reCAP: Kansas City Chiefs vs. Philadelphia Eagles

9/20/13

Welcome back to Philadelphia Andy Reid. As head coach of the Chiefs, you lead a team that matched their win total last year at two. Donovan McNabb was in the house as well. His number five was being retired at halftime. Of course the media made a big deal about whether Eagle fans would cheer or boo both Reid and McNabb in their return to Philadelphia. Nobody talked about how adequate the Chiefs offense is or how dominant the Chiefs defense has been in their previous two games. There was no talk about how terrible the Eagles defense is or how lightning quick the Eagles offense goes up and down the field in the past two games. It was all about Andy Reid, and it sickened me. Yes he had a solid tenure as Eagles head coach for 14 years, but change was needed. Here’s what went down in the game:

The first quarter started with the Chiefs getting the ball first. Their first drive started in a three and out. They had to punt on fourth down except Damaris Johnson fumbled the punt and the Eagles suffered their first turnover of the game when Cyrus Gray recovered the fumble for the Chiefs at the Eagles eight yard line. You would think it would be an easy touchdown on the Chiefs’ next drive right? WRONG. They went backwards seven yards and had to settle with an easy 33 yard field goal that Ryan Succop chipped in to make it 3-0 Chiefs. The Eagles finally had the ball on offense with 12:08 left in the quarter. Their first drive of the game was abysmal. It lasted three plays and it ended with a Chiefs touchdown on a 38 yard interception that Eric Berry took in to the endzone to make it an early 10-0 Chiefs lead. The Eagles finally scored their first points of the game on their third drive of the game. It started with a vintage Michael Vick 61 yard run and it finished with a 22 yard Vick touchdown pass to Jason Avant. The Eagles tried to go for two after the touchdown and it failed miserably. It was 10-6 Chiefs. The Eagles had another chance to put some points on the board at the end of the first quarter, but Jason Kelce did a horrible snap, which made Vick go butterfingers with the football. Justin Houston recovered the ball for the Chiefs at midfield. At the end of one, the Chiefs led 10-6.

The second quarter began with the Chiefs on offense and they could not execute points off of that turnover. Succop shanked a field goal from 51 yards and it was time for the Eagles to be on offense. The Eagles didn’t do much of anything in this quarter on offense, but their defense held their ground. The Eagles held the Chiefs to two field goals from 31 and 34 yards that Succop successfully made. Sean Smith intercepted a Vick pass and got tackled at the Chiefs 39 yard line. At halftime the Eagles trailed the Chiefs 16-6.

The third quarter was such a boring quarter. Alex Henery chipped in a 29 yard field goal to cut the Chiefs lead to a one score game. In their next drive, Vick found DeSean Jackson down the sideline and reeled in a 40 yard pass. It set up Henery for a 48 yard field goal that seems makeable. However, he pulled the field goal wide left and couldn’t chip into that Chiefs lead. At the end of the quarter, the Chiefs led 16-9.

The fourth quarter started out with a bang for the Chiefs. They dinked and dunked their way and killed a lot of the clock as they scored their first offensive touchdown of the game. Jamal Charles ran three yards to get in the endzone to make it a 23-9 game. Just as fans were walking out of the stadium, LeSean McCoy told everybody to sit down as he ran 41 yards into the Chiefs endzone for a touchdown to make it a 23-16 game. This next drive the Chiefs had in this quarter killed every Eagles fan’s hope of coming back and winning this game. Third down situations killed the Eagles for most of the game, but this specific drive was when third down plays haunted the Eagles more than the Chiefs. They methodically took off eight minutes of the clock and settled for a 38 yard field goal that Succop kicked through the uprights. That drive sealed the deal and the Chiefs won by a final score of 26-16. Andy Reid won in his first game back in Philadelphia and has already improved the Chiefs win total from last year. They have won their first three games of the season.

Overall, the Eagles did a much better job on defense than they played in the last two games. Their problem in this game was on the offensive side of the ball and on special teams. Vick was sacked five times in this game and made bad decisions with the ball. Vick did show some flashes of his vintage self as he racked up 95 yards on the ground. McCoy is having a solid start to the season. He carried the ball 20 times and rushed for 158 yards, which included that 41 yard rushing touchdown. He’s so shifty and patient in the backfield that he can find the holes and make something out of nothing. I felt the offensive line didn’t protect Vick as well as I thought they would. I have to give credit to the Chiefs defense. They have solid pass rushers and can create turnovers. The Eagles should have run a lot more instead of pass because the Chiefs defense was getting exposed to the run. The Eagles had big running lanes created by the offensive line and the up-tempo style of offense. The one problem I did have with the Eagles defense was that it made Donnie Avery have a Pro Bowl kind of game for the Chiefs. Avery made the Eagles miss tackles and extend the drives the Chiefs had on offense. The special teams problems can be fixed. Johnson should stop fumbling punts and Henery should work on making those long field goals. To be honest, the Chiefs offense did not impress me. Reid tweaked his offense a little, but it’s still the same old Andy Reid offense from when he was coach of the Eagles.

Are the Eagles in trouble? Sound off and stay tuned as the Eagles travel to Denver to face Peyton Manning and the Broncos next week.

reCAP: Philadelphia Eagles vs. Washington Redskins – Week 1

9/10/13

Wow…What a way to start the Chip Kelly era for the Eagles. All of the attention, no thanks to ESPN, was shifted on the Redskins and Robert Griffin III (better known as RG3). ESPN the Magazine had a section of predicting every game for every team. When the writers were predicting this game, they predicted a 41-0 blowout by the Redskins. Good thing I don’t write for that magazine or else I would have laughed at myself for predicting such a ridiculous score. Everyone questioned Kelly as to whether his high octane offense that he instilled at Oregon would work in the NFL. The other question everyone had in mind was whether Kelly can adjust to the speed of the game the NFL is played at compared to how the game is played at the collegiate level. Enough talk; let’s talk about how this game unfolded.

The Eagles received the ball in the first quarter and it was time to show the nation how fast this offense was going to be. On their first drive, they were marching up the field so quick that it looked like the Oregon Ducks playing football in the NFL. However, when the Eagles were in the red zone on their first drive, Michael Vick threw a backwards pass that was ruled a fumble and DeAngelo Hall recovered the fumble and ran 75 yards into the other endzone for the first points of the game. It was a 7-0 Redskins lead. The Eagles got the ball again and this time they put points on the scoreboard. Alex Henery kicked a 48 yard field goal to make it a 7-3 game. The Redskins finally got their first possession on offense with 9:15 left in the first quarter. Their first play on offense did not go smoothly. RG3 handed the ball off to Alfred Morris and he fumbled the ball. Michael Kendricks recovered the fumble for the Eagles and were set up perfectly to score again. Just like that, Vick threw a 25 yard touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson on the first play of the drive. It was a 10-7 Eagles lead. The second drive for the Redskins was another poor drive. RG3 threw an interception to Brandon Boykins. Although the Eagles didn’t score after that interception, they got a safety with five minutes left in the opening quarter. At the end of the first quarter, the Eagles led the Redskins 12-7.

In the second quarter, the Redskins looked terrible on offense and defense. Vick threw a 28 yard touchdown pass to Brent Celek. Vick also got in the scoring column as he ran for a three yard touchdown to make the score at halftime 26-7.

The Eagles kept the pedal to the metal for most of the third quarter until they hit the cruise control button for most of the quarter. RG3 threw his second interception of the game to Cary Williams. That interception set the Eagles up nicely for a 34 yard touchdown run by LeSean McCoy. That made the score 33-7 and that was the last time the Eagles scored. The Redskins were starting to get their groove on after the Eagles scored that touchdown until Kai Forbath shanked a 40 yard field goal. The Redskins scored a touchdown in the final seconds of the quarter. Alfred Morris ran five yards into the endzone to make the score 33-14, which was how the third quarter ended.

The fourth quarter belonged to the Redskins. Their momentum started once Jason Avant fumbled the football for the Eagles and Perry Riley recovered the fumble for the Redskins. That fumble set up a 10 yard touchdown pass from RG3 to Leonard Hankerson. Just like that the score was 33-21. Were we going back in time to the Eagles of last year of having a giant lead but blowing the game at the end? As the Eagles did nothing on offense this quarter, the defense stepped up on one critical drive. The Eagles forced the Redskins to turn the ball over on downs. The Eagles continued to run time off the clock, which is something Chip Kelly is not accustomed to doing. On the final Redskins drive of the game, they scored a touchdown with 1:30 left in the game. RG3 threw a 24 yard touchdown pass to Hankerson for his second touchdown of the game. They tried to do an onsides kick to get one more chance on offense to win the game, but not only did the Eagles recover the onsides kick, but the Redskins got called for an offsides penalty. The Eagles went into the victory formation and took a knee and enjoyed their first win of the season winning by a final score of 33-27.

Overall, I was very surprised with what a difference a healthy offensive line can do for any quarterback. Vick had a lot of time to throw the ball. As much as he threw some bad passes, the receivers didn’t get to their spot fast enough to where Vick threw the ball. If there’s one difference the Eagles had that we as Eagles fans haven’t seen for the past 14 years, it was the emphasis on running the football. That’s right, the Eagles ran the football 49 times compared to passing the ball 25 times. That’s a 66:34 run/pass ratio. I have been shunned on the fact that the Eagles knew how to run the football. The one thing I really liked about Vick was that he had one fluky turnover. Usually he would throw an interception or two per game, but in this game he threw zero interceptions. DeSean Jackson had a solid game catching seven balls for 104 yards. He was a lost cause last year. LeSean McCoy had a career high 31 carries for 184 yards, which was one yard short of tying his career high in rushing yards in a game. I felt RG3 was playing scared at quarterback. He didn’t look 100% coming off of a torn ACL/MCL injury. He was rusty and was afraid to run with the football in the first half. He got better in the second half, but still doesn’t have the elusiveness that he had last year. One thing before I finish this piece. After the game, Chip Kelly, LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson emphasized how much fun they had in playing/coaching the game rather than running the team as a business. Do you think that was an implied shot at Andy Reid? You can be the judge of that.

How did you like the start of the Chip Kelly era? Sound off and stay tuned until next time…

Reflection on Charlie Manuel

8/22/13

The managerial search was really down to two candidates in November of 2004. It was down to Jim Leyland or Charlie Manuel. Leyland is a dictator, but the players love playing for him. Also, everybody loves how fiery Leyland is when he argues with the umpires and gets ejected. As for Manuel, he has been known as the “hitting guru.” Everybody in baseball respects him because he has that southern laid back attitude and lets the players have fun. He’s the epitome of being a players’ manager. In the end, the Phillies hired Charlie Manuel to become the team’s 51^st manager in Phillies history. Manuel and his calm player-friendly demeanor, was replacing Larry Bowa and his fiery attitude. Larry Bowa was beloved when he was a player and manager of the Phillies. Everybody loved how animated he was when he got ejected by the umpires.

It seemed like a conspiracy at the time that Manuel was hired as Phillies manager. He was already a special assistant to General Manager Ed Wade from 2003-2004 and his favorite slugger to teach hitting to, Jim Thome, was already on the Phillies. Did anybody think Manuel would be this popular in Philadelphia? No. In his first two years as manager, his teams finished close but no cigar in clinching a wildcard spot in the playoffs. His success would really kick in during the 2007 season. When the Phillies overcame a seven game deficit in chasing the New York Mets at the very end of the season, the Phillies clinched their first NL East Divisional champions. This was when the magic started and it didn’t end after that year. In 2008, the Phillies once again had to overcome another deficit by the Mets. Instead of it being seven games back within the division, it was three. The Phillies kept riding the hot streak through the playoffs as Manuel and his Phillies won the World Series that year. In 2009, the Phillies went to the World Series again only to lose against the Evil Empire New York Yankees. This was when the downward spiral started and it took a turn for the worse. The Phillies grinded their way to the playoffs in 2010 only to get bounced out of the playoffs against the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS. In 2011, the Phillies won a franchise record 102 games in the regular season. It was also the final year that the Phillies were NL East Champions. They lost in the NLDS in five games to the St. Louis Cardinals. It was a remarkable five year run that nobody will forget.

Everything went downhill last year. Last year the excuse that was thrown out for an 81-81 season was that injuries derailed their chances to be in the playoffs for their sixth year in a row. Ryan Howard was recovering from a torn achilles injury that he suffered during his final at bat in the 2011 playoffs. Chase Utley was having problems with his knees. Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Jose Contreras, Jim Thome, Laynce Nix, Vance Worley, Freddy Galvis, Brian Schneider, Placido Polanco, and Carlos Ruiz all spent time on the disabled list last year. It was a disaster waiting to happen. The Phillies gave Manuel one last chance this year to see if last year was just a fluke year. Turns out that it was not a fluke and the Phillies were sinking into a giant black hole. The players got old and the minor league prospects were not ready to contribute to the big club.

On August 16, a few days after Manuel notched career win number 1,000, the Phillies decided to fire him and replace Manuel with Ryne Sandberg. Sandberg was the team’s incumbent manager since the day he was hired to coach third base for the Phillies. This was going to be Manuel’s last year with the ball club as he was in a lame duck year. It would have been nice if the Phillies would have let Manuel finish out the year the way Andy Reid was allowed to finish the 2012 season for the Philadelphia Eagles. The Phillies were going to honor Manuel the next day for achieving his 1,000^th career win.

How will I remember Charlie Manuel? I will remember him as a winner. He is the all-time winningest manager in Phillies history. I know fans will say that Manuel was a winner because he managed talented teams in 2008 and 2009, but anyone could be a good manager if they have talent on their team. He was always known for his teams to heat up and play well after the all-star break. Manuel had a big impact on players like Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, and Jim Thome just to name a few. Obviously people make fun of Manuel for his bumbling southern drawl, but the one thing that made fans pull their hair out about Manuel was his in-game managerial decisions. He would decide more losing outcomes than winning outcomes. Manuel had two rules for his players; and it was to be on time and hustle. Those rules stand out to me because it seemed like this year and last, the Phillies didn’t hustle as much as they did in previous years.

So was it really worth hiring Charlie Manuel over Jim Leyland? I would say yes because his record says it all. In 8 ¾ seasons, Manuel compiled a 780-636 record with the Phillies. Manuel went to the playoffs five years in a row, won one World Series and two NL Pennants. Leyland was hired by the Tigers in October of 2005. As of now, he has a 680-580 record in eight years as Tigers manager. Leyland has won two AL pennants and won Manager of the Year in 2006.

What do you guys think of Charlie Manuel’s tenure as Phillies manager? Was the 8 ¾ run worth it? Sound off.

reCAP: Philadelphia Phillies vs. New York Mets

7/20/13

Welcome back to the unofficial second half of baseball. The Phillies have a .500 record and are ready to start the post all-star break on the right foot. Two of the Phillies players have already stayed in New York this entire week. Cliff Lee and Domonic Brown played in the all-star game. Lee allowed a run in his one inning of work and Brown struck out on three pitches in his only at bat and misjudged a flyball in left field that allowed the AL to score the third and final run. Moving on to last night’s game, the Phillies turned to Kyle Kendrick as the Mets started Jeremy Hefner. Hefner has been pitching better than the Phillies last saw him in April. Hefner has had nine quality starts in his last 10 starts. During that stretch he has a 4-2 record, with a 2.14 ERA. Kendrick has had a solid first half. He is 8-6 with an ERA of 3.68. He is on pace to have a career high in wins. The Mets had no drastic changes to their lineup, but the Phillies made a switch that seemed likely at some point during this season. Jimmy Rollins was back in his familiar leadoff position. John Mayberry Jr. will be the Phillies’ starting centerfielder since Ben Revere broke his foot and will be out for six to eight weeks. Erik Kratz returned from a torn meniscus and will be the Phillies’ backup catcher. Humberto Quintero will be used as the third catcher. Will Hefner keep up this hot streak he’s been on or will Kendrick hold the Mets in check?

Who would have thought that this would be a slugfest? The Phillies won this game 13-8. I will not get into detail of every run that was put on the board, but I will tell you the highlights of the runs scored. Michael Young, Chase Utley, and Domonic Brown all hit homeruns for the Phillies. David Wright and Marlon Byrd hit homeruns for the Mets. Mayberry Jr. and Brown had multi-RBI games.

Kendrick was cruising along until the middle innings. He allowed six runs in the fourth through sixth innings. The Mets knew Kendrick was going to throw strikes so they attacked Kendrick early in the count and had a very easy time getting on base. Six of Kendrick’s seven strikeouts occurred in the first three innings of the game. The bullpen made it nerve racking as they allowed six batters to reach base. Only Justin De Fratus allowed two runs, which was a two run homerun to Wright.

Hefner was terrible. He lasted two plus innings and his stretch of having 10 great outings came to a halt. He allowed eight of the Phillies’ 13 runs. Greg Burke and Josh Edgin allowed the other five runs to score. Hefner kept his pitches up in the zone and the Phillies hit the pitches they were capable of hitting.

Overall, the Phillies exploded out of the gate early. In the early part of the year, this team was incapable of scoring 10 runs in a game. Now they’re starting to hit the ball. I think the Phillies are hitting the ball better because it’s hitting season. The weather is hot out and the ball carries out of the ballpark better when it’s hot. It was one of those nights when you knew that pitching would not be a big deal. One team had to outscore the other to win this game. The Phillies are now in second place, but it didn’t help that the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds won last night. It would have been nice to pick up a game on either one of those teams in the standings.

Can the Phillies keep up their winning ways like they did last night? Sound off and stay tuned until next time…

reCAP: Washington Nationals vs. Philadelphia Phillies

7/11/13

The Phillies have been on a roll lately and have won three games in a row. In the second game of this series, the Phillies had great pitching by Cole Hamels, but like we saw in the first game of this series, there was ninth inning drama in the second game. Cliff Lee took the mound for the Phillies in the third game of this series. He’s having a great year which is why he is an all-star for the National League. Gio Gonzalez started for the Nationals and he’s not having quite the year he had last year. Gonzalez has also been linked to the many players in this biogenesis clinic that’s being investigated by Major League Baseball. Could steroids have played a part of how Gonzalez has performed the past two years? The Phillies had no changes to their starting lineup while the Nats used the lineup they used in game one of this series. Denard Span was back in the leadoff position and played centerfield. Span replaced Scott Hairston. Bryce Harper went back to playing left field and Wilson Ramos is back behind the plate replacing Kurt Suzuki. Will Lee or Gonzalez pitch the better game?

This will be easy to tell you how the scoring happened. The Nationals hit four solo homeruns. The Nationals hit back-to-back homeruns in the fifth inning by Anthony Rendon and Wilson Ramos. They also hit back-to-back homeruns in the sixth inning by Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson Werth. Darin Ruf hit a solo homerun for the Phillies only run in the seventh inning. Rendon scored the Nationals’ fifth run of the game in the ninth when Jake Diekman made a throwing error when he threw the ball to first base. That was your final score; a 5-1 Phillies loss.

I thought Lee pitched well. I know he allowed four runs, but they were off solo homeruns and he really wasn’t knocked around. Nine hits is a lot of hits allowed in a game, but if you take away four of those hits, the Nationals didn’t do a lot of damage on the base paths. The problem with Lee was that he threw too many strikes and the Nationals were prepared to attack early in the count. He threw 76 pitches in seven innings, which is great, but I thought he would pitch the full game. Luis Garcia made his major league debut and boy did he come out of the gate throwing fireballs. Justin De Fratus and Jake Diekman are examples of why this bullpen is a terrible bullpen. I like Diekman’s stuff, but he allows inherited runners to score. De Fratus on the other hand is simply not a good major league pitcher. He threw a meatball to Rendon and committed an error that should have been an easy throw to first.

Gonzalez pitched a solid game. He threw a lot of strikes and kept the ball down in the zone. There were innings the Phillies could have done damage to Gonzalez, but I will get into that in my next paragraph. Tyler Clippard and Rafael Soriano pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings and wrapped the game up easily.

Overall, the Phillies used bad management that cost them this game. In the third inning when there were runners on first and second, Charlie Manuel should have let Ben Revere bunt to move the runners over to scoring position. There would have been one out in that inning instead of the two that did happen when he grounded into a double play. Then in the fifth inning, the same situation happened with one out and Charlie told Lee to lay down a bunt to move the runners over. This I don’t understand because Lee has more pop in his bat than Revere. Another example of bad management is what I stated above about Lee. He threw 76 pitches yet got taken out after the seventh inning. He could have easily pitched the whole game yet Charlie wanted to use Kevin Frandsen as a pinch hitter because he has more pop in his bat. The weird thing is that Frandsen did what Lee could have done as well; a bunt down the third base line for Zimmerman to field. Zimmerman is an easy target because he’s a terrible fielder and has an awkward throwing motion. I really hope the Phillies bring their A game tonight and win this series.

Will the Phillies win this series against the Nationals? Sound off and stay tuned until next time…