Eagles, Etc: Week Nine

It’s time to transition from playoff baseball to midseason football.  Not that we haven’t been paying attention to the NFL, as it is after all, the most popular sport in the country, but just that with postseason baseball being played in Philadelphia, the football season doesn’t take center-stage around here until November.  So, let’s take a look around the league in Week Nine, starting with the Birds.

Something’s Gotta Give
The Eagles, under Reid, have never beaten the Indianapolis Colts.  In fact, Peyton Manning has absolutely carved up the Eagles defense all three times he has faced them in his career.  The Colts have won all three of those meetings, with Manning completing just under 70% of his passes, with 7 TDs and only 1 INT.  His career passer rating against the Eagles is a staggering 132.2, his best against any one opponent.  And, keep in mind that the last two times he has played the Eagles (2006 and 2002), the Birds were 10-6 and 12-4, respectively.  Add to the mix here that the last time we saw this Eagles defense, they were getting torched in the fourth quarter by a Kerry Collins – Kenny Britt combination.  The pass defense has been really suspect this year and now face their most difficult test this Sunday.

Maybe it's his ability to audible away from the blitzing Eagles, but Manning has better numbers against Philly than any other opponent

So, this one’s easy, right?  Not so fast.  This is the 12th season of the Andy Reid regime.  Coach Reid’s teams are 11-0 (straight-up AND against the spread) coming off of a bye week.  So, Reid does something right in that bye week, so expect the Birds to be ready this Sunday.  Secondly, they get Michael Vick back at quarterback and, presumably, DeSean Jackson back at WR.  Plus, the week off gave banged-up players like LeSean McCoy and Jason Peters a chance to rest.  There was no such rest for the weary on the other side of the ball, as the Colts are going on a short week, coming off a physical (albeit, relatively comfortable) win against their division rivals, the Houston Texans.  And, the injuries are quickly mounting in Indy.  Key offensive and defensive players, Dallas Clark and Melvin Bullitt, are on IR and out for the year.  Their best defensive player, Bob Sanders, and a key linebacker, Clint Session, are likely going to join Clark and Bullitt on IR.  Both Pro Bowl defensive ends, Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis have missed practice time this week, though Freeney did return to practice on Thursday.  Their number one running back, Joseph Addai, hasn’t played or practiced in several weeks and is almost assuredly out for Sunday’s game.  Number two running back, Mike Hart, has not practiced all week with an ankle injury.  If Hart can’t go, then second-year back out of UConn, Donald Brown (who has been disappoiningtly ineffective and is banged up himself) will be the only running back with any proven NFL experience.  And, the wide receivers aren’t much better.  Austin Collie has missed a lot of time this year with a broken hand and he has missed practice this week.  Anthony Gonzalez, who has only played in two games all year, hasn’t practiced all week and is likely out.  And, Pierre Garcon, while finally healthy, has ben relatively ineffective in the four weeks he has played since returning from injury.  So, this team is on the road on a short week and is very banged up.

Maybe that is why Vegas has the Birds as a three-point favorite in this game.  Either way, it is a very big game for the rest of the season because it’s looking more and more like the NFC East is a two-team race with Philly and the Giants.  The Cowboys are all but dead, and the Redskins has serious problems and a vicious second-half schedule.  If the Birds can pull this one out on Sunday, they could set themselves up for yet another NFC East title.

The Biggest Game of the Week?

These guys finally have an actual football game to care about

If you had looked at the schedule at the beginning of the season, you may have salivated over the two prime time games this week.  You know that NBC and ESPN were rather excited to have these matchups.  Well, things don’t always work out how you expect them to.  NBC’s Packers-Cowboys game is, well, not very good, nor is ESPN’s Steelers-Bengals tilt.  And, with all due respect to the games in my childhood hometown (Eagles-Colts) and my adulthood home town (Ravens-Dolphins), those two games, while good, are not the marquee matchup of the week.  The big game is, to the surprise of probably everyone is in Oakland, where the red-hot Raiders host the first-place Chiefs.  It’s a rekindling of one of the oldest, fiercest, and best rivalries in the game that has not been fierce or good recently.  It’s the first time these two teams will play each as the 1-2 teams in the division this decade, and while the Super Bowl champ may not be participating in this game, the future is pretty bright for both of these teams, and one will get a nice leg up after Sunday.

The Dark Horse
The Raiders and Chiefs, huh?  Well, there is one team that I am now rooting for to reassert themselves out west – The San Diego…Super-Chargers!  Yes, the Chargers stink and, yes, I did mean what I wrote in the previous paragraph, but, are we ready to bury the Chargers?  Phillip Rivers has been the best player in the league this year (if the Chargers were even 5-3 instead of 3-5, he’d be the clear favorite for MVP at the midpoint in the season), and he’s been doing it without any healthy wideouts.  That is why I decided to throw $20 on the Chargers to win the Super Bowl at 30-1 odds.  Will it happen?  Probably not.  Do I think it’s a much better than a 30-1 shot?  Absolutely!  And, I get to root for the Super-Chargers…

The Best of the NFC?  Really?
Because the NFC is so bad and everyone just have to name a favorite in early November, a lot of people are talking Super Bowl for the New York Football Giants.  Now, I have never claimed to be

Honestly, name one thing that he's actually accomplished in his NFL career

objective on the G-Men, so I’m not going to comment, but I am going to say, “let’s slow down a bit first.”  Must I bring up exactly what the Giants have done thus far?  An ugly win over the worst team in football (Carolina).  Then, two losses by a combined 43 points to Indy and Tennessee, followed by an ugly win over the Bears, a nice win over the Texans, and two more ugly wins over bad teams, the Lions and Cowboys.  Yes, you can only play who is on your schedule, but let’s hold off on making Giants 2010 NFC Championship t-shirts just yet.  This week, they have a long road trip to a tough place to play (Seattle), so we can have this conversation on Monday with a little more information.

The Measuring-Stick Games of the Week
This week has a decent number of teams on the bye, and it’s not loaded with great matchups, but there are some interesting games to watch and see whether some of these teams actually are good or not.  Here is what I’ll be watching for on Sunday:

• Can the Bills actually win a game?  Looking at Buffalo’s schedule, there are not many wins to be found after this week, so this might be their best shot.  They “host” the Bears in a game that they would certainly be at least a pick ’em if it were actually a home game, but it’s being played in Toronto.  Funny how they might get their only win of the season in Canadia.
• The Jets at Detroit.  The Jets looked bad on offense last week against Green Bay.  The Lions have looked pretty good on offense all year, though their porous defense has not helped win any games.  The Jets should win this game, but will they be up for a road game against a bad NFC team that can beat you if you don’t bring your best stuff?
• Last-ditch efforts.  Do the Vikings have one last stand?  They better at home against Arizona.  Are the Cowboys really dead?  I think so, but they can show something against Green Bay on Sunday night.  Do the Bengals have any pride left?  We’ll see on Monday night against the Steelers.  And, can the Chargers and/or Texans right their ships?  One of them will go a long way to doing it Sunday, as they play each other in Houston.
• Finally, what is up in the NFC South?  A lot of questions will be answered on Sunday as the Falcons host Tampa Bay.  The Bucs have been the biggest surprise of the season, but they haven’t done it with much style (despite their D-end, Stylz G. White’s emergence as a big-time NFL player).  The Falcons might just be that “team to beat” in a weak NFC, but they have to prove it at home against a division rival they should beat.