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Showing posts from September, 2010
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More on Starting Vick, Week 3 NFL and College Picks, Week-in-Review

I’m writing on Thursday morning as I will be doing the MS Ride early Saturday morning, and I’m attempting to clear my mind from distractions. It’s a technique Andy Reid obviously doesn’t believe in. Now that the man has thrown the season into complete turmoil, trashing the plan to “start over” with Kevin Kolb in favor of a quick ousting in the playoffs, I really can’t get into the game against Jacksonville. It amazes me how many people want to call sports radio and emphatically state that Michael Vick is the better quarterback. No kidding. Right now he is the better quarterback. He’s also not good enough to win a Super Bowl. And, despite the blather that’s filling the airways, nobody knows how good Kevin Kolb could have been. Thanks to Andy Reid, we’ll likely never know how good he could have been. The suddenly popular defense of the decision to bench Kolb because of the porous offensive line is ridiculous. This was just another bad decision by a coach with no plan. I have no feel for

Eagles Reverse Stance, Will Start Vick

The Philadelphia Eagles have made the absolutely ridiculous decision to make Michael Vick their starting quarterback. “Yeah, absolutely, yeah,” Andy Reid said when asked if he thought the team could win the Super Bowl this year with Vick. He’s either lying or flat out stupid. Vick has never done a damn thing to suggest that he can lead any team to a championship, and there’s not a chance in the world he’ll hoist the Lombardi Trophy with the Eagles. According to Yahoo! Sports , he’s 2-2 in the playoffs – not counting last season’s loss with the Eagles – ironically losing both games to the Eagles. Of course, his last playoff game (and season at quarterback) was in 2006. He has a career 54 passing percentage, and is known as a running quarterback. I spent yesterday’s post explaining how asinine it would be to turn the franchise over to Vick. Now that the utterly stupid has occurred, the truly scary part is how dumb Reid looks in this decision. He anointed Kevin Kolb the starting quarterba

Eagles Win; QB Debate Continues (for fans)

It’s as if Eagles fans have been put on auto-pilot in reacting to this team. The Eagles scored a bunch of points against the Detroit Lions – a team that has won a handful of games in the last few seasons – with Michael Vick replacing an injured Kevin Kolb at starting quarterback, and the fans want the franchise turned over to Vick. The reality is that Vick had a “very good” day against a franchise that has been putrid in recent years. He was 21 of 34 passing for 284 yards, and two touchdowns, plus 37 yards rushing. Not even fantasy football owners were thrilled with those numbers. I’m not going to rehash my arguments from last week, but those numbers aren’t so stellar that a team is going to scrap their plans for who they think is their franchise quarterback to play Vick. In fact, DeSean Jackson’s 45-yard touchdown had as much to do with Jackson’s run after the catch than the pass. I’m not taking it away from Vick, but it certainly doesn’t enhance his statistics. Here’s the rest of my

Kolb is the Right Call, Week 2 NFL Picks, College Pick, Week-in-Review

With several days to listen to the incessant chatter about Michael Vick and Kevin Kolb that we all knew was coming the minute Kolb got hurt and Vick rallied the Eagles against the Packers, I am a little surprised that so many people want to simply go with Vick. I’m only a “little” surprised because over reacting is pretty much what fans do. I’ll admit that right after the game I was more interested in seeing what Vick could do than I was previously. But once that initial excitement wears off and Vick’s career is examined, it’s obvious that the team has to stick with Kolb. First of all, Vick has never won anything. He’s never shown the ability to play as a passing quarterback, including last week. Vick had two critical opportunities – a 3rd down by the goal line and the final 4th-and-1 – and didn’t deliver either time. Otherwise, he was racking up statistics while playing from behind, which is always easier than playing in a game that’s still competitive. Besides that, this team is not

Ugly Football by Eagles in Opening Loss

Once again the Philadelphia Eagles find a way to turn a loss into a miserable loss. Down 20-3 to the Green Bay Packers early in the third quarter with their new starting quarterback out with a concussion and having only raised questions about his abilities, the Eagles managed to comeback. With Michael Vick at quarterback, the Eagles had narrowed the deficit to 7 points, 27-20, and were driving to for a potential tying touchdown with 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter. The 2-minute warning brought a 4th-and-1 for the Birds at the Green Bay 42-yard line. And then we were reminded that Andy Reid is still the head coach of the Eagles. Vick had proven he was the fastest guy on the field throughout the half. A 1-yard pickup to keep the game alive should have been no problem. Spread the field and let Vick run wide, much like he’d been doing throughout the half. Instead, Vick is put into the shot gun with a tight formation and ran straight into the line for no gain. Of course, the Eagles ha

NFL 2010 Week 1 Picks, College Picks, and the Week-in-Review

Football is back, and so are my weekly picks. I had a tough season last year – I was 31-33 in the NFL, 3-13 in college but 5-5 in Bowls, with -102.27 points once I started weighting picks. Don’t forget, though, I recovered extremely well in the NBA Playoffs. Including my pending 50-point pick of the New York Yankees to win the World Series, I’m at +262.23 points since I started the point system to indicate the strength of each pick. After dodging a bullet last night with Minnesota, which was +4.5 when I considered picking the game, I’m hoping I have some positive mo-jo left over from the spring. I like a couple of the NCAA Football Odds on games more than usual this week. Here are my college picks for the week: Notre Dame -3.5 over Michigan (10pts. to win 9.52) Alabama -12 over Penn State (10pts. to win 9.52) I also like a lot of the NFL games, but I figured I shouldn’t go overboard on the first week. Here are my National Football League 2010 Week 1 picks: Atlanta Falcons -2 o

NFL and Eagles Predictions for 2010 Season

Tonight the NFL kicks off what many believe will be its last full season for a while, and quite possibly its last 16-game season ever. So, it’s time to have some fun and make a bunch of useless predictions that no one ever owns up to in January – or I guess it’s February these days. Of course, on a blog they never actually go away unless they are just so bad that looking up the post to hit the “delete” button makes sense. I’ll kickoff my weekly college and NFL picks tomorrow (or later today if I talk myself into making Minnesota an actual pick tonight). Unlike most of the blowhards on the internet, radio, and TV picking games who will tell anybody and everybody about their “inside sources,” I freely admit that I’m just a fan having some fun. I’m sitting here with Sports Illustrated open, I watch and listen to all of the same sports shows most fans do, and I try to leave my Philadelphia fandom out of my predictions. Some of these are more like “observations” instead of predictions, but

Week-in-Review: Bipolar Phils, Enough of Vick, MMA, Lockout Contingency, more

As football fans rejoice over being able to watch games that actually count for something, it’s time for a Friday Rob Q. Week-in-Review: • If you can figure out the Phillies, then you are a better fan than most. I still think there’s a twinge of mental laziness on this team. To get swept at home in four games by an admittedly improving Houston Astros team, only to go out west and sweep San Diego, beat the Dodgers, and head to Colorado for one makeup game to win in another great comeback, makes little sense. Could the answer be as easy as the fact that Chase Utley is finally getting back into a groove after being out so long with a broken hand? If it is, I think a rematch of last year’s World Series is on the horizon. • I didn’t watch much of the Eagles final preseason game, and I don’t even know Michael Vick’s stats from (I think) his one quarter of play. But enough with this guy. Having him come in to take snaps as the regular quarterback is going to be a disaster. It makes no sense,

As Summer Ends

September always feels like a new beginning for me. It’s the beginning of the best sports time of the year, the weather generally begins to cool off, and even though I haven’t been in school for years things feel like they get back to normal. This year is a little different with the MS Ride looming on the 25th, which in a way will extend the “unofficial summer” beyond Labor Day for me. I didn’t ride my trike quite as much as I thought I would in the great outdoors this summer. The heat saw to that. Riding in 90-degree temperatures actually wasn’t that bad, but I didn’t think I could afford the two or three days of being completely spent after each of those rides. However, the lasting effect from all of the preparation that I’ve been doing for the Ride may be that I stretched my wings further than I have in quite some time. I ventured to the bike trail on MLK and Kelly Drives several times on my own to get in some extra work on the bike. I’m hoping for a few more solo rides in the fall,