Staff Blog
Morning Rounds, November 10th
I was out of the city over the weekend and had only sporadic
contacts with Philadelphia
sports fans, so perhaps my view is clouded by sample size, but last night’s
loss doesn’t seem to be evoking the sort of panic it always has before. The fans are going through the motions – the
crowd wasn’t enthused but there weren’t empty seats, Bleeding Green Nation is
still ripping the team apart, and the local columnists are sharing the blame
around nicely – but our city’s usual zeal over a prime time loss is lacking. My cell phone isn’t ringing, my email isn’t
full of the-sky-is-falling emails, and my life doesn’t feel over.
Here are the facts: the Eagles lost another shootout,
dropping them to 5-4 overall and 0-3 against their division rivals. They’re now three plus games behind the
Giants and last in the NFC east, a division which they almost assuredly won’t
be able to win.
Worse, when the Eagles were unable to convert a 3rd
and 1 or 4th and 1 with two minutes left the game became as straight
of a ‘fatal flaw game’ – a “close” game that a team loses not necessary because
they got beat, but because of a certain aspect of the game that they just can’t
execute (think Memphis’ inability to hit free throws in last years’ NC2A
championship game) – as you’ll ever see.
The Eagles didn’t win, and it was probably because they can’t win.
And yet, it seems, nobody really cares.
Which means, I suppose … let’s go Phillies.
It really is a new world we’re living in.
 |
| via PhiladelphiaEagles.com |
“The coaches felt we could run the ball and pick up the 2 yards we needed to continue. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way.” – Donovan McNabb
Three lines on their world:
- The Tennessee Titans remained unbeaten
- The Celtics knocked off Detroit in Allen Iverson’s home debut
- and major league baseball is locking Mark Cuban out
Three lines on ours:
- The Birds dropped another NFC East game
- Penn St. fell to Iowa
- and both the Sixers and the Flyers continue to struggle
Phillies, Birds, Sixers, Flyers and what everybody is talking about after the jump
EAGLES
The blame was smeared all over the place today …
Bob Ford pins the loss on McNabb who needs to stop his slow starts. READ
Rich Hofmann says the Birds last reasonable shot at winning the division was thrown out with two red flags. READ
Paul Domowitch cited the Eagles’ porous run defense and their inability to control the clock. Didn’t that use to be a strength? SKIP
Domowitch grades the team. SKIP
In a surprise move John Smallwood doesn’t eliminate the Birds out of hand. He does say it looks bleak though. SKIP
Ashley Fox hates moral victories. Fair, but doesn’t this one seems like a moral defeat? The Birds were crushed, kept it close, and still lost. SKIP
Bob Brookover on the challanges. SKIP
Ray Parrillo acknowledges Mike Patterson and Jason Avant, both of whom came to play. SKIP
Dick Jeradi tells the story of the Mike Patterson INT. SKIP
The Inquirer’s notes report that Todd Herremans was benched for disclipinary reasons, the Eagles did some do-goodery, and more. SKIP
Les Bowen reports that Herremans misseed a team meeting, notes that Lorenzo Booker was deactivated and more. READ
Marcus Hayes, who was confusingly bumped off of Philly.com’s front sports page, thinks the game was all about the Giants. He’s probably right. READ
Don McKee runs his game notes. SKIP
Rich Hofmann says the Birds have joined the crowd in using the wildcat offense. SKIP
Ray Parrillo does the same. SKIP
John Gonzalez calls out the fans. I’d skip him, but I think I wrote a worse version of his article in my lede, so if you’re jumping straight to what everybody is talking about, I guess you should just feel free to skip what I wrote up top instead. READ
Paul Domowitch is accountable. READ
Bob Cooney and Paul Vigna try to figure out what the numbers all mean. READ
Mike Sielski says that McNabb’s inconsistency in statement games is a statement. READ
Reuben Franks blames instant reply. SKIP
Jeff Offord looks at the Giant’s dominating run game. SKIP
PHILLIES
Todd Zolecki talks to Pat Burrell about next year. READ
Todd Zolecki says that, despite the hole in left, pitching comes first. READ
Zolecki breaks down Ruben Amaro’s staff. READ
Randy Miller says that getting Howard and Hamels locked up long term could be problematic. SKIP
SIXERS
Phil Jasner reports on what the Sixers are doing to get Elton Brand on track. READ
Kevin Tatum gets the Sixers reaction to the AI trade, which was an interesting article when Kate Fagan wrote it a week ago for the same paper. SKIP
Kate Fagan on the Sixers’ much-needed practice time. READ
Tom Moore blames the spacing. SKIP
Tom Moore says the Sixers’ offense isn’t working. READ
FLYERS
Ed Moran looks at the inconsistant Flyers. READ
Sam Carchidi on all the Finnish Flyers. SKIP
Wayne Fish says that Coach Stevens knows the Flyers aren’t getting it done. READ
TODAY and MORE
The local teams are struggling, we’ll try to take a look at why. First though, we’ll clear our desks and provide as many quick hits as possihble.
As always, feel free
to email
with any questions, suggestions, comments or complaints.
welcome back. 2 things: 1) i woke up to WIP this morning, and it sure sounded a lot like it does after the usual Eagles loss. Cataldi and Co. murdering Reid and McNabb, and a couple of furious callers. but if in fact your sense is right that the response was more muted than a prime-time home loss to the Giants would normally be, then that brings me to…
2) which is that i think that might have been as much a result of people realizing that this Eagles team just ain’t that good as it is lasting euphoria over the Phillies. see, i guess i don’t quite agree with the ‘fatal flaw’ argument here. unlike memphis, the Eagles were thoroughly whipped in this game. given how each team played, it really should have been a double-digit loss, so i would stick this more in the “can’t win” bucket (especially considering it was at home and we needed it much more than the g-men). and being as we’re now 3-12 in our last 15 games decided by 6 pts or less, we either have a bunch of fatal flaws that kill us in close games, or we’re just not that good.