Week 1 Discussion

[Wolfpack]

I'm pumped big time for this year's kickoff, it's been a long offseason but we're finally going to get some football. Opening match (Thurday night football) is New Orleans vs Green Bay, which is showing on ESPN on friday morning.

Should be pretty good game, intrigued to see how the Saint's ground attack comes together. Ingram, Thomas & Sproles is an incredible stable of RBs, especially when you consider that they still have Chris Ivory on PUP. Their RBs actually remind me of the old Philly three headed monster (Douglas, Buckhalter & BWest).

Can't wait to hear the commentators state that this will be a preview of the NFC championship game ad nauseum. So much fear amongst the Eagles haters this year, I love it.

Sunday games being televised are Bears vs Falcons, which may be fun to watch just to see Jay Cutler get pounded into dust. Ravens vs Steelers is on ONE which should be a sick game as always, I think the Steelers will do the Ravens here though unfortunately, Ravens line is disgraceful & I'm not sure how Flacco will go with all of his new recievers - may take a while to work up some combinations with the young guys & Lee Evans.

Skins vs Gunts & Jets vs Boys are the two later games. Personally I wouldn't be upset if both matches had to be forfeited by all teams involved due to every player on every team suddenly dying on the field, but if I have to choose one then it would be the Skins revamped new pass rush to pressure Sheli Manning into throwing 5 picks before breaking his neck - fair for all parties involved.

I'll be watching the Iggles showing the Rams who the new greatest show on turf is (Thank F for Game Pass). I feel as if I should be more confident but our O-Line just doesn't seem ready for the season yet. With that said, people said that about the Colts year after year yet Howard Mudd got their rickety old line to put up decent protection for Peyton Manning. I'll just believe it when I see it with us - if Vick gets time in the pocket we'll destroy teams, if he doesn't then we'll go no where. Nervous about how our LBs will go up against Steven Jackson & Carnell Williams, expecting the Rams to rack up some serious yardage on the ground. We need Matthews & Fokou to step it up big time, Chaney is looking like he's the goods so at least we're sitting sweet on the strong side.

Lastly, can't wait to see our pass defence! If it doesn't utterly dominate against a young QB with mediocre recievers & our beastly pass rush then Juan Castillo, I am disappoint. We must always have faith in the Nnamdi though.

 

[Jono]

Go you Packers!! Good win today...**** defense though

 

[Wolfpack]

Not wrong about the D, Jono (bout time you finally made your way down to these parts of the forums BTW ) but that Packers O is crazy good. Pack defo lucked out a bit when Woodson didn't get ejected for punching the Saints player, especially when Williams hurt his arm as well.

Saints killed themselves, far too many drops & lazy running (though I will say that I am still very high on the Saints version of the three headed monster), Sproles is a f'ing beast though. This may be the only time you'll ever hear anyone say this, but...Sean Payton pussed out on the final play. Who calls a HB dive when you are 1yrd away from the end zone, with 0:00 on the clock & an o-line that has been getting dominated all day long? Really poor playcalling there, which is something that you can't say often about Payton.

From an Eagles PoV, the Packers don't worry me as much as they did before, our team seems tailored to knock your lot off. Saints could really punish our weak LB corps though so I hope we can avoid them on our way to the NFC crown

 

[Jono]

Not wrong about the D, Jono (bout time you finally made your way down to these parts of the forums BTW ) but that Packers O is crazy good. Pack defo lucked out a bit when Woodson didn't get ejected for punching the Saints player, especially when Williams hurt his arm as well.

Saints killed themselves, far too many drops & lazy running (though I will say that I am still very high on the Saints version of the three headed monster), Sproles is a f'ing beast though. This may be the only time you'll ever hear anyone say this, but...Sean Payton pussed out on the final play. Who calls a HB dive when you are 1yrd away from the end zone, with 0:00 on the clock & an o-line that has been getting dominated all day long? Really poor playcalling there, which is something that you can't say often about Payton.

From an Eagles PoV, the Packers don't worry me as much as they did before, our team seems tailored to knock your lot off. Saints could really punish our weak LB corps though so I hope we can avoid them on our way to the NFC crown

Didn't you say the same thing to me this time last year?

 

[eagles2win]

I want to poke my eyes out for two reasons Romo fails to shout out a game (again) for the Cowboys.

And I actually think the Pats might be the team to beat this year (my god I hate them)

 

[Wolfpack]

Tony Romo = all American hero. I still can't believe he gifted the Jets that win, I hate to say it but the boys are looking pretty good this year. Hopefully (for boys fans) Dez Bryant takes all the criticism heading his way on board & works on becoming the top 10 WR that he can be. Whether he can come good or not, the boys should compete for the NFCE crown this season, although I can see them struggling against teams with a solid pass rush, especially those with monster tackles that can collapse the pocket - Dallas' interior o-line is woeful.

The Ravens v Steelers game was incredible, I saw the score/highlights & have been ferreting around for a replay of the game since. I have to say that I really Underrated the Ravens on account of their o-line, they are a good football team. Steelers were pathetic (I'm enjoying typing that because it's not something you can say often), they may be in for a long season. They gave up seven turnovers & Big Ben got pounded all day, Steelers D looked very lethargic, even Polamalu was a few steps behind the game & he got torched on a couple of occasions. Regardless of how this season goes, the 2012 draft is going to be critical for the Steelers. They desperately need a LT & another good guard, but their issues on defense are pretty worrying if you look deeper into it. Polamalu & Clark are both in the twilight of their careers, they have nothing at CB other than Ike Taylor who is another nearing the end of the road & the D-line could be in all kinds of trouble when Aaron Smith & Casey Hampton call it a day (which may not be too far away. LB corps is solid as ever but they'll still need another pass rusher to take over from James Harrison who looks like his injuries & age might finally be catching up with him, they are going to need to strike it rich & often in the coming drafts - no room in their cap to patch issues in free agency.

Vikings surprised me even though they went down to the Bolts, the core of an NFC championship game team is still there & playing like it. Adrian Peterson was amazing as always, the guy is a freak. Biggest issue for them is Donovan McNabb. Don't get me wrong, I once loved Donny & I'll always think of the good times - he is the greatest QB in the history of the Eagles after all - but I get the feeling that he is done. He only threw for 37 yards all game & his accuracy was sub 45% IIRC. Can't remember off the top of my head but I think he had about 15-20 pass attempts. If he keeps it up the Vikes will have nothing to lose by chucking Ponder in there & seeing how he goes. FMD even Joe Webb would be better than McNabb at this point which is distressing.

Oh & one more thing...how 'bout dem Iggles, baby!