One Man Clique

Screw Apple and Zooey Deschanel

Apple is a highly successful, lucrative company and probably has single-handedly changed the technological landscape of our society. There’s no doubting that. There’s also no doubting that even though Steve Jobs has been dead for eight months, he still possesses more knowledge in his eroding pinky than any of us could ever imagine. That’s just fact.

But I’ve recently had an epiphany about Apple, specifically their marketing team who has been pumping out the below ads throughout the past couple of months now.

And that is that they think we’re all fucking idiots incapable of using our eyes to look out the window to see if it’s raining, useless in finding the nearest super market to get some soup or organic mushrooms,  or that we suffered blunt trauma to the head, have short term memory loss, and are only capable of cancelling an appointment 30 minutes from now by telling Siri to do it for us.

There are bloated kids in Africa right now trying to scrape together rations of bread for the upcoming week for them and their families. However, Apple is determined to make it easier on housewives and emo kids in ironic T-shirts to verbalize a text message about who gives a shit what.

While I’m at it, if there is an emo kid out there with a Che Guevara Communist shirt on right now, just realize that you go against the basic fundamentals of the Marxist political movement by giving a United States capitalist organization $20 for that shirt. Feel free to take off the headphones made of hemp and wipe off the guyliner so you can listen and see what your Social Studies teacher is talking about.

Let’s take the Zooey Deschanel commercial as an example, who apparently think she’s so cool that she adds an extra “o” to her first name. There’s only one reason why one would do that, and it’s the same reason why someone named Greg spells it like “Gregg”: and that’s because you’re a pretentious douche and need extra attention.

The people at Apple want us to not only believe that Zooey is an accomplished actress and a big enough star to be in an Apple commercial, but also that we give a shit what she does on a rainy day. Like the whole fucking world is supposed to know who she is.

The truth is that Zooey’s accolades include co-starring in “Yes Man” with Jim Carrey who peaked 15 years ago and hasn’t had a funny movie since. She also starred alongside a deadpanned Mark Wahlberg in one of M. Night Shyamalan’s perennial feces “The Happening”. 

So apparently that’s what Apple looks for in their casting decisions. Fair enough, let’s analyze the commercial. It’s only 30 seconds long, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not devoid of devoidedness.

Instance 1: Too lazy to get in the car and get tomato soup

In this gem, we see Zooey, apparently unqualified and not sufficiently suited to use her two eyeballs, asking Siri if it’s raining out. Now, to her credit, perhaps she thought it was hail or some other form of precipitation falling from the sky. But hey, let’s not give her too much credit here.

Zooey then suggests Siri to find her a place that delivers tomato soup without taking into consideration that no one in their right mind wants to drive however many miles in the pouring rain just to deliver a $4.50 pint of soup. Now, there are two things about delivery people that everyone should know about:

1.) They’re slowly coming to the realization that their purpose of life is to bring people, who are too lazy to get off their asses and drive to the restaurant, their food. When we were all younger, we had dream jobs whether it be a fireman, astronaut, lottery winner (my current day dreamjob), or athlete, and I would venture that delivery guy ranks somewhere in between smelling people’s armpits as a deodorant product tester and walking along the beach picking up used syringes and condoms.

2.) If you’re a delivery guy, you want the tab to at least be $15 so you can get the generous $5 tip, have the person hand you a $20, and wish you along your way. Not $4.50 for a pint of tomato soup and have Zooey hand you a five dollar bill, tell you to keep the change, and slam the door. It doesn’t help that Zooey refuses to put on “real shoes” and apparently prefers the alternative “fake shoes”.

So you have Zooey here, who wants tomato soup desperately, doesn’t want to put on real shoes, and is willing to risk the life of some unlucky delivery guy.

Yep, that’s right. Thanks to Siri’s brilliant insight that it’s raining outside and not some liquid alien invasion (which is the only other plausible excuse I can come up with aside from it not being rain), poor Joe the delivery guy has to risk hydroplaning into a street lamp and either dying on sudden impact or third degree burns from the tomato soup exploding everywhere on his body. Way to look out for humanity, Zooey. 

Instance 2: Procrastinating clean-up time in favor of dancing horribly

Since Zooey is apparently too busy of an actress and starring in one hit after another, she obviously doesn’t have the time to clean up and tells Siri to remind her tomorrow.

As a side note, I’m also putting on my detective hat and assuming that Zooey is single based on the banjo, piano, and two violins hanging on the wall. That’s the ultimate warning sign for a guy who has to worry when he had a long day at work, wants to vege out on the couch, and just wants watch some goddamn football, yet your girlfriend is in the other room slamming away on the banjo. Easily a means for separation.

And a note to Apple: do you actually expect us to believe that a “high-caliber” actress like Zooey Deschanel doesn’t hire some minimum wage maid to clean up her mess? Right.

So I would like to take this time to thank Apple for giving us a resource that allows celebrities with tons of money to tell them if it’s raining out, sacrifice lives of hard-working delivery men by making them drive in the rain for a 50 cent tip, and putting a task in the calendar to remind your maid to pick up all of your crap.

Bravo

Can’t rip the commish on this one. He got it right.

It’s weird and somewhat creepy how the universe can work at times. On the same day when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell doled out punishments to Saints players, which included linebacker Jonathan Vilma being suspended for the entire 2012 season, the world lost arguably one of the greatest linebackers ever in Junior Seau by suicide.

Seau played 20 years in the league at one of the game’s most devastating positions that is linebacker. Taking into consideration the thousands and thousands of snaps Seau played in his prestigious career, it’s hard to ignore that the cause of his suicide may have indeed been brain related trauma and brain chemistry fallacies. And that’s not even taking into consideration Seau’s college and high school career.

We’ve seen it with other players who have played in the 70s, 80s, and 90s whether it be Andre Waters or Dave Duerson: ex-players brains essentially deteriorating to that of an 80 year old due to the amount of hell they have dished out and received on the gridiron. Obviously this scenario with Seau is still inconclusive, but I can bet that it isn’t far off.

If anything, this leads credence to Goodell’s suspensions of the Saints players. Now, I understand that football is an inherently dangerous sport. As long as tackling is involved and players are paid based on their performance, head injuries and other injuries alike will always be a part of the game. But to put tens of thousands of dollars on the table for a bounty, like Vilma did, to intentionally and potentially cripple another player is inhumane.

A lot of people have ripped Goodell in the past and have called him a variation of a hypocrite. I even shared the same thoughts when he was lobbying for an 18 game season. How can one claim to endorse player safety when at the same time are lobbying for two more games of punishment? It just doesn’t make sense.

But if there’s one thing that most people can agree on, it’s that Goodell got it right this time. From the eerie soundbyte of defensive coordinator Gregg Williams spouting off in the team locker room and to the aforementioned money offered up by Vilma, it’s hard to argue the hammer that came down on them.

The biggest counter-argument tends to be “Well come on! They’re football players. Let them play the game!” which is easy for fans to say as they sit back in their reclined chair on Sundays, in their favorite jerseys with a beer in their right hand and nachos in their left. There is a complete sense of ignorance and a failure to realize that these guys have lives that don’t consist of entertaining the masses every Sunday afternoon.

Things change and there is concrete evidence on the study of concussions and how they impact ex-players as they age. So why shouldn’t extra measures and safety precautions be taken into consideration?

Any other opinion to protect the sanctity of you enjoying guys take illegal big hits as they come across the middle is heartless.

Maybe it comes out of the hatred that some have for authority and the power that Goodell holds. He essentially is a football totalitarian, but at least he’s doing his part and addressing the situation at hand.

Obviously Vilma isn’t happy with his suspension. But what if he wakes up 10-15 years from now with headaches, pain in his joints, and short-term memory loss? Will he then realize the consequences of his actions and others who attempted to intentionally hurt other players?  

Jeremy Lin is just what the NBA needs

Hey America, It’s Me, Tom Brady. Remember?

I don’t quote scriptures; I don’t stoop over on one knee and pray.

I don’t give motivating press conferences; I’m not a lightning bolt for attention.

I don’t have awkward mechanics; I don’t have others telling me I should play another position.

I have three rings; he has zero. 

I’m going to the AFC Championship Game; he’s going home.

You all must have forgotten that I’m Tom *bleeping* Brady, and he is not.

Tom Brady is old news. He’s an archaic fashion that nobody cares about anymore and has no interest in wearing. We get it, he’s the good-looking, successful, rich guy married to the perfect ten supermodel. We all want his life, but none of us can have it.

However, lost in the emotions of envy depicted towards Brady is that he’s still a pretty damn good quarterback too.

Everyone tried pulling for the new guy. Everyone wanted Tim Tebow to work his magic, split the Red Sea in Foxborough, and single-handedly will his Denver Broncos to a win against the evil empire that is New England. But unfortunately, winners of football games aren’t determined by how many Bible passages you preach, how perfect and squeaky clean of a human being you are, or how many casual fans you turn onto the game and make tune in.

Perhaps it was our memories being selective; maybe we just wanted to forget and were tired of the old Belichick/Brady saga. But this weekend, the two showed us again why they will go down as one of the greatest quarterback/coach duos in the history of the game.  Six touchdowns and 45 points later, Brady and the rest of the Patriots ended the Tebow fairytale.

Of course it’s not all Tim Tebow’s fault considering his defense didn’t even give him a chance to win the game. However, when it was the defense earlier in the year holding teams to 14 or fewer points and thus allowing Tebow to work his final minute choreography, nobody gave the defense credit. It was all Tim Tebow and his magic.

Was it a fun run? Yes. Did it make things interesting? I guess. Did people who have never tuned into games before watch just for Tebow? Sure.

But the better quarterback won on Saturday night, and for the first time in a while for him, he did it while flying under the radar.

Round and Round We Go: Andy Reid to be back in 2012

You land at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. You’re slightly buzzed after some pre-flight drinking at the airport and sneaking in some of those on-board mini shots from the snack cart as well. The vibe is in the air, the extra oxygen is pumping through your lungs and veins, you’re as alert as a watchman, and you’re ready to start your wild weekend. 

You get to the hotel, you check in, you go up to the room, drop off your luggage, shower, do your hair, put on your cologne, check yourself out in the mirror for five minutes, and then head down to the tables to play some Blackjack before you meet up with some friends for a night filled with drunken debauchery. 

Before you know it, you’re down a quick $200 and you haven’t even been at the table for 10 minutes yet. You pull 20, the dealer pulls ten, six, and a five for his 21. You pull 19, the dealer turns over his second face card for a stiff 20. Things just aren’t going right, but you insist that things will get better. Hell, it’s Vegas! It has to, right? 

48 hours later you’re so far in a hole and you don’t know what to do. There aren’t any other options than trying to play your way out. It’s a helpless feeling, but you don’t have the responsibility, patience, or ego to get up, walk away, and call the trip a loss. 

After 13 seasons of coming up short, falling deeper and deeper into that metaphoric hole, Jeff Lurie has no other option than to bring coach Andy Reid back for a 14th year. It’s all he knows and he’s afraid of the alternative. The same way a compulsive gambler is too afraid to go home and tell his girlfriend that they can’t go out to eat for the next week because he blew it all at the tables in Vegas. What’s the only way? To try to grind it out and do it the same way you always have. 

Jeff Fischer essentially hit this point with the Tennessee Titans. A good coach to say the least, but one who plateaued and couldn’t take the Titans to anything beyond a first round playoff exit. It seems like Reid has hit that plateau. 

Don’t let the propaganda coming out of the NovaCare Complex in Philly fool you about the Eagles’ finish to the 2011 season. Yes, they won their last four but they did so by beating up on the younger freshmen in high school. Riding off into the sunset with wins against the Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, a Tony Romo-less Dallas Cowboys, and the Washington Redskins sure isn’t much to talk about. Yes, the defense finally got their feet under them, Michael Vick limited his turnovers, and DeSean Jackson decided to show up 12 games into the season, but what does it all mean? 

It’s the sign of a team that plays its best when the pressure is off of them, expectations are out the window, the chips are off the table, and quite frankly, nobody cares and is looking forward to pitchers and catchers in February for baseball season. 

It’s fools gold, nothing more and nothing less. Honestly, the team would have been better off losing their last four, going 4-12, improving their draft position for April, and shaking up the coaching staff. It’s essentially better than winning four games in the end which mean absolutely nothing. 

Any one of those blown fourth quarter leads throughout the duration of the season, had they gone the other way, would have been enough to make it into the playoffs. Whether it be against Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Arizona, or San Francisco. But you can’t play the “what if” game in the NFL. As Bill Parcells says, you are what your record says you are. And the Eagles were nothing more than mediocre. 

Blame it on the shortened offseason, the new pieces, or the new schemes if you want, but you can say the same for the other 31 teams in the league that had to find a way to coagulate at the right time. The talented teams and coaching staffs find a way to do so. 

With Reid, we know what we get. A contender that is going to find a way to blow certain games throughout the year that could make a nun scream, “What the f….!!!.” You blow enough of those games and it comes back to bite you, just like it did this year. 

Here’s to 2012 and hoping that the Mayan Prophecy rings true in December to spare us from seeing this team have another January collapse. That is, if they’re fortunate enough to win enough games to get them to that point. 

Time to Stop Looking at the Broncos Through a Tim Tebow Lens

What would a Monday be without water-cooler talk involving Tim Tebow and how he single-handedly rallied his team from the jaws of defeat and seized victory?

Mondays used to be a day of sorrow and despondence marked by students and employees as they returned to school and work respectively. Now it has become the day where we extol Tim Tebow for putting the other 52 players on his back, splitting the defensive sea, and notching another W for the Denver Broncos all by himself.

We don’t hear a peep about Matt Prater hitting 110 yards worth of field goals in a span of five minutes to tie and eventually win the game for the Broncos. Nor do we hear about the Broncos defense holding the Bears to 10 points throughout the game and stripping Marion Barber in overtime to get the ball back in Tebow’s hands.

The reason why we don’t hear about this is quite simple: it doesn’t sell. TV shows need ratings, websites need hits, and newspapers need sales. It’s simply your case of “yellow journalism”. Sensationalizing a certain aspect of a story and masking the truths in order to create buzz. I guess legally there’s nothing wrong with this, but the problem is that it distorts people’s perceptions about Tebow and the rest of his team.

Now is this Tim Tebow’s fault? Absolutely not, how can you fault the guy for trying to do his job, leading his team, and trying to get better in the process? The problem is that Tebow has the devout, iconic characteristics that make people foam from the mouth and want more. He’s one of the good guys, so people want to build him up and give him credit for everything.

We’ve seen this play out in the past with the likes of Vince Young and Rex Grossman. Nobody necessarily knew why they were winning, but they were just winning. The reason was for the other supplemental parts of the team picking up the slack. There’s a reason why Tim Tebow can be a detriment to his team for 57 minutes of the game and then flip the switch in the remaining three. And that’s because the other 21 starters are busting their rear ends in spite of Tebow.

Who knows how this publicity comes across to the rest of Tebow’s teammates, but the chances are they don’t mind. After all, they’ve won seven of their last eight under Tim. But that’s because they know the kind of character Tebow is. He’s not one to bask in the limelight under these conditions and take all of the credit. He’ll be the first one to tell you that he is far from the only reason why Denver has had the turnaround that they’ve had. That is the difference between Tebow and say Brett Favre, who both receive(d) an extravagant amount of praise whether it’s deserved or not. However, Favre would thrive off of it and embrace it while Tebow shuns it and tries to give credit to his teammates.

And it’s time for the media to start realizing this and giving credit to the likes of Von Miller, who has not only been playing like defensive rookie of the year, but the best defender in the entire league. Stop ignoring key cogs to the engine like Elvis Dumervil, DJ Williams, Willis McGahee, and Matt Prater.

Tim Tebow would be the first one to agree to this plight.

DeSean Jackson Is Not a Bad Guy. It Starts at the Top

We often look for scapegoats when things go terribly wrong. After all, it has to be somebody’s fault right? Someone who is not completely imbibed in their job or giving off the sense of being disengaged.

DeSean Jackson seems to be the persona non grata and posterboy for the Philadelphia Eagles’ failed season, as their year took a turn for the worse last night losing 31-14 to the Seattle Seahawks dropping them to 4-8. The fourth year player is severely irritated about being paid the league minimum despite three explosive years into his career.

However, the truth is that it was a situation that was botched from the beginning starting with the front office. They decided to pay out millions and millions of dollars to free agent acquisitions like Nnamdi Asomugha, Cullen Jenkins, Ronnie Brown, Vince Young, and Steve Smith all while ignoring home-grown talent like Jackson.

Can Jackson be handling the situation in a more professional way? Absolutely, but not everyone has the ability to handle dilemmas in a courteous and considerate way like a Larry Fitzgerald. Jackson knows he is extremely underpaid, is one of the most explosive players in the league when he chooses to be, is at risk for injury with his smaller frame, and is on the verge of cashing in on free agency. If any of us put ourselves in his shoes, we would understand why he refuses to bust his tail for a franchise that hasn’t taken care of him.

Sure, anyone can object with the “he signed a contract so he should honor it” motto, but the NFL is not a 9-5 desk job. These guys have a 10-12 year span to make as much money as possible to last them the rest of their lives. All by doing so risking their physical and mental health. Also, we rarely ever criticize team management if they terminate a guy’s contract due to lackluster play or injury, but God forbid we side with a guy who actually deserves another contract.

The Eagles front office started a butterfly effect in not paying Jackson. They didn’t placate him and he showed that he doesn’t have the mental and emotional framework to handle working on an underpaid salary. Something that is definitely a fault on Jackson’s behalf yet could have been avoided.

This isn’t necessarily a defense for Jackson saying that he is right in acting the way that he is, but more along the lines of saying why the team and him have reached this certain point. There is no doubt in my mind that had Joe Banner and Jeff Laurie taken care of his contract fiasco back in July, his 2011 performance would have taken the more desired fork in the road.

It’s essentially too late for that now. The Eagles have always taken the stance of “we don’t negotiate with terrorists” and I don’t expect them to change their posture.

Not now. Not ever.

Digging Deeper into Vince Young and Tim Tebow’s Winning Ways

It’s a fantasy football world and we’re living it.

On a weekly basis, we are imbibed with quarterbacks hanging up astronomical numbers whether it comes from the right hands of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers or the legs of Michael Vick. We are a football society that lives and dies by the 30+ point fantasy performance from our quarterbacks.

Anything else is just nonsense and to be ignored.

What Vince Young accomplished last night and Tim Tebow last Thursday was far from pretty based on a fantasy perspective. None of the quarterbacks would have won us our weekly matchup against Bill from accounting, but they executed last minute drives to perfection when it mattered most: in the 4th quarter.

The national media perception on guys like Tebow and Young are so distorted that it’s stomach-turning. If you’re looking for a precedent for a guy like Tebow, look no further than five years earlier when Vince Young was a rookie. Young was able to lead the Titans to six straight wins for a total of eight after coming in for relief of Kerry Collins with play ranging in between lackluster and mediocre.

The problem with guys like Tebow and Young, who get labeled as winners, is that they are taking away credit from those who are truly contributing to the team winning games. Without Von Miller terrorizing the Jets offense, Tim Tebow never has an opportunity to lead his team on a game-winning drive.

It’s the same scenario last night with Young. Without the Eagles defense holding the Giants to 30 yards on the ground and 10 points total, Young never has the luxury to go on a game-winning, 18 play, 80 yard, 9 minute drive capped off with a touchdown pass to Riley Cooper. However, it would be remiss to fail to acknowledge that nearly half of Vince Young’s career wins have come via fourth quarter comebacks. To his credit, that is a very, very impressive statistic, yet depends too much on the performance of external factors out of his control.

It’s not necessarily a modus operandi to discredit Tebow and Young for their performances, but instead giving credit where credit is due. These guys do not do what the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Jay Cutler, and even Matthew Stafford are capable of. And that is single-handedly taking the game by a throat, regardless of how many points their defense gives up, and coming through with a win.

That is the stuff of great quarterbacks. Tebow and Young are both great closers, but great closers rely too much on great starting pitching. They are useless without it.

Is This The Beginning of the End for Andy Reid?

It’s a common theme and sound-byte in an Andy Reid press conference. It usually comes in between a cough and a throat clear as the head coach tries to rally his thoughts and take on the barrage of the media after a loss. The same question will come in a bunch of different disguises, but Reid holds his ground and tends to murmur out the following answer: “We’ve got to do a better job at that and I have to put players in a better position to win games.”

There’s a reason that I haven’t watched an Andy Reid press conference in over five years, and it’s a pretty easy answer: he continues to give the same rote, monotonous responses after a loss yet doesn’t keep to his word.

Even after a win, you will rarely get any valuable nuggets out of a Reid press conference other than an update of the team’s injury report.

It’s easy to criticize Reid now when everything around him seems to be collapsing and the “good ol’ days” seem gone and distant. However, the Andy Reid press conference is the epitome and symbolic of why the end may be coming for him. 

It’s a general portrayal of pompousness. One that gleams of conceit and a general disdain for anyone that has the audacity to question the coach’s decisions. The true definition of a martyr that is going to go down doing it his way regardless of what anyone has to say.

After a reprehensible 21-17 loss to the bottom of the barrel Arizona Cardinals, the Eagles’ playoff hopes were pretty much all but dashed as they prepare to look ahead to the offseason with seven games still to play.

The term “disappointment” is an extreme understatement when reflecting on how the team has lived up to expectations this year. After their feverish offseason acquiring the likes of Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Jason Babin, and Cullen Jenkins, the team has managed to blow an NFL record five fourth quarter leads this year (Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Arizona).

It’s simply a case of coming from ahead to lose games instead of its more admirable opposite of coming from behind to win.

Some will put the blame on the likes of Michael Vick’s regression, who has become one of the more turnover-prone quarterbacks in the league ever since his resurgence last year.

Some will put it on the defense, who has failed to not only find a rhythm but seemingly haven’t even gotten their feet off the ground yet. 

But honestly, it all comes full circle back to Reid considering this is his team, his personnel, his play-calling, and his preparation. Reid was the one who decided to hitch his offensive wagon to Vick and put an inexperienced Juan Castillo in charge of the defense, who has been severely over-matched nine games into the season.

It was Reid’s decision to not give the ball to the team’s best playmaker and leading rusher at the time LeSean McCoy when it mattered most in Sunday’s game against the Cardinals. Especially considering they were missing their top two receivers in DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin. It was also Reid, through the hiring of Castillo, that matched up Larry Fitzgerald against rookie second round safety Jaiquawn Jarrett on the game’s most important drive. You want to talk about “putting players in a position to win games?” Why not put your $60 million corner, Nnamdi Asomugha, on one of the league’s best receivers? Asomugha was on Fitzgerald for 20 of his 46 plays and yielded zero completions. What happened on the other 26 plays that Asomugha wasn’t on him? 7 catches for 146 yards and 2 scores. 

There is no explanation or logic for Castillo’s gameplan and how they utilize Asomugha as the game progresses.

It sounds harsh, but simply put, this team has loser in their DNA and it has been genetically passed down to them from Reid. They will jump through hoops of fire to find new and innovative ways to blow games, whether it’s giving up a 20 point second half lead to the 49ers or making John Skelton of the Cardinals look like John Elway operating a two-minute drill.

Historically Reid’s teams, dating all the way back to earlier in the decade where since then the entire roster has turned over with new players, have always had mind-numbing errors being committed. Wasting timeouts, inopportune penalties, squandered big plays, and crippling turnovers. 

It’s almost like it doesn’t matter what the team does in the draft or free agency, because they are going to acquire the fail gene regardless. It all points to the sign that this is a systemic problem. It doesn’t fall on one player, but rather a team philosophy. And honestly, that all comes back to Reid. He is the captain of the ship, he’s making the final decisions, these are his players, and these are his assistant coaches and coordinators.

None of us know what the big wigs of the team in Jeff Laurie and Joe Banner are thinking or will do when the offseason approaches.

But we do know for a fact that Reid will continue to do things his way, regardless of what the outsiders think or say. And that may ultimately and rightfully spell his demise and the conclusion of a 12 year era marked by underachievement and disappointment.

Eagles Thoughts and Week 9 Picks

The thing I may get the most amusement out of the media during the NFL season is how quickly they change their tone based on one game. One week the Eagles are the biggest disappointment in the league who aren’t able to put together a full, 60 minute game. Now, after dismantling Dallas last week, they are the favorites to come back and win the NFC East.

Let’s take it easy fellas.

By far the Eagles put together the most impressive win of the season last week. It was thorough domination from the beginning all the way until the end.

Michael Vick had his second best game as an Eagle in my opinion behind his firework show he put on against the Washington Redskins last year. He was on point, efficient, and smart with the ball. In fact the team’s first score of the game was an audible called by Mike after recognizing a weak side blitz from the cornerback. He was able to spot it, adjust the play and protection accordingly, and hit receiver Jeremy Maclin for a 12 yard score. A true testament to how much Vick has grown as a quarterback throughout the past couple of years.

I thought left tackle Jason Peters had a tremendous game back after returning from an injured hamstring. Peters may be one of the most physically gifted players in the game with a deadly combination of strength and agility stuffed inside of a 350 pound frame. Peters, along with the rest of the line and tight ends Brent Celek and Clay Harbor were able to pave the way for LeSean McCoy as he ran for a career high 185 yards on the ground.

The run game is key in this offense. Reid will always live and die with the pass in the end, but limiting the amount of Vick’s mistakes sure comes in handy when you have a great back in McCoy to ease the load.

Cris Collinsworth made a great analogy to McCoy that he is very Barry Sanders-esque with some of the cuts that he makes in the backfield and in open space. One second you think he has no escape and is about to go down for a loss, and the next he’s scampering off for a 15 yard gain. It’s scary how good his ability to cut and juke defenders out of their shoes really is.

More importantly, the defense is finally playing like a legitimate squad. Back in August when upper-management was envisioning the philosophy of this team, I’m sure they wanted to build a defense that could play with a lead. One similar to the Peyton Manning Indianapolis Colts era that is fast, fortunate enough to neglect the run due to the opposition’s deficit, and able to tee off on the quarterback.

They finally showed that this weekend when they made Tony Romo’s stay in the pocket a miserable one. They were able to not give up the big play in the first quarter, force change of possessions, and let the offense do their thing to get a lead.

That is Eagles football and that is how this team is going to succeed. I’m looking forward to their test this Sunday against the Bears where both Matt Forte and Jay Cutler will serve as legitimate threats to the defense.

Lock down and tame the Bears, and there’s a good chance that they can be one off the division lead if the Giants drop their game against New England.

Last week’s picks: 6-7

Overall record: 71-45

NYJ @ BUF: NYJ

SEA @ DAL: DAL

CLEA @ HOU: HOU

ATL @ IND: ATL

MIA @ KC: KC

TB @ NO: NO

SF @ WAS: SF

DEN @ OAK: OAK

CIN @ TEN: TEN

STL @ ARI: STL

NYG @ NE: NE

GB @ SD: GB

BAL @ PIT: PIT

CHI @ PHI: CHI (Remember, I am the mush!!!)

Enjoy week 9.