Sports

[gardenman]

As anticipated, the Eagles have pretty much activated the entire practice squad. We won't see much of the starters tonight. It should still be a fun game to watch.

[teganslaw]

The Chiefs are playing like they don't want the #1 seed. If the Titans win, it won't matter, anyway. 

[gardenman]

The Chiefs having to play on the road in the playoffs would be interesting. They've pretty much always stayed in KC for the playoffs.

[gardenman]

An entertaining first half for the Eagles. Our backups matched the Cowboys to a 17-17 tie for a bit, but then the Cowboys (who are still playing their starters) pulled ahead 23-17. Then Gardner Minshew got out of rhythm, held the ball too long, took a sack, then a bad punt and we're down 30-17 at the half. That Cowboy defense doesn't look all that solid. Our backups marched down the field on them three times. I like our deep reserves. These kids are well coached and playing hard.

[soonersis]

Your backups did play their heart out and I salute them for that. But Coach Mike got what he wanted from the Cowboys with the offense getting back on track and in a good groove going into the playoffs, with no one getting hurt. But the most fun for me is in watching our backups play. I haven’t even heard of some of these guys before, but they're outplaying the Eagle's backups. One thing is very clear. Parsons and Diggs were sorely missed on the defense and it will be good to have them back for the playoffs.

[gardenman]

Only two Eagles' starters took any snaps, Jason Kelce and Devonta Smith. Kelce just took one snap to keep his consecutive games started streak alive and Devonta was out after setting the rookie receiving record in Philly. Despite all of that, it was still a 17-17 game into the second quarter. Not bad.

The Eagles went very basic in the game plan last night. Either a two-deep shell on defense or man-to-man. That made it pretty easy for the Cowboys to pick apart the defense. In a game that counts, you'd see more variety in the defense.

The Cowboys will need to beef up their d-line if they're going to go far in the playoffs. I think we ended the game with our seventh-string right guard playing and he was still controlling the Cowboys' d-linemen. Now the Eagles have good depth on the o-line, but the Cowboys have to be able to do a better job against a good o-line than they did. 

All in all, it was a good opportunity for the kids to show what they can do. Jason Huntley may have earned a chance to be the kick returner. The kid is fast. He did a better job of following the blocks last night too. (He's so fast he often beat the o-linemen to the hole in training camp which held him back.) He's still got the speed when needed, but he let the linemen get to their blocks before hitting the hole last night. That's good progress for him. The kids on the o-line went against the Cowboys starters most of the game and held their own. 

It may not be a bad idea to bring in a punter for a look-see. Aaryn Siposs started out the season punting very well but has tailed off considerably. Last night he had a 21 and 24-yard punt. That's not good. I don't know if he's dinged or has some other sort of issue going on, but we'll need better punting going forward. We have an all-purpose kicker/punter who we keep bouncing on and off the practice squad, so I suspect Siposs has an injury of some sort he's trying to play through.

The Eagles had a few injuries in last night's game which isn't too bad as the guys who got injured didn't figure to be critical players going forward. That's why you play the backups in a meaningless game. Tight end Tyree Jackson went down with a non-contact knee injury that looked bad. Center Brett Toth and backup left tackle Andre Dillard went down with knee injuries. (Not sure how serious just yet.) Linebacker Shaun Bradly injured a shoulder. Cornerback Kary Vincent had a foot injury. Losing five deep backup players is a lot better than losing five starters.

[Txblond]

Right On.  Soonersis!  Dak threw 5 touchdown passes!!

[gardenman]

It's game day number two and the last game day of the NFL regular season! My local early games are the WFT/Giants. and the Steelers/Ravens. I'll hop back and forth between the two. I suspect the WFT/Giants game will be a blowout in favor of the WFT pretty early on. By the way, some leaked videos have emerged from inside WFT-land showing paperwork showing the logo of the Commanders, so that's likely either the name or some deliberate misinformation they're leaking. 

The second game today will be the Niners/Rams and then tonight we get the Raiders/Chargers. A pretty good day of football. Sometime late tonight or early tomorrow the league will release the playoff schedule and the playoff teams will know who they're playing and where and when. I just don't want the Eagles playing on Monday night. Anything else is fine.

[teganslaw]

Some analysts said that the Cowboys' offense need to improve for the playoffs. The team must have heard them, because the offense looked fine to me. 

Congratulations to Devonta Smith for breaking the Eagles' record in yards for a rookie. 

A must-win game for the Colts! If they lose, they could get in with some help, but I'd rather not go that way. If they lose to the Jags, they probably don't deserve to be in the playoffs, expecially since the Patriots crushed that team. 

My early games are Colts at Jags (CBS) and Bears at Vikings (FOX).

Late afternoon Patriots at Dolphins (CBS); 49ers at Rams (FOX). 

Sunday Night game should be a good one: Chargers and Raiders, win you're in, lose and go home. 

[Spurt]

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@gardenman wrote:

Only two Eagles' starters took any snaps, Jason Kelce and Devonta Smith. Kelce just took one snap to keep his consecutive games started streak alive and Devonta was out after setting the rookie receiving record in Philly. Despite all of that, it was still a 17-17 game into the second quarter. Not bad.

The Eagles went very basic in the game plan last night. Either a two-deep shell on defense or man-to-man. That made it pretty easy for the Cowboys to pick apart the defense. In a game that counts, you'd see more variety in the defense.

The Cowboys will need to beef up their d-line if they're going to go far in the playoffs. I think we ended the game with our seventh-string right guard playing and he was still controlling the Cowboys' d-linemen. Now the Eagles have good depth on the o-line, but the Cowboys have to be able to do a better job against a good o-line than they did. 

All in all, it was a good opportunity for the kids to show what they can do. Jason Huntley may have earned a chance to be the kick returner. The kid is fast. He did a better job of following the blocks last night too. (He's so fast he often beat the o-linemen to the hole in training camp which held him back.) He's still got the speed when needed, but he let the linemen get to their blocks before hitting the hole last night. That's good progress for him. The kids on the o-line went against the Cowboys starters most of the game and held their own. 

It may not be a bad idea to bring in a punter for a look-see. Aaryn Siposs started out the season punting very well but has tailed off considerably. Last night he had a 21 and 24-yard punt. That's not good. I don't know if he's dinged or has some other sort of issue going on, but we'll need better punting going forward. We have an all-purpose kicker/punter who we keep bouncing on and off the practice squad, so I suspect Siposs has an injury of some sort he's trying to play through.

The Eagles had a few injuries in last night's game which isn't too bad as the guys who got injured didn't figure to be critical players going forward. That's why you play the backups in a meaningless game. Tight end Tyree Jackson went down with a non-contact knee injury that looked bad. Center Brett Toth and backup left tackle Andre Dillard went down with knee injuries. (Not sure how serious just yet.) Linebacker Shaun Bradly injured a shoulder. Cornerback Kary Vincent had a foot injury. Losing five deep backup players is a lot better than losing five starters.

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@gardenman 

Pay no attention to the noise from Dallas and biased media folks---they totally discount that the Eagles (justlike my WFT) had a roster of backups including the Eagle's starting QB and also in other  key positions on the roster---Cowboy fans I would take your recent scores against the WFT and Eagles with a grain of salt....As the saying goes, "The proof will be in the pudding"

We all saw what happened when the Cowboys played a REAL TEAM with REAL STARTERS last week and Dak's performance was lackluster as was their "D"....Yep, McCarthy wanted to put that loss against the Cards behind them....Now if they face the Cardinals again, their defense is getting JJ Watt back too....Im sure he'll be some help 😉 As we get ready for the Playoffs all I gotta say is STAY TUNED and wait before you buy those Super Bowl tickets or plan those Cowboy Super Bowl parties!!!