Monday, September 29, 2008

Flashback Time

The first time I remember hearing about flashbacks was in an episode of The White Shadow. The team's student manager had done LSD at a previous high school ( I wanna say St. Louis for some reason). The kid started experiencing all kinds of weird things and finally admitted to coach or the bossy assistant principal what the problem was. Flashbacks.

Watching the Eagles find various ways to lose last night gave me flashbacks. Peabody and I hopped in the way-back machine and set it for the year 2007. You remember the '07 Eagles, right? They couldn't score touchdowns. They missed field goals over 40 yards. They got burned for touchdowns on key pass plays. They had to deal with offensive injuries. They turned the ball over at key moments. In short, they found ways to lose.

I haven't finished reviewing the game carefully. I couldn't immediately get into re-watching it last night. The problem with night games is that you need some some time to relax after they are over. Game ends at 1130pm. You do a couple of things and veg for a while and it gets to be 1am in a hurry.

I took some notes during the game and re-watched some key plays. As disappointed as I was, it wasn't all bad. The defense was great in the 2nd half. The Bears had 2 yards and 3 turnovers in the 3rd quarter. The linebackers played great. That is what we've been waiting to see for a while. Those guys made plays and were around the ball all game long.

I thought Buck looked good when they fed him the ball. I really wish they'd get him more involved on a regular basis.

DeSean was up and down. That kid brings a lot to the table, but his muffed punt set the Bears up for points. You just have to know that rookies will make mistakes. He made enough plays to cover up for the blunder, but it did hurt us.

Trent Cole is getting hot. He's now played really well in consecutive games.

We lead the league in run defense and sacks. I do take great pleasure in that. I think that kind of stuff is in the DNA of Eagles fans.

If there is one Eagle I could throw off a bridge today it would be Matt Schobel. He dropped a pass over the middle in the 1st quarter. That pass would have given us the ball inside the 10. Luckily for Matt we still scored on that drive. He decided to go one better, though. On the 4th down run by Buck at the goal line, Matt whiffed on DE Alex Brown. My imaginary friend Roxy made a better block than Schobel. I was so angry last night that I'm sure my neighbors thought I was torturing some random hitchhiker named Matt. How the hell do you whiff on that play?

The problem I'm having with Schobel right now is that he brings ZERO to the table. He doesn't have one catch this year. Zilch. He does have at least one key drop. He isn't a good blocker. He isn't a good STs player. What the hell, man? Give me something. And he's a friggin vet. Lorenzo Booker has been disapppointing, but he's a 2nd year player in his first year with the Eagles. He's done a little bit. Schobel right now is as useful as packing some CopperTone for a voyage to the sun. I would strongly consider cutting him. Go get some street free agent who will come in here hungry to make it. Give me someone who will play with a sense of urgency in his limited snaps.

Enough ranting. We still lost the game. And I do have to give the Bears and Kyle Orton credit for playing well. They earned the win. Wish I could say the same for us.

Hopefully this flashback is a one-time deal. Let's all get back to 2008. I need to see the Eagles scoring touchdowns and winning games. Getting back 36,82, 73, and 80 would certainly be a step in the right direction.

I do have a PE.com article up on the game.

http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/Story.asp?story_id=16294
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

What would you have done on the series that led to the missed 47 yard TD? As it was we totaled 0 yards in 3 plays, all pass attempts I presume. Akers had already missed from 50 yards, and it was always going to be a tight game. As it turns out, even 1 positive yard might have been all that he needed.

I must go and cheer up my hubby TSOP by dressing as a military policewoman and dragging him into the trunk at the bottom of the bed... Ha ha, he should be so lucky, I think I'll just moan at him instead!

Tommy Lawlor said...

The first pass was incomplete. The next pass was a screen that lost 3 yards. Finally there was a pass that netted 9 yards and got us down to the 29 yard line. An extra yard could have made all the difference in the world. We had no Buck at that point, so I don't know that running made much sense. We really just needed to execute better. Costly miss.