Who Slams Harder?

In the spirit of Jim Johnson's new dedication to toughness, here's an old article describing one of my all-time favorite Eagles hits. As if the hit wasn't tough enough on Vick, the play was called back for holding, negating the touchdown. And watching Dawkins sprint along the goal line, it was completely clear that he had no intention of preventing the score, and just wanted to put into Vick's mind that this is not the Edward Jones Dome, and you can't just go hopping around all day. Hollis Thomas didn't take it any easier on him last year, absolutely mauling him at the 5 yard line, in case he needed a reminder. Not to mention Dawkins giving Alge Crumpler a nice technicolor yawn on a floater over the middle from Vick. It's hits like these that make Jim J's new approach all the more interesting, as you wonder just how much more damage the Birds can inflict. And even though no one cares about the preseason, it's worthwile to note that the first team defense has only let up 3 points so far.

Thoughts from the game

If I was a head coach who knew that the other team was going deep on the first play of the game, a play which leaves a safety in man to man deep coverage would not be my first choice.

Trotter is ready. Really, really ready. Looking at the schedule, we only play two true pass-first teams this year (Rams and Niners, with the Raiders as a possibility). 54 could put up 175 tackles this year. I'm absolutely not kidding.

The phrase that comes to mind most often when I see Terrell Owens on the field is "in another class." He really makes defenses look meager. Once he gets into the secondary, he's got a phsyical advantage over any single player.

Great pick by Lito in the flat while in zone coverage. Wiped out by hands to the face by Rod Hood.

45! Thornburg again made a big play, coming of the edge to stuff a run for a five yard loss. He's this years Jason Short on ST. I hope Jason Short can be this years Ike Reese.

Finally a big play from second round pick Matt McCoy (LB #51). Was not fooled at all by play action inside the 5 yard line, and smothered Craig Krenzel for a 7 yard loss.

Another guy making defenses look like high schoolers is Ryan Moats. Can't wait to see him against first-teamers.

No awards this week, but a tip of the cap to Greg Lewis for his one-handed 27 yard TD catch. Said Lewis: "so I decided to catch it with one hand. It was just the usual for me."

Do you see what happens?

King Andy memo to Eagles malcontents: We do not need you. You can only be a pain in the ass for so many preseaons in a row before management sends you out in the real world to find out one of two things: 1) Your talent is irrelevant, and it is the scheme, and not you that makes the difference (Shaun Barber, Jeremiah Trotter, Hugh Douglas) or 2) You were already overpaid, and you're about to see what your real market value is (Corey Simon in two weeks). What Joe Banner is planning to do with this money I have no idea, but I'd say Hollis and Westbrook have already knocked on his door a couple times. We'll miss the talent that Corey brought to the table, and if he had played first and second downs as hard as he did third and fourth, I think they would have locked him up a while back. As far as his future, the Ravens and the Bills loom as possibilities, and I'd put about 30-1 odds on him having a conference call with Trot and Hugh about the best route to crawl to Andy's office without scuffing up your suit.

Well, we do need a power back

"I've gotten to a point where I realize that happiness doesn't come from the outside."
It comes from the inside, where I can hide from everyone and mostly just not play football. As far as things that will never happen, I've been wondering how high a draft pick it would take to swing Ricky and David Boston our way. I'd say a 3rd should do it, but maybe Miami will want a second rounder back now that they realize how bad we fleeced them on the A.J. Feeley trade. Ricky and David could really help #81 take his circus on the road. They would all be too shy to ever talk to each other. And the crazy thing is, I have so much faith in King Andy that I honestly believe he could handle it.
Thanks to Lucy for the quote and pic.

Hood is the truth, but here's why I love Sheldon

Here's something you'll never hear out of Deion: "Who wants to just be a corner and do nothing but cover receivers?" Sheldon is a corner right out of the Jim Johnson Brian Dawkins books of Eagles defense. What's even better about his play is that it follows up the "make a big play or get burnt" technique employeed by Bobby "The Blanket" Taylor during his final Eagles seasons. I don't want to take anything away from his glory days, but Bobby and Troy were brutal once Lito and Sheldon came aboard (think NFC championship vs. Carolina). Much praise to the old lions for taking the time to be solid mentors to the youngsters, but thank god Sheldon and Lito learned from their words and not from their examples. Be sure to read the rest of what Sheldon had to say here.

They'll play catch, but they won't enjoy it

First glance at the new and even more annyoning Terrell Owens will come this friday vs. the Bengals. King Andy has the first team slated to play into the 3rd quarter, which should give T.O. enough time to strike up a friendship with Bengals CBs Tory James and Deltha O'Neal while roundly avoiding actual teammate Donovan McNabb. Expect notes and awards on Monday, and if Terrell and Chad Johnson get together after the game and there is a mic within ten yards of them, we should be set in the quotes department for the next decade.

Why can't we be friends

Following weeks of speculation, the eagles have made it official that Correll Buckhalter will have season ending surgery to repair his now chronic right patellar tendon. While others see loss, I see opportunity. This brings King Andy one step closer to his goal of an every-down passing offense. Rather than the thunder and lightning approach of Westbrook and Buck, we can now go with the lighting and more lightning Westbrook-Moats combo. Think split-backs three wide with both backs motioning out of the backfield. Then just look for the linebacker and fire. It will be interesting to see if Bruce Perry steps it up or if we need to bring Dorsey back into the mix.

Phillies? Nah

Who wants to make bets with me on whether or not the Phillies make the playoffs? Key determining factors: A) Roger Clemens on steroids? B) Houston @ Philadelphia Sept 5-7 C) 10 million divisional series remaining D) Managing to continue winning even though 24 out of 37 remaning games are on the road E) Citizen's Bank Park spontaneously creating a titanium shield in the outfield to prevent away teams from hitting dingers.

I predict the fightins' put up a valiant effort, capturing the hearts and attention of the loyal Philadelphia fans, and end up .000009 games out of the Wild Card. Go eagles

PS Maybe if we still had the guy on the right, and not the guy on the left, i'd be more excited

Game Balls: Eagles @ Ravens

Tim Hauck Memorial Hit of the Game:
Trotter absolutely laying out Derrick Mason on a 10 yard curl in the 2nd. 54 came from the middle and just ruined him. Great microphone pick-up too.

Hennison Valley Eggs Scramble of the Game:
Donnie saw a lane up the middle and took it for 27 yards. He may be a little husky, but the man can gobble up some serious yards when he gets going. And I maintain that although he doesn't need to run to be effective, he does need the threat of the run to keep the D honest.

Charmin Tissue Soft Player of the Game:
To a guy who I never thought would see this hardware: Jason Short. He still gets it done on Special Teams, but today that was about it. He blew a couple tackles by going for the jugular when he should have just wrapped up, and was out of position more than a few times. Still, I really like this guy, even more now that I found out that he considers himself a starter because "I start on special teams." I'll give him every chance to turn it around, but did anyone else realize that this guy is 27?

Preparation H Pain in the Ass of the Game:
Brian Billick, for making the Eagles take LB Martin Patterson off the field in the 4th because we had two players on wearing #51 (3rd Round Pick Matt McCoy was the other). Fortunately it led to the...

Sharing is Caring Benevolent Act of the Game:
Jeremiah Trotter for lending his jersey to Martin Patterson so he could go back on to smash a little more. Real role model stuff.

Patrick Swayze Ghost of the Game:
Reggie Brown, where are you? No catches? None? On the bright side, averaging 2.5 catches for 24 yards is still not bad as a rookie WR for King Andy.

Stevie Wonder Lost Player of the Game:
With all the talk about cutback runners picking up big yardage how does Mark Simoneau get overlooked as the best creater of cutback lanes in the league. This man is consistently out of position on run plays and the fact that he can't stand out while playing with the second teamers really says it all. I don't see how you can keep him around with all the young talent we have at the position. Cut him, and give his money to Westbrook or Hollis Thomas, because he is stealing right now.

And the Game Ball Goes to:
Michael Lewis, the only Eagle starter without a sack last season, who showed up big tonight with a pick, a sack, a forced fumble, and a couple tackles. Not bad work for a quarter and change.

Quick Thoughts from the game

Westbrook made Ray Lewis look downright childish during his 51-yard touchdown run. Poor Rayray was beat so bad he didn't even bother chasing him into the endzone.

Young Jeremy Thornburg (FS #45) really attacks the run; he's made big plays on the other side of the ball in both games. He looked bad on a slot coverage play in the redzone, but it's nice to see intensity from the youngsters, and the cover skills will come with time.

Andy Hall (QB #9) is listed as having played for Delaware, but he must have taken some summer classes at the Jake Plummer School of Making Bad Decisions While Getting Sacked. He will toss a brutal left-handed interception at some point if he gets enough reps.

Calvin Armstrong (OT #76) took his man completely off his feet coming back to help Andy on an early 4th quarter incompletion. Great awareness, better crunch.

There were some kind of mutant Chesapeake skeeters on field during most of the game. Donovan made mention of it in an interview, these things looked like flying danishes.

Moats looks good. Really, really, good. And its not just the 23 jersey. I wouldn't mind seeing him and Westbrook play together and create some ludicrous matchup problems leading to us throwing the ball 55 times a game.

Nice effort by the refs to make up for their blown lateral call in the first half by calling two imaginary calls on the Ravens final drive (roughing the passer and defensive delay of game "knocking the ball out of the referee's hand").

I caught a little bit of the Niners-Broncos game on NFL Network. Praise for the niners included a great over the shoulder catch about 3 yards out of bounds as well as a "stickum" grab for 2 yards. Even in pro sport's worst division, its gonna be a looong season for Alex Smith and the boys in red and gold.

When WR Justin Jenkins went down and was carted off the field he had a look on his face that can only be described as "I can't believe I worked my ass of all summer to lose my job to Chris Samp."

5+81=0

According to Philadelphiaeagles.com, T.O. will not make the trip down to Baltimore with the team this weekend. King Reid attributes this to T.O.'s lingering groin issue, although I wouldn't be surprised to learn that his inability to find a NFL Equipment pacifier played a role as well. Regardless, we all know what the man brings to the table, and I'm just as happy to see the youngsters get more balls.

Because once was not enough

Bring it all back home with the brand new Eagles 2004 NFC Champions DVD. Although waiting another three weeks for this to come out won't feel like half as long as the two in between the game and the Super Bowl, anticipation is really starting to get a grip on me. Plus its got the NFL Films logo, which is basically the exact opposite as putting on the "As Seen on TV" sticker. I'm looking forward to the celebration footage because i'm nowhere near figuring out what Brian Dawkins is saying when Bradshaw gives him the mic and he just rocks back and forth like Stevie. I plan on watching this every day until opening night and I'd watch it more if I had more than 4 hours a night in between work and sleep. Expect a review immediately. Available September 6, and you can preorder it now.

Breaking News: The Earth is Round!!

Also, Randy Moss admits to smoking mariuana "every blue moon." I like that he smokes every time, rather than the usual "once in a blue moon." Finding out that Randy Moss smokes pot is like learning that Grady Jackson likes food. I wonder if there was a blue moon that night he pushed a traffic officer out of the road with his car. This news is also fantastic in that it will endear him that much more to new boss Al Davis.

Don't break my heart

It's good to see people get involved in athlete's lives. It's even better to see the youths getting involved, even if it is some guy pretending to be a youth in order to make money off of an athlete. So buy a shirt or eat a hot dog, but just don't hire drew rosenhaus and ask for more money in the second year of your seven year contract. But definitely go here if you want the shirt. And here if you want a hotdog (search by meal occasion if you want). Thanks to Zach Hill for the link.

penguins on ice vs. flyers

With the addition of Gonchar, rookie sensation Sidney Crosby, former flyers Rechhi and Leclair, and Ziggy Palffy -- an existing cast consisting of possibly the greatest player of all time in Super Mario -- and possibly the best young goalie in the league in Marc-Andre Fleury I am anticipating the start of a new Eastern Conference rivalry...

Hopefully it will be bloody. And hopefully the blood will be black and yellow, instead of black and orange.