I mean, it wasn’t the most impressive win the Eagles have ever had. And I don’t mean that the Jets are terrible (though the Jets are kind of terrible). But it’d be easier to say that the Birds were anything other than mediocre if they had any decent ideas for how to score a touchdown.
About the only thing I liked about this game is that it should give the Eagles some confidence that they can make a big play when they need to. Sheldon Brown made some big plays on defense (the pick and the fourth-down pass he knocked down in the end zone), Dunavin and Reggie Brown pretended to like each on the third-down conversion that sealed the game, and Westbrook was solid when he needed to be solid.
According to the good people at Windows Live Search and the good people at Wikipedia, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 is perhaps the most technically challenging piece of music ever composed for the violin. It might take even a virtuoso significant amount of time and effort — years even — to master.
But if you listen to Andy Reid, Donovan McNabb, and the assembled ranks of semi-competent Eagles wideouts, Tchaikovsky’s got nuthin on the Birds’ playbook.
Things I am completely sick of in re: the Eagles include but are not limited to: hearing about how complex and challenging the Eagles’ offense is. How it’s all about timing and making complex reads and once we start executing our COMPLEX SUPER-DUPER FANCY TRICKY OFFENSE NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO STOP US. Quotes like this from Dunavin are driving me insane:
In an attempt to connect with the younger, more Internet-savvy generation that Andy Reid dissed in his press conference on Wednesday, the Birds site launched a little interactive avatar generator called “SuperFan” yesterday. That’s right, SuperFan. Big S, big F.
That’s my SuperFan right there:
I wouldn’t say I was blown away by it (the options and configurations are pretty limited, though the sound is a really nice touch), but I have to applaud the general effort. The young people like their facebooks and their myspaces, and you need to give the young people the tools to propagate your brand in an engaging and organic way that’s authentic and resonates with them in the consumption scenarios where they feel most comfortable.
In his first Eagles press conference in nine days, Andy Reid looked the assembled local blathermonkeys in their collective (beady little) eyes and assured them that he wouldn’t be quitting (during the season). This is, of course, in addition to his national media denial to Jay Glazer over the weekend.
For the avoidance of doubt, he did not use exclamation points this time around.
He did, however, go out of his way to badmouth THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER in the course of his denial by positioning the rumors as the sort of crazy nonsense that you only find on that goofy electric internet.
So I guess The Eagles Official Site is now in the needs-and-feelings feature story business? I thought even SI was cutting back on these things (in favor of more fantasy news, celeb-style coverage of athletes’ favorite foods, and, of course, straight-up boobs)? Isn’t the format a little tired? This thing even has sections separated by the little asterisk thingies (”*****”).
That said, I read today’s piece about Jason Avant, and walked away (predictably) thinking that he seemed “like a really solid guy” who’d “been through a lot.” Sure. Got that.
Of course, my other big takeaways were squarely focused in the “I didn’t know that about gangs” department. (Read the rest of this story.)
One more (potentially delicious) note from the Jay Glazer article on Foxsports. In addition to being the first to post Big Red’s official denial, Glazer also noted that Andy Reid headed to Atlantic City for the weekend to unwind a bit.
Whilst we shan’t speculate about how Andy Reid spends his leisure time, a quick process of elimination can lead to a set of likely answers*. That is, if Andy Reid is going to A.C., is he gambling? What with the Mormon thing, probably not. Okay, then is he boozing? Again, in re: the Mormon thing, probably not. Taking in a show? Maybe, especially if Tammy was in tow.
It looks like Jay Glazer won the “Andy Reid ain’t quitting” scoop contest this weekend, in which glazer was blessed with the direct quotes from Big Red refuting the electric internet rumors of a bye week resignation from the Eagles head coach.
At moments like this, we can’t blame Andy Reid for going straight to the national media and bypassing the local cadre of blathermonkeys — it reaffirms his status as a national celebrity and spares him the inevitable low-level sniping that accompanies any interaction with the Philly press. Also, it never hurts to suck up to your core broadcasting partner; gots to remember who’s paying the bills ’round here!
I did have one issue with Glazer’s piece, though. It was this part right here, where Glazer’s transcription makes Andy Reid sound like Britney Spears’ media rep:
Today was the first day I’d been in C@L (pronounced, “Seattle”) for a football Sunday. (I was in Jersey getting engaged for week 1, in Europe at the airport for week 2, and actually in attendance at the Linc and Meadowlands, respectively, the past two weeks.)
Whilst I’m sure you’d all be thrilled to hear the details of my recent travel adventures (I slept in 10 different beds in four countries and four U.S. states in the month of September), the relevant details in re: my return to C@L are as follows: this is the first week that I actually saw what the rest of the NFL looks like. That is, this is the first week I watched football at a bar with 23 TVs (though since it’s Left Coast you have to be at said bar by quarter of ten at the latest). Let me tell you what I learned about the rest of the NFL, and especially the NFC:
In response to the deliciously rampant speculation circulating on the Electric Internet in re: Andy Reid’s impending abdication of the Eagles head coaching role (more on that later today or tomorrow), Eagles prexy Joe Banner sat for an interview with the Daily News in which he stood up for Coach Reid and insisted that he didn’t think Big Red’s family issues were impacting his performance:
“There are really strong people out there - CEOs of massive companies, doctors, lawyers, coaches, players, cabdrivers - who are able to both deal with the challenges they face in their life and still continue to be excellent at what they do. Working with him every day, seeing him every day, that’s the category he’s in for me.
“It would be foolish to try to say it isn’t on his mind and doesn’t weigh on his mind. The same is true of all the other categories of people I mentioned. Some of those people do get to a point where the weight is too heavy and starts to trickle down to the other parts of their lives. But that’s not been the case with Andy.
Joe, that’s awful nice of you to stick up for your boy. But that’s not what the data says. According to a piece of academic work referenced in the Wall Street Journal a month ago, (Read the rest of this story.)
I’m going to stay positive about last night’s game. Some highlights:
1. I had a totally sweet sandwich at the tailgate. See above. Seriously, it was delicious. Luca Brasi’s in Hoboken. Good stuff.
2. We had a nifty parking pass that allowed us to park in this structure that was reasonably close to the stadium (and not in Lyndhurst, NJ). It momentarily convinced me I was going to the mall and not to an imitation pro football game to watch the Birds’ imitation offense give an imitation effort.
3. I was only sacked twice by Osi Umenyiora (once in the men’s room, the other in the beer line; both were Winston Justice’s fault).
I mean, it wasn’t the most impressive win the Eagles have ever had. And I don’t mean that the Jets are terrible (though the Jets are kind of terrible). But it’d be easier to say that the Birds were anything other than mediocre if they had any decent ideas for how to score a touchdown.
