Hotlanta

First thing is first. The blogging twins were in Atlanta this weekend for UGA football, a Braves game (don’t ask why) and the Eagles game.

I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, ‘That must have been an INCREDIBLE weekend.’

Then your next question will without a doubt be, ‘WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART?’

Our answer: NO QUESTION. THE HISTORY THAT COMES WITH THE LIVING LEGEND HIMSELF!

 God, even he makes a Braves’ uniform look suave and classy.

Anyway, capping our weekend off with the Eagles-Falcons game Sunday night was an incredible experience and a terrible experience all in one.

The Georgia Dome is incredibly underrated as a stadium that consumes the players with noise. That place was loud, it was bumping, and there were dancing fans everywhere (that was actually really funny).  Not to mention, we're sure you saw it – a screaming Samuel L. Jackson (that was really annoying).

(We really wish this surprise ending really happened. SAMUEL L. DIDN'T EVEN GROW UP IN ATLANTA, HE JUST WENT TO COLLEGE THERE. DAMMIT.)

Before we get to the real situation that we want to discuss, a few thoughts about the game itself that everyone is clearly whining about.

The Eagles’ defense did a fantastic job.  The Falcons have an incredibly talented offense and 3 of their scoring drives in the first half were less than 50 yards (one under 25 yds). Out of those drives, two touchdowns were on fantastic catches after we had completely stuffed the run game on short-yardage situations. Yes, they gave up points, but the offense and turnovers weren’t really helping the cause. Not to mention that aside from one big run from Michael Turner in the 4^th quarter, the Falcons’ run game had become essentially non-existent after the first few drives. Oh, and while we’re at it – they are still creating turnovers. Before you all start crying about the score, think about the whole game and situation – relax.

Now to the real situation that we want to talk about – why the Falcons’ fans don’t get crucified for cheering when Michael Vick came off of the field hurt. The Philadelphia fans are America’s most hated fans in a lot of respects for booing too much and criticizing too much, but no one says anything for the Atlanta fans’ reaction to Mike Vick’s injury?

Not to mention, there are questions about how ‘mature’ Vick is after he pointed to the scoreboard on his way off the field. It was his way of saying, ‘I’m leaving, but we’re still winning.’ We obviously understand it wasn’t the CLASSIEST thing to do, but really? He’s getting booed for getting injured? And you’re worried about him pointing at the scoreboard?

Most of the Atlanta fans were great, but we just weren’t happy that they can get away with that and Philadelphia is supposedly the worst fan base in the world.

Either way, don’t panic (as usual) after the Atlanta game. At lot of things didn’t go our way, but a lot of crazy things happened too.

Quite the OW-fensive Line Ya’ Got There…

First off, Sorry for the delay - this story was supposed to be out days ago, but because of Thunderstorm Irene (nowhere near as catastrophic as it could have been...) - the Blogging Twins haven't had power until tonight... Don't ask us why... but anyway...

"Guys, we talked about this. Please keep those guys away from me. That's literally your one job."

It’s no surprise that Thursday was a ‘coming out party’ for the Browns defense- and that was mostly thanks to our very young, inexperienced offensive line. They looked BAD. Not just bad, but BAD. We had two true rookies (Kelce and Watkins) and one guy that might as well be a rookie in King Dunlap (sweet name, but still only 14 games played in the NFL and only 5 starts – the name can only do so much). All of this led to one thing – our franchise QB spent a lot of time on his backside. Not to mention, it also led to two fumbles for Mr. Vick (one lost) and one interception (which luckily got called back because he got hit too hard by a Brown so the refs felt bad and overturned it).

But lets not beat a dead horse (too soon?)… Some positives DID come out of this whole situation for the offensive line:

1.     We continue to see maturity in Michael Vick. Although the man may have been battered and had internal bleeding following the game, he was calm, collected and levelheaded when asked about the performance of his offensive line. He was very clear and simply let everyone know that it was a rough night, but they did some things well and they are still young and learning. That’s a perfect response from a QB in that situation. The man just got done getting lit up because of poor blocking and he goes to bat for the line anyway. A less respectable player would have been a little bit edgier to say the least. To put it simply, Michael knew there was going to be problems early on and he is handling them gracefully. This is a good sign of his maturity in growing as a pro and as a leader in the locker room and on the field. To put it in short – he is acting much more mature than his offensive line is playing.

2.     Jason Kelce could have been worse. He didn’t communicate well in pass protection with Danny Watkins on numerous occasions and didn’t remember the snap count on every play (which coincidentally led to his entire offensive unit being guilty of a false start), but he is looking a lot like the Howard Mudd-esque offensive lineman that we were hoping for. He’s quick and tough and a good pulling lineman. Most notably on the 4^th and 1 play (TE around) that he got out in front of Cornelius Ingram and took care of his assignment quickly. It was also clear on his ability to get out in front of Ronnie Brown on a nice TD run that he had in the 1^st quarter. He also did a fantastic job in the screen game that the Eagles love to use. He got out in the open and used his speed to his advantage. This all makes a good base that Howard Mudd (the guru of offensive linemen) can definitely build on. We are hopefully getting to watch a future Jeff Saturday in the making.

(Wait for him to yell at Mario Williams. Yes, please.)

(R.I.P. Harry)

3.     This meaningless pre-season game gave Howard Mudd a chance to evaluate the entire situation and hopefully make changes that we will need to see happen for a more productive offensive unit. This first change came a few days ago as we had to see Todd Herremans get moved to right tackle to hopefully protect Mike Vick’s blindside. Jason Kelce, Danny Watkins, and King Dunlap were going to have a hard time learning on-the-job while all being right next to another rookie. The experience needs to be filtered throughout the whole line so that questions can be asked pre-snap and the veteran players can hopefully correct any weaknesses. Howard Mudd tried to leave Herremans and Jason Peters together where they were last year, but this little glimpse into that experiment has shown him that he has to switch some things up. Again, it’s just a meaningless pre-season game so it’s better to find this all out now. Hopefully this meshing of rookie and veteran will pay off.

It’s definitely a work in progress, but for right now, no need to panic. 

Please- Come, Sit, Stay for a Super Bowl.

 Todd passing the torch of greatness to Randy? Possibly...

Philadelphia is a beautiful place to be these days. It's attracting anyone and anything looking for a big, shiny ring. One of these things may be, the one, the only, the future hall of famer… BRETT FAVRE! No, we’re just kidding, not even Smokin’ Joe and HowiEmazing would add another quarterback to the depth chart, but there may be another veteran “retiree” making his way to Philadelphia. Randy Moss may be pulling a Brett Favre and coming out of retirement to try and make a difference for THE contender of the 2011 NFL season. And of course, I am not talking about the Packers or the Patriots; I am talking about the Birds. There were reports from the Boston Herald on Wednesday that after Moss had officially retired, the Eagles offered him a contract anyway to try and bring him to the Nest for a year deal, which would officially end any speculation that we wouldn’t win the Super Bowl this year. Then, after those reports on Wednesday, local sports talk radio stations in the Philadelphia area had rumors swirling that Moss was spotted in a downtown steak house getting a nice dinner (which no doubt was a result of signing a million dollar deal). These are exciting, and may turn out to be complete bullshit, but lets for a second just speculate and dream that this is true. What would that mean for the Eagles as an offense?

1.     Remember that shitty year that Brent Celek had last year? Yeah, well if we can sign Randy Moss, that year will be a repressed memory just like I do with my memories of the Phillies growing up. Moss will bring size and strength into the red zone. Brent will be free to be covered by some second rate run stuffing linebacker who will undoubtedly lose his jock strap on the field with Celek’s athleticism. That will increase our red zone efficiency and improve our amount of wins by a lot of the course of an entire year.

2.     A second thought would be hopefully giving some of our receivers a bit of a rest. Lets be honest, we have three really good receivers right now (Jackson, Maclin, Avant), but that is all we have for right now. After that, the talent drops off tremendously (with the exception of Riley Cooper who will turn into a nasty redzone receiver with some more experience). This will give us the availability to swap out the receivers and as the game goes on, we will be fresher than the dbacks forced to cover our plethora of talented receivers. This will also help with the question marks surrounding Jackson and Maclin. If Maclin continues to fight illness throughout the year, who knows how much he will actually be able to give on a game by game basis. Also, if Jackson holds out and comes into camp late, we won’t know if he is in game shape right away and could need some breathers throughout the season. This could be a huge help for us.

3.     Finally, at this stage in Randy’s career hopefully he would be a good teacher to some of the younger receivers on the team. In particular, I would hope Riley Cooper would learn a lot from the future hall of famer. They can essentially be the same receiver- big, physical in the redzone with some speed and strength. It would be huge if Riley could continue to grow and learn how to play that receiver position from one of the all-time greats.

Now that all that has been said, this is completely dependent on the fact that Moss doesn’t come on the team and act like a complete asshole, which he has been known to do in the past. He has shown that he can be a ticking time bomb to any team, even one with as good a core as we have in Philly. As long as he doesn’t come on the team and yell at coaches or at the quarterback or at the nice man who brought free food to the team post game, than he could be a huge asset on a team that already has a ton of talent. If the rumors are true (and I did hear it from a reliable source, my buddy Matt who I work with), then we could be in for an exciting rollercoaster ride of an NFL season. 

Wanted: Middle LB, Run Stopping Capability, Long walks on beach.

( Pictured above: Eagles going after sexy linebacker. 

Shhhh, roofies already in wine)

So the free agency period has been dominated by da Birds... But should we be completely satisfied? We did got the hot free agents including Vinsanity (coming to a psychiatrists office near you). But is the "dream team" complete or are we still one player short of losing to the Mavericks in the final? First Miami Heat reference of the blog, nice.

I am hoping that we have not gone after one yet because Casey Matthews is the second coming of Jesus Christ on Earth. And if so, thats great and Howie Roseman and Andy Reid should be taken to the nearest small country and be knighted for their drafting ability. Let's just assume for a moment though that he isn't that good and we are stuck, who is our core of linebackers going to be? Akeem Jordan, Jamar Chaney, and Keenan Clayton/Moises Fokou. While that sends chills into the spine of Aaron Rodgers, we should probably try to make some upgrades. There is the popular belief that we are going for broke on coverage and pass rushing, which makes sense, but there still needs to be a half decent linebacking core out there. And while... oh wait, whats this? Someone replied to our wanted ad, lets see who this vixen is...

1 New Message.

Oh yeah, thats right... Its a 6'0" 200 lb. chesty linebacker who is longing for a winning team.

Make that deal and that Super Bowl will be guaranteed for the Eagles. And comments like these...

Will be true.

A Beginner's Guide to Creating Dynasties by: Rube and Howie

Let's be real honest - this was a gigantic weekend for Philadelphia sports. This is something everybody already knew so we'll move on... 

You may be asking yourself: "When has this ever happened before?" 

Answer: "It hasn't."

Your next question: "Why the turn-around?"

Longer Answer:

This may sound ridiculous, but in our humble opinion, it has to be because of the giant focus on video games in the past few decades. Yes, we said it - video games. Ruben Amaro and Howie Roseman (who seriously looks like he may be 17 years old, which makes this argument even more relevant) are throwing money around like they are sitting at home in front of a flat-screen TV with 100s of millions of fake dollars that they are spending for "Eagles_Owner1"and "Phillies_Owner2".  Howie Roseman seriously came out today with a giant, boyish smile on his face - he was giddy. I say, good for him. 

The past few years in Philadelphia sports (in all fairness, more so with the Phillies) it looks as if the GMs are pulling up the All-Star/Pro-Bowl lists, closing their eyes, and pointing to the next name to sign to their teams. Don't get me wrong this has been absolutely Phantastic. We love it - We're passionate fans and hey, we spend a lot of money on these teams so they had better put the products on the field with the big money that we all spend. 

But here comes our problem. There are some things that video games can't simulate, which could be problems that Howie and Ruben didn't see coming when they were sitting in their onesies, in front of a TV, putting these teams together:

For the Phillies -  We're one of the oldest teams in the majors, and year-after-year, we lose more prospects in our minor league system to get these big name guys. And hey, other teams in pro baseball win with or without big names - there are no guarantees. So, did we just send two Top 25 Prospects (in all of Major League Baseball) to get one guy who could POSSIBLY help us win this or next year? Yes, we did. Only time will tell if that will work out. Especially considering that we have done this every year for the past 2 or 3 years with Big Rube at the helm. One can only hope that by the time our team is too old to put up big numbers that we have done some great scouting and drafting to get some more prospects. In MLB video games, you don't need prospects - you can always just force another team to trade again anyway. (Rube has no 'Force Trade' button here)

For the Eagles - There is no problem about replenishing the team. They have been stocking away draft picks already for the 2012 draft. I think Adam Schefter put it best on his twitter account - 

 So, there is no concern there. Our area of concern would be the continuity in the locker room. You're putting a whole bunch of big name, competitive guys in one locker room, and in a lot of cases, not enough starting spots for everybody. You have to wonder if at some point tempers are going to flare. Football players, in general, (and yes, we're generalizing) have bigger egos and bigger tempers. The Eagles and Andy Reid have almost always done a great job keeping guys in check (T.O. being a big exception to this). Hopefully, they keep this going. Video games don't have a group therapy session for players because they don't get along...

Don't get us wrong, and before our first post has a whole bunch of people whining with comments, these have all been awesome moves. Both the Phillies and Eagles are great organizations moving in the right direction. We are even getting players to forego more money to actually come to Philadelphia because of the atmosphere around here (ex: Nnamdi and Clifton). That never happens - and we are jacked about it. The only thing that we are saying is just be careful and look at this from both sides. 

Our final thought is that in the words of Sarge this will surely bring 'continued success...'

                                               Seriously though, he looks 17 (maybe 18 years 

                                                   old when he has a 5 o'clock shadow).