Enough is enough.

The guys at ProFootballTalk.com have a nice little thing going.  They offer up a daily mix of headlines from around the league, original analysis and, most importantly for their success, lots of crazy rumors that may or may not actually be true, but make for interesting reading.

They're also idiots.  And they think their readers are idiots too.  How else to explain:

1.  Their double standards.

Any time an actual reporter breaks a story using an unnamed source, they point out that the writer probably got his or her information from someone who has an actual interest in getting this information out there.  Then they get up on their high horse about how the guy got played and how unethical it is to do all that.

Sorry guys, that's the way the game is played.  You call a reporter, give them some information, then hope you get a story out of it.  Sometimes it helps you, sometimes it blows up in your face.  It's all a bit cynical, but it's also the way the news business works.

But here's the real question, why is it some awful violation of professional ethics when Len Pasquarelli does it, but is all fine and dandy when the PFT guys do it?  Who the hell do they think is giving them all the rumors that they then turn around and put on their site?  Little football angels who go about dispensing truth to the virtuous?  Or maybe the same group of agents, front office folks and League officials who are trying to spin every other news organization out there?

You're playing the same game guys, wake up.

2.  Their complete and total sell out.

Long-time readers of the PFT site may have noticed that the number of ads and official sponsorships has increased dramatically in the past year.  In addition to their regular ads, the PFT guys now have major deals with Sprint and the new NBC Sports (check the ads on top). 

That's all well and good, everyone has to eat.  But consider this, these are the same guys who criticize everyone else in the world for their supposed ethical conflicts, and yet, one week after announcing a deal with NBC Sports, they turn around a write up their "ten-pack" of impressions of this week's Monday Night Football game, which coincidentally happens to be on ESPN.  An NBC competitor.

The post, which basically slams the entire ESPN operation, starts like this:

We gave the Boys in Bristol a pass on the first installment of the new Monday Night Football, for a variety of reasons.  Primarily, we knew that we had a deal in the hopper with NBC, and we didn't want to respond to 500 e-mails once the ads went up suggesting that we took shots at the ESPN coverage as a gratuity to NBC.

And this is how it ends:

10.  Monday Night No Longer Feels Special.

Our ultimate assessment of ESPN's $1.1 billion annual investment in the NFL is that Monday Night Football no longer has the "feel" to it that it had for 35 years on ABC.  But maybe we're just showing our age; after all, we grew up in an era with three channels.  If you'd asked us in 1975 for a definition of the term "cable TV", the answer likely would have been "uh . . . a TV made out of cable?"

So from our perspective a four-letter network is still a cut below ABC, NBC, and CBS.  Thus, MNF is no longer a big deal to us. 

It doesn't help matters that NBC scored a far superior slate of games and flexible scheduling, or that NBC has landed the guys who covered MNF on ABC for Sunday nights.

As we said months before the NBC ads showed up in the banner of this page, Sunday night is the new Monday night -- and Monday night is the new Sunday night.   

You be the judge. 

3.  Their massive inferiority complex.

Here's the real problem with these guys, they want to have it both ways.  They want to be part of the rumor machine, but criticize all the other cogs with whom they share space.  They want to make money off their advertisers, but pretend they're somehow holding on to their objectivity. 

And finally, they want all the credit every time they're right, but shirk the blame every time they're wrong. 

And they're wrong a lot.

Like for example, their recent report that Brett Favre was about to announce his retirement (um, he didn't).  Or their little item on Eagles DT Brodrick Bunkley getting arrested on gun charges (no, it was Gaffney).  David Boston isn't a 49er...etc...etc...etc...

And that's FINE.  That's what they do.  But it's ridiculous for them to act like little crybabies every time some real reporter fails to credit them for breaking a rumor that actually turns out to be true. 

Look, you can be one of two things.  You can play by the normal rules of the media, and expect to be treated as such by your competitors.  Or you can throw every last bit of dirt that may or may not be true up on your website and let the chips fall where they may -- but then don't whine about not getting to sit at the grown-up's table.

Your choice.

This Friday night, the Eagles play the Steelers in a game that will be televised on ESPN.  This game is in the traditional "third-game" slot, where teams give their starters their most extensive playing time, before barely playing them in the final preseason tune-up to try to avoid injuries heading into the regular season.

So the starters should play most of the first half this week.   In the second half, we (the crazy ones who care too much about the Eagles) will be watching closely to see who appears to have the edge in some of the tighter position battles.  Those who play well -- and a lot -- can be presumed to have the edge going into the first cuts that have to be made by next week.

It occurs to me, though, that maybe there's a better way to judge where people really are on the depth chart.  After all, teams sometimes give players they're looking to move a lot of time on the field, in the hopes they will interest potential suitors.  Likewise, they might try to bury a guy they want to stash on the practice squad.

But here's one place the Eagles can't afford to lie: special teams.  Last year, our special teams were a disaster.  Some of that can be attributed to the major injuries suffered by our kicker and punter, but a lot of the coverage and return problems were due to poor effort, poor technique and poor talent. 

This preseason, the Eagles' special teams looked very solid in the first game, didn't get to do much in the second, and showed some cracks in the third.  That's not a great trend.  It occurs to me it's probably time to start solidifying the special teams around not just the best 11 guys for each unit, but also the guys who are going to make the final team.  After all, as great a special teamer as linebacker/end Jason Short is, if he's not going to make the team there's no point in running him out there with the first coverage unit when someone else needs to be getting those reps to get ready for the season. 

So watch the position battles in the second half.  See how seems to have the edge as the fourth cornerback or fifth receiver, but also look to see who is -- or isn't -- out there on the first kickoff or punt.  That may tell us all we need to know.

(For more Eagles news and notes, visit Igglesblog.com)

Well, put this in the category of an ugly first-half win for the starters.  We saw (a few) good things and (many) bad things.  But this was a good football team the Eagles played tonight.  The Ravens look to have another top five defense, and the combination of a healthy Steve McNair and a revitalized Jamal Lewis is going to be tough for a lot of teams to handle.   

McNair absolutely turns these guys into a playoff team, as long as he's healthy.  Everyone's talking about the strength of the NFC East, but the AFC North is going to be a dogfight between the Ravens, Steelers and Bengals.  Not so much the Browns. 

Let's break down tonight's ugliness by half and unit:

First Half

Defense.  Sigh.  Here we go again.  Complete lack of discipline in the run game.  We had safeties running past ball carriers, linebackers getting caught in the trash inside, defensive tackles (actually, just Rayburn) getting moved off the point of attack and opening up running lanes.  Jim Johnson is not going to be in a good mood in practice this week. 

On the plus side, the line looked pretty good on passing plays.  McNair didn't have a great deal of time back there -- but had no problem keeping the chains moving because on every play there seemed to be at least one receiver running wide open.  No matter what combination of linebackers and DBs we had out there, the coverage just didn't look good.  Dawkins was flying around like a madman, thought.  He's in mid-season form.

Bottom line, though, is that the Ravens put up 192 yards of offense and held the ball for almost 21 minutes in the first half.  That ain't good.

Offense.  This unit was a bit tough to evaluate.  The camera guys for this game were awful -- like high-school-game bad -- so it was hard on a lot of plays to get a real sense of what was happening on the field. 

McNabb looked good, but he also looked like a guy who wasn't seeing many open receivers.  Given our issues there, that's not comforting.  What's happened to Reggie Brown?  One catch for five yards?  No catches for Hank Baskett. Or Greg Lewis or Darnerian McCants. 

Our running backs would look good if they COULD HANG ON TO THE #$^%@! FOOTBALL.  I have to admit, Buckhalter looked much better than I ever thought we'd see him again.  He might actually be able to help us this year if he can stay healthy (knock on wood).  The other guys need to stop putting the ball on the ground. 

Speaking of fumblers, L.J. looked good.  He could catch 80 balls this year. 

Special Teams.  In both halves, our special teams look ragged, starting on the opening kickoff.  The timing was off with the guys forming the wall, so J.R. Reed was basically already standing behind them by the time they got moving.  Coverage wasn't great either.  The two bright spots were our kicker and punter, though Dirk didn't get that much work since our offense kept thoughtfully turning the ball back over to the Ravens.

Second Half

Defense.  The Eagles' second-team D-line absolutely dominated the Ravens' backup O-line.  It's ridiculous how much talent we have stashed on that line.  The rest of the backups looked decent to crappy, depending upon the play.  You also have to control for the Kyle Boller effect. 

(This week's Brodrick Bunkley highlight came on the second play of the second half, when he drove his blocker all the way into the Boller, knocking him down.  Of course, he got the pass off first and completed it, but it was still an impressive play.)

Offense.  Moats is very, very fast.  Once he gets comfortable (like when he doesn't stop his flat route when the d-lineman jumps him so Detmer has to just chuck the ball over his head) he's going to be a big help.  However, a week or so ago I was talking to a friend of mine who played football against him in high school and he said he had fumbling issues back then, too. 

The rest of the offense ... let's just hope we're not seeing too much of some of those guys this year.

Specia--ehhhh, why bother...

Random Thoughts

• No-huddle offense still needs work.  I like doing things to keep base defensive personnel on the field, though.  Makes it harder to match up the right defenders against Westbrook.
• No way we cut Juqua Thomas after this performance.  That means we're keeping five defensive ends ... can we also keep five DTs?  If not, sure would love to alchemize one of those guys into a receiver.
• Greg Lewis almost looks like a guy who's trying to get cut. 
• I don't know if Timmy Chang is the answer, but do we honestly think we could win a game with the Koy Detmer of 2006 starting for us this year?  If Chang's receivers had any hands at all, he would have put some points up in the 4th quarter.
• So when a backup kick returner is tackled from behind by a fourth-string cornerback, they call the horse-collar penalty.  When our all-Pro quarterback is running towards the sideline and gets dragged down from behind by a DE/OLB, that's fine.  OK, got it.  Great rule. 
• Why does Omar Gaither, a backup MLB, wear number 96?  And speaking of Gaither, he looks like a player.  Since he played OLB in college, and we're set at MLB with Trotter, I wonder why we moved him inside behind Trotter rather than letting him take a shot at one of the outside positions where we sorta need some help...
• Why no carries for Tapeh?  I think we could use a guy like that as our change-of-pace back (which in our case means bigger and slower, rather than smaller and quicker).
• That Jeremy Bloom pick has worked out well so far.  I hope we can at least IR him and give him a year to see if he can rebuild a football body. 

Next up: Steelers.  Now that's going to be a good test.

Look, I'm not saying the Cowboys are going to cut TO, but you certainly have to wonder how long Parcells is going to put up with this stuff.  So here's a crazy, calorie-free post for today.  IF the Cowboys kicked his whiny butt out the door, where would he end up?

It's a fun game.  Here's my best guess:

Not Unless Hell Freezes Over

32. Dallas
31. Philly
30. San Francisco
29. Minnesota

Still No Chance:

27. Atlanta (Blank on record)
28. Pittsburgh
26. Indy (doesn't need him)
25. Cincinnati (ditto)

Continue reading "Who could Sign Terrell Owens"

I watched large chunks of six different preseason games this weekend, including the contests of the three "other" NFC East teams.  Thank you, NFL Network. 

You can't tell everything from watching these games, but there's enough for some first impressions.  Here are my thoughts on the teams that share the Eagles division:

Washington Redskins

• Obviously, the Portis injury is the big question.  I think they can manage a couple of weeks without him being full strength, but they're in trouble if he never gets back to 100 percent this year. 
• The Redskins offense is kind of like the bizarro Eagles.  We have an MVP-candidate quarterback, an unproven cast of receivers and a bunch of scatbacks running the ball-control West Coast offense.  The 'Skins have talent (and speed) to burn at receiver, a ticking time bomb at quarterback and a power running game combined with a deep-strike passing game.  Interesting contrast.

Continue reading "NFC East Preseason Round-Up"