SB Nation User Blog: phillynyc

My Trip to Citi Field

phillynyc — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:47:11 -0000

I've lived in New York since 2003 and spent many a windy nights in Shea watching the Phillies usually beat the Mets (I think I was something like 7-2 at Phils/Mets games I attended). I have to say that I've never had any problems at Shea with Mets fans and I always wear at least a Phils hat and usually a shirt to boot. But last night the animosity of Mets fans toward Phillies was amped up by maybe two or three times. Now I was sitting near a group of noisy Phils fans who at times had Phils chants going that cascaded through the stadium, but still. Even the friends I was with (both Mets fans) commented that fans were angrier than usual.

And I loved every minute of it.

The Phils winning a ring has resorted Mets fans to the following chants (and I'm not joking)

"Cheese Steaks Suck!"

"Howard Sucks"

"Mike Schmidt Sucks"

What I'm saying is that Mets fans are acting the way Philly fans used to act (bitter and obnoxious) and it has everything to do with the Phils WS.

Just thought I'd pass this along.

One really funny moment was this Mets fan yelling out a girl with a Phillies cap and she said "We're World Series champs, are in first place and our pitchings sucks."

Classic.

If Birds pass on RB in 1st, then McCoy is a Steal in Second

phillynyc — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:42:11 -0000

Let me first preface this by saying, that I'm a Pitt grad and saw LeSean McCoy play in person twice and on TV probably 15 times. And for all the knocks against him, I think he will be an above-average running back in the NFL for one simple reason - he can make tacklers miss. It sounds simple, but few RBs can do it.

McCoy has a stutter-step move that makes him very hard to tackle in the open field. And his cut-back ability reminds me a little of Barry Sanders or Terrell Davis. He's got vision. He doesn't have sprinter's speed, but what does straight-ahead speed really mean for an RB anyway? He's run a 4.5 before, which is fast enough.

Also, McCoy was definitely hurt by his program. Pitt's passing offense during his two-year career at Pitt was horrible. As a freshman, Pitt had back-ups play QB the entire season and mostly went with a true freshman who was inconsistent at best. And last year, a scrub named Bill Stull played the position. Every game, McCoy faced 8 and 9 man fronts and dozens of run blitzes and he still put up spectacular numbers. I've rarely seen a running back turn so many losses into positive plays. If he would have played with a better passing game, he probably would have rushed for 4,000 yards in two seasons.

I'm not saying McCoy is the best RB in the draft, but have serious doubts about Wells because of his injury history and he played behind OSU's line, which opened gaping holes for him. Moreno is a quality back, but he too played on a balanced offense with a good Oline and doesn't have the vision and elusiveness of McCoy. Donald Brown is quality too, but he's projected to go in the first. The whole point of this is that McCoy played on a suspect offense and saw very few holes in his two years at Pitt and still put up huge numbers. He has what few RBs do, incredible vision and the moves to make defenders miss and get extra yards - which is key in the west coast offense.

Watch the highlight film and see how many times he gets a handoff or a pass and there is nothing there, but he makes something of it. And many of the mock drafts I've looked at have him going in the 50s.

The 4th and 1 was Celek's Fault

phillynyc — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:06:58 -0000

I've watched the play a couple dozen times. And the offensive linemen actually did a good job at getting forward movement. Thomas, Herremans and Jackson all get movement. Giles doesn't get any movement but he doesn't give up ground either. And Runyan plows into the end zone.

Celek is playing right TE and he gets beat terribly on the snap to the inside by the left defensive end. That defesnive end falls on top of Giles at the 1 and clogs up the hole and Buck is stopped. As for Schoebel, he was down blocking at the defensive end was playing to his outside shoulder. He wasn't supposed to block that guy. But that was Celek's man and he beat him bad. And I'm not even sure if he did chip him, the Eagles would have scored.

Also, the play and the personnel were strange too. Basket is in as a wingback off Celek. Why Basket? Why not use a tackle eligible. And to make matters worse, Basket doesn't get off the ball and lets the safety dive in and get a hand on Buck's feet as he's running toward the pile.

And making this play even more painful is that Jackson and Heremans open a nice hole that McNabb could have easily scored on with a sneak. I'm sure the Birds have some kind of audible on short yardarge for McNabb to sneak, wish it would have been used there.

On the third down play, Celek also got beat by the defensive end who then hit Buck in mid jump. I'm not saying Buck would have scored, but got hit just after takeoff.

And on the 3rd and 1 failure in third quarter, when the Eagles then settled for the Akers missed 50 yard field goal. That was also largely because of a bad block by Celek on that defensiv end.

On the 2nd and 1, Tony Hunt actually does a good job of making a quick cut out of the way of a blizting safety and has no chance after that. Some thought he could have cut through a hole and scored, but Urlacher was right there.

I've read a lot of stuff about LJ needs to go and that Celek is great. But he proved he has a long way to go in blocking. I'm not saying LJ could have done better, but one of Celek's selling points is his blocking because he's not the pass catcher that LJ is then this game showed he's not as good as some have thought.

At about the 2:28 mark of this video I made on fans waiting for the NFL Draft, you'll see something...

phillynyc — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:32:31 -0000

At about the 2:28 mark of this video I made on fans waiting for the NFL Draft, you'll see something you won't believe - Eagles and Cowboys fans hugging it out.