. So both of our teams will be about as tired as the other. Sauce for the goose.
  • Week 14 at Dallas, after we duke it out with Washington 6 days earlier. A double stack of division games! Yummy! And we get to go on the road to Dallas! After they’ve had 10 days of rest. (Me no likey, the this one here.) Sometimes the placement of a game can make it hard to win it. This is one of those.

Then, after two weeks of war and emotional exhaustion vs Washington, and Dallas, we get to play the Rams in their home, on Week 15. This three week stretch could be the most dangerous part of the year.

In fact, the entire second half of the season is loaded with land mines. Five division games, and meetings with both the Saints and the Rams. All of which is fine, because a champion should be served a challenge.

It’s a tough schedule, but it’s a good one.

I REALLY LIKE THIS SCHEDULE

Posted by The BEAST on 2017/04/20
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, NFL, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

(article)NEWS FLASH!!!

DEAR Schedule Makers, thank you for not fucking my team over this year. Also, thank you for not putting all the division games at the end of the year, which has a way of making half the season irrelevant. Folks, in case you can’t tell, I really like this schedule.

We have a Week 10 Bye, where 14 days elapse between games. That gives our guys some time to let bruises heal, small sorenesses to alleviate and legs to freshen. This is GOOOOOOD, folks. Fresh legs and then a “Get Hype!” game against a division opponent. Oh, and did I mention it’s a road game, which means the pressure to win is mostly on the home team.

My favorite games are Week 1 and Week 17.

Week 17 has my two favorite teams being served up to me on Christmas Day. I get Football for Christmas, and no matter who wins, I get to smile about it. If there are playoff implications, then I likely get to watch a hell of a game to boot. I have to love that.

Week 1 has us going against a Redskins team that has had our number for a few years now. Not winning that game would say that, we still need to prove we’re better than last season’s team. No big deal since well duh… it would just be Week 1. A win however, says that we’re already better than last season, or that the Redskins are already worse. Either way, it still would put us over them in the standings.

This is a good schedule! It’s a fun schedule! I like this one! Can I take it home, Pa? Can I? Yeah. In case you didn’t get the hint, I really like this schedule.

THE EAGLES 2016 SCHEDULE

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/04/15
Posted in: Conversations, NFL, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . 3 Comments

 

THERE is so much to hate about this schedule that I hardly know where to start. It seems almost as if it was designed to trip the team up, regardless of how well we’re doing at any point in the year. I have to say the schedule makers showed true artistry and absolute mastery in subtly, yet thoroughly, fucking us over this year. I almost have to stand back and admire the job they’ve done.

2016 article schedule

Right at the top of the schedule is a home game on 9/11. Granted, most teams are playing on that day as well, but we open at home that day. So basically you can throw out the purely celebratory vibe that would normally accompany a home opener. Nothing throws an air of triviality onto watching sports like a national day of mourning. Thanks NFL!!

After three games (two non-conference), we get a Bye Week for some reason. I hate early Bye Weeks. They occur before the real wear and tear sets in enough for that week off to mean something. Also it means that in the event that we do win the division, we have to do it on a 12 week dead-run, with no chance to get a breath along the way.

Even more fun is not getting to play back to back home games until the last two weeks of the season. The traveling we do during weeks 5 through 9 would be enough to fatigue some teams. Add to that that 3 of those 5 games are road games against division opponents, and you get an idea of how a simple thing like scheduling can de-rail a season, or at least put it in jeopardy early on. See what I mean by subtle artistry?

Since half of our division games are in the last 4 weeks, there is no way for us to run away with the NFC East unless we head into Week 14 undefeated; and with a Seattle, Green Bay, Cincinnati sandwich (Weeks 11-13), that’s not at all likely to happen. So even if the Eagles are 8 – 4 heading into Week 14, the division will still likely be very much up in the air. That means that Head Coach Doug Pederson likely has to run the team into the ground in order to secure a playoff spot.

Look, I expected that the schedule makers wouldn’t do us any favors, but this is almost like they put a contract out on us. That’s not to say that we can’t win the division. We can, we should and we likely will. Especially since our opponents themselves (excepting our recent history vs Seattle and Green Bay) all look very beatable. But gall dang! This year’s schedule is of no help to us whatsoever.

SCHEDULE

THE SCHEDULE MAY HELP US WIN THE DIVISION

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/04/22
Posted in: Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Preview. Tagged: , , , . 3 Comments

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LOOKS like the Eagles actually caught a break for once. With the way the schedule breaks, winning the division became a little more possible for the Birds. Provided we come out hot at the beginning of the year. That’s a much better deal than we got last season.

Last year I said the schedule was set up to work against us, and look at what happened. While the schedule wasn’t the only reason for our collapse last year, it was a big part of it. Many fans didn’t think the schedule could be a problem at all, because they just look at who is on the schedule. Otherwise they haven’t the slightest clue as to how to read one. Yet here you are, learning a valuable fan skill, because you know there is no better fan than one who knows what they’re talking about; and because you dear reader are working to be that better fan.

 

First let’s look at what the schedule isn’t:

There are no road trips longer than 2 weeks, and no short weeks other than the one before Thanksgiving, but that will be against an opponent (Lions) also coming off of a short week, so there’ll be no rest disadvantage.

Also both times this year where we play back to road games, we’re not talking coast to coast trips (Jets/Redskins) (Lions/Patriots), so players internal clocks aren’t likely to be disturbed much.  Last year down the stretch that became a problem. Especially with the Offensive Line’s performance. Not a problem in 2015 though.

 

Now let’s look at what the schedule is:

The Week 8 Bye is a little early for my taste, but it’s not like we have it in week 5 or 6. So we didn’t do too badly there.

We get a three week homestand right around the end of the season which normally could pose a threat of players getting stale. However with an emotional return by LeSean McCoy and a divisional game against the Redskins, both sandwiched around a Cardinals game (which in itself could have Wild Card implications), there are no chances for a trap game among those three. It even has the chance to be a franchise defining 3 game stretch.

What concerns me is playing 4 division games by Week 10. Starting the year even 3-3 could be the kiss of death, unless those wins are all divisional. The only team that could make up for an early stumble is the Redskins since they’re the only team that still has 4 division games Week 12 and on. The rest of us play 4 by Week 10.

 

On the whole I like this schedule better than last year’s. Then again ask me how I feel about it after Week 6.

THE EAGLES SCHEDULE IS A SET-UP!

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/04/28
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner. Tagged: , . 2 Comments

Cheer: Philadelphia-Eagles-Logo

THE Eagles regular season record will be 11-5. Or 7-9. Or 9-7. Before we get into predicting records let’s get a look at the schedule here. It’s been out for days now and you’ve no doubt read all the predictions. But what about reading the schedule itself?

First, let’s look at what it isn’t:

There are no home-stands or road-trips of more than 2 weeks. So it should prevent players from getting too stale.

 

Now let’s just look at the schedule itself for what it is:

Early in the season we get 3 “punch you in the mouth” games (Redskins, 49ers, Rams) in a row, followed by a divisional home game against the Giants.

This looks like 4 straight battles followed by an early Bye Week. Normally I don’t like the Bye this early, but this year we may need it right where it is. (Thank you schedule makers.)

November has 5 games crammed into it, with it alternating home/away for all 5 weeks. It favors the road 3 to 2, but that’s nothing worth complaining about.

There is only one short week all season long (Nov 23 – Nov 27). (So far so good?)

The fatigue factor could be of some concern in the second half of the season, since the Eagles traditionally tend to play a lot of 1pm EST games. This year a number of those games don’t start in that time period. Not a big deal for most Head Coaches, but Chip Kelly likes his practices to mirror game times. Either he has to adjust his approach, or he seriously risks throwing off his own player’s circadian rhythms. (This could be the biggest hurdle of the season by the way.)

The last 5 weeks are a road straight through Hell. The emotional toll of those weeks all coming rapid fire could mentally exhaust any team. Closing out on the road for the last 2 weeks after a Cowboy/Seattle/Cowboy sandwich, has to be someone’s idea of sick joke. By then, if the Redskins game has any playoff implications whatsoever, that could end up as one of the most brutal games these two teams have ever played.

 

All told, I don’t like how this schedule is set up. It’s easy on the eye if you just look at the “who”, but a closer inspection of the “when” makes it look like that thing where someone gets on all fours behind you, to make it easier for another person to push you over.

Jerk the players all around the clock, then put them through a 5 week mental meat grinder vs the division and the Super Bowl Champion, all as a prelude to the playoffs IF we make it? Man, I was born in Philly, I know a set-up when I see one.