A lot of people are going to try to call today’s win over the Saints a meaningless victory. While it may have been meaningless in re: the Eagles’ 2007 season (specifically regarding the postseason continuation thereof), it definitely meant a lot to the Saints.

And the Birds whupped ‘em.

In so doing, the Eagles came close to ending the season of the team who ended their season last year. I know it doesn’t get the Birds any closer to the Super Bowl this year, but it sure makes me feel good about (a) the team generally and certain embattled stars and/ or coaches and (b) serving a 12-inch Hoagie of Revenge (double meat, extra mayo) to smug-ass Sean Payton (oh, swoon, he’s such a GENIUS!) and the Saints.

You’re telling me that’s meaningless? I think not!

Quick hits from the game:
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And to think the Eagles’ slim playoff hopes rested on the slumped shoulders of Dave-Grohl lookalike Kyle Orton (tip of the cap to the O-Man for that one). 

Sigh.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for 7-9, since I assume that they’ll completely mail it in against a still-alive Saints team this weekend.  Look out, Buffalo!

Here’s to the 36 Chambers of Brian Westbrook making the Pro Bowl tomorrow. He’ll deserve it.

Welcome to a couple days of looking on the bright side!

That is, after a few days of reflection in re: the deep spiritual ennui brought on by the (a) poor performance of the 2007 Eagles and (b) my limited enthusiasm for improvement and/ or change for the 2008 season, I’ve decided it isn’t actually that bad. The Eagles aren’t very good, but they’re not terrible. There are some positives out there. Seriously. It’s not as bad as it could be.

Item #1: at least the Eagles aren’t the Falcons.

Remember that the Falcons were the team that the Birds defeated in the 2004 NFC Championship Game, and looked like they might be a rival for the Eagles for years to come. They had the up-and-coming franchise QB, the sharp young coach, some exciting playmakers on defense, and an owner who was committed to building a legit franchise.

Yikes. Can’t say that really worked out for them, huh?
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Attended a wholly unremarkable imitation NFL football game at Qwest Field last night. The hometown Nerdbirds prevailed, but all I noticed was just how absolutely terrible the 49ers were.

I suppose you can’t expect you’re going to play well just days after the coach’s Dad (and franchise icon) passes away, but the Niners just didn’t look like they had enough to compete. I suppose Nate Clements played okay, and Frank Gore had a couple nice runs, but past that, there just wasn’t much there. I kept an eye on Michael Lewis, but he was decent at best — certainly nothing extraordinary.

The biggest takeaway for me was just how hopeless Alex Smith looked at quarterback. You know things aren’t too rosy when your coach pulls you in favor of a wide receiver on third-and-four inside your own ten. They might call it an innovative strategy in a tight situation, but it sure looked like a desperation/ no-confidence-in-the-starter move to me.

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Good guys win today (complete with a heartfelt manhug for Andy Reid and Brad Childress), improving this week’s storyline from “Cowboys and Birds headed in opposite directions as T.O. comes to town” to “Eagles can play their way back into contention with win over Dallas.” I’ll take that.

What I saw from my stool at the bar:

1. You can’t complain about the WRs not making plays this week. The blathermonkeys were mean to the WRs (”Birds’ receivers aren’t good enough“) this week, and the WRs played well — we can only hope in response to this criticism!  Screw you, Phil Sheridan!  You won’t have Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis to kick around anymore!  They actually have the Curtis catch up on nfl.com — get it while it lasts!

2. I’m sick of rationalizing Trent Cole’s success by saying that he’s just a pass rusher. He’s on a very short list of playmakers on the Eagles defense, and he seems to be the most emotional/ intense guy out there (which is important since there’s no more Trotter or Dawkins). There should be more Trent Cole shirts in the stands.  I’ll show my appreciation by adding his name to my tag cloud.  Yup, the tag cloud.  That’s how we roll here in Web 2.0.

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I may have been the only one in my section (and maybe the whole stadium) that knew to heap disdain on this fellow for sporting his Ricky Watters shirt. For who, Ricky? For what, misguided fan?

Still, it’d be disingenuous to pretend that we weren’t all super-excited when the Birds signed Watters way back when. We all thought we needed the Marquee Feature Back (this bled into the Ricky Williams obsession at the ‘99 draft). Wow. Did we not get it even a little bit. The lesson here (as always) is that you cannot trust the braying masses of Negadelphia. Just don’t listen to us. At all.

Also, I’d like partial credit for being a week ahead of the curve on the Nerdbirds (Seahawks) sucking. These guys are a mess; they make the Eagles look talented and composed by comparison. At least the fans on Sunday night had the good taste to actually boo the home team, though most of the vitriol seemed unfairly focused on Shaun Alexander.

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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:

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Well that all worked out quite well!

In a game and atmosphere at the Linc that could have been absolutely toxic (and there was apparently a smattering of boos for McNabb during the introductions, but we were still walking into the stadium at that point and didn’t hear them), the Eagles got weird on the Lions and convinced every last one of us that thinks we know what’s going to happen in these games THAT WE HAVE NO IDEA AT ALL. NONE. I thought the spread was absurd when I saw it (I thought the Birds would struggle to win this game). I obviously have NO IDEA WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT.

I don’t want to take all the credit for the win, but this was my first trip to the Linc since January 2005. So it was either me or the hideous uniforms (and yes, I thought they were hideous, though they didn’t look terrible on the fans…the yellow and blue goes better with jeans than it did with those white pants) that powered the Eagles to victory yesterday. Or Donovan McNabb’s overwhelming desire for revenge against his many naysayers. One of those.

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After watching first Jake Delhomme and now Rex Grossman in preseason games, I feel at least 13 percent about the Birds in the NFC. Their ineptitude has a chance to cripple two decently strong teams/ potential rivals for the Birds in the NFC.

And that is totally sweet. 

Delhomme looked worse than the night last December when his overwhelming desire to commit silly turnovers jumpstarted the Eagles’ run to the playoffs, and Grossman couldn’t really handle the exchange from center.

At least the Panthers did something about the problem in the offseason by bringing in David Carr; the Bears continue to stand by the Sex Cannon. What can the other players think at this point? Grossman is edging into Chuck Knoblauch territory — he just looks crushed out there. Yikes. And, from the sound of it, this isn’t lost on the Chicago fans, who realize that this dude is going to clown the chances of their otherwise strong team. Oh well!

(This is all great for the Birds. Even if 5 isn’t in there, I still think the Eagles will get more consistency from the QB position than these two teams. Good for us.)

Link:
3 large drops of sweat [Chicago Tribune]