SkaroffBlog

For our weekly break from Bush bashing I’m going to attempt to live blog today’s San Francisco 49ers @ Philadelphia Eagles game. I’m out here on the West Coast visiting my grandfather so while I won’t be surrounded by Birds fans and watching on the 60 incher I will get to see my team hopefully steamroll Grandpa’s team. The pregame numbers and my thoughts:

• Eagles are 13 point favorites.
• Peter King picks the Birds 38-10
• Everyone at ESPN (even Merrill Hoge!) picks the Eagles
• Seeing as how I did this last week and the Eagles lost, don’t expect me to continue pregame picks if things go awry today
• West Coast football is weird. 10 am kickoff?
• Many commentators see a big game coming out of Owens this week as he returns to San Francisco for the first time since he left the Bay. I don’t see it.

Updates as the game starts…

1st Quarter
Ok, I was way off. Short pass to LJ on 1st down, overthrown ball to Parry on 2nd, and then a broken play on 3rd and 6 that resulted in a 68 yard Owens TD. Donovan looked a bit off but who cares?

Solid 3 and out. Let’s play the field position game. Eagles start at the 42 yard line.

Nothing doing so far from the running game. McNabb is definitely feeling pain or something from last week’s chest bruise despite his protestations to the contrary. Normally he throws the ball or makes something happen on third down there but this time he definitely looked labored running to the sideline. Poor punt by Johnson puts the Niners at their 28.

Niners get a nice run from Barlow on 1st down kicked off by a great block on Keith Adams from the fullback, but on the next down Dhani Jones gets his first pick of the year.

Damn, that was quite a hit on TO by Rumph. Incredible how he can hold on to the ball and pop right back up like nothing happened. Two great throws and catches for LG Smith. 14-0 Eagles. I think I’m going to cut back on the detail from here on out.

Hollis is looking real nice against the run. I bet Michael Lewis leads the team in tackles again this year.

Lamar Gordon’s first run as an Eagle. Nice job bouncing the ball out for a first down. And the crowd appreciates it. LJ looks like he’s gonna have a career day.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH DAVID AKERS?

End of the 1st quarter and the Birds lead 14-0. Should be 17-0. Akers better redeem himself soon or the fans at the Linc will be all over him. Niners only ran 11 plays in the 1st. PS – I love picture-in-picture.

2nd Quarter

Hold on to the ball Dexter Wynn! Siragusa is fat. Shawn Andrews is fatter. Is it just me or did he just fall over on his false start call in the first quarter?

Wow, that looked like a duck when Donovan let it go, but when it dropped into TO’s arms it was the perfectly thrown ball. Right between the two defenders on the outside shoulder. 21-0 and TO just stands at the goal line, staring at the roaring crowd.

Akers just limped off the field holding on to the back of his thigh.

Another patented Lito Sheppard interception on a very poorly thrown ball from Rattay. How good is he at getting blockers in front of him? I’m fairly surprised he didn’t get 6 out of it. Westbrook TD on the first play. McNabb has 4 TD passes. Something’s definitely wrong with Akers. Mark Simoneau just kicked the extra point!! Mike Bartrum kicks off.

McNabb’s QB Rating is 155.0. Rattay’s is 0. That’s right, 0. Niners finally get a second 1st down. (What was with the defensive front there? 4 down linemen with the d-tackles between the guards and the tackles. Huge gap in the middle. Was it just the camera angle that made that look weird?) Niners finally penetrate into Eagles territory for the first time but Rod Hood picks it off on the next play.

Donovan has all day in the pocket. Glewis finally catches a ball. Reggie’s got a catch too, right? Glew with another nice catch on a great play call from Andy. I hope everyone started LJ on their fantasy teams today. Westbrook thinks he’s Dante Hall all of a sudden. McNabb fumbles. D’oh! Nice red zone D from the Niners though a 3 and out from the 49ers doesn’t bode well for them.

Gordon looks good. I’m hoping he gets a lot of touches today and we really get to see what he can do. Haven’t seen McCants so I assume he’s not dressed. I’m loving Gordon in the backfield and Westbrook in the slot.

END OF THE HALF. Eagles 28, San Francisco 0.
McNabb: 18/23, 279 Yards, 4 TD, 0 INT
Owens: 5 Rec., 143 Yards, 2 TD
Smith: 7 Rec., 84 Yards, 1 TD
Westbrook: 13 Carries, 67 Yards, 5.2 AVG

Rattay: 2/9, 19 Yards, 3 INT

3rd Quarter

Niners come out strong with a nice return and a 13 yard pass on 1st down. Another first down and the Niners are in FG range. Let’s see if we can keep the shutout going. Perhaps I spoke too soon as Darwin Walker sacks Rattay on 3rd and 8 to push them out of FG range.

Spach with a nice catch to get them off the goal line. I love that kid. Anyone from the Bay Area with dread lochs, who can also play football, is a-ok in my book. I think I saw him selling goo balls at Bonnaroo this year. Eagles punt and there are guys in the crowd wearing green and white feather boas.

Mike Patterson is so much fun to watch. I can’t wait until the day, somewhere in the future, where the cameras are virtual and you can choose the angles and the players to watch. Rattay started to look good with an 18 yard pass but Lito comes off the left side and adds a sack to his line for the day. They follow with a nice screen to Barlow to put the yardage back on the board. WHAT A TERRIBLE SPOT. Throw the flag Andy!! Dawkins flattens Rattay but the Niners do put 3 on the board. Meanwhile in Carolina, the Patriots are down 20-7.

Reggie Brown with a great catch on 3rd and 4!! Another rookie that I’m a big fan of, though I miss his dreads. Akers is practicing kicks on the sideline. I guess there really is no need for your QB to run when you’ve got a checkdown receiver like Westbrook. And then he adds 20 yards on a draw that looked like a loss on the next play. Gordon does his own little shake-and-bake on the next play. Greg Lewis with a TD on a 5 receiver set. Everyone’s getting in on the action! Akers does kick the PAT. New England just scored 10 points in 37 seconds with a FG and (I think) a Vrabel pick for a TD.

Akers looked like he struggled on that kickoff. Was that supposed to be a squib? Not sure about the announcer’s idea of Hank Fraley kicking. I miss Merrill Reese. I have an idea that the Eagles organization should explore: How about another station where they show nothing but the cheerleaders? I would buy an extra TV just for that. Too bad it’s wildly inappropriate for me to hang up the Eagles Cheerleaders Lingerie calendar in my office. Kalu just had a nice sack but I still think we’re going to miss Burgess this year. Johnson brings the house on 3rd and long and the Niners have to punt.

4th Quarter

Finally Koy Detmer comes in. I love the neck beard. Parry is actually getting a little YAC today. And another catch for Josh. Looks like we’re gonna run the ball through Gordon and occasionally dump it off to the FB for the rest of the game. Donovan averaged 8 yds per play. The offense keeps moving with a catch by Reggie Brown. Foxsports.com asks, “Is TO the NFL’s sexiest man?” Can someone tell me what demographic they’re trying to appeal to with this season long contest? A nice screen to LJ Smith. Not sure I’ve seen Andy run a screen to the TE before. Meanwhile Alex Smith is warming up on the sideline. McCants and Reno Mahe come in the game. Billy McMullen with a catch! My apologies for the mixed tenses and poor sentence construction throughout this absurdly long post. I probably still sound smarter than the idiots on FOX though. LJ baby! And they just showed the cover of tomorrow’s Daily News: Donovan and TO standing next to each other, talking, and…smiling. Lamar Gordon with his first touchdown as an Eagle. Fly Eagles Fly!

Ooh, I like the Eagles camoflauge baseball caps. Gotta get me one of them. Jason Short finally gets to bruise someone today on the kickoff. Well let’s see what the #1 pick in this year’s draft can do. Hands the ball of once, almost throws an INT, and then gets hit by kicker Simoneau.

McMahon comes into play? Ok…. Barring a dramatic Niners comeback this will be the Eagles most lopsided win since 11/8/81. McCants gets his first catch with some very nice yards after. 11 players have caught a pass today. McMahon takes a knee and the game is over.

EAGLES 42, SAN FRANCISCO 3.

Phew, live blogging is tough.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 18th, 2005 at 12:47 pm and is tagged as Eagles, Football, Philly, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.