Monday Morning Mehta 11/13/06

Edition # 184
November 13, 2006

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The Eagles win a game just about as sloppy as the weather yesterday 27-3 over division rival Redskins in a rain soaked game. Let's breakdown what happened....

Game Positives:

- A win is a win. There wasn't much pretty about this game except the scoreboard. Winning 27-3 looks impressive on paper, and we could just leave it at that. But for a team that has struggled the last month, playing good football was just as important to as the score, and later I'll whine about the usual things I see wrong with this team.

- Brian Dawkins.

- Run vs. Pass ratio! We ran the ball! WOW. Imagine that concept. To turn a 27-3 game into a shorter game by burning the clock, running the ball instead of airing it out and giving the Redskins the ball the whole 2nd half! The Eagles dominated time of possession in the 2nd half, which is definitely a positive from this game.
- Sheldon Brown. Anybody who scores 7 points from the defensive side should get a positive according to me. But Brown had a few very nice pass defenses, and battling Santana Moss is no small chore.

- I can't believe I'm about to do this. Michael Lewis. There's something about him at linebacker that works well (he lines up as the 6th DB on nickle packages). He'll get bullied around if they use him on short yardage situations, but on 3rd and long he's proving to be a nice fit right now. I see a lot of similarities between him and Adam Archuletta, both hard hitters that can't cover worth a lick.

Game Negatives:

- They played like crap. If you saw the game, you know what I mean. Donovan McNabb had a subpar game, there were two or three bad defensive penalties (facemask AGAIN this time by Darwin Walker) and there was an inexplicable timeout on a FG attempt by Andy Reid.

- Run Defense. This should scare Eagles fans the most from yesterday's game. The Redskins were getting 4 & 5 yards at will on the Eagles.

The big hoopla after the Eagles game was Marty Mornhinwg calling the plays for Andy Reid. Three points on this:

1. Reid's done this before. Brad Childress called the plays many times the past few years. Nothing changed.
2. NO!!! Mornhinweg isn't exactly Bill Walsh!!?!? As a rule of thumb anyone ever associated with the Detroit Lions shouldn't be allowed to run an offense. If you've been infected with the Lions virus (and specifically Matt Millen), you need to be quarantined.
3. If Mornhingweg has success maybe he'll try to buy out my Monday Morning registered trademark for millions of dollars.

Note: There are two Eagles players that have changed their names lately. Tra Thomas now must be called William Thomas, and Wil Peterson must be called William James. It doesn't make much sense to me either, don't worry.

I wish Donte Stallworth could stay on the field for 16 games, but I guess now we know why the Saints dumped his behind (that, and also, have you seen Maques Colston this year?? Dude from Hofstra's a bigtime player)

I would hope Joe Gibbs takes a look at what Tony Romo has done to the Cowboys offense, and starts Jason Campbell very soon. Well, for the Eagles sake, I don't mind seeing Brunell at all.

Overall, the Eagles stand at 5-4 right back in the thick of the wild card race, and only 1 game out of the division lead. We'll get into the rest of the league in a bit, but my perspective from the Eagles standpoint is the same as its been for weeks. They're going to make the playoffs. I don't know how but they'll get to 10 wins and at this rate 9 could even make the playoffs. But in no way do I think this team can convert a 3rd and 1 or 2 against a good team by running the ball, and I just can't see a team with that glaring of a deficiency winning the Super Bowl. And that's all I care about at this point.

Yes, I find it very funny that 2 weeks ago everyone said they had no shot at the playoffs and today every one's saying the Eagles have a great shot at the playoffs. These people need to read MMM and get on the ball!!

So I wake up early this morning knowing it's going to be bad weather and trying to beat the heavy rush of traffic into work when my car dies on the road and I gotta get towed back to the shop near my house. Thankfully about 6 months ago I got my AAA Plus membership and everything went smoothly getting me back home. If you don't have AAA I HIGHLY recommend it. No, that wasn't an advertisement - MMM will never succumb to such low levels (blatant lie - expect advertising on my website soon). Now I have a flight to catch later tonight, let's hope that goes a bit smoother!

Around the League

Before I get to the many good games we had yesterday, one note on the NFL. Parity is a word we've used in this column often. It's no secret Paul Tagliabue was big on parity and seeing that as an integral part of the NFL's health. New Commish Roger Guddell also lives and breathes these virtues. And for the most part, I'm all for it. Having small market teams just as powerful as big market teams makes for a much better league, in my humble opinion. (You know there's a but coming here)

BUT - the league is getting out of control. Yes, the Colts are undefeated and the Bears are 8-1 and are the "elite" of the NFL. Yes, there's also some really bad teams. About 2 months ago I told a colleague of mine "I wouldn't be surprised if one of these years every team in the NFL ends the season at 8-8". Clearly tongue firmly planted in cheek. What I've been seeing from the NFL the past three weeks is actually making me think that something like that is possible!

Game of the Week/Year/Offensive Game of your lifetime!! - Chargers/Bengals. The Bengals came out of the gates with something to prove, as they lit up the Chargers for 28 first half points to take a 21 point lead. But then the Chargers completely exploded out of the locker room in the second half. It was like somebody took "Marty Ball" and just turned it upside down. LT2 has completely earned the right share Lawrence Taylor's nickname at this point in his career. 15 TD's in the last 5 games. That's sick! LT2 is at the top of his game right now. On the other end is the Bungels defense. Saying they were picked apart by Phillip Rivers would be like saying Andy Reid occasionally likes to pass the ball. The Bengals better start fixing that defense now, otherwise Ocho Cinco's going to be golfing by Feliz Navidad.

Almost game of the week: Saints/Steelers. If the Saints came back to tie and win the game yesterday, you'd be hearing me sing the praises of Drew Brees in this column and possibly talk of MVP. Instead, his WR Terrance Copper fumbled the ball after a completion inside the Steelers 20 with less than a minute to play. Fast Willie Parker has been amazing this year and I'm glad I drafted him in my fantasy team which is 8-2 (shameless self plug - you didn't hear me crowing when I was 2-2 did you?!?)

Walking wounded: The Giants who had been playing such good football played a stinker last night as they lost to the Bears. The Bears who had been playing like dog poop the last month (besides a blowout over the 49ers), looked dead in the water until a 25 yard draw play on 3rd and forever late in the 2nd quarter woke up the Bears. Now Tiki Barbers got some nagging thumb injury to go along with the rest of his wounded teammates. Oh, and Eli Manning isn't ready for the bigtime yet. There's something about watching the Manning brothers choke under the spotlight that makes me happy.

Speaking of the Colts, they were primed for a post-Patriots game letdown, as they controlled the Bills but just couldn't put em away and had two costly fumbles. But the Bills missed a FG midway thru the 4th, and the Colts held on. They're winning close games, which actually bodes well for them in the playoffs.

If anything speaks to the parity in the NFL it's the Packers being 4-5. And Brett Favre winning a dome game should tell you all you need to know about the Vikings. What slop! Former Eagle Billy McMullen had 2 touchdowns for the Vikings.

Speaking of slop, there's KC & Miami. If Miami just started the season in November they'd be defending Super Bowl champs primed to defend.

Big win by Seattle over the division rival Rams. The defense came to play yesterday as Marc Bulger couldn't complete anything downfield. The pass happy Rams should've just pounded Stephen Jackson all day (Insert broken record)

The Patriots take their post Colts hangover and pull a clunker and lose to the Jets who are an amazing 5-4. Playoffs?? Who knows. Eric Mangini has this team playing well and Chad Pennington to Jerico Cotchery is becoming a solid tandem.

So the AFC is shaping up like this. Big showdown next week for supremacy in the West with the loser likely to get a wild card birth. The Ravens are in control of the North, Indy in control of the South, with New England trying to hold off the Jets in the East. The Wild card scramble after that is going to be nuts. 4 teams at either 4-5 or 5-4 fighting for the remaining spot. Crazy as it sounds, if the Steelers get back to 9-7 (why not), who knows!?!?

In the NFC - same sort of bedlam right now for the final wild card slot. So many teams still alive, and nobody besides the Bears in truly great shape.

Parity. Gotta love it...

NHL Week in Review By : Ed Wasser


- News and notes from around the league.....First some house keeping. I'll be off for the next 2 weeks traveling. I'll be back Dec. 4th to report on the Flyers miraculous rise to first place. HAHAHAHAHA!!!.....I think it would be better if the away team went first in a shootout so that the home team could possibly win the game on a walk off goal instead of a walk off save.....Anybody catch "Celebrity Paranormal Project" (featuring Eagle Jeremiah Trotter) when actress Traci Lords introduced herself saying that she was most famous for the movie "Blade"? Huh? Yo Traci, I'm sure some MMM subscribers own a few other movies that you did that made you more famous then your one minute long dialogue-less scene in "Blade"......Few surprises, the Thrashers and Wild are playing great and are in first place, the Avalanche and Senators are playing crappy.....I was wetting my whistle at a local watering hole last Friday and I got talking to a guy who told me that he was at the Flyers vs. Penguins game a few weeks ago and he could not believe how many empty seats there were at the Wachovia Center.....The season is about 20% over and I've seen every team in the league play, some more then others, and from my own observations the Sabres are far and away the best team in the league.

- Remember the scene in the movie "Hardcore" when George C. Scott sees a porno with his daughter as the star and he starts to freak out and scream "turn it off!! TURN IT OFF!!!!!" That's me watching the Flyers these days. The 2006 - 2007 Flyers are the worst team to hit Philadelphia since the 1999 Eagles, the infamous team lead by Doug Pederson (0 TD's, 9 int's). And to make matters worse the Flyers announcers, I'm sure fearful of chairman Ed Snider's well know demand for absolute loyalty, have turned the broadcasts into a total joke. Instead of telling the truth they've become like Harry ("Juuuuuuuust a bit outside") Doyle in "Major League". On Thursday the Flyers were losing to the Islanders 3 - 0 when Simon Gagne scored a meaningless goal with a little over 2 minutes left in the game. You would have thought the Flyers just won the Stanley Cup by the way Jim Jackson screamed "HE SCORES!!!!!!" And when the broadcasters watch Mike Rathje and Derian Hatcher skating in circles "Pocahontas On Ice" style while trying to stop puck carriers they try and act like either it didn't happen or try and make it seem like the scorer is the next coming of Wayne Gretzky. Plus they're singing the praises of Petr Nedved because "he has a lot of jump since he came back from the minors". WHAT!?!?! No he doesn't, he's just playing the way non-lazy players play. And guess what, he's still not scoring and his defense is still nonexistent so what's the difference?

So as you can tell it was a dreadful week for the Flyers. On Monday the Flyers made Maple Leaf goalie Andrew Raycroft look like Patrick Roy by firing 41 shots at him but scoring only 1 goal. They lost that game 4 - 1. The game Thursday against the Islanders was really the coup de gras. Not only did the Flyers almost get shut out by the pathetic Islanders, and not only was the game winning goal scored by ex-Philadelphia PHANTOM Richard Park, and not only were the Islanders riding a 2 game losing streak before beating the Flyers, but this game, along with the loss on Saturday, came at home. The home loss on Saturday was an overtime loss to the Sabres and it was actually a game in which I expected the Flyers to get crushed but they only lost 5 - 4. The Flyer offense actually showed up, unfortunately so did the Flyers ridiculous defense and stupid penalties. It was kind of interesting because I was wondering how the Flyers would blow the game. They blew it by taking a too many men on the ice penalty with 30 seconds left in the 3rd period and the game was over less then a minute into OT. The Flyers have a west coast trip coming up this week, this could get a lot uglier.

Oh and before I forget, I've been picking on Hatcher and Rathje a lot but Joni Pitkanen is playing like crap too. And now there's a rumor that the Flyers may trade for defenseman Roman Hamrlik. Why? WHY!?!?!?! The guy is 32 years old and his best years are behind him. GET YOUNGER!!! God this is frustrating. The Flyers should clean house and just keep the younger players. And yes that means unload Peter Forsberg too. But that will never happen because the Flyers just removed the "interim" title from Paul Holmgren so now he's the full time GM. And who taught Holmgren everything he knows? Bobby Clarke of course.