At Least It's Better Than Last Year

8-8. The win loss record of the Philadelphia Eagles last year. 4. The number of seasons that Andy Reid has posted a .500 record or lower in his 14 year career as Eagles head coach. 1. The number of opportunities left for both Reid and Vick.

So far for Eagles fans they can at least say we're doing better than last year. However, a 3-4 record after week eight isn't quite what we were hoping for after last years debacle. Sure, we were going to fix the problems at defensive coordinator. It was Juan Castillo's first year last year and he had to adjust without an offseason and a plethora of new players. Cut him some slack. The first four games looked good for the Eagles and Juan Castillo's job. They were holding teams in check and giving Mike Vick a chance to win games even though he could've cost them the game single handedly (more on that later). Two one point victories and a two point victory over the defending Super Bowl Champion New York Giants should be something to be proud of.

Then came the next few weeks. Reid and company came out strong against the Pittsburgh Steelers driving down on the first possession of the game to set up a score. However, Vick had other thoughts on his mind and fumbled away a sure score on the one yard line. It's alright. He's had his turnover struggles the first four games and we are 3-1. We'll overcome this one too right? Wrong. The Eagles lose on a last second field goal by Shaun Suisham and they drop a heartbreaker to the cross state rival Steelers. The deciding points in that game come from the Vick fumble, and the 6:32 drive that Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers orchestrated on the last possession of the game. 3-2

Next up the Detroit Lions. Should be a good game. The Lions struggled early on but they're starting to get the hang of it. Eagles start off strong and for three quarters completely shut down All-Pro wide receiver Calvin Johnson. Ten minutes of the fourth quarter go by and the Eagles hold a ten point lead. Then the Juan Castillo of last year shows up. He inexplicably begins to change the defense that quarterback Matthew Stafford has yet to figure out. He puts Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie on Calvin Johnson even though Nnamdi Asomougha has been shutting him down all game. Calvin Johnson proves to be vital in the last five minutes scoring a touchdown to bring the game within three with less than three minutes to go. Then like clockwork the Eagles defense fails again giving up the game tying field goal as time expires. Overtime comes Eagles get the ball. Good right? Wrong. Vick gets sacked twice leading to 4th and 30. Eagles punt. Akeem Jordan forces a fumble on the play! Good right? Wrong again. Somehow Jordan manages to land directly on top of the ball, only needing to wrap his arms around the pigskin and does not come away with it. Lions drive into field goal range and kick the game winning field goal. 3-3 heading into the bye week.

Bye week comes and great news out of Philadelphia, Andy Reid admits he was wrong and finally fires defensive coordinator Juan Castillo. Something Philly fans have been calling for since week five of the 2011 season. Coming into town is the undefeated Atlanta Falcons. Spoiler alert, they remain undefeated. Andy Reid was previously unbeaten as a head coach when coming out of the bye week at an impressive 13-0. The Falcons came and made that 13-1 in a pretty decisive 30-17 victory. Falcons QB Matt Ryan could do no wrong and Asomougha looked like a lost puppy when Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones ran right past him for a 63 yard touchdown. The only good that came from this game is Vick did not turn the ball over once, something he had not done since the 19-17 victory over the New York Giants in week four.

The Eagles have a tough test coming up in the New Orleans Saints whose offensive fire power lead by Drew Brees will test the secondary. Replacement defensive coordinator Todd Bowles will have to find a way to shut down this high powered offense and find a way to spark this Philly defense. Suggestion? Give Asomougha help over the top. He's a step slower than he once was and he's not the player that the Eagles signed to a 60 million dollar contract. To succeed, they will just have to accept that fact. No more excuses.

Now for the optimistic part of this blog post. The Eagles remaining schedule has a combined record of 27-39. That means they have the third easiest remaining schedule. Eagles head coach Andy Reid has the second best record in the second half of the season since he has been the coach of the Eagles. He is tied with the Steelers and is only behind the Patriots. They also have their remaining 5 divisional match ups in the second half of the season. Last year the Eagles lost one divisional matchup game, that was to the Giants in the third game of the season. That is the only time in the last nine games that the Giants have beaten the Eagles. Both games they play against the Cowboys will be during Tony Romo's choke time. That is good because the Cowboys entire game plan for this year has been to go out and build a team similar matchup wise to the Eagles. However, the way they have played so far it would seem they still have a ways to go to contend with Philly. In a do or die situation now for Reid it is time for him to get his team focused, and get ready to make a deep playoff run.

Oh, and one more interesting statistic? The team that won the Eagles home opener for the past 3 years and the last 4 of 5 has gone on to win the Super Bowl. The Eagles beat the Ravens 24-23 in their home opener this year. Fly Eagles fly.

Long Absences...Just Like the NHL

Sorry about the delay blogheads but I'm finally back and tonight I will be revealing the blog that I've been doing some in depth research on. But, more on that later. Right now more negotiation talks have commenced and more negotiation talks have failed leading to the canceling of more than a quarter of the NHL season. It would appear Mr. Bettman is not a fan of my blog and has decided to leave the NHL to its impending doom. While the NHL and NHLPA are getting closer in negotiations, they are still not seeing eye to eye.

If this deal is going to get done it is going to come down to one thing. Respect. The biggest issue in the whole negotiation process is that the NHL does not respect their players and that is a major issue. NHL players are, on average, the lowest paid athletes in the major professional sports. The average pay for an NHL player isn't even minimum wage of an NFL player. Which, if you ask me, is quite ironic. It could be argued that hockey is the toughest sport to play. Imagine playing a sport in which you have knives strapped to your feet chasing a tiny little rubber puck around with sticks on the hardest playing surface in athletic competition. Did I forget to mention you are skating at speeds of upwards of 35 miles per hour while everyone on the ice wants to kill you? Do that for 60 minutes of game play and then throw in an entire NBA season's worth of games. That's more than 5 times the amount of games that NFL players play. I think that Mr. Bettman should give his players a little more than 48 percent of the revenue. And considering how violent of a sport this actually is, he should probably take a look into better health benefits as well. Without the players Mr. Bettman, you don't have a product. Without a product, you can forget about the 52 percent of revenue you're supposed to make.

Let's get a deal done. Let's get it done soon.