Bad Day To Miss The Eagles

If you follow me on Twitter you already know that I went to play softball this morning (after a couple of skip weeks, one due to bad weather). This was the only week so far that the schedule threatened to cause me to miss part of the Eagles game. The other weeks either my games were scheduled earlier or the Eagles didn't play until 4 pm or later. Today, however, the softball games were set for 11 am and noon, and the Eagles started at 1. So I figured I'd miss a little of the game but go to a bar and watch it. If I went directly home I'd miss the first half, at least.

I got to the FDR Park entrance at 10:30 (these fields are actually convenient for me despite being all the way down near the stadium complex, since the Broad Street Subway is right there) and took this picture of the WIP pre-game show hosts, as this is their broadcast location for home games. It wasn't very crowded around their stage at all at this point, 2 1/2 hours before kickoff.

There were two problems today: the softball teams were scrambling to have enough people to field teams (apparently a fair number of players either quit or just didn't show up), and the games either didn't start on time or ran beyond their alloted time. Thus, my first game didn't start until almost 11:20, and the second one was similarly delayed. I didn't get out of the park and back to the subway stop until 1:30, then had to wait 10 more minutes for the next train to arrive (thanks, SEPTA).

Two things amazed me at this point. One:
scalpers were still out in force trying to sell me tickets. I hate being late for a game. So although I suppose I could've gotten a good price since the game was well under way, besides the fact that I don't have much spare cash, there's no way I'd want to arrive that late. Two: the train that arrived at 1:30 had a lot of people getting out to go to the game. At least 20 or so that I could tell. How can so many people be so late?

Anyway, I was really tired and it was already 1:50 when my train finally got back to Center City, meaning I already missed a large part of the first half. And I really didn't feel like dealing with a crowded bar anyway, especially by myself (my usual issues flaring up), so I just went home.

In part because of the time spent waiting for my bus at Frankford Terminal (thanks again, SEPTA), in part because I got off that bus early to stop in Wawa for a hoagie, it was quite late in the 3rd quarter before I finally saw any of the game. And that was actually a shame, because at that point the Eagles were spanking the Atlanta Falcons 28-10 on their way to an eventual 31-17 win. Kevin Kolb, still starting at quarterback due to Michael Vick's rib cartilage injury, was 23 for 29 for 326 yards and 3 TDs and a QB rating of 133.6.

The entire NFL kind of makes no sense this year. Teams are literally up one week and down the next; for example, a week after being embarrassed by the Eagles, Jacksonville went out and beat Indianapolis. Atlanta, 4-1 going into the game and seemingly one of the best teams in the NFC, supposedly would be able to run the ball easily, use Tony Gonzalez to take advantage of the Eagles' trouble covering tight ends, and put great pressure on Kolb thanks to the Eagles' offensive line troubles.

None of that really happened. Kolb obviously had time to make plays -- one of his TD passes went for 83 yards, another went 34, and he was only sacked once. The Falcons rushed for only 65 yards and Gonzalez only had 3 catches for 19 yards (although 2 of them were touchdown catches).

So, with all the league-wide craziness (parity? parody?) perhaps Atlanta is one of those teams that were highly overrated by the experts. I'd put them in that category, along with Chicago and San Diego and Cincinnati and maybe one or two more. Or are the Eagles a lot better than they seem? They go to Tennessee next week, then have the bye week, and then Peyton Manning and the Colts come to town. The way the league is, though, anything can happen.

DeSean Jackson, after running for one TD and catching the 34-yard scoring pass, got a hit to his helmet and left the game with a concussion, so it seems very possible he'll miss the Tennessee game. And David Akers missed three of his four attempts at field goals -- WTF?