McNabb still starting in Philly

by | Nov 24, 2008 | NFL News

Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid announced this morning that Donovan McNabb would start on Thanksgiving against Arizona despite being pulled from yesterday’s loss to Baltimore.

Sal Paolantonio on ESPN this afternoon expressed curiosity about why the Eagles would return to McNabb since it’s a virtual certainty the team will trade or release him in the offseason.

I disagree with Paolantonio’s take on that. The Eagles are 5-5-1 after yesterday’s loss but if they can beat Arizona, they play three of their final four games against division foes. This still gives the team an outside shot at the playoffs – and if the Eagles are going to make the postseason, it’s unlike it will be with Kevin Kolb at the helm.

Kolb entered in the second half of the Ravens game and threw an interception that Ed Reed returned 108 yards for a touchdown. But that shouldn’t dim anyone’s views on how he will do as the team’s likely future starter. Many quarterbacks young and old have been made to look foolish by the Ravens’ always tough defense.

There apparently is little question that Kolb will get his shot sooner rather than later, and if the Eagles fall out of the race with another loss, it will likely come this year. But he’s had few reps in practice with the first team and on a short week it’d be a bad move to stick him out there on national television for big game.

If the Eagles are going to get hot and make a run this season Reid made the right move – he must hope that McNabb takes the benching as a wakeup call because the veteran is the only signal caller with a chance to take the Eagles on a late-season run.

Best Bets

by | Nov 22, 2008 | NFL Gambling

Last week’s three for three performance brought me back over .500 for the Best Bets. I’m at 8-6 now, having hit six of my last seven bets. Should’a been in Vegas.

It’d be great to keep the hot streak going. Using the Caesar’s-Hilton line at Vegas.com here are the picks for this week:

1. Kansas City (+3) vs Buffalo
Buffalo followed up a promising start with a four game losing streak. They lost a tough, last second game on Monday night. And they go on the road, to a tough place to play, minus safety Donte Whitner and cornerback Jabari Greer. That’s bad timing for heading to Kansas City where the Chiefs’ offense is starting to click with Tyler Thigpen throwing to the trifecta of Tony Gonzalez, Dwayne Bowe and Mark Bradley. The Chiefs haven’t won many games but I actually like them straight up in this contest.

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NFL Playoff system flawed?

by | Nov 18, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

The Philadelphia Eagles played a piss poor game against Cincinnati last weekend that they were lucky was held in Ohio rather than at Lincoln Financial Field, or the bad will from their fans might have blown Shayne Graham’s overtime field goal through the uprights.

The ugly tie left the Eagles in sole possession of last place in the NFC East with a 5-4-1 record and on the outside looking in at the playoffs as the standings currently sit.

I have little problem with forcing the Eagles to watch the playoffs from their respective living rooms – you can probably make a strong, solid case that a team finishing in fourth place in their own division doesn’t deserve to go to the playoffs. … Except for the fact that if they resided in the NFC North, they’d be in first place.

Yes, the last place team in the league’s best division is better than the best team in a couple divisions – a byproduct of the league’s conversion to the four division format a few year’s back. So far the switch hasn’t allowed any sub-.500 teams into the playoffs, but inevitably it sometime will. And I don’t suspect you’ll get the three North teams tied at 5-5 apologizing if they do make it in or offering the Eagles the spot.

There probably isn’t much the NFL can do about this minor injustice – and maybe they shouldn’t. It makes sense that division champions make the playoffs. There was some talk last year about after two Wild Card teams had better records than division winners about letting those Wild Card teams host first-round playoff games – that’d be a starting point reasonable for discussion.

After that, though, despite having allowed fewer and scoring more points (not that these are perfect measures, but what else are you going to use?) than the three tied NFC North teams that are likely competing to go to the playoffs ahead of the Eagles, there probably aren’t many ways to rejigger the system without completely tearing up the whole format and starting over.

Thoughts anyone?

Who cares if McNabb didn’t know about ties

by | Nov 18, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

Donovan McNabb was apparently confused at the end of Philadelphia’s tie with Cincinnati on Sunday, uncertain that that game was actually over.

During the postgame press conference he created somewhat of a shockwave by admitting he was not aware that games could end in ties.

That, along with his three interceptions, earned McNabb a D- ranking, for what it’s worth, from Ross Tucker at CNNSI.com. Granted, the Eagles’ tie with Cincinnati was ugly – and McNabb’s performance was pretty bad as well. Despite commentators saying as time was running out that the tie wouldn’t hurt them because it was a non-conference game, it does, in fact, hurt the Eagles because they play in the NFC East, where their 5-4-1 record leaves them firmly entrenched in last place. If the Eagles miss the playoffs, at the end of the season they’ll look back at this game as one reason why.

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Steelers-Chargers gamblers: Get over it

by | Nov 17, 2008 | NFL Gambling

The first item in Peter King’s column this morning at SportsIllustrated.com indicated that the officiating call nullifying a touchdown on the last play of the Pittsburgh-San Diego game created a $66 million swing for gamblers.

Apparently $100 million was wagered on this game, $66 million of it on the Steelers, who were favored by four points, give or take depending on the venue. Thus, the final play was the difference between the Steelers covering the spread or not.

Conspiracy theorists apparently have concocted a brilliant story about the league getting a call from someone in Vegas discussing all the money that would be lost if the Steelers were allowed to keep the touchdown and then relaying that information on to game official Scott Green.

Conspiracy theorists, get over it.

NFL officiating has been, at times, abysmal this season. Quarterbacks might as well be wearing dresses for all the late hit calls and none of the zebras seem to be able to figure out what a fumble is anymore, which has screwed San Diego more than once.

But this was a remarkably fluky play at the end of a weird game that didn’t make a difference in the outcome of the game. Both teams, especially the losing Chargers, wanted to get off the field and Green was probably rushed a little bit into making the call, which, though wrong, was that LaDainian Tomlinson’s lateral went forward, thus ending the play.

It was weird, but I am highly, highly skeptical that there was anything crooked about it. It was too confusing a situation that happened way too fast for anything untoward to take place. So, gamblers, get over it. Sure, I like to see Vegas get beaten as often as possible. But football is a quirky game and weird things are going to happen sometimes.

if you can’t afford to lose it, don’t bet it in the first place.