Super Bowl XLVI Live Blog

CLICK HERE TO GO TO LIVE BLOG!

Multiple Reasons Why I Am Rooting For The Patriots To Win Super Bowl XLVI

a). Penn State's new head coach is New England's offensive coordinator.

b).  The Giants sucked for 15 weeks, improved only on defense, and all anyone is talking about how Eli Manning is ELIte and what not.  Eli Manning has been very good (not elite) and very steady.  But his propelled eliteness in the story.

c). I don't care if this is a very BCS-ian argument or not, but the New England Patriots have been one of the best teams this year.  Several New York Giants players (Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw, Antrel Rolle to name a few) are way over-confident and think they are much better than they are.  They are underdogs but they are not very likable underdogs.  The best thing that can happen this year is for one of the three best teams in the league to win the Super Bowl.  I am speaking, of course, about the New England Patriots.

d). Belichick is a great coach.  Brady is a great QB.  The Patriots should have won a 4th Super Bowl in Glendale.  They are already going down as one of the greatest dynasties in league history.  What harm is one more Super Bowl for New England?

e). The Patriots' last Super Bowl win was against the Eagles.  I'd like this fact changed.

f). This Patriots team......gulp......has actually been somewhat likable this year, media hype aside.

NFL Conference Championship Games Live Blog

Baltimore Ravens vs. New England Patriots 3:00 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, SR: Steve Tasker)

New York Giants vs. San Francisco 49ers 6:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, SR: Pam Oliver and Chris Myers)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO LIVE BLOG!

NFL Conference Finals Schedule

I love Conference Championship Sunday.  It's my favorite NFL Weekend of the year, as there are two championship games in the time it takes to celebrate and play the Super Bowl.  Regrettably, in my numerous tweets and post about SOPA, I forgot to get this up earlier, not that anything here is a real surprise.  So here's the schedule for this year's Conference Championship Sunday.  Here is hoping this year could live up to the fun we've had in year's past.

Sunday, January 22

#2 Baltimore Ravens vs. #1 New England Patriots  3:00 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, SR: Steve Tasker)
#4 New York Giants vs. #2 San Francisco 49ers  6:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, SR: Pam Oliver and Chris Myers)

On Eli, Eliteness, Expectations, And The Game That Changed Everything

December 23, 2011.

It is a day before the New York Giants face the New York Jets in a battle of New York.  The Philadelphia Eagles are preparing for a game against Dallas that could mean everything or nothing, depending on what happens in the Giants-Jets game.  The Giants are reeling from a 23-10 loss to the Washington Redskins that was not as close as the scoreboard would make it appear.  A bottom 5 offense had a field day against the Giants defense, and to say there are doubts about the Giants would be an understatement.  No one is saying they think this team can make the NFC Championship.  Most are questioning whether or not they can make the playoffs.  Everyone proudly boasting "Eli is ELIte" after the Giants ripped apart a bad Patriots defense no longer proudly boasted this.  Perhaps this only done hauntingly enough as to only foreshadow what was to come, but on December 23, 2011, no one publicly stated Eli was ELIte.  Hell, few even held that belief privately. The Giants and Eli were a game away from their third December choke job in three years. That was the only thing on everybody's mind.

NFL Divisional Playoffs Sunday Live Blog

Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens  1:00 (CBS - Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf)

New York Giants vs. Green Bay Packers  4:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, SR: Pam Oliver and Chris Myers)

NFL Divisional Playoffs Schedule

And you thought Tebow-mania was bad last week?  Now just wait for the hype as this weekend, and then imagine what it will be if the Broncos somehow win.  Likely the biggest blowout of the weekend aside, there are three other interesting games this weekend, including the great offense of the Saints versus the great defense of the 49ers.  This should be a fun weekend of football and live-blogging.

Saturday, January 14

#3 New Orleans Saints vs. #2 San Francisco 49ers  4:30 (Fox - Kenny Albert and Daryl Johnston, SA: Tony Siragusa)
#4 Denver Broncos vs. #1 New England Patriots  8:00 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, SR: Steve Tasker)

Sunday, January 15

#3 Houston Texans vs. #2 Baltimore Ravens  1:00 (CBS - Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf)
#4 New York Giants vs. #1 Green Bay Packers  4:30 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, SR: Pam Oliver and Chris Myers)

NFL Wild Card Sunday Live Blog

Here's hoping today's games don't get too ugly......

Atlanta Falcons vs. New York Giants  1:00 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, SR: Pam Oliver and Chris Myers)

Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Denver Broncos  4:30 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms)

NFL Wild Card Weekend Schedule

The NFL Playoffs are back, and I guess it will be more relaxing because the Eagles are not playing.  Also, more depressing.  Anyway, here is the schedule with announcers.  No surprises, but I post this anyway because I like having this handy resource available.

Saturday, January 7

# 6 Cincinnati Bengals vs. #3 Houston Texans  4:30 (NBC - Tom Hammond and Mike Mayock, SR: Alex Flanagan)
# 6 Detroit Lions vs. #3 New Orleans Saints  8:00 (NBC - Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, SR: Michele Tafoya)

Sunday, January 8

#5 Atlanta Falcons vs. #4 New York Giants  1:00 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, SR: Pam Oliver and Chris Myers)
#5 Pittsburgh Steelers vs. #4 Denver Broncos  4:30 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms)

NFL Week 16 Live Blog

It is Christmas Eve and for the Eagles, it will be the most tension filled afternoon of the season.  If the Jets could make an emergency trade for Michael Bush, I'd appreciate it greatly.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO LIVE BLOG!*

*If you got an email from me, please disregard it.  As I am sure you have seen, both Mookie and I sent live blog emails at around the exact same time.  Even creepier, we then notified each other that we both sent live blogs at the same time at the exact same time.  After one of us finally got a word in edgewise without the other repeating the same thought verbatim at the same time, it was agreed that Mookie would host this live blog.  If you clicked my live blog first and got worried because I deleted it, please, do not worry.  Just click on Mookie's invitation and go over there.  If you did not get an email and want to comment, click the above link and follow Mookie's instructions.  

Fun With NFC East Pythagenport Records

(Originally published, for better or worse, at Bleeding Green Nation)

Those who are familiar with baseball and The Good Phight are no doubt familiar with the concept known as Pythagorean records. In short, it is a formula invented by Bill James serving as a means of predicting a baseball team's record based off runs scored and runs allowed. A few years ago, a writer at Baseball Prospectus named Clay Davenport figured out that because the offensive environment of the league changes with time, the exponent used in the formula should be changed as well to reflect that. Hence the name in the title, Pythagenport records. And if one seeks to be even more accurate, one can derive an exponent for each individual team as each individual team plays in a slightly different offensive environment. While Baseball Prospectus calls this Pythagenpat records, in their Week 13 DVOA column from which this little exercise is derived from, Football Outsiders continue to use the term Pythagenport. For the sake of consistency, I will use the term "Pythagenport" throughout the rest of this column.

The same principles invented by Bill James can also be applied to NFL football. Now I know the question of how this is relevant will eventually come up, so I will answer it before we get into the numbers, so you understand right away what you are looking at. Football Outsiders did the math on this in the above linked column, and on a scale of 1 to -1 with 1 being the two variables are a perfect positive relationship on each other, 0 being the variables are completely independent of each other, and -1 being a perfect negative relationship, the correlation between Pythagenport wins and actual wins from 1990-2010, according to Football Outsiders, is .9134. This is a very strong correlation and the numbers that you are about to see below are relevant and will tell us about the 4-teams in the NFC East.

The formulas used in this column are as follows.

Exponent = 1.5*log ((Points scored + Points allowed) / number of games)
Pythagenport win percentage = Points scored^exponent / (Points scored^exponent + Points allowed^exponent)

As a baseline, here is each NFC East team's actual win percentage rounded to the nearest thousandth.

New York Giants: .538
Dallas Cowboys: .538
Philadelphia Eagles: .385
Washington Redskins: .308

And now each team's Pythagenport win percentage:

Dallas Cowboys: .575
Philadelphia Eagles: .511
New York Giants: .452
Washington Redskins: .284

What Does This Mean?

First of all, in case you have not yet figured it out, the NFC East is a bumbling pile of mediocrity plus the abysmal Washington Redskins. The best team in the division, the Dallas Cowboys, are somewhere between a 7-6 team and an 8-5 team when you convert the three-digit percentage number into actual wins.

Perhaps what may be startling to some but less so to folks who have been paying attention close attention to the Eagles' point differential, the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles are not all that bad of a football team. Certainly not as bad as their 5-8 record would lead you to believe. Now a record hovering around .500 is certainly not what many people, Eagles fans included expected out of the Eagles coming into the 2011 campaign, but it is certainly better than the Eagles' actual 5-8 record and enough to have the Eagles right in the middle of the NFC East title race without having to rely on some sort of miracle as they currently do.

So why is there a such a discrepancy between the Eagles' actual win percentage and Pythagenport win percentage?

A very good question, and the answer probably is not what people want to hear and/or believe, although it is true. In one word: luck. In two words: bad luck*.

*Addendum: In this context, I am attributing luck to the reasons why the Eagles are 5-8 and not hovering around .500. I am not suggesting luck is the reason the Eagles are not 10-3 or better and right in the midst of a race for a 1st round bye with San Francisco and New Orleans. This is also not to say the Eagles do not have flaws. Clearly, this is not a perfect team. However, they are not as bad as a 5-8 record (.385 win percentage) would suggest.

A basic theory of football is there is the ability to win close football games (with close football game being defined as games where the final margin of victory is 7 points or less) is not an actual ability. Some might define this perceived ability as being "clutch." But alas, no coach/QB/team hold an ability to consistently win/lose close football games. Over the course of a season, teams will tend to hover around the .500 league median. In his article last Friday, Bill Barnwell elaborates on this general point further with Tim Tebow's performance being the subject of the post. To go back to the Eagles, the Eagles are 2-5 this season in games where the final margin of victory is 7 points or less. The bad luck the Eagles have seen in these close games is a major reason why the Eagles' actual win percentage is as far below the Eagles' Pythagenport win percentage as it is. The fact that over 50% of the Eagles games have been decided by a touchdown or less is part of the reason their Pythagenport win percentage hovers around the .500 mark.

Conclusion

Barring a near miraculous final three weeks of the season, the narrative of the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles will be written as followed: "A team with all sorts of talent but no heart and a coach that lost the locker room. (Insert bad Dream Team pun here)." Unfortunately for many in the media, that narrative does not match with the reality. Barring a drastic turn of events in the final three games of the season, the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles were a team whose actual record fell well below that of what it should have been, according to Pythagenport win percentage, a metric whose that correlates very strongly (.9134) with actual win percentage. The Eagles Pythagenport win percentage (.511) is by no means great, however, in a watered down NFC East where mediocrity reigns supreme, is good enough to have the Eagles in line to contend for the division title. However, thanks to a couple unfortunate losses early in the season, the Eagles are only hanging on by a thread and would need everything to fall just perfectly into place in the final three weeks of the season to have a chance at winning an NFC East championship.

NFL Week 11/MLS Cup Final Live Blog

I'm watching the Eagles game tonight.  Against the Giants.  With Vince Young starting for the Eagles.  Yes, I am a masochist.

NFL Week 11 Schedule

I am working on something big that will hopefully appear later this week, but until then, here is your Week 11 schedule.  Yes, I actually remembered to post this on Tuesday for once.  I am as impressed as you are. (all times ET; games I get are in bold)

Thursday Night Football

New York Jets vs. Denver Broncos  8:20 (NFL Network - Brad Nessler and Mike Mayock, SR: Alex Flanagan)

Map of who gets what Sunday afternoon games

Fox games

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Green Bay Packers  1:00 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, SR: Pam Oliver)
Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins  1:00 (Fox - Kenny Albert and Daryl Johnston, SA: Tony Siragusa)
Carolina Panthers vs. Detroit Lions  1:00 (Fox - Dick Stockton and John Lynch)

Arizona Cardinals vs. San Francisco 49ers  4:05 (Fox - Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick, SR: Laura Okmin)
Seattle Seahawks vs. St. Louis Rams  4:05 (Fox - Chris Myers and Tim Ryan)

CBS early games

Cincinnati Bengals vs. Baltimore Ravens  1:00 (CBS - Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf)
Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins  1:00 (CBS - Marv Albert and Rich Gannon)
Oakland Raiders vs. Minnesota Vikings  1:00 (CBS - Kevin Harland and Solomon Wilcots)
Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Cleveland Browns  1:00 (CBS - Bill Macatee and Steve Tasker)

America's Game Of The Week and other CBS late games

San Diego Chargers vs. Chicago Bears  4:15 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms)
Tennessee Titans vs. Atlanta Falcons  4:15 (CBS - Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts)

Sunday Night Football

Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Giants  8:20 (NBC - Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, SR: Michele Tafoya)

Monday Night Football

Kansas City Chiefs vs. New England Patriots  8:30 (ESPN - Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, and Jon Gruden, SR: Suzy Kolber)

NFL Week 3 Schedule

Week 3 and the Philadelphia Eagles will get their chance to feast on a putrid Giants secondary.  The Giants lost to the Redskins and were lucky to escape Monday Night against the Rams with a win.  Rams and Redskins receivers were consistently open both games.  Yeah, if Denario Alexander poses problems for a secondary, I shutter to think what DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Steve Smith, and Jason Avant will do to them.  While that thought permeates your minds, enjoy this week's schedule! (games I get are in bold; all times ET)

Maps of who gets what games Sunday afternoon

CBS games

Houston Texans vs. New Orleans Saints  1:00 (CBS - Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf)

New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills  1:00 (CBS - Marv Albert and Rich Gannon)

Denver Broncos vs. Tennessee Titans  1:00 (CBS - Bill Macatee and Steve Tasker)

Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Carolina Panthers  1:00 (CBS - Spero Dedes and Steve Beuerlein)

Miami Dolphins vs. Cleveland Browns  1:00 (CBS - Don Criqui and Randy Cross)

New York Jets vs. Oakland Raiders  4:05 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms)

Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Diego Chargers  4:05 (CBS - Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts)

Baltimore Ravens vs. St. Louis Rams  4:05 (CBS - Kevin Harlan and Solomon Wilcots)

Fox early games

New York Giants vs. Philadelphia Eagles  1:00 (Fox - Kenny Albert and Daryl Johnston, SA: Tony Siragusa)

Detroit Lions vs. Minnesota Vikings  1:00 (Fox - Dick Stockton and John Lynch)

San Francisco 49ers vs. Cincinnati Bengals  1:00 (Fox - Ron Pitts and Jim Mora, Jr.)

America's Game Of The Week and Fox late games

Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears  4:15 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, SR: Pam Oliver)

Atlanta Falcons vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers  4:15 (Fox - Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick, SR: Laura Okmin)

Arizona Cardinals vs. Seattle Seahawks  4:15 (Fox - Chris Myers and Tim Ryan)

Sunday Night Football

Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts  8:20 (NBC - Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, SR: Michele Tafoya)

Monday Night Football

Washington Redskins vs. Dallas Cowboys  8:30 (ESPN - Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, and Jon Gruden, SR: Suzy Kolber)

Your 2010 NFC East Champions, The Philadelphia Eagles!

It was a strange day indeed for the Eagles. The Vikings-Eagles Sunday Night game was postponed to Tuesday night because of the snow storm that is yet to pack any significant punch to warrant a postponement from a league where snow games this time of the year are the norm. But the Eagles did not need to play to clinch a championship and subsequently a spot in the playoffs. They just needed the Giants to lose a game. And the Giants lost. To the Packers. In the kind of fashion you would expect after last Sunday's demoralizing loss. In a year that was supposed to be a re-building year with the Cowboys and Giants duked it out for the top spot, it is the Eagles who have emerged victorious to claim their first NFC Title since 2006.

With the division clinched, the Eagles can focus solely on the Bears and the 1st round bye. If the Eagles win out against Minnesota and Dallas and the Bears lose next week at Green Bay, the Eagles will get the 1st round bye. If the Eagles lose any of their next two games or the Bears beat Green Bay, the Eagles will be locked into the 3-seed, where they will face either the Packers, Buccaneers, Giants, or Saints. If the above 1st round bye scenario comes to fruition on top of the Falcons losing their next two games, the Eagles not only will have a first round bye, they will also have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. For what it's worth, the Falcons next two opponents are the Saints and the lowly Carolina Panthers, both in the Georgia Dome. If the Eagles can't have the bye at all, I would prefer the Bucs, followed by the Giants, the Packers, and lastly the Saints, who I do not want to see at all in the wildcard round.

Did The Eagles Ensure The Giants Were Unprepared For The Onsides Kick?

There have been lots of talk about how the Giants were seemingly unprepared for the onside kick recovered by Riley Cooper and how Tom Coughlin and Giants special teams coordinator Tom Quinn were completely unprepared. Even though they inexplicably did not have their hands team out, some credit has to go to the Eagles for distracting the Giants. Actually a lot. Much more than initially meets the eye. None of this was captured on TV by Fox, but reports from the game and footage of the actual onside kick verify this astounding genius coaching move by Bobby April: The Eagles had 10 men on the field for the onside kick. While some may see that and think the Eagles got lucky from a mistake, the reports seem to verify that what you see pictured above was in fact a ploy intended to distract the Giants. A ploy that however dumb it might sound at first, sparked the greatest comeback in Philadelphia Eagles history. Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News initially reported the details on what the Eagles did, how it worked, and how it caused the Giants to forget Tom Coughlin's warning of an onside kick.

Just before the kickoff an Eagles player came running off the field, leaving them with only 10 men on the kickoff team. And that apparently caused some momentary confusion for the Giants, who then forgot that Coughlin had just warned them to watch for the onside kick.

"They did something good," Blackburn said. "They ran a guy off right in front of everybody and they're all looking at each other saying, 'We've (only) got 10.' So we're doing the same thing, trying to recount. And then you forget about that 'alert' a little bit. That's kind of what happened."

Coughlin admitted his players were caught looking by the "well-disguised" ploy, but he also said, "That should not have been any kind of distraction." But it was and the Eagles converted it into a touchdown that cut their deficit to 31-24, en route to their 38-31 come-from-behind win.

You can say that no matter ho you do it, having 10-men on the field for an onside kick is dumb and that there is no way to smartly do it, but like Vacchiano did, the Eagles did it and it distracted the Giants. They forgot about the warning for a moment, and in that moment, Akers kicked the ball and Riley Cooper recovered it before the Giants had knew what hit them. Even though the Eagles had some questionable special teams play earlier in the season, there is a reason that you bring in Bobby April to coach your teams special teams, and this is exactly why. This simple ploy worked, ensured the Eagles recovered the onside kick, and the rest is history.

VIDEO OF EPICNESS: Merrill Reese Calls The Miracle At The New Meadowlands

Treat your ears to a piece of football heaven. Joe Buck had a real good call, but this is amazing.



NFL Network will be re-airing this game in its entirety tomorrow night at 8 PM. You can bet your bottom dollar I'll be setting my DVR. This one's a keeper.

Update: Courtesy of The 700 Level, you can now hear Merrill Reese and Mike Quick call the entire final 7:41 of the game. It's as awesome as it sounds.

Eagles Week 15 Recap: Miracle At The New Meadowlands

The perfect Christmas card for Giants fans.

On to the bullet points of one of the greatest comebacks I've ever seen in football.

• That just happened.
• Joe Pisarcik/Herm Edwards.  Jeff Feagles/Brian Westbrook.  Matt Dodge/DeSean Jackson.  The last of the three may be the most improbable of all.
• But for all the talk about the Jackson punt return, the Eagles were trailing 24-10 in the 4th quarter when DeSean Jackson caught a pass and took it to the 40 yard line.  After being touched by Goff, Jackson fell down, the ground caused a fumble, and the Giants recovered.  Clearly, Goff had touched Jackson and before he hit the ground and the ball came out after Jackson hit the ground, but for reasons of pure idiocy, Andy Reid did not challenge.  The Giants proceed to drive down the field for a touchdown.  8 minutes left, 31-10 Eagles.  Game over, right?
• Wrong.  Next drive, Vick to Celek.  One of the best onside kicks ever executed.  Vick making plays with his legs.  QB draw.  QB touchdown.  Just like that it's 31-24 with the Giants having never touched the ball.  Giants get the ball.  Eagles get a stop.  With the ball at their own 88 yard line, Vick makes plays with his legs and his feet again.  Eventually, inside the Giants 20 Vick finds Maclin who breaks a tackle and scores a TD to incredibly tie the game with less than 2 minutes left.  Giants get the ball back.  They go 3 and out.  The last play of the drive was a sack.  Clock ticking.  Giants call timeout with 12 seconds left, right before the play clock expired.  Then Matt Dodge punted the ball.  DeSean Jackson bobbled it, picked it up, and the rest is history.
• So, how did this happen?  How does a team that is completely dominated for 52 minutes, come back and win the game in 8 minutes?  And how does a team up 21 with 52 minutes left completely collapse in the last 8?  I'll give my take on the Jackson return in a second, but the comeback in general was started because of one man, Michael Vick.  All game long the Giants had been blitzing and getting to Vick, largely taken advantage of the astoundingly awful King Dunlap.  To counter said blitz, you need two things:  a).  a screen game.  Or b). an athletic QB who can run.  The Eagles opted for option b.  For the first 52 minutes, no QB draws were called and for the most part, Vick was not taking off and running with the ball.  In the final 8 minutes, that changed.  Vick eluded pressure and took off when he saw daylight in front of him.  Outside of make shift scrambles, QB draws were called as well.  Vick had 94 rushing yards in the 4th quarter!  There were other factors, but if you are searching for an anatomy of this comeback, it was Mike Vick running the ball.  That's what changed.  The Giants never adjusted.  And that's how the Eagles scored 21 points in 7 minutes.
•  To the 8th minute and the final 7 points.  I may have a screen-by-screen breakdown later, but for now, I'll just describe what happened and what I saw.  Tom Coughin reportedly told Matt Dodge to punt it out of bounds, the smart move.  It would not kill all 12 seconds, but it would force either a hail mary attempt or the Eagles would just take a knee, satisfied to take it into overtime.  Instead, the snap was high, Dodge believed that because of that, he did not have enough time to angle his punt out of bounds as needed.  His hurried punt forced a line drive that went right to DeSean Jackson.  What happened next was the key to everything.  DeSean Jackson bobbled the punt.  While an accident, this allowed for two things to happen.  The Giants defense collapsed around Jackson and the Eagles special teams unit were given 1 or 2 more seconds to set up their blocks, including Omar Gaither blocking a Giant into two other Giants causing a domino effect taking them all out.  This allowed Jackson to find a seam up the middle.  A block from Jason Avant at the 45 cemented the return from the speedy Jackson.
• Before Jackson crossed the goalline, he ran diagonal into the endzone, in what was a feeble effort to kill the clock.  I say feeble because the clock had already expired, but Jackson may not have been aware of it as he was reading the defense and running full speed on a game-winning punt return touchdown, the first ever in NFL history.  Because of the unnecessary nature of the extra running, many will see what DeSean Jackson did as show-boating.  But trust me, when DeSean Jackson showboats (a.k.a. last Sunday in Dallas), you know it.  That was intended as a heads-up football play that ultimately was not needed.
• Most media outlets have already named this the "Miracle At The New Meadowlands."  Seeing as it's the last Sunday before Christmas, I was hoping someone would name it after the street New Meadowlands Stadium is on, a la Miracle On 34th Street.   But good luck with "Miracle On New Jersey Route 120" ever catching on.
• Not to be a Debbie Downer now, but 52 other minutes were played in this game.  And during those minutes, the Eagles lost 2nd round draft pick Nate Allen to a petallar tendon injury, effectively ending his season.  And in the span of less than a week, the Eagles have lost their top 2 draft picks from the 2010 draft.  Your starting full safety will now be 7th round draft pick Kurt Coleman.
• BREAKING NEWS:  King Dunlap is terrible.
• Dimitri Patterson had a nightmare.  Eli Manning picked on him all game long.  The re-addition of Samuel was a boost, but it can only help so much if other QBs continually pick apart Patterson like Manning did today.
• Enough negative nancy shit, that was one of the greatest comebacks in Philadelphia Eagles history, and perhaps even one of the top 10 in NFL history.  Seriously, amazing.  The Miracle At The New Meadowlands.  And Giant fans thought Herm Edwards and Brian Westbrook were bad.  And this was less than a week after the Phillies came out of nowhere to sign Cliff Lee out from under the noses of the New York Yankees, and a day removed from the Flyers putting a solid 4-1 beatdown of the New York Rangers.  Now not every Yankee fan is a Giants and/or Rangers fan, but to steal and modify a joke Grant from McCovery Chronicles made on Twitter a month or so ago when FC Dallas lost the MLS Cup off the heals of the Rangers losing the World Series:  there must be some guy in the New York metropolitan area who is a Yankees, Giants, and Rangers fan.  And he's in a dark, dark place right now.
• At the end of the game, Tom Coughlin went haywire on his punter Matt Dodge.  While Dodge had no business ever kicking that to Jackson regardless of how high the snap was, Matt Dodge did not blow a 21-point lead with 8 minutes left.  That burden should belong to Perry Fewell and Tom Coughlin for not making adjustments, and for the Giants players for being out of position and/or whiffing while trying to tackle Vick.
• I am working all day tomorrow, so either tomorrow night or Tuesday, I will have more on this game and this comeback.  
• Lastly, the epic win probability graph. (advancednflstats.com)

2010 NFL Season Week 15 Live Blog

I'll be watching the Eagles game without my computer and with my family (yay winter break!), but that does not mean you shouldn't join the discussion!

NFL Week 15 Schedule

I'll be home for the holidays, nestled comfortable with my parents' DirecTV Sunday Ticket their version of the RedZone Channel. Sweet, sweet bliss. On the negative side, it means spending less time with you guys as I like to watch the Eagles with my parents when I am home and without a computer, but on the plus side, it means no more being stuck with boring Steelers games when there are better games to be played (all times ET; instead as I get all games for the rest of the season, there is no need to used the bold feature anymore this season.)

Thursday Night Football

San Francisco 49ers vs. San Diego Chargers 8:20 (NFL Network - Bob Papa, Matt Millen, and Joe Theismann)

Map of who gets what Fox game.

Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Giants 1:00 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman)
Washington Redskins vs. Dallas Cowboys 1:00 (Fox - Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa)
New Orleans Saints vs. Baltimore Ravens 1:00 (Fox - Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick)
Detroit Lions vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1:00 (Fox - Dick Stockton, Charles Davis, and Jim Mora, Jr.)
Arizona Cardinals vs. Carolina Panthers 1:00 (Fox - Ron Pitts and John Lynch)

Atlanta Falcons vs. Seattle Seahawks 4:05 (Fox - Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan)

Map of who gets what CBS early game.

Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Indianapolis Colts 1:00 (CBS - Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf)
Kansas City Chiefs vs. St. Louis Rams 1:00 (CBS - Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts)
Houston Texans vs. Tennessee Titans 1:00 (CBS - Kevin Harlan and Solomon Wilcots)
Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins 1:00 (CBS - Bill Macatee and Rich Gannon)
Cleveland Browns vs. Cincinnati Bengals 1:00 (CBS - Don Criqui and Steve Beuerlein)

Map of who gets what CBS late game.

New York Jets vs. Pittsburgh Steelers 4:15 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms)
Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders 4:15 (CBS - Gus Johnson and Steve Tasker)

Sunday Night Football

Green Bay Packers vs. New England Patriots 8:20 (NBC - Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth)

Monday Night Football

Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings (game to be played at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN) 8:30 (ESPN - Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, and Jon Gruden)