More Bronco Kicks

A friend writes:

I would have to say Manning would have to be up there and may break through this year with a Super Bowl win if their D is legit. Colts schedule has been soft so far.

Major concerns

1) McNabb can't move. If and when they pass they must max protect b/c everybody is sending the house on him. Let's isolate Owens and Lewis if they go man up on both of them. I'm confident in those 2 with some space to run.

2) Have to run the ball more. I fault Reid bigtime on the playcalling this year. Their first halves in time of possession and getting first downs in KC, Dallas and Denver have been a joke!! That tires the D which has been taken a beating here too. I understand you have to throw when you get behind but the first half is not a time to panic.

It's a November-December season in the NFC East at this point. Let's see if anything changes. If not, no playoffs.

Debacle in Denver

What a disaster yesterday.

This thing goes far, far beyond McNabb. Reid has a lot to answer for this year. His coaching and decision making have been disastrous.

What happened to the unstoppable offense from last year? Its not just McNabb isn’t mobile. Running plays have been nonexistent. The team has come out disorganized and discombobulated. How can you allow teams to score 20+ points on you in the first 1 and half quarters – twice! How can you be leading the Chargers by ten points through 3 quarters and wind up throwing the ball 50 times including 25 straight?!

McNabb has never been great in picking up blitzes and getting to his hot read. And now that he’s not mobile enough to scramble its become doubly bad. But really, how hard is it to throw it up and let TO or G. Lewis run after it? If he can’t throw across his body or downfield then he needs to sit, get the surgery, let Detmer and/or McMahon play – and get ready for the playoffs.

The saving grace – the only saving grace is that, realistically, the Eagles record is right about where everyone expected it to be. (maybe not how they got to that record, but the end result is in line). Rich Hoffman’s 11-5 prediction included losses at Atlanta, at Dallas, and at Denver. Some even had the Eagles down for a loss at KC. Hoffman also had them losing at NY and at Arizona.

Thankfully, the NFC as a whole isn’t a strong conference this year, but the East is becoming much harder than projected. The Giants defense is still suspect, but Manning looks like the real deal. I still don’t know what to make of the ass kicking Bledsoe…Bledsoe! gave us down in Dallas.

Huge game vs. the Skins this Sunday night.

Reid's Judgement

What a brutal game to watch. The only thing that kept it interesting was the knowledge that the Eagles were able to come back from a similarly deep deficit last week. It was not to be.

Hopefully, this was like the Pittsburgh game last year. A game on the road that was an anomaly in being vastly outplayed on both sides of the ball. Still, there are several questions that must be asked of Andy Reid:

Why not challenge the Cowboys' second TD, the one that went to Terry Glenn beating Lito Sheppard? Replays looked like Glenn's right foot landed out of bounds before his shoulder landed in the end zone. A huge play, that might have been overturned. It was the first half, so why not burn a time out in the hopes of keeping the Cowboys from a TD?

This is protecting Donovan McNabb?!@!??!??! Sending an obviously hobbled #5 back out on to the field with 5 minutes to go down by 23 points? Are you kidding me?! THe decision is even more nonsensical when you consider that McNabb finally was pulled with 2 minutes to go.

Speaking of which, why were Westbrook and/or TO in the game at the end either? It's garbage time. Maybe I can understand TO to pad his numbers and to keep him happy, but Westbrook? C'mon! Which reminds me - why did LJ Smith get put back in with less than 5 minutes to go!?!?! Guy has an ankle injury and is supposedly the #3 option in the offense. Why put him at risk when there is so little reward in a game that is totally out of reach.

More broadly, what is it about Reid and playing guys who are injured and exacerbating their injuries. First was the totally incomprehensible Akers debacle. And how about McNabb on a broken ankle and now McNabb with the sports hernia today.

The Eagles ultimate goal is the Super Bowl. Reid better think long and hard about having McNabb get the surgery this week so he's fully recovered for the stretch and playoff drive. What's the point of getting to the playoffs if you don't have a healthy McNabb? There is no breakout team in the NFC so even Detmer should be able to hold the fort and win some games till McNabb gets back.

Abreu's B

A friend writes:

I’m not upset that Abreu gets a “B”.

I think that’s all he’s worth, all he’s ever worth. He’s just not an “A” player, and I just grew so sick and tired of hearing the likes of Jon Miller/Joe Morgan/Harold Reynolds crowd calling Abreu the most under-rated, under-appreciated player in baseball. There’s a reason he’s under-appreciated, and it’s because he never put together the “A” sesason that all that talent suggests he should put together.

Yet lots of people now continue to OVER-RATE Abreu, which I think is something we should really try to take advantage of in the offseason. Let’s face it, who’s going to get more in return? Abreu, who people think is good and is around 30; or Thome, with his even bigger contract and recent injury problems and about five more years in age?

Making the Grade

re-signing Wagner is the immediate No. 1 offseason priority. Remember, he’s the guy who in some ways became a clubhouse leader, called out the team at some point in June or July, said something like, “If anyone thinks we’re a playoff team at this point, they’re fooling themselves.”
How many closers are clubhouse leaders? How many have the standing and are willing to use that standing to call out other guys on the team?

Surprisingly, Lieber turned out to be an all-right guy, 17-13 with a Milton-esque 4.20 era. Lidle is very OK, and Myers started to emerge. Christ, if you could throw a real No. 1 in that crew — any chance Schill wants to finish his career pitching for us? -- that would be a solid pitching staff.

But yes, the nucleus with Utley and Howard and Rollins (if the late-season transformation is real) is really solid. Bobby Abreu has 3 career post-season at bats, I just looked it up. They came in ‘97 for the Astros.

Yes, I think he’s a loser, and I think his attitude is just not a positive one.
Burrell, I’m not completely sold on, one way or the other. Plus, we absolutely have to have right-handed power, so we can’t get rid of him. And Lieberthal, well, he just sucks.

More on the Phillies Grade

I’m sure he (M. Hayes) is someone that said the 86 we got last year was a complete disaster and that we underperformed all year. My point – if 86 was a huge disappointment and underperformace it tells me we were a 95 win team last year. Without Milton and maybe 1 other player we were supposed to be 14 games were this year. No, No, No.

This team performed as it should with the possible exception of doing better because of the Thome injury. But, without the injury we probably have the same # of wins.

We have a nice nucleus of guys who know how to play (Utley, Howard, Michaels, Rollins – somewhat). The Phils need to go out and get more winners. I’m really coming around to that concept. Abreu, Burrell and Lieberthal are losers. Like A-Rod is a loser. Some guys just win. Lofton is a great example of that.

We really need to re-sign Wagner.

Do we have any minor league position players coming up (3rd base especially?)

It should be an interesting offseason, let’s hope we don’t have to focus on it until mid-february.

Philllies final grade

Philllies 2005 grades by position by the Inqy. REport by M. Hayes.

someone explain these two sentences to me:

“But consider this: He [Manuel] took a team that figured to barely contend for .500 to the brink of the playoffs and the most wins since 1993 - two more than Larry Bowa's 86-win seasons. Yes, a looser clubhouse mattered to the likes of Pat Burrell, Brett Myers, Ryan Howard, Jon Lieber and Aaron Fultz.”

Wow, Burrell hits for 33 more RBI than in ‘04, Utley turns in the greatest offensive season in the history of Phillies 2nd basemen (Samuel had one season that rivals it, with 28 hr and 100 rbi), the CF/No. 2 slot in the lineup becomes the most reliably consistent position in the line-up card, Ryan Howard turns in a vintage, Thome-esque half season of 22 HR and 63 rbi in 88 games, a couple of our starters completely outperform their expectations, Billy Wagner turns in the greatest closer performance in team history (38/41 in save opportunities, granted, 2 of those really, REALLY HURT).

And what do we have to show for it?

Two more wins. And how does Marcus Hayes justify saying that this was a team that “figured to barely contend for .500”? This was a team built to dominate the division, at least contend for the division title all season long.