B-Dawk interview with P. King

Peter King poses THREE QUESTIONS WITH ...

Philadelphia safety Brian Dawkins, who teaches me about the word "crunk.''

MMQBTE: You got a pretty big scare against the Browns. Do you think it was good for you?

Dawkins: "I loved it. We needed it. There are going to be times when you come into a stadium on the road and get their best game and the fans are all crunk to beat you.''

[Editor's note: "Crunk'' means "excited,'' or "fired-up'' in some facets of our nation.]

MMQBTE: Why is that good for you?

Dawkins: "Because we've got so many young guys on this team who need to learn what it's like to play in a big game, a high-pressure game. We need the guys who are new to these games to get used to playing in them. Guys like [running back] Reno Mahe. Every time he touches the ball, he makes something happen, and it's good to see him do it in a tough road game when it counts.''

MMQBTE: The way you use your entire roster reminds me of the Patriots.

Dawkins: "The Patriots are amazing. What's so amazing abut them is they always play well in the fourth quarter, with the game on the line. In today's football, to win 20, 21 in a row, I don't know how they're doing it. Just amazing. I really admire what they've done.''

Donovan's detractors reconsider

Peter King has a new appreciation for Donovan McNabb and the explosive impact Terrell Owens has had on the Eagles' West Coast offense. see link attached.

McNabb getting national props

Peter King gets a new appreciation for Donovan McNabb and the explosive impact Terrell Owens has had on the Eagles' West Coast offense. Link attached.

Zook: Fights are Ok, Losses Aren't

The U. of Florida leadership may have wanted to send a strong message when it fired embattled head coach Ron Zook, but the message may not be the one the SEC power wanted to send.

Zook’s teams have played well with winning records, just not as well or as many wins as Steve Spurrier’s teams. And then Zook got into an “altercation” with members of a fraternity a day or two after several of his players got into a fight at the frat house.

That was disturbing enough, but even more disturbing was the way the Florida administration tolerated it, until Zook got thumped at home by Mississippi State. At which point, they fired him.

So the message from Florida is: it’s ok for a coach to get into it with university students so long as he is winning. But any coach that can’t back up his misbehavior with victories will be shown the door in Gainesville in a hurry.

hello again

I apologize for not posting in a while, I’ve been out of town and unable to access a computer or the Internet. A lot has happened in the interim.

We’ll have to get to all the Schilling stuff later. And to Terry Francona’s continued mismanagement that hasn’t seemed to impeded the Red Sox. Hey, Bob Brenly mismanaged his team to a World Series ring.

Anyway, back to the Eagles.

Last week’s win vs. Carolina was very encouraging for the manner in which the Eagles achieved it. It was a business-like approach. There didn’t seem to be any point, either before or during the game, that there was any sense – by the players, coaches or fans – that the Eagles were not going to win this game.

I liked TO’s trash talking to the Carolina secondary before the game. Heck, that’s part of the reason he was acquired. So guys like Ricky Manning can’t push are WRs all over the field. TO knows it. We know it. Todd Pinkston knows it. Even better, TO backs it up on the field. The message was unmistakable clear – this is a whole new year. A whole new team. And you aren’t beating us.

Eternally Schilling

My love for Curt Schilling is well documented on this site. And yes, I have given up the ghost that he will win the AL Cy Young this year. Johan Santana just had an extraordinarily monster season while Schilling only had a monster year.

But a similar fondness for Schilling extends to my brother and another friend, PK. We’re all from Philly, and acquired our appreciation for Schilling during his years with the Phillies. We all appreciate his big-game pitching talents and rooted for him when he won his World Series ring (and LCS and WS MVPs) with the Diamondbacks.

As disappointed as we are that the Phillies weren’t able to land him this off-season, Boston seems the second best place…kind of like Philly-North.

We are all still rooting for him and the Sox to beat the Yankees. One- cause we hate the Yankees and 2) another World Series will burnish his Hall of Fame credentials.

But there is a sense of melancholy were he to win with the Sox. As my brother notes, Schiling has always had a fondness for Philadelphia. As witnessed by his interest in being traded back here last off-season and for the home he still maintains in Chester County.

But should the Sox win the championship, we will probably lose that Philadelphia connection for good. He would achieve, literally, God-like status in New England were they to win it all – and as an added bonus deposing the hated Yankees. Clearly, their victory would be in large part to Schilling. All of which is to say that should they win and Schilling get into the Hall later, he will probably be inducted as a Red Sox. The D’backs stint doesn’t count. They’re an expansion team for chris sakes.

So while I want to see him do well, it will be bittersweet to realize that he will gone from us (Philly fans) forever and belong eternally to Red Sox Nation.

Eagles to catch a break with Lewis pending suspension?

If Al Michaels' sources at NFL HQ are to be believed, then the pending suspension of Jamal Lewis as mentioned on MNF last night is good news for the Eagles. According to Michaels, Lewis will plead guilty to lesser charges in his drug trafficking indictment, and spend 4-6 months in jail during the off-season. The league will suspend Lewis after next week's game for between 2-4 weeks which likely means that he will be unavailable to play in the Ravens-Eagles October 31st game. Lewis is the Ravens offense. Forcing shakey QB Kyle Boller to carry the entire load is great news for the Eagles in what could shape up to be an easier game than previously thought.

All according to plan

So, the Eagles are undefeated at the quarter mark of the season and go into their bye week 4-0. If you were scripting this, it couldn’t go much better:

TO has TDs in each of the four games, and 6 overall.

Westbrook has held up well to the added load, but 32 touches in Chicago is too many even if Westbrook wants the work.

McNabb has been nothing short of the league MVP. Remember when critics complained about his accuracy? 70% completion rate this season, baby. Amazing what a premier WR in your lineup will do for your QB’s performance.

Remember when the big concern was whether Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown could fill in for Bobby Taylor and Troy Vincent? Don’t hear much about that anymore, either, do you? Containing Randy Moss will do wonders for your reputation.

Kearse? The other big-time off-season pick-up? He’s a one-man wrecking crew nearly singlehandedly wreaking havoc in offensive backfield’s. (Taking nothing away from the fine play of Simon, Walker and the revitalized Huuuugh Douglas. McDougle is also coming into his own.). Plus, Dhani Jones is playing really well.

Perhaps the biggest concern was the “handling” of TO and the fear that the Eagles would get off to a slow start a la last year – with McNabb underthrowing Owens, TO ranting about it on the sidelines, and dissension in the locker room unlike the steady, stable response to last year’s season on the brink. Obviously, that hasn’t come to pass. Winning and TDs have a way of mollifying everyone.

The only problem has been injuries. Shawn Andrews was a big loss (even with the injury, you don't hear many people questioning the decision to move up and pick Andrews 16th overall.) So was the veteran play of Jon Ritchie. Add in ND Kalu and Buckhalter and that it is a lot of starters gone for the season at this point in the season. It’s a credit to the personnel office that the team hasn’t missed a beat. But the big concern is that depth is now terribly thin and the team can’t afford more injuries at these positions. The NFL season is a marathon and the victor is often the one who survives the attrition best.

The added bonus is that the Eagles are drafting behind the New England Patriots whose 18 game winning streak is drawing all the national attention while the Eagles go quietly (relatively speaking) about asserting themselves as the best team in the NFC. Here’s hoping the Pats continue to win cause looking ahead, the Eagles should be 6-0 going into their Halloween matchup with the Ravens. A win in this game and even the Pats streak won’t keep eyes off of Philly then. Scary indeed.

How does Vegas do it!?

How do they do it? But for the foregoing of an extra point in lieu of a two-point conversion to get within 8, the margin of difference in the Eagles-Bears game would have been 9 (19-10), the exact line posted by Vegas oddsmakers! How do they do it? How could they have foreseen the Eagles' difficulties in the red zone resulting in 4 Akers' FGs - and 2 misses! that would have well exceeded the line. Amazing! Now, I know it is the sports books that originally set the line but then it is adjusted accordingly based on the amount of "action" being wagered on either team in any given contest, so much of the credit goes to the collective wisdom of the sports betting public - half of whom thought the Eagles would win by more than 9 and half of whom thought the Bears would lose by less than 9. Collectively, then - we're all geniuses. Individually, however, is a totally different story. And I mean that in a totally why does it always seem like i'm losing way. At least this time I was on the winning side (as I noted in an earlier post when claiming the Eagles would cover the 9.) One incomplete two-point conversion is the difference between winning and losing. Amazing.

Schilling Cy Young/MVP Watch

Schilling didn't get his last start on Friday vs. the Orioles since the games were meaningless after the Yankees clinched the division on Thursday and the Red Sox were already in as the Wildcard. He finishes 21-6, with 3 20 win seasons in the last 4 years. One of the knocks on Schilling in years past when it has come to the Cy Young is that it was difficult to vote for him as the best pitcher in the league when he wasn't even the best pitcher on his own team (ie, Randy Johnson). Similar criticism was, or could have been made earlier this year. But in the year he has been with the Sox (and with the decline of Pedro), Schilling is the undisputed ace of the Boston staff. Check out ESPN's the "Sports Guy's'" column on the Sox and his high praise for Schilling (note: the Sports Guy is a Boston native who is a diehard Red Sox fan). In fact, here's a little sample: "The torch has been passed: Pedro to Schilling.
At dinner last Sunday, my father mentioned that he liked our chances in October because we had "two aces." I patiently explained to him that Pedro wasn't an ace anymore; Dad vehemently disagreed.....Classic Pedro had another gear on his fastball. Aging Pedro rarely makes guys swing and miss in big spots. Against the Yankees in Game 7 and last Friday, both nail-in-the-coffin singles came on dink hits, mainly because Pedro can't fall back on that 97-mph heater to save his ass anymore. He's just a different pitcher, a No. 2 starter with a B-plus ceiling. He's certainly no Schilling.
My first Schilling/Fenway experience coincided with his 20th victory, which came against Tampa, a team we played 78 times this season. Of every development this season, the connection between Schilling and the Fenway fans has been the happiest. He's one of us. There's no other way to say it. If he wasn't a professional athlete, you can imagine him posting on message boards, calling radio stations and gulping down flat beer at games. For that reason, he resonates with the locals in a "Bird and Neely" kind of way. "

Mayberry's injury

Now, I'm no doctor but someone really needs to explain how Jermane Mayberry can be playing with a torn biceps tendon when Brian Westbrook was unable to late last year. I recall from Westbrook's injury that the arm becomes nearly useless. Obviously, that is a problem for a running back. But it would seem to me, that such an incapacitation would present similar if not greater difficulties for an offensive lineman. I mean, how do you pass block? One handed? Or do they just harness the arm to your torso and Reid's only going to call running plays over Mayberry so he can use his shoulders? I admire Mayberry's toughness and desire to play, but how he is going to play really needs more elaboration.

Phils finish strong...again

Boy, too bad the Phils didn't play this type of baseball in August...and July...and June...and May...and April. Had they, we wouldn't have to hear all about the amazing season the Braves put together and would instead be talking about the playoffs and how the Phils fulfilled all of the pre-season expectations by finally..finally deposing Atlanta. Nobody closes out a season by reeling off victories in meaningless games to attain that mystical milestone of 88 wins than the Philadelphia Phillies under the direction of Larry Bowa.

Bye, Bye, Bowa

Larry Bowa's firing before Saturday's game is just downright bizarre. If you were not going to let him finish out the season, why didn't you fire him a month and a half ago when the Phillies were playing uninspired ball, but still in contention for a wildcard berth? And having made your decision in August, why bring the ax down now, just before the season concludes? Perhaps Ed Wade was unnerved by the strong finish the Phils were putting together and didn't want to a repeat of years past when the final weeks managed to color the judgement of the front office and the fans as to the underperformance through most of the season.