Tag: football

I sure screwed THAT up!

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In my last blog, I began praising the rookie quarterback Nick Foles for taking the reigns and looking like a pretty solid performer during his first regular season action of his career. Vick went down with a concussion and Foles was looking pretty good. I was really excited. It was now time for the new era to begin.

Foles played great ball, but the Cowboys put up 21 points in less than 3 minutes with a Romo touchdown pass to Dez Bryant, a punt return touchdown and a pick six that I don’t blame on Foles. The ball bounced off BOTH hands of DeSean Jackson. The throw wasn’t great but in the NFL, if you get both hands on the ball, you better flippin’ catch it. We didn’t give him a contract to screw up.

That isn’t me trashing DJax. The guy has played well this year despite the crap going on with his team. But there are definitely problems with this team.

There are only a couple bright spots for the offseason this year.

1) The Eagles are only faced with one player who they may want to resign. Last year, the Eagles resigned just about everyone that needed to be resigned. The Eagles are entering rebuilding mode. But that doesn’t mean losing everyone. Defensively, I’d resign DRC if they can. Is it the end of the world if we don’t? No. But that’s a fast guy with almost sure hands and pretty good vision. Plus, he’s only 26 years old. He’s got time to develop, cut down on penalties and improve his skill set as a top 10 cornerback. He’s got incredible potential. However, the Eagles will be cleaning their defense up this offseason. In my eyes, the only defensive starters I would keep are DRC, Nate Allen, Kurt Coleman, DeMeco Ryans, Mychael Kendricks, Trent Cole and I would bump Fletcher Cox into the starting lineup over Mike Patterson.

A lot of you guys are probably wondering why I left Nnamdi Asomugha, someone I was obsessed with coming into Philadelphia, off the list.

Quick answer, look at his stats over the past two years. Actually look over the past three years.

He’s over 30 and somewhat washed up. If not for how massive his contract is, I’d hold onto him. But he’s scheduled to make about 15 million dollars next season. I believe only 4 million is guaranteed money, and now there are murmurs that Nnamdi might be released if they can’t negotiate his contract. I’m disappointed at this thought, but that’s what you get from being a free agent bust.

2) The Eagles will be under new management. The team is going to have to find a new group of coaches that can mold the new-look Eagles. Andy Reid is finished, that much is for sure. Is Vick gone too though? The answer appears to be yes at this point. Only time will tell. Foles will start this weekend against Washington. It’s his first pro start. I’ll be watching with excitement of course.

That’s all the good we got. There isn’t much else. Nothing to see here. We just suck.

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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Choices

callmemaybe321 Comment

I have been thinking a lot lately about what my future is going to be like.

Not as a grown adult, but where I want to go to college, what I want to study, and what about sports?

Thinking about what’s going to go into getting in to the schools I want to go to, and if I will be able to do it.

It’s a lot to be thinking about, there are so many choices we have to make even at the young age of 16, but I have realized the future is really up to me and how hard I want to work.

I have always been the kid who doesn’t put in the effort, and I come out with a few As and a few Bs.

I have realized I need to start actually trying to put in more effort to make it all As, instead of sitting on my butt when I have free time, maybe I should study more, and get work done before sunday night.

Maybe that means I can sleep more seeing as my schedule right now is crazy.

That brings me to the other thing I have been thinking about.

It was just last year that sports started to mean something to me again.

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Don’t Worry About It

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This past Saturday our football team had our last league game against the Laguna Blanca Owls.

Contrary to how I was feeling going into this game, and what I wished had happened, we did not end up winning, but lost our fifth consecutive game.

Sadly this season came to an end sooner than I had hoped, and not the way I wanted to leave the field.

We finished with a final score of 44-26.

That is much closer than some games we have played, and once again we played a great second half, but it takes more than that to win football games.

We did not start off with a defense that was aggressive enough to set the tone early.

While we did stuff many plays, the Owls were able to put points up with more ease than they should have had.

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Here We Go Again!

backinphilly1 Comment

Well, this sucks. The Eagles, once again, are underachieving. Despite the firing of ex-defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, the Eagles have once again fallen far from expectations. The team just doesn’t look solid, and we are close to the halfway point.

One major red flag was this past weekend. The Eagles, with Andy Reid as head coach, have never lost a game following their bye week. This year was a different story. The team looked even sloppier following their bye, almost as if they hadn’t put in any extra work to help their cause.

I don’t blame this recent loss on Michael Vick. I blame this one on coaching and defense. I do not blame new DC Todd Bowles. He was given two weeks to turn a lackluster unit and completely transform them. That’s a tall task considering how much star power the defense has.

Let’s go down the list.

Jason Babin has been horrendous. He hasn’t been able to get to the quarterback at all this season. He’s far behind his 18.5 sack mark from last year.

The other defensive end, Trent Cole, hasn’t had any success either. However, if both pieces can improve, the entire defense will improve as well.

I now turn the attention to one of the most incredible busts (although still somewhat too soon to tell) I think I’ve ever seen.

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One More Time

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This is a pretty emotional blog for me to write being as I’m unsure on my future. This weekend may or may not be the last football game of my career. It’s been an amazing road since I first strapped on the pads. Before I get too sentimental, I would like to point out that there is still a strong chance that I will be eligible to play next year for OVS.

I have been thinking to myself a lot lately about what obstacles and challenges I was forced to face to get where I am today. I wasn’t always a great player. In fact, in my early days, I was down right AWFUL!

I remember my first year of competitive football. We only had one game that season and everyone got a chance to play. It wasn’t really competitive, but it was organized. That season was supposed to introduce the youth of Summit, New Jersey.

That’s exactly what it did. The Summit Hilltoppers had a long tradition of competing for championships annually. My second year of football was a reflection of that tradition. However, none of our success had anything to do with me. Enter Jamie White.

Jamie was a friend of mine. He was a monster of an athlete and he still is to this day. One particular play comes to mind about my youth football days with Jamie White. We were pinned down on our own 5 yard line. We needed 10 yards for the first down but we needed to get away from our end zone. Most teams wouldn’t call a halfback draw right up the middle. That play is usually a short yardage play.

Not for Jamie.

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Team Rest

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This weekend was the first time since the start of the season that our team did not have a game.

This is not because one was not scheduled, but because simply we could not compete against Orcutt Academy’s team.

We are a team that defies odds, beginning a season with a mere 20 players in a collision sport.

Players are bound to get injured, and starting with a number that low doesn’t put us in the best position.

Regardless of size, we are a team who trains to compete, to show what we are made of, and even if we don’t always win, to show we will not go down without a fight.

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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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Defeated Again

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Once I again I walked off of another teams field not feeling the great feeling of victory

This past weekend the team traveled up to Los Olivos, CA to compete against the Dunn Earwigs on their parents weekend, just as we did last year.

We went into the game with high hopes, and a new play series that we had worked on all week.

We arrived at the school, and right of the bat the day was not going as planned.

Somehow the ball bag was left back at school, some 2 hours away.

We did not have our own game balls, or our own kicking tee.

We put that aside and made do, and went into our pre game routine of bananas, pretzels, and stretching.

Our Defensive Coordinator John Wickenhaeuser had dome some research that bananas and pretzels before a game does the body good if that comment seemed a little odd.

During our warm ups that same nauseous feeling returned, and I was once again off my game.

I even tried to take medicine to make this feeling go away, but it is clear that it is nerves, and I just need to be hit a few times so that I don’t think about it as much.

When the game started Dunn quickly scored their first touchdown, and we weren’t too worried, that happens in the game of football.

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The Forgotten Players (Sucks to be you guys!)

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The National Football League has 267 legendary players that have been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. This club of incredible athletes grows every year when new enshrines are chosen to join the group.

For whatever reason, I found myself wondering…who was the first person drafted in the league’s first ever draft? I found my answer rather quickly.

The Philadelphia Eagles were granted the first ever NFL draft pick. They decided to begin the tradition of Eagle mediocrity by selecting halfback Jay Berwanger. The year was 1936. That means that if you are 76 years or older, congratulations! You were alive for the first NFL draft.

The reason this pick was so mediocre? Berwanger never played professional ball. Eagles drafted him, traded him to the Bears, and the Bears never worked out a contract with the greedy running back. This is also the first documented contract dispute in NFL history.

This brings me back to the beginning where I was discussing the Hall. I got to thinking…are there any NFL drafts that did not yield a single Hall of Famer?

The answer…is yes. However, there aren’t many.

Be it known, this does not include the years that I have been alive. This also only applies to drafts where all players are eligible to enter the Hall. For those that don’t know the rules of induction, a player must be retired for at least 5 years before he can be inducted. Once he has been retired for 5 years, he then has 15 years of eligibility. If 15 years pass, the player is no longer eligible for induction. Basically, if you aren’t inducted within 20 years of your retirement, you are forgotten. That’s just the way it is.

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