A battle of QBs
Happy (not so happy) Friday you in Patriots Nation. Look at the bright side: the Patriots play a team that's almost as messed up as they are Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles have two major injuries in their secondary losing safety Brian Dawkins and corner Bobby Taylor. But I figure that's offset by two big Patriots losses in Lawyer Milloy and Ted Johnson.
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This one comes down to the quarterbacks for me. Tom Brady hasn't been very good in his last four starts - seven picks and two TD's while Donovan McNabb put up a goose egg against the best team in the NFL in their debut, the Tampa Bay Bucs.
So how do we look at this?
The Patriots should be an easier team for the Eagles, while the Eagles still should be tough at home. The Eagles need to win a game at home. They need their fans behind them, and the only way to do that is to come out revved up and spank the Patriots.
A lot of writers nationally are calling a close game. Until I see the Patriots have come back from their funk in the Milloy situation, I'm still picking the Eagles in a romp. Not the 31-0 type romp, but maybe a 28-14 or 24-14 type game. This is a game I had the Eagles winning anyway when I made my 10-6 prediction for the Pats. I feel so distant from that 10-6 right now. Imagine the guys who were picking 12-4 and 13-3?
I still think the Pats will rebound from all of this upheaval and have a decent year. I just think it's going to take some time. As we've learned it doesn't really matter how you start in this game as long as you hang in there for the first half and then play well the second half, particularly in December.
What I've been the most surprised about the past two weeks is the popularity of Lawyer Milloy among the fans. I always knew he held a special place for most people, but I underestimated his impact in the community and among some of his fellow players. Players have certainly said things off the record denouncing the move to release Milloy so close to the season, but when you read a comment like Tedy Bruschi's in Peter King's Sports Illustrated column this week saying, "I'm not as fully committed to the Patriots as I was to my team at Arizona or Roseville [Calif.] High," he said last Thursday. "[The Patriots] took a franchise player and kicked him to the curb five days before the season." He paused, then continued more passionately. "I wish - I wish - it was the old days in this game, and I could put my heart on the line for something. But, how do you do that in a place where guys who've established what this team is about just come and go?" Continued...
