The Philadelphia Eagles climbed in the NFC East standings this week, gaining half a game on the New York Giants and moving further ahead of the Dallas Cowboys. (Both teams lost.) That’s a bit surprising since the Eagles didn’t play, enjoying their bye week. Apparently, the NFC East is worth less than zero; taking a week off is all you …
Philadelphia lost on the road to the Carolina Panthers Sunday. That shouldn’t be such a huge shock. Carolina is undefeated after seven games, with an excellent defense featuring two of the league’s best linebackers (Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis) and the NFL’s hottest young cornerback (Josh Norman). On offense, they have a creative running game, featuring two stars that Chip …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out There’s no doubt about it — Chip Kelly changed the game of college football and Oregon was blessed to have him during his short tenure. But there’s a segment of Oregon football fans who have taken it a step further and anointed the Chipster with sainthood. It seems that in everything from recruiting to play calling, anything …
Wow, was that some bad football. Let’s not get too negative, however. The Eagles won their second straight game, and amazingly, at 3-3, lead the NFC East division. It’s not even a tie, given the head-to-head tiebreaker with New York, though they’ve lost to two of their three division rivals. Philadelphia’s defense was outstanding after allowing an 80-yard touchdown drive in …
To be canonized as an official Roman Catholic Saint, you need to have produced at least two verified miracles. The New Orleans Saints got their first on Sunday, miraculously healing the crippled Eagles offense and blessing them with 39 points. It would have been 53 except for two inexcusably bad passes by QB Sam Bradford that were intercepted in the …
Let’s talk about toughness. Since the beginning of the Chip Kelly era and the glorious run Duck fans have enjoyed over the past several years, toughness has always been one of the biggest question marks for Oregon football. Do the Ducks have what it takes to go up against a powerhouse program and win with hard-nosed defense and grinding offense when …
The Eagles lost again Sunday, this time to division rival Washington. The Skins are not a good team, though their defense has improved a lot, ranking second in fewest rushing yards allowed (at 78 per game). On the other hand, they had ten penalties, mostly earned, and key players were out injured (including WR DeSean Jackson and CB DeAngelo Hall). …
The city of Philadelphia was basically on suicide watch after the loss to Dallas, with the only energy wielded by people forming lynch mobs for Chip Kelly. Much of the pessimism was realistic, too. The Eagles’ offense was easily the worst in the NFL, as their three running backs combined for negative yardage against the Cowboys’ decimated defense. Kelly was running …
Others Receiving Votes: Toledo (68), Oregon (64) It was following a game against Utah in 2009 that the Ducks last found themselves voted off the AP Top 25 island, so it is only fitting that a game against Utah, mark their first return outside of it in six years. The 98 weeks in-between provided a glorious run of historical proportions …
With the early season struggles of the Philadelphia Eagles, suddenly everyone is breaking their legs jumping off of the Chip Kelly bandwagon — proclaiming that they saw it coming. Everyone has their magic fix for the offense: “If LeSean McCoy were still here they’d be winning,” one will say, or “Jeremy Maclin is the magical missing piece.” I’d even bet …
Things are bad. Really, really bad. The Eagles were somewhat cheered by a stronger second half against the Atlanta Falcons in their Game 1 loss, and hyped up their home showdown against the hated Dallas Cowboys with a cheeky video that poked fun at New Jersey governor and Cowboys fan Chris Christie. Then they rewarded the large national TV audience with …
Everyone knows that Oregon goes fast. Duck football is synonymous with speed and tempo and heaps and heaps of points. This article, however, will delve into the mental aspect of the uptempo pace the Ducks have favored is seasons past, as experienced by the Ducks’ opponents. I want to know if there is a hangover effect from playing the Ducks. Before we go …