Eagles Carve Up the Cardinals

The Eagles provided everyone watching in the Philadelphia area a Happy Thanksgiving by handing the Arizona Cardinals a lopsided 48-20 loss. I hate to say this is a case of the fans knowing what to do better than the coaches, but what did the Eagles do to win this game... established the running game. Imagine that.

The Eagles received the opening kickoff and marched right down the field to score a touchdown capped off by a McNabb to Westbrook shovel pass. The Eagles fan the ball 7 times on the opening drive, including runs by McNabb, Eckel, and Jackson, to only 4 passes. By running the ball, the Eagles controlled the clock, controlled the line of scrimmage, and when they did pass, it gave McNabb the time to complete short passes to move down the field. Also, the Eagles found a way to convert short yardage situations with running. That came in the form of Kyle Eckel, who was activated for the first time this season as an Eagle. The Eagles ran the ball for 185 yards on 40 carries. Westbrook went over 100, and had 4 total TD's. Kyle Eckel, Lorenzo Booker, and even McNabb also contributed to the rushing attack, all having over 20 yards rushing. McNabb ended the day with 260 yards passing, 4 TD's, and 0 INT's.

On defense, the Eagles once again played very well. They did well controlling the line of scrimmage, holding the Cardinals to 25 rushing yards. By shutting down the run, the Eagles made the Cardinals one-dimensional, and were able to intercept Kurt Warner three times in the game. Even though Larry Fitzgerald scored 2 touchdowns, the Eagles did an excellent job overall on the Cardinals wide receivers. Boldin was short-arming passes all night, and fumbled twice. Brian Dawkins played a great game at safety, with multiple hard hits, and an interception. The interception by Dawkins was his 34th overall as an Eagle, tying him for the all-time lead in interceptions for this team with Eric Allen and Bill Bradley. Dawkins will most likely get another one to become the all-time leader, and he definitely deserves it.

The story of the game was not McNabb playing well. Any intelligent Philadelphia fan knows McNabb is capable of putting up the types of numbers he put up in this game. It wasn't surprising to see McNabb play well, the surprise was the play calling. Andy Reid or Marty Morningweg or whoever called the plays did a great job of mixing the run and pass effectively. The Eagles held the for 40 minutes this game. That's exactly what you need to do against an offense as good as the Cardinals. McNabb can still win games and put up big numbers, it is the coaches job to put him into the position to do so, and that wasn't happening in previous weeks. Hopefully the Eagles can build off of this big win, as they travel to the Meadowlands next weekend to play the hated Giants.

Eagles Battle to Save Jobs on Thanksgiving

The Eagles celebrate this Thanksgiving holiday by welcoming the Arizona Cardinals to town. What most Eagles fan chalked up as an easy win before the start of the season will now be a tough game to pull out, even in the friendly confines of Lincoln Financial Field.

The Eagles bring their amazing 5-5-1 record into this game against the Cardinals, who appear to have the NFC West locked up, despite their loss last weekend. The Eagles have seen more turmoil this past week than all other times of the Andy Reid-era combined. Donovan McNabb is the starter for this game, fresh off his benching last weekend against the Ravens. Everyone is calling for Andy Reid’s or Donovan McNabb’s respective head on a platter for dinner this Thanksgiving, and here at Kotite’s Corner, we have done our fair share of Andy Reid bashing.

The Eagles appear to have multiple problems on offense coming into this game. The offense is not going against a very good defense, so hopefully they can get back on track. This has to start with Donovan McNabb, who must get off to a good start this game. Part of any quarterback playing well involves having a rushing attack that is actually a threat to run the ball. This means that Westbrook, or whoever is in the game at running back must get the ball early to set the tempo. This should take some pressure off of McNabb and the play calling, as the Eagles can go to play action if they can run the ball early. Unfortunately, the receivers still have to get off the line, and catch the ball. The Eagles currently lead the league in dropped passes, and it seems like we lead the league in that category every year. Hopefully the offense can get on track early, and drive down the field to get some points on the opening drive, which should relieve some of the pressure on them.

The Eagles defense faces a very tough challenge from this Cardinals team, which is one of the best offensive teams in football. Cardinals QB, Kurt Warner, is have a resurgent season, and is an MVP candidate. It helps that he has maybe the two best receivers in the game in Anquan Boldin and former Pittsburgh Panther, Larry Fitzgerald. How good would one of them look in an Eagles uniform. They also have a very good 3rd wide receiver in Steve Breaston, and run the ball effectively on the goal line with rookie Tim Hightower. All of this creates a lot of problems for the Eagles defense. We believe the Eagles should match Asante Samuel on Larry Fitzgerald, and the more physical cornerback Sheldon Brown on the more physical receiver, Anquan Boldin. Once again, the Eagles will need to rely on a heavy pass rush to disrupt Kurt Warner. If Warner is given time, he will pick the Eagles secondary apart.

The Eagles will try to give Philadelphia fans everywhere a Happy Thanksgiving, and save their own jobs by getting a win and getting their record back over .500.

Machine's Healthy Living Tip of the Week

Being it is a holiday week, we will keep this short.

Make sure to get in a little activity over this notoriously indulgent holiday. Whether going out for a jog, running the local Turkey Trot 5k or visiting the health club; be certain to get moving and break a sweat. It will ensure that all of our Turkey Day feasting does not further pad our bellies or line our hips.

It does not take much time to burn a few hundred calories, an hour or so should do the trick. To set the best of examples, this "machine" will be up early Thanksgiving morning to train for an hour and a half. Then over the holiday weekend, a trail race is to be run. The Dirty Bird 15k will be sure to take care of any Thanksgiving leftovers that try to find a home on this fine body.

There is nothing like a race through the woods, up and down long, treacherous hills, across icy creeks, over downed trees and jagged, unforgiving rocks to keep the pounds from affixing themselves. There will be no love handles or back fat adorning this "machine"...no way, no how!

So, let's go forth and ward off that jiggling flesh, those double and triple chins, those saddlebags and man-boobs... let's attempt to rid ourselves of those 29,000 calories we will undoubtedly consume this holiday weekend...let's come back to work on Monday a bit stronger, perhaps even leaner! Well, that may be a stretch, even for Machine, but let's at least keep the fat cells from multiplying!

Happy Sweating!

Reid Unraveling

Regardless of one’s opinions about Reid and McNabb, there is no pleasure in witnessing a full scale, public meltdown of the coach, his “franchise” QB, and the franchise itself. The unraveling of this team is a direct reflection of the unraveling of Reid, a process that started at least 3 years ago with the TO fiasco, and which has now acquired the furious speed of an avalanche. How else to explain inserting an untested, stone cold rookie QB into a must win 10-7 game against one of the premiere defenses in the league? How else to account for ducking the responsibility of directly informing the veteran QB that he’s being benched for the first time in his career? How else to explain ordering the rookie to throw into tight coverage in a constricted area of the field on 2nd and inches? These are the acts of a desperate man, frantically looking for cover as the avalanche thunders down. It is sad to watch, but sadder still that Reid chose to ignore the disaster as it was developing over the last few years, and we will now all pay the price for his arrogant blindness.

Flyers Win 5th Straight

Kotite's Corner was live at the Wachovia Center to watch our Flyers beat the Dallas Stars to pick up their 5th straight victory overall, and continue to gain momentum after a slow start to the season.

Just three minutes into the game, Scottie Upshall gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead after some great forechecking by the Upshall, Lupul, Metropolit line that was playing together all night. Upshall and Metropolit forced a turnover as the puck was played from behind the net, which Lupul intercepted. Lupul immediately played a pass to Upshall on the opposite side of the net, and Upshall gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead. Dallas would respond, and scored a goal halfway through the 1st period to make it 1-1. Knuble scored a goal for the Flyers late in the first period, his first of two on the night to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead after the 1st period. The Flyers dominated the first period, and looked good with their forechecking, and getting the puck through the neutral zone.

As good as the Flyers looked in the 1st period, they came out flat in the 2nd. Three goals were scored in the 2nd, two by the Stars as they tied the game at 3 after the 2nd period, with the Stars dominating the play. The 3rd period was fairly evenly played, the Flyers had to kill off two back-to-back penalties halfway through the period. With about six minutes left, Mike Richards make a great play in the neutral zone, and brought the puck into the offensive zone. He skated in, was patient, waited for Knuble to break to the net, and then played a perfect pass, which Knuble put into the back of the net. The Flyers killed off a 6 on 4 power play in the final minute to preserve the 4-3 victory.

Overall, the offense continues to score, and play well in the offensive zone, forechecking and cycling the puck. Jeff Carter, Mike Knuble, and Glen Metropolit most notably did a great job offensively against the Stars. On defense, the Flyers are still very up-and-down. They will look good for a period, block a lot of shots, and keep the opposing teams chances down. Then they will look lost for a period, and struggle to get the puck out of their own zone, while leaving Biron with no chance to save a lot of the goals that are scored against him. In goal, Martin Biron played well, and the goaltending is getting better as the season is going on.

The Flyers still are in the very tough Atlantic Division, but are gaining ground on the Rangers and Penguins in the division. They need to keep up the momentum they have going, and continue to play well.