Tag: Eagles

Vick Doesn’t Use Protection

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I have finally found one of the many issues surrounding the Philadelphia Eagles. Aside from the porous defense, the Eagles appear to have signed 5 members of PETA to block for Michael Vick.

For those living under a rock the past few years, Vick killed dogs. It was kinda hard to miss. That’s the joke people.

In all seriousness, the Eagles line has been completely unacceptable this season. Vick has given the ball away and been taken to the ground more than any other quarterback in football. I don’t want to see my quarterback bite the dust whenever he drops back to pass.

This offseason, the Eagle offensive line looked rather strong. Center Jason Kelce, who had a strong rookie season last year, accompanied by All-Pro left tackle Jason Peters, veterans Evan Mathis and Todd Herremans, and weak link Danny Watkins made up Vick’s protection.

During the offseason, Peters torn his Achilles tendon TWICE, ending his season for the most part. The team has stated repeatedly that they hope Peters will return sometime this season. I find this highly unlikely.

Ok, while Peters is the best we got, losing one guy won’t render us useless. The Eagles then went and signed Demetress Bell to fill the void left by Jason Peters. He’s not bad so I guess we will still be fine.

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Finally something good to say about Juan Castillo!

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I’ve done a lot of criticizing of Eagles defensive coordinator Juan Castillo. I’ve questioned his schemes and his coaching methods. I questioned his treatment of the rookies, namely first round draft pick Fletcher Cox. I discussed my displeasure in regards to the handling of All-Pro cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha.

Now, unless something else completely ridiculous occurs, I will end my rampage against Juan Castillo.

Some of you are probably wondering why I’m ending my constant ranting about Castillo.

Juan Castillo has been fired by the Philadelphia Eagles.

FINALLY!!!! WE HAVE BEEN SET FREE FROM HIS MEDIOCRITY!!!! IT’S FINALLY HAPPENED!!! YES YES YES YES!!!!!!

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Worst Person #25-Colts Rush Defense

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Ok, I can understand a defense having a bad day here and there against some top notch players. We saw the Eagles today with a few bumps here and there and the 49ers had some trouble containing the high-powered New York Giants. However, both of those offenses have elite, premier players.

Enter the New York Jets.

The only player on their starting roster right now worthy of any recognition is wide out Santonio Holmes, and he’s out for the season with injury. Despite this fact, the Jets were able to EXPLODE with a vicious rushing game today against the Indianapolis Colts, who just last week, were able to keep the Green Bay Packers in check.

The Packers are loaded with star power. The Jets? Not so much.

Enter Shonn Greene.

The running back burst out today with a 32 carry, 160 yard, 3 touchdown performance.

WOW!!!

I gotta point out that Greene, while not a terrible running back, is not a top 10 or even 20 back in this league. On a good day, he has potential to explode with talent. But most days, like when Rex Ryan and the Jets decide “Hey we drafted Mark Sanchez really high! Maybe he should throw the ball more,” Greene doesn’t get a chance to do much.

Sanchez ended the day with 89 yards passing on 18 attempts. Yes, that’s bad but not as bad as how easily the Colts defense was taken advantage of while the Jets ran the ball. It wasn’t even close.

Greene isn’t really a finesse player, but I guess the dude can play ball.

I also want to reiterate how relatively unknown Shonn Greene really is. I went on to google images to find this picture, and i had to go down a little bit before I found a picture that wasn’t either him in Jets training camp or in college. His pro career is very quiet. Maybe this will kick start him a little bit.

Brian Dawkins-An Eagle Forever

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Last week, Brian Dawkins‘ number 20 was retired by the Philadelphia Eagles during their game against the New York Giants on Sunday night Football. As many of my readers may recall, my role model has been Brian Dawkins throughout my entire life. He’s the number one reason I play football. He has acted as someone that I strive to be everyday. This past Sunday was the final act in Dawk’s storied career.

The Friday before the game, my cousin went to Lincoln Financial Field to join in the celebration with the rest of the Eagles personnel. The team, coaches and alum were celebrating Dawkins’ career and my cousin decided that he wanted to get involved. While not to the extent of myself, my cousin also has a strong admiration of “Weapon X”.

My cousin then made his move and did something that I will always appreciate and never forget. He decided to surprise me by getting Dawk to call my cell phone and talk to me. I almost had my chance.

EXCEPT I WAS AT FOOTBALL PRACTICE!!!!

However, Dawk left a voicemail that I consider almost better. I can never replay a conversation that I have over the phone, but I can always replay the voicemail. He didn’t even have to say too much. He just told me to “Make sure I ball out every play”. For those that don’t know, “ball out” means to play every play like it’s your last. I’ve been living that way since day 1 of my football career, and Dawk’s words have resonated throughout my mind, body, heart and soul since the first Eagles game I ever went to.

That voicemail has meant the world to me. I have played it every night since I’ve received it before I go to bed. Finally, I have a piece of the Wolverine that I can share with everyone.

Eagles-Giants/Don’t get much better!

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Well that was really disgusting.

Honestly, I was very concerned about this game going in. The Eagles and Giants squared off tonight in an epic battle for the division. Man, it really wasn’t pretty.

The entire first half was scoreless until the 2 minute warning where Michael Vick connected with DeSean Jackson for a touchdown pass. Then the Giants quickly made their way down the field to notch a field goal of their own.

7-3 at the half. Advantage Eagles.

Fast forward to the last 15 seconds, the Eagles could have completely screwed themselves out of a victory.

But they didn’t.

Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes lined up for a game-winning field goal. The score is 19-17 and Tynes has a 54 yard kick to give the Giants the W.

He misses wide! Game over! Eagles win!….NO!!!!!!

There is a popular occurrence in the NFL known as “Icing the Kicker”. This act is when a head coach calls a timeout right before a kicker is about to make his kick. However, the timeout is used exactly as the long snapper snaps the ball to the holder. The kicker will then take the kick, yet it will not count.

Unfortunetly, Mr. Fatass…i mean Reid gave Tynes a second shot.

Thank God Tynes screwed it up again. This time, he didn’t put enough into the kick, and it fell about 3 yards short.

This time, the Eagles really did win.

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about this one. There weren’t a lot of stats that really stood out to me.

I’ll explain more next week. I’m just freaking out that Tynes sucks. That’s all!

Next post, I’m going to discuss something completely amazing. Brian Dawkins is finally gone, and he deserves his own post. Till next time, I’m going to do Spanish.

Adios!

Brian Dawkins-The reason I am who I am

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I will cover the NFL Draft this coming week. But, being as my childhood hero just retired for the NFL, I feel obligated to discuss the retirement.

Brian Dawkins was a model football player. He was a leader on the field for his team and off the field for his dedication to the communities of Philadelphia and Denver when he signed with the Broncos.

“B-Dawk” as many refer to him, was one of the most loved athletes in the city of Philadelphia maybe only behind Rocky, who wasn’t even a real person. Brian Dawkins was the heart and soul of the Eagles for over 10 years. As long as I have been watching football, Dawkins has played. I was about just one year old when Dawkins made his debut in the National Football League.

My first memory of Dawkins is during that season, believe it or not. His rookie season, “Weapon X”, another popular nickname for the homicidal safety, made a successful open field tackle against a running back that I think you maybe have heard of, Barry Sanders.

Ya, you read that right. A rookie took down the great Barry Sanders in the open field. That was when the city began to believe.

I’d now like to share some of my favorite moments of Brian Dawkins.

I remember in an NFC championship game against the Atlanta Falcons, where the quarterback was still Michael Vick.

The Falcons were the fastest team in football with players like Warrick Dunn, Vick and Alge Crumpler.

One play in that game set the tempo early.

Vick dropped back and fired a dart about 40-50 yards down field.

Alge caught the ball. Dawkins caught Alge.

Dawk met Crumpler with a MASSIVE hit which left him down on the field for a couple minutes. While he wasn’t injured, the Falcons became demoralized, which led to an Eagles’ Super Bowl appearance.

There are so many Dawkins moments that I could dissect. But, I will randomly provide the readers with other Dawk moments as my blogs continue to come.

Thank you, Brian, for your years of service to this great game. You are the reason for my random yell into the air before every quarter of football or lacrosse that I play. You are the reason why I hit with such intensity. You are the reason that I strive to compete every second I’m on the field. Most importantly, you are the reason I have embraced a leadership role wherever I go. You taught me to be a leader. I couldn’t have asked for a better model.

And there he goes, ladies and gentlemen!

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After my previous posts of Asante Samuel being traded by the Eagles, the deal was finally finished today.

Yes, that’s right. Asante Samuel has been traded to the Atlanta Falcons for a 7th round pick.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The sad part about that laugh is that even though from a distance this looks like a terrible deal for the Eagles after the Lions were rumored to be offering up to a second and third round pick for Samuel last year, I was laughing at the Falcons for a few different reasons.

Number 1 is that now the Eagles have the freedom to spend some money to resign DeSean Jackson. Oh wait, we already did that didn’t we? Joke’s on Atlanta. We will probably use the money to resign running back LeSean McCoy to a massive long term deal.

The second reason I laugh at Atlanta is because of the huge price they pay, literally. Their core of cornerbacks looks very similar to the Eagles last season except for one big piece.

Last year, Asante was worth about 10 million dollars, Nnamdi Asomugha was worth 12 million and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie about 4 million, which is a huge amount of money.

Now check this out.

The Falcons, this coming year, must pay Asante 10 million (being as his new contract won’t kick in immediately) Dunta Robinson is worth about 10 million and Brent Grimes just signed a 10.5 million dollar contract. Thats about 30 million dollars at one position and also the most amount of money at the cornerback position by one team in NFL history.

Will I miss him? Yes. Am I really all that upset about it? No.

I remember when the Eagles first signed Asante. I was home sick from school on the first day of NFL free agency that year. I was really excited because I heard that a few teams were talking to Samuel, one team being the Eagles, considered the favorite to sign him. My mother told me point blank, “John the team always screws us. It’s not going to happen, and I think you know that. The team is run by idiots.”

While I agree with the last part of that, Asante Samuel was signed about one hour later. I was watching in my bed with some soup on my table.

“Breaking news, the Philadelphia Eagles have signed cornerback Asante Samuel to a 6 year, 60 million dollar contract.”

“MOM! THEY SIGNED HIM! OH MY GOD THEY GOT HIM YES! I FREAKIN’ TOLD YOU MA!”

While he was an Eagle, he was one of my favorite players. I love him. I still have his jersey in my drawer at school.

I will miss you, Asante. The Eagles play the Falcons this coming season, so I’ll watch him again, just from the wrong side.

Good luck, Asante. I’m sure you’ll make the Falcons a real contender. Keep stuntin’.

C’mon man! WE NEED HELP!!!!!

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Demetrius Bell left Philly without a contract this weekend, which is not good news for the Eagles.

Following the injury to star tackle Jason peters, the Eagles need some serious help on the offensive line, and the team brought in Bell to try and get a contract done. Unfortunately, they screwed up and missed out.

Now, the Eagles may have to focus their attention to either obtaining another free agent O-lineman or drafting a replacement for Peters.

Either way, something must be done now. This is not a good sign, but thank God (or Tebow, whichever you prefer) that there’s a lot of time before the season stops.

Time to get serious, though.

By the way readers, Sorry I haven’t been doing any worst person stories lately. I’ve been really focused on free agency and have been covering that mainly. I will be getting back to those very soon.

Enjoy this random picture of happiness for my return to the worst person stories.

Asante Samuel—The Sequel

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I’m not sure how to say this, but as time goes by during the trade talks, I want Asante Samuel more and more out of Philadelphia. Now the Eagles have an even more pressing matter on the table. They need to find a way to replace All Pro left tackle Jason Peters, who ruptured his Achilles tendon while working out in Texas.

The Eagles have already been connected to two big name tackles, Demetrius Bell and Marcus McNeill. Both players are far superior than King Dunlap, Peters’ current backup.

I can only sit back and hope to Tebow (yes, tebow is a replacement for God) that the Eagles can sign either of these two players.

This has to be our year as Eagles fans. We have waited too frickin’ long for this to go down.

Let’s get this done.

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DeMeco Ryans-Newest Member of the Nest

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Well, the Eagles finally fixed a glaring need for their defense this week when they traded for ex-Houston Texans middle linebacker, DeMeco Ryans. They will finally be able to stop the run, which ranked near the bottom in the NFL last year.

I am a HUGE DeMeco Ryans fan. When he was a Texan, I admired his tenacity, and desire for big plays even when he was a Texan.

He’s a monster of a linebacker, and I just gotta say one thing.

9 months ago, when the NFL free agency period started late due to the lockout, and Nnamdi Asomugha was the big man on the market, I predicted the Eagles would trade for a linebacker either last year or this year. I mentioned 3 names. Lofa Tatupu, Ryans’ teammate in Houston Brian Cushing, or Demeco himself.

Turns out I was right and I couldn’t be happier about this move. He is an instant starter. Time to get us a Super Bowl. There’s no choice to lose this time. It’s now or never.