Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Mark Sanchez

He baffles me sometimes. There are moments when he looks like a world-class quarterback – when he’ll calmly avoid pressure, step forward, and make an excellent throw, or when he’ll hit a perfectly-timed out route to Jeremy Maclin on the right side at the end of the first half  – but other times he’s so inaccurate with an arm so weak that you now understand why Jets fans hate him. Well put here:

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Sometimes his balls catch wind and hang up there forever, just begging to be intercepted. He also has an amazing ability, thanks to his weak arm, to overthrow the ball when he’s trying to lead receivers. The result is a dead duck that’s 10 feet out in front of its target and twisting toward the ground at an uncatchable rate, like when you try to toss a shuttlecock to your wife on a windy day at the beach. That’s Mark Sanchez– shuttlecockmaster:

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That’s not to say he’s terrible, because he’s not. In fact, he might be better than Foles has been this year, and he has thrown for 300 yards in each of his three starts. But, his quarterback rating, average yards per completion and TD-INT ratio has gone down in each of them. Of course, regardless of play on the field, he’s always good for one-liners, such as:

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LeSean McCoy

Rainmaker. There’s a reason why I drafted him in both of my Draft Kings lineups yesterday…. home game, bad run defense, has shown signs of breaking out the last few weeks. This is the first time all season he’s looked like the McCoy of last year. But if you take away that one run (which, fortunately, the time-space continuum won’t allow the Titans to do), he had roughly 80 yards on 20 carries. Nothing to write home about.

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This is how McCoy has success. The other thing, I’d say, is that there seemed to be fewer defenders getting in behind the line– McCoy’s not flat-out fast enough or big enough to get by or through them when that happens. Yesterday, he had enough time to set up his one nasty cut on a dime (or two).

 

Josh Huff 

The opening kick return was the longest positive yards play in Eagles history.

I mean, I’ve always liked Josh Huff. What kind of asshole wrote this last week? “Josh Huff needs to be benched. I’m tired of Josh Huff. He’s got a ton of talent, but this is three out of four games where he’s made egregious errors.” Love that dude. The haters are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, I guess.

This move right here…

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… was unfair, like in Tecmo Bowl when the little sprites stayed facing forward but you could make them move laterally just by pressing up or down on the controller. I’m just surprised Huff wasn’t blinking:

http://vimeo.com/112701296

TOUCHDOWN!

 

Special teams

I don’t know how many times it can be said, but the Eagles special teams can not be considered a nice to have random element. They are responsible for roughy seven points per game one way or the other. People write them off when evaluating the Birds, but the unit is a huge part of their success and can, in fact, be counted on. Check this out:

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The next time someone tells you the Eagles’ secondary is suspect, counter with, “Dem special teams tho.”

 

Bradley Fletcher

Shoutout to the guy behind me in the Southwest Terrace yesterday who has seen (and now been blinded) by the light that is Bradley Fletcher. Not only can’t he cover, but on the Titans’ first touchdown, he missed this tackle…

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… and not only missed it, but missed it as in he didn’t touch the guy (!!!):

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I don’t know how you go from that first screenshot to the second without making contact. I briefly considered that Fletcher was trying to throw the game, or thought he was an extra in a football movie that had been instructed to let the white team score by missing in epic fashion.

 

Cody Parkey

Is human:

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That sucks.

 

Movember

This guy wins:

via @Philly_Fan09

pic via @Philly_Fan09

 

Jersey fouls

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iPads at the game

pic via (@T_Rocks44)

pic via (@T_Rocks44)

 

Food at Lincoln Financial Field

It blows. The worst selection of food stuffs at the sports complex. The Eagles promote all these great eateries, but most are in the club level, and the common man is left to fend for himself with a selection of generic fare. Unlike Citizens Bank Park, where you can’t go 10 feet without spotting quality food and craft beers, at the Linc you can walk halfway around the stadium, on any level, and find nothing but lousy “Philly classics” and shitty cheesesteaks. There’s, like, one Tony Luke’s that has quality food (which appears to actually come from TL’s), but the rest is terrible. It’s difficult to find a non-Bud-owned craft beer (looking at you, Goose Island) or speciality food items. In the Southwest Terrace, where I’ve sat twice this season, there’s a “Chickie’s and Pete’s.” I don’t hate Chickie’s like some people do. When hot and fresh, their food, however bad for you, hits the spot. Yesterday, my wife and I took my parents to the game. They ordered chicken cheesesteaks at the stand. Well, after three tries they couldn’t get sandwiches that weren’t nasty and cold. My mom went back twice and complained that the sandwiches felt like they came out of a refrigerator. Both times workers replaced them with yet more nasty, cold ones. She finally went to an accommodating manager, who gave her the money back and explained that it’s not actually Chickie’s and Pete’s, but rather just their name for publicity. That’s terrible. We know Aramark mans the concession stands for name eateries, but it doesn’t even sound like that’s the case with this one– it’s just Aramark’s shitty food under Chickie’s name. We ordered pretzels at another stand– rock hard and barely edible. This is the third out of four times this year I couldn’t get a decent $10 sandwich at an Eagles game. The workers at the Linc may be the friendliest of all the local stadiums, but maybe that’s because they have to make up for the embarrassing concession food quality.