Any Given Sunday? Not anymore

At the front end what turned into a long day’s journey into night for Philly sports fans, we have to start at Lincoln Financial Field and the Eagles, who kicked off the day under gorgeous sunshine against the Bucs.

And after spending three hours in front of the TV wondering once again why I was squandering such a gorgeous day, I was left with this
question: What the hell happened to the NFL?

It used to be every Sunday was a battle, pitting for the most part two evenly matched teams. It always was the backbone of the league, the notion of parity and that on “any given Sunday,” any one team could beat another.

Not anymore.

The Eagles now have three wins. Any idea how many wins combined the three teams they have beaten have? That would be one, and only because Carolina yesterday eked out a win against the equally hapless Redskins.

Aside from the Saints, the Eagles have not yet played a good team. Hell, I’m not even sure they’ve played professional teams, despite the spiffy uniforms. On successive weeks, the opponents have managed to get worse.
They started with Carolina, and the turnover machine named Jake Delhomme. Then they promptly got waxed by the one quality team they have played, the Saints. The Chiefs were dreadful. But they looked good in comparison with what the Bucs were doing yesterday.

Can someone explain to me what exactly rookie head coach Raheem Morris was doing in the first half, when he eschewed going for the field goal on the road in a tough stadium? I’m sure his team appreciated his giving away nine points.

On the upside, Andy Reid collected his 100th victory, and the Birds unveiled their “Mac Attack,” with Donovan McNabb hooking up with rookie wideout Jeremy Maclin for two long TDs.

It’s not going to get a lot better from here. Next Sunday the Eagles fly to the West Coast to play a winless Raiders team. Then they’re in the nation’s capital to play the struggling Redskins, the new doormats of the NFC East. The Eagles will likely be 5-1, and to be honest, I still don’t think we’ll know if they’re any good.

We should finally get a better read on the team Nov. 1 when they face the Giants.

In the meantime, the notion of “any given Sunday” in the NFL now means that on any give Sunday, you just might get a bye week without realizing it, playing one of the increasing patsies in a lopsided league.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hey are you a professional journalist? This article is very well written, as compared to most other blogs i saw today….
anyhow thanks for the good read!