CroJack's weekly rant: Part 1

Let me start off  by saying I love sports, but I also love ranting and raving about issues that bother me. Case and point NFL Vs. NHL, or football vs. hockey. Mainly the players of their respective sports and the people who say football is the toughest, most tiring, and the most dangerous sport. FYI people, football is not the only sport in this country and world for that matter. Football gets way to much attention and people need to open their eyes.

In the NFL players go down all the time. Just this season alone I have seen more flopping than soccer players. Mainly teams that would fake a cramp or injury to slow down the Eagles up tempo offense or another teams up tempo offense. My favorites are the players that get oxygen after running a play for 30 seconds or more and claim to be in top physical shape and also the players that sit out a few plays to get their wind back. Pussies, plain and simple. "OMG, you said a bad word about football players, you are stupid and know nothing about 
it." Individuals who claim football players are the toughest and the sport is the hardest, need to pay more attention. Lastly, when a football player takes a hard hit, most of the time they are looking for the flag, because god forbid they actually get hit playing football. Who would of thought of players taking hits in football? For sham! Football players are a bunch of little babies still sucking on their mothers teet. The players get a week off before they play another game, sure they practice during the week, but still have a week before a competitive game. And players that have back stiffness or an ankle sprain from the game last week miss the following because of it, that's cute.

In the NHL players do not get nearly enough credit. Just the other night, Brayden Schenn of the Flyers, in a freak accident, had the opposing players skate go under his jersey and slice his abdomen. Did Schenn fall over and give up? Did he sit the rest of the game? NO! He showed his pain, like any normal person, but he got his cut super glued up, and did not miss his next shift and played the whole game. Another example would be Jeff Carter, from the Los Angeles Kings. He caught a puck to the face, lost a lot of teeth, blood everywhere and skated off the ice to the locker room. Did he miss the rest of the game? Did he complain after the game that he was hurt and could not really get back into the game? NO! He came back the next period with teeth missing and played the rest of the game. Hockey players get cross checked into the boards, some get up right away, others wait until they hear the whistle. Skate to the bench to recoup and boom, back out there. Hockey players take massive hits in nearly every game. Some hits are worse than a football tackle. Skaters coming at you with a full head of steam to clobber you into next week, but that does not stop them. Hockey players play back to back games in the season, get hurt the night before and are back in the following game.

By no means am I talking about serious injuries to players, like broken bones or concussion. I understand players do get really hurt in both sports and would not expect them to come in a play in those circumstances. Mainly focusing on the minor injuries that occur. Seems to be that more football players complain and sit out dude to a stiff back or an ankle sprain versus the hockey guys.

That is my rant for this week, let's see what happens in the upcoming week for me to rant about. Maybe it will be about the fact that Philly radio can not move on from the Eagles season being over, or the never ending debate of Foles. Whatever it is, I will rant about it.



CroJack

Off to Minnasoooota

Another week, another pivotal game for the Eagles.  The Eagles are heading to Minnesota to take on the Vikings in what could possibly give the Eagles a 2 game lead in the division, pending another wonderful Cowboys loss.

It is going to be cold, VERY COLD in Minnesota, but hey they get to play inside this week and whip out the t-shirts.  And pending no snow breaking through the roof and crashing down on the field, it looks like the eagles won't have to play back to back games in the snow.  The Eagles ended up looking great in the snow but we don't need to go through that again and be at risk of the team being luckier than us.

Some good signs about playing this Vikings team is that AP is most likely out with a foot injury that he suffered last week in the snow and will not be hurting the eagles this week with his crazy good running game.  The QB situation up in MN is also one to chuckle at as they haven't been able to keep one QB on the field this year, oh wait that sounds kind of familiar.

Now is the time us Eagles fans get to see Nick Foles in some big implication games and whether or not he can handle them.  We know he can play in the NFL and win games, but can he win games towards the end of the season that will propel his team into the playoffs.  Next step: Win playoff games, but we'll get there soon enough.

The buzz around this team has been high as there weren't many expectations this year and a lot of fans thought it had to be a rebuilding process.  SURPRISE!  The Eagles are winning and have 1st place in the division and are hot.  You want/need to be that hot team going into the playoffs as that has been the pattern that past few years and in many sports, the norm.

Here's to the Eagles taking a 2-game lead on the Cowboys this week!

And in case you haven't seen the sweet (definitely not unlucky) SI Cover:

Happy Holidays!


Cheers,
ski

See you next week!

RG3PO Coming to Town

Next up for the Eagles...the 3-6 Washington Redskins.  The redskins have been struggling this year and a lot has to do with the main man RG3.  RG3 hasn't been the same this year after he suffered a torn ACL at the end of last season.  The Eagles beat the Redskins in the first game of the season, which was thought to be a great start for the team and everyone thought the offense was going to be unstoppable.  The Eagles came back down to Earth after the first game and are now 5-5.

The Eagles defense this week looks to keep up, as they have been playing very solid over the past few weeks.  This will be a good test as the Redskins have been putting up about 30 points on average the past 4 weeks.  It could come down to a shoot out the way these two offenses have been playing.

Which brings me to Nick Foles, the talk of the town the past couple weeks...but not necessarily in a good way.  Yes Foles has been playing basically lights out, putting up a QB rating of 158.3 and 149.3 over the past two weeks which has never been done in the NFL, EVER.  But even with these performances people still aren't sold on Foles.  Can he play in the NFL? Yes.  Can he start for several NFL teams right now? Yes.  The big questions are whether or not he can be consistent with the games he is putting up or will he revert back to the Foles of the previous Cowboys and Giants games.  It looks like we will be able to get a better gauge on Foles after the season is over since there is no reason why he shouldn't start the rest of the games.  Being able to see Foles in crucial spots (maybe get to the playoffs in this sucky division) and how consistent he is for the rest of the season will let the Eagles know if they have to go out in the draft next year and get a new QB.

How about the Eagles go out Sunday and take back their turf, and finally get a win back at home(0-10, last 10 games) and take first place in the division.

EAGLES > redskins 27-17

GO EAGLES!


ski

And Another One!

The Philadelphia Flyers have won three straight games, as they knocked off the Pittsburgh Penguins last night, 2-1.

Brayden Schenn scored both goals for the Flyers and goalie Ray Emery stopped 30 out of 31 shots he faced. Schenn was interviewed after the game having this to say,

"Obviously, we're working on trying to put some wins together right now and playing pretty sound defensive hockey. We're waiting for our opportunities to score and right now we're scoring when they're there, so we have to keep it going."

Say whatever you want about the Flyers start, which was 1-7. The team is now, 6-3-1 in their last 10 games and have collected points in five of their last six games. Flyers are now, 9-2-1 at Consol Energy Center since the arena has opened. Sean Couturier played shut down defense on both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, which really seemed to frustrate Malkin, as he threw some cheap shots on Couturier's face. Head coach Craig Berube was very pleased with the win,

"I like the fact that we grinded the win out. We played the night before and did a lot of the little things right tonight."

Another little fun fact. Remember the brawl? The one that people said was so disgusting and disrespectful to the game of hockey and the city of Philadelphia. Well the Flyers are now, 4-1-1 since that brawl and it seems it has sparked this team to another level. They are now playing much more sound defense, winning all the puck battles and winning the battles along the boards. To top it all, they have now scored 14 goals since the brawl, which was missing to start the season.

Next up for the orange and black, the Winnipeg Jets. Another tough road game for the boys, but if they go out and execute the way they have been on this winning streak, they will be just fine.


CroJack

Serious question: Marlon Byrd, Really?

No, seriously. I don't get it, I'm really asking here. I've been trying to get a grasp of this signing since it has happened to figure out the plan here but I still just can't wrap my head around it. Obviously we all know that the Phillies need a right-handed power bat, some outfield and pitching help but I don't see this filling any of those needs. 

Ok I know he bags from the right side but the power just isn't there. 24 home runs is his career high for a season, which happened last season after a PED suspension the year prior. Jimmy Rollins has 2 seasons with more than 24 homers, yea "Jimmy Hustle" has more power than Byrd. And at the age of 36 I can't envision his power numbers jumping up for the next two years. 

Speaking of 2 years, it seems like Ruben doesn't have any plans of getting any younger any time soon. With the aging core, why wouldn't you add an aging vet to a squad on the downside of their careers? Of course that doesn't even include the option for the third year that could keep Byrd here til the age of 39. Of course the price doesn't help either, 8 mill per does not sound like the type of money you give to a bench player either.  That's the type of money that you are going to give to a someone who is going to be starting. Unfortunately, Marlon Byrd is not a player that is going to be starting on most playoff teams (yea, I know he did last year but he wasn't completely relied on to be a productive bat and came to the pirates towards the end of the season).

Honestly I would have been ok signing Byrd later in the winter as a bench player after exhausting the rest of your options. Instead as it stands we have a starting outfield with the killer B's (Brown, Ben and Byrd) who doesn't inspire much confidence. Maybe I am missing something with this signing or I am not looking at the whole picture somehow, but I don't get it. If anyone at all knows something about this that I don't please enlighten me because Ruben has lost me with this one. 

Quick side note: If these are the types of signings Ruben has planned for the winter, I don't think he is planning to be the GM much longer. 

Goins

Showing Improvement

The Philadelphia Flyers got their second straight win, beating the Ottawa Senators last night 5-0.

This was a very good win for the orange and black. Ottawa were coming off a 3 game winning streak and got their number one goalie back between the pipes, which ended up being his and their first shutout lose of the season.

Jake Voracek netted 2 goals and goalie Steve Mason got his first shutout victory and recorded 24 saves on the night. Needless to say these two were the Flyers top performers in this game. Matt Read had this to say after the game,

"We got back to the basics," said Reader, who had the Flyers' first goal Tuesday, on a beautiful wrap around. "The first month we tried to do things when we didn't have them and now we're just keeping things simple by getting pucks deep and getting pucks out when we have to and winning puck battles along the boards. "Those little things turn into victories."

Vincent Lecavalier and Brayden Schenn also scored for the Flyers and captain Claude Giroux recorded 2 assists. Goalie Steve Mason was very pleased with the team effort in this game.

"This was an extremely sound effort all around and from a defensive standpoint we didn't give a lot up."

Next up for the Flyguys, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the dreaded rivals. The Flyers will be traveling to Pittsburgh and in recent years the Flyers have played very well on the Penguins home ice. They will look to build off that and the last 2 wins to fuel them into another victory tonight. It will be a tough game no doubt, the Penguins are a good and very sound team.


CroJack