Deja Vu

Oh, man.

This article about Doug Pederson's desire to run the ball more...only to call more pass plays is an uncomfortable replay of the Andy Reid years.

As the article notes about the unprecedented number of passes Wentz is attempting:

 Wentz averaged 30.8 passes the first six games, when the Eagles were 4-2.
The last seven games, he's averaged an astonishing 44.7 passes per game – the most in NFL history over any seven-game stretch by a rookie, according to figures from Pro Football Reference and the most in any seven-game stretch by any Eagle quarterback...
So Wentz has thrown more passes the last seven weeks than Donovan McNabb ever threw in any seven-game stretch in his career.
In fact, only nine quarterbacks in NFL history have thrown more passes in any seven-game stretch than Wentz since the Dallas game – Matt Stafford, Drew Bledsoe, Warren Moon, Philip Rivers, Erik Kramer, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Rich Gannon.
So Pederson has called more pass plays the last seven weeks than Andy Reid - owner of the highest pass-run ratio by any NFL head coach in history -- ever called in any seven-week span in his 18 seasons as an NFL head coach.

The Eagles pass/run ratio is 61/39 - which is better than Andy Reid's ungodly 65/35 - but not by much. And at least Reid had a pro bowl QB that was often in conversations about MVP when he did it.

But most disconcerting is Frank Reich's explanation of the unbalanced play calling.

"I know when (Pederson) and I are sitting up there talking about the plan, and the plan of attack in the game, you go in with the idea that we're going to run it 30 to 35 times a game," Reich said Tuesday. "That's what you want to do. But you have to make the calls at the time that you think are necessary to win the game. 

That is scarily similar to Andy Reid's lame weekly explanations as to why, despite expressing a desire for a more balanced pass/run ratio, his team wound up with a 65/35 or - at times a 70/30 (un)balance. Reid would say something nearly exactly like Reich - that they had intended to run the ball more, but gosh darn it, the game situations just forced them to call more pass plays. What's most amazing is that those very same game situations occurred week after endless week.

Like Reid, so like Pederson and Reich. Hello again 65/35

Ugh.

Eagles Town

Really? 

Philadelphia really is a football town. And by football, I mean Eagles.

How else to explain the list of biggest sports stories in Philadelphia this year that has the encouraging but 6-9 play of QB Carson Wentz ranked above Villanova winning the national championship with the only buzzer beater in championship game history. Imagine where Wentz will be ranked next year if he gets a decent receiving corps!

Wentz's return

Carson Wentz may be the only NFL player I can recall who actually went into the locker room after an initial concussion diagnosis on the sideline and then returned to the game.

And Doug Pederson's decision to re-insert Wentz into the second half of the penultimate game - a meaningless contest for the Eagles - was inexplicable. Just because Wentz was "cleared" to return to play doesn't mean you actually have to put him in. He's the franchise QB for chrissakes. Hopefully he plays for 12 years for the Eagles. Why risk that bright future on a middling, pointless game now?

Even more inexplicable was the Eagles' decision to run a double reverse after Wentz returned in which your recently concussed QB became the lead blocker?!?!?! That play calling is downright negligent.

And memo to Cris Collinsworth. The NFL concussion process didn't "work exactly like it was supposed to." The spotter missed Wentz's head slamming to the turn on the roughing the passer penalty. In fact, it took the intervention of pro bowl left tackle Jason Peters to tell both Wentz and the coaching staff that the rookie QB needed to leave the game. That's how this system is supposed to work? It was an utter failure but for a teammate's concern. And once again made a joke out of the league's concussion protocols and of an individual team's coaching staff's concern for the long-term health of one of their players.

But other than that, the win and preventing the Giants from clinching a playoff berth at the Linc was great.

Cam Newtown

Glad to see there was widespread outrage and condemnation of the ridiculous no call on Cam Newton being hit in the head last night. Walt Coleman's crew even seemed to go out of its way to insult Newton by not only not calling a penalty on Washington but calling a 15 yarder on Newton?!

There's been some complaint about the inability of the Washington player to avoid hitting the sliding (feet first) Newton.

Whatever the intent of the defender, the fact is he hit a QB that was sliding. 9 times out of 10 that gets called as a penalty. To add insult to injury, the defender also delivered a blow to the QB's head. In the league's efforts to protect the quarterbacks and prevent hits to the head, it should have been called a penalty. In fact, most people on the field and in the broadcast booth thought the flag was initially on the Redskins. 

Even more egregiously, contrast it with the "late hit" that was called on the Panthers when they shoved Cousins out of bounds later in the game. Replays showed Cousins wasn't actually out of bounds when the defender made contact with him. As such (and Gruden made this point), there shouldn't have been a penalty called.

But the larger point is that  one QB got the benefit of a questionable call and one didn't.  And the one that didn't - Cam Newton - hasn't been getting them all year. After a while, it adds up.

Forgoing Bowl Games

After the disastrous knee injury Notre Dame LB Jaylon Smith suffered in last year's bowl game - that dropped his draft projection as a top 5 pick to the end of the first round - costing him approximately $20 million, it's no surprise that top NFL prospects are deciding that the risk of playing in a meaningless exhibition bowl simply isn't worth it. Especially since the players are the only ones not making any money off of the bowl game.

Now the number of players renouncing their bowl game has risen to 3 and Arizona Bruce Arians has said he would have "concerns" if a player didn't want to play in a bowl game. (To which profootballtalk pointed out that Arians wasn't so concerned about a player being suspended for smoking marijuana and missing a bowl game that he didn't draft Robert Nkemdiche.

This is a long-awaited development that's the direct result of the national championship playoff. The already extraneous college bowl system is even more meaningless except for the 3 games and 4 teams vying for the championship. 

Make no mistake - the decisions of Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey (the son of a former NFL pro) and Shock Linwood are only the tip of the iceberg. I would expectx more college stars to choose the same route and those decisions could have serious repercussions in undermining the whole NCAA football slave labor system.  

Look for other NFL coaches to come out against the college players in the very near future and I wouldn't be surprised if the NCAA got involved in some way to try to stop the trend in the near future.

NFL Fines Giants for Walkie Talkies

It's not the violation of game operation rules that has the NFL so fired up. No. In Roger Goodell's NFL, Ben McAdoo's sin was undermining the sponsorship deal the league has with official communications partner, Bose, whose equipment only works occasionally on the sidelines of MetLife Stadium

Wussification

Could  there be any more stark contrasts between the intestinal fortitude of our two political parties as it relates to power and action than what we saw this weekend in Washington, DC and North Carolina.

President Obama gave a calm, reasoned, milquetoast explanation about how Russia helped influence the presidential election and that the US government hasn't really responded to this unprecedented attack on American democracy. At the end of the day, Donald Trump will become president on January 20th and there isn't a damn thing Obama or the Democrats can or will do about it.

Juxtapose that with the Republican North Carolina legislature who called a special legislative session to enact a new set of wide-ranging policies specifically crafted to emasculate the powers of the incoming Democratic governor. 

Republicans at seemingly every level of government now have completely abandoned any pretense of abiding by the traditional norms and customs of politics while the Democrats are helpless to stop these moves and are themselves incapable of copying them for their own benefit.

The wussification of the Democratic party continues.

For the Win

I have no problem with Doug Pederson's decision to go for two and the win this afternoon in Baltimore. In fact, I applaud it.

The Eagles aren't going to to the playoffs. They're playing on the road against a better (playoff) team. The weather is a definite factor in the kicking game and thus field position. They have the momentum having 1) forced the Ravens to punt and 2) drove 60 yards for the tying/winning score.

Why not go for it? If you lose the coin flip for the OT quarter you're going to be at a distinct disadvantage for the whole period. And the 2 pointer gives you about the same percentage chance of conversion. In addition, you have to consider kicking the PAT into a swirling wind which is no gimme.

Pederson's been criticized all year for some over-aggressive 4th down decisions, but this one isn't one of them.

Not a "Bang-Bang" Play

Let's dispel the notion that Deshazor Everett's vicious cheap shot on Eagles punt returner Darren Sproles last wee was a "bang-bang" play as Everett has tried to explain.

A bang-bang play would have occurred had Sproles actually caught the ball. He didn't. Thus it was an egregious penalty worthy of the fine imposed by the league. In fact, it was so flagrant that it should have resulted in his ejection. He certainly should have been ejected after committing a second personal foul on a subsequent punt return when he blind sided Brent Celek (with a helmet to helmet hit no less!). It's also worth noting that thanks to Everett, Sproles is out for today's game vs. the Ravens.

Moreover, Everett's excuse-making also suggests he doesn't understand the rules of football. As Everett said, "You have options. You have ways to protect yourself. It's not like the guy called fair catch, and I still took a shot at him because I'm not that type of player."

Yes, you are exactly that kind of dirty player who also doesn't understand the rules. What does Sproles calling a fair catch have to do with anything? The rules clearly state you're not allowed to hit the punt returner when he doesn't have the football. Everett suggests that, in his mind, punt returners are fair game whether they have the ball or not and the ONLY way to prevent them from being hit is to call a fair catch.

Poor Jon Dorenbos

On the day he tied Harold Carmichael for longest consecutive games played streak as an Eagle last week, he injures his wrist so badly it requires surgery and his placement on IR - ending his season.

So Carmichael and Dorenbos will share the consecutive streak record, though honestly Dorenbos only plays like 8 plays a game.

On another point, how is Harold Carmichael's number not retired by the Eagles? Nelson Agoholor's troubles merely highlight the absurdity of still seeing a #17 on the field for the Eagles. That number should and will always belong to Harold Carmichael.

The Real Dem Vote Decision

To me the issue around Democratic support for the Republican alternative to Obamacare down the road isn't the key question confronting the caucus.

The bugger consideration Dems should be making is whether they should support immediate repeal of Obamacare when the votes happen in January and force the issue to create chaos in the insurance markets and blaming Trump and the GOP now for the loss of insurance.  Rather than allowing republicans to reap the reward of the repeal vote and put off the pain of the consequences till after the mid terms (and pressure Dems then to support whatever alternative they come up with). 

Not only would it be a political victory but it would completely derail the legislative agenda of the Trump administration and GOP Congress who would be consumed with coming up with a health care fix on the fly for at least the first 6 months of 2017 instead of pushing tax cuts, and other Paul ryan priorities. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/12/07/schumer-if-republicans-destroy-our-health-system-we-wont-throw-them-a-lifeline/

Trump’s unpredictable style unnerves biz

Unnerves might not be the right word. How about "intimidated"? I'm guessing that the CEOs of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup wouldn't dare miss a meeting with president-elect Trump like Lloyd Blankfein, John Mack, and Dick Parsons did with President Obama back in 2009 (citing weather as an excuse for their absence).

That 2009 meeting was the day after Obama had called Wall Street executives "fat cats." They may have to get used to being called much worse (and penalized) under a Trump administration.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trumps-unpredictable-style-unnerves-corporate-america/2016/12/06/6e3f3976-bbea-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html

Taiwan

Here's the most disconcerting thought about Donald Trump's diplomatic faux pas of calling the Taiwanese government. He probably doesn't even understand what the problem is and why it is such a big deal.

More on Kizer

Why is it up to journalists to raise the issues of player safety? And not the coaches and officials who oversee the NCAA and NFL?

Chicago Tribune columnist Paul Skrbina raises some interesting questions about the hits to DeShone Kizer's head.

To wit, why isn't it Head Coach Brian Kelly's decision about who goes in to play QB and not some "spotter" on the sideline?

Why wasn't a penalty called on the helmet to helmet hit Kizer suffered?

Kelly doesn't think Kizer was at risk after being reinserted into the game?

How come no one is talking about the hit to Kizer and the obvious distress he was in during one of the last plays of the game?

One can make the case that the NFL players get paid for endangering their health and long-term brain health. The same can't be said of NCAA players. Worse, the NCAA and its neanderthal coaches are willfully oblivious and dismissive of the risks and harm that is going on right under their noses.

DeShone Kizer

Incredibly unremarked this week is the fact that DeShone Kizer left last week's game vs. Virginia Tech not once but twice with head trauma. The NCAA concussion protocols may be even weaker than the practically non-existent NFL's.

Kizer left the game after taking a hit and holding the back of his helmet/head. Kizer went back into the game and one of the final plays had his head slammed again and had to leave the game. No report was given on Kizer's status at any point during the game and the announcers and sideline reporters made no comment about Kizer's status, any diagnosis, or the well-being of him coming back into the game.

Incredible.

Not Either/Or

Another Beltway professional elite who completely misunderstands the election results and the Democrats' problems.

This time it is the Post's Charles Lane who posits this Hobbesian choice - " The Democrats' dilemma, then, is this: They can make only limited political gains with an economic pitch to the white working class, unless they adjust on immigration and other issues of identity too, probably. Yet this would require compromising on what the party defined as matters of basic justice and tolerance, and turn off voters from their racially and ethnically diverse "coalition of the ascendant."

I don't for an instance think that economic pitch to working class voters has to be at odds with the Dems' identity politics. The problem is that Dems have made no economic pitch to anybody, of any color. It's not an either or situation. The reality is that Democrats have ceded the populist economic arguments to the Republicans (ironically enough). 

But here's the harsher reality that Lane fails to acknowledge. The current Democratic strategy on identity politics isn't working. Sure it may have worked for President Obama, but it simply has been a failed strategy for everyone else: John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, congressional Democrats, Democratic gubernatorial candidates, and Democratic state legislators.

Out of His Mind

Nelson Agholor has committed the one unpardonable sin of NFL players: expressing doubt about their abilities. To the casual fan, his "got to get out of my own head" admission seems glaring statement of the obvious from what we've seen on the field with his mental mistakes and physically dropped passes. But to NFL insiders, the acknowledgement of his mental struggles suggests a player who isn't "tough enough" for the NFL. Here's how Doug Pederson reacted to the comments: "Those are definitely concerns that I have, now that he's obviously come out and said that publicly." 

It's akin to the reaction (overreaction) to Kerry Collins' admission to the Panthers' coaching staff that the struggling QB might not be the best signal caller to get them a win in an upcoming game. An acknowledgement that went undisputed (Collins had been playing dreadfully) but was savaged for showing weakness, a lack of confidence, and perhaps "losing the locker room." Strange world the NFL.

Ralph Branca

A great and fascinating obituary of Ralph Branca in today's Washington Post, the "goat" who gave up Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world."

Everyone knows Branca as the losing pitcher in the deciding game of the 1951 National League championship. And everyone knows he handled the infamy with class and grace for more than 50 years. But his life included far more than a journeyman's MLB career, including a 19 member family, a revelation of Jewish ancestry, family connections to the Holocaust, later revelations of rampant sign-stealing cheating in the bigs, and a friendly welcome to the integration of the Major League Baseball. A pallbearer at Jackie Robinson's funeral says so much about Branca's basic and long-lasting kindness and decency.

Matthews' Helmet Hit

The glaring no-call on the helmet to helmet hit on Jordan Matthews perfectly encapsulates everything that is wrong with today's NFL and the absurdity of its "new" player brain protection and concussion protocols.

First, the play was such an obvious helmet to helmet hit the fact that no penalty was called is simply astounding. I mean, the Falcons Keanu Neal lowers his head and the crown of his helmet smashes directly into Jordan Matthews' face mask. It's as clear an example of helmet to helmet as you'll likely see. Yet somehow, the refs determined it wasn't a penalty.

Worse, after the hit Matthews is laying prostrate on the ground and grabs his helmet/facemask with both hands in what appears to be reaction to the pain and the hit. As far as viewers could tell, Matthews did not undergo concussion protocol testing after coming to the sideline (or at least the Fox sideline reporter never mentioned it). 

Indeed, Matthews was back out on the field for the Eagles very next possession and nary a word was spoken again about whether Matthews was cleared to return or whether he had been checked at all.

Again, these are just further indications that the league and its referees are clearly not capable of policing helmet to helmet hits. And the league - with the complicity of its broadcast partners - would prefer not to discuss the issue at all even when so obvious examples and subsequent oversights occur.

Midway

Yes, the Eagles are 0-3 in the division. Yes, they've lost to every team in the division. But...they've lost to every division rival on the road. In fact, they have yet to play a NFC East team at home. All of which means that basically they're division rivals have merely held serve. It's not like the Eagles shat the bed in those games, though it certainly feels that way after giving up a 10 point 2nd half lead last week and last Sunday's grind.

The conference record is more problematic given that there are so many teams bunched up in the Eagles' 4-4 range, including the Lions who now have a tie breaker against us. With the cowboys playing really well and favorites to win the division at this point, it's hard to see how the Eagles get a wild card (get ready for a Dallas 3 game losing streak!).

But - there are a whole slew of teams bunched up in the Eagles' 4-4 range, which means that 1) they're not separating from the Eagles and 2) despite the losses the Eagles aren't losing ground.

But yes, overall this season is pretty much a wash, and really - was from the moment they decided to start the rookie in game 1. The WRs are terrible. The offensive line was solid till Johnson got suspended and then what's his face got hurt. Now it's a patchwork at best. The defensive secondary is dicey. I'm not ready to give up the season, but neither am i optimistic that they make the playoffs. Best can be hoped for are competitive games for the duration and plenty of seasoning for what is looking like a real deal franchise QB (fingers crossed).

My main question and frustration is what are they (i.e., Roseman) going to do in the offseason to address these problems? I would have liked to gotten some WR via trade last week. But they didn't see the value in adding Smith or Jeffrey. Fine. What is plan Bin the offseason? Drafting someone again in the first round like Agoholor? Please.

Another frustrating loss. This game was there for the taking. I don't fault Pederson for going for it on 4th and 1 after the Sproles' TD return was whistled at the 15. But the earlier fourth and 3 was really bad. That was a loooong 3 - maybe even 4 yards (i think Fox called it 4th and 2?!). Should have kicked the FG - and that's not hindsight. 

Two questionable calls - at the end of the first half did anyone touch Jordan Mathews on his catch? It didn't look like it to me. 2nd - most QBs, or maybe I should say veteran QBs - automatically get that roughing the passer call when defenders swat them on the helmet. I guess Wentz for all his promise doesn't warrant those calls yet?

Ugh.