Notice a trend here?

Curry -

Team captain. One of the hardest workers in the entire 2012 draft class. Passionate about the game. Comes from a tough background. Linda ""Cissy"" Jackson, Curry's mother, died Oct. 10, 2011 of cancer at the age of 50 Football means the world to this guy. Has a tough financial situation yet donates time to homeless. (via ESPN)

Foles -

Team captain. Coaches and teammates rave about his overall leadership skills. A film rat. First one in the building and last one out. Took the initiative to lead off-season workouts with college teammates. (via ESPN)

Boykin -

Emotional leader on defense. Hard worker on and off the field. Known within the program as one of its best practice players. Solid student and takes care of his business. Handles his business like a pro. (via ESPN)

McNutt -

Selected as a permanent team captain as a senior. Named to team's leadership group all five years at Iowa. Recipient of team's leadership award for offense in 2007. Winner of coaches' appreciation award for offense in 2009. (via ESPN)

Kelly -

Also a team captain, and his major happens to be 'organizational leadership and supervision'.

Forget the fact that we don't have the LB's for this system, at least for a minute.  My problem is how we hired Juan.  When he was offered the job, he had no say in the wide-9, had little to no say in the personnel, and I am sure the schemes and formations are mainly not of his original design.  I am willing to bet he would have took the job no matter what alignment or base D we were going to run, as he would have been stupid not to.  4-3, 3-4, 46, he would have taken the job if they said they were switching DJ to nose tackle.  Not that I blame him for taking the job - nice pay raise, experience at the coordinator level, etc.  But how many coordinators would have accepted a job where they had such little say in how the scheme would be structured from the outset?  Picture Mike Martz taking a corrdinator position where the base offense is already set for him, or Spagnuolo, Marinelli, Capers, etc accepting a position in a similar situation.  No fucking way do they take the job.

Continue reading this post »

 Eagles have won 6 straight against the Giants.  Most of those games have been nail biters, with plenty of 2nd half drama. 

We start off by taking a look at the last time the Giants beat the Eagles.  I include this only because it sets the stage for the next victory, as the Giants would be atop the power rankings until the showdown in NY on week 14. 

Week 10 2008  Giants(8-1) 36 - Eagles(5-4) 31

This was a close game in Philly.  We took the lead in the 3rd, but just could not contain the Giants rushing attack, which went for 219 yards.  Brandon Jacobs was 22/126 and 2 TD's.  On the flip side, McNabb was our leading rusher with just 35 yards.  Still, this game was down to the wire and I am certain it caused me to break something in the house. 

Highlights 

Boxscore

The Streak Begins

Week 14 2008  Eagles(7-5-1) - 20 Giants(11-2) 14

This was a hard fought game in NY.  The Giants come in at 11-1, unbeaten at home and ranked #1 in the NFL in every major power ranking.  The Eagles took the lead 3-0 in the 1st with a rare good use of a timeout by Reid so Akers could kick with the wind at his back as the 1st quarter expired.  The Eagles never gave up the lead and rode Brian Westbrook to victory, giving NY their first home loss of the season.  Westy's stat line: 33/131 1 TD, 6-72 1 TD.  Yardage for the game - Westbrook 203, entire Giants offense 211.  Though there were many memorable Westbrook games vs the Giants, this was his last great performance, and he would bequeath the title of "Giant Killer" to a young Desean Jackson. 

Note - On Westbrook's 40 yard TD catch in the 4th, he surpassed Harold Carmichael to become the Eagles all-time leader in yards from scrimmage.

Highlights

Boxscore

Divisional Playoffs 2008 Eagles(9-5-1) 23 - Giants (12-4) 11

Giants take the lead in the 1st and again in the 3rd on a Carney FG, but that would be the last Giants score.  The Eagles went 10 plays for 63 yards ending in a 1 yard TD to Celek to end the 3rd.  The Eagles D would then stop Eli on a 4th and inches sneak, and on the next possession stonewall the Giants on short yardage rushing attempts on 3rd and 4th down to force consecutive turnovers on downs.  Q's pick of Eli with 3 minutes left sealed it.  Fantastic road playoff win vs the #1 seeded Giants.  It felt absolutely awesome to gloat in work at the jints fans on Monday after this win.

Highlights 
 
Boxscore

Week 8 2009 Eagles(5-2) 40 - Giants(5-3) 17

Total domination.  As in the previous playoff game, Eli once again stunk, while McNabb was just flat out awesome, going 17-23 for 240 and 3 TD's with a QB rating of 146.7.   Eli's line - 20-39 222, 1 TD 2 INT (both in the first half) with a rating of 55.7.  This game was over at halftime, with the Eagles scoring 4 TD's to go up 30-7.

Highlights 

Boxscore

Week 14 2009 Eagles(9-4) 45 - Giants(7-6) 38

Going into the game, the Eagles are 8-4 and the Giants are 7-5.  This is an absolute must win division game for both teams.  While the Eagles won, this was not like the previous game.  As good as Eli was (27-38 391 and 3 TD's), the Eagles D were equally sloppy.   Eagles were up 30-17 at the half, but would lose the lead towards the end of the 3rd as the Giants went up 31-30 on a Hixon 61 yard TD grab, during which the Eagles D put on a clinic of how not to tackle.  However, the Eagles answered right back with a 60 yard TD to DJ.  More poor tackling in the 4th as Bradshaw takes a little shovel pass in the backfield and turns it into a 31 yard gain.  (I specifically remember being sooo pissed at that play) Giants then convert a 4th and 4, get penalized making it 1st and 20.  Manningham is wide open in the endzone and catches what appears to be a TD, except his toe was out.   Giants eventually score with 1:30 remaining, kick it out of bounds, force the Eagles to go 3 and out and get the ball back, but Darren Howard stripped Eli from behind, ballgame Eagles.  DJ was outstanding, finishing 6-178 1 TD, and a 72 yard punt return for a TD. 

Highlights

Boxscore

Week 11 2010 Eagles(7-3) 27 - Giants(6-4) 17

This was a close game.  There was sloppy play on both sides.  Avant dropped a TD that hit him right between the numbers, Eli threw 3 picks, Vick fumbled for his 1st turnover of the season, Bradshaw fumbled and Asante fumbled on an interception return (that play really pissed me off, as I absolutely despise when players fumble int or fumble returns).  The Giants take the lead in the in the 4th, but the Eagles answer on Shady's 50 yard TD run on 4th down with 4:25 remaining.  With 3 minutes left, Eli has a nice run, but slides head first, is untouched by the D and fumbles.  Just an absolutely boneheaded turnover.  Shady rips off another long run  and Akers adds a FG to seal the win. 

Highlights

Boxscore

Week 15 2010 Eagles(10-4) 38 - Giants(9-5) 31

MM2.  Eagles and Giants both enter the game with a 9-4 record. Just like last year, this is an absolute must win division game for both teams.   As many times as I am sure you all watched this comeback, the game needs no further description.

Highlights

Boxscore