I am in total agreement that this was not Parkeys game to win /lose. The Bears did not play their normal game through out on all aspects of the game. Trust me, it was palpable being at the game. There were so many things they as a team could of done better. It was like we were beating ourselves. Everyone was like “maybe going for 2 wasn’t the smartest idea” then the game would of been tied. But when things like that work out the coaches are brilliant and when they don’t they are… Well not brilliant. Give credit to the Eagles.
I ask you this though… Was Roquan Smith really called down on the interception since the official blew a whistle? Being in the nose bleed section we couldn’t hear it up there since the stadium went nuts when we thought it was a touchdown… Lol. This was the play that would of typically changed the game and the tempo for the bears. When they called that back everyone was like… Well I can’t say what people said on here but you knew it was going to be a long day.
NBC decided to show all the FGs he missed during the regular season - kind of rubbing salt on the wound. I was rooting for da Bears, but didn’t have any skin in the game (I’m a Broncos fan - so sitting out the post-season, again)
3 out of 4 road teams won!
I picked the wrong home team. The Seahawks losing was the bigger surprise, to me, than the Eagles.
Do you think Nagy should have called a timeout sooner? Should the Bears have called their first TO after Alshon got the reception to the 2 or 3 yard line? Seems like they cost themselves about 20-25 seconds there. Especially when spiking the ball on the last second down? Did they throw away a play as 3rd down becomes more limited?
Will it be all 4 home teams as winners this week?
For this next weekend:
Colts vs Chiefs
Cowboys vs Rams
Chargers vs Patriots
Eagles vs Saints
Indy and Dallas can run the ball and shorten the game. Dallas is kind of a wildcard, for me, because they haven’t been particularly good on the road and Dak, in particular, isn’t good on the road. Will McVay prove he can make some adjustments?
The Chargers have some really versatile athletic defensive players like James, Ingram and Bosa that can at least disrupt New England’s offense on different levels. They are probably the closest team to the Ravens/Giants teams that have given New England and Brady trouble in the past.
Philly doesn’t seem to match up as well with NOLA as the road teams do in the other games but they do have a quarterback that’s 4-0 in the playoffs with a Super Bowl MVP under his belt.
He was AWESOME for the 49ers this season. Thank you! Hopefully, the 49ers can resign him. He was near perfect.
As a TV viewer, it’s terrible. As a former coach, it’s great. I used it all the time in the basketball before the opposing team’s free throws. Player has time to think-rethink-think again and also the player has time to cool down and muscles contract/relax.
Icing the kicker is expected to everyone. I don’t think he was “iced”. Give Eagles the credit. They got a hand or some fingers on the ball. That’s on the defense.
I think calling a time-out before the field goal attempt is fine.
My beef is when the coach lets the players get set, and then tries to time it so that he calls the time-out 1/10 of a second before it’s snapped. Then the ball gets snapped anyway, the players sort of half-run the play, the kicker may or may not kick it, the ref has to split his attention and watch the coach and the line at the same time because the coach may or may not try to call time out. I just think it falls into the category of a deceptive play.
Once the offensive line is set, IMO at that point it should be too late. If you want to ice the kicker, do it before they are ready to snap it.
Eli has one year left on his contract, with a $23mil cap hit, which is not excessive for a qb these days. And it could be redone to spread the hit over a couple years.
The Giants have the #6 pick of the draft, and of the 5 teams ahead of them (Cardinals, 49ers, Jets, Raiders, Bucs), I think the only team likely considering a qb would be the Bucs, if they give up on Jameis Winston. I suppose there’s a chance the Raiders move on from Derek Carr, but he actually had a pretty decent season, considering what a dumpster fire the Raiders were this year. Even if they do dump Carr, they have so many other needs that they may target something else with their first pick.
Worst cast the Giants get the 2nd or 3rd best qb in the draft, with an excellent chance of getting the top qb. So the most likely scenario IMO for the Giants would be to keep Eli for his last year to mentor the qb they take in the draft.
I suppose the Giants could trade for Carr, but he’s got four years left on his deal at around $19-20mil per year, so it would be way cheaper to draft a qb and have him for 5 years at cheap money, and save $50mil.
^^Agreed, but there aren’t any sure-fire franchise QB’s in this year’s draft, and to me, the 3rd best QB ain’t worth drafting in the first round, so the G-Men have to decide if they want to wait another year to rebuild…If not, they’ll need to trade-up so they can get an earlier pick to get teh guy that they really want.
In addition to the Bucs, Jax also needs a QB. Terry Bridgewater?
Don’t believe Gru would draft a QB this year – just slim pickings. He’d love a 30-year old proven game manager, however. Foles fits that bill. (Or, give Carr one more year to see if he can be the Franchise guy, as the dead money really declines in '20.)
Winston is in his option year in 2019, it will be interesting to see what the Bucs do.
I’m not really following the draft at all yet, so I have no idea what the strength of the qb class is. The Giants would only need to jump to #4 to ensure they get their guy (if he is in this draft), which is the Raider’s pick. It wouldn’t take that much to jump only two spots, and the Raiders want picks so they should be willing to deal.
If the Bucs pick up Winston’s option, I doubt they will draft a qb this year, so the Giants would most likely be the first team that would want to draft a qb at #6.
The Roquan Smith interception: The replays clearly showed he was on the ground, after gaining sole possession of the ball, with the receiver still touching him. It wasn’t anything like a close call. He did a great job of trying to sell the idea that he hadn’t been down by contact, but if you think, it would have been physically impossible for him not to have been down by contact, given that he and the receiver (I forget who it was) were wrestling each other for the ball.
There were any number of bad calls in that game, but that wasn’t one of them.
As for the “30 yard reception for no gain”: That was absolutely the right outcome, and the only fair one. Replay clearly showed that the receiver had caught the ball, then fumbled it before he was tackled. The play was blown dead before anyone had a chance to recover the fumble. Had the play been called correctly, there’s about a 99% chance that the Eagles would have had the ball, given that there were four Eagles standing around within a few yards of it and one Bear lying on the ground further away. But the last thing you want in a game would be players fighting for the ball after the play is blown dead just in case replay decides something else happened. There were effectively three choices, none of them perfect: honor both the catch and the fumble, and give the Eagles the ball where it lay, honor the catch but not the fumble, and give the Bears the ball at the point of the reception, or stay with the play as initially called on the field since the whistle made it impossible to complete. The last was the only outcome that was as fair as possible to both teams – as apparently the NFL had previously decided in another game, and people had actually discussed when they abandoned the “maintain possession to the ground” rule if the receiver took three steps.
There is no way the Eagles keep Foles. Wentz is the “future”- although is he going to be the injury prone type?
I’d love to see Foles stay, but it’s not in the cards.
I see the an upset coming Sunday - the Eagles are going to win. It won’t be easy or pretty. I’m just hoping the refs are fair.
Regardless of the outcome, it’s a great time to be a Birds fan. The city is happy, everyone is wearing their Eagles gear - I love it!!
@MaineLonghorn ,
Let’s not forget that there’s another kid from your HS wearing #9. He’s a kicker, not a QB, so doesn’t get the press, but he seems to be pretty good at that kicking thing ?
