“We are going to the Super Bowl, so don’t even doubt it,” injured Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens said yesterday. “I’ve never felt so confident in my entire career than how I felt this past Sunday. When I walked into that locker room and saw those guys – saw that as happy as they were that they knew they still had business to take care of – that let me know right there we’ll be in Jacksonville come Feb. 6. There is no doubt in my mind.
“You could see it in guys’ eyes. They weren’t satisfied with just reaching the NFC championship game. I can’t explain it. You had to be in that locker room to see what I’m talking about. Like I said, it’s going down. Philadelphia, don’t you doubt this for one second.”
The quote from Owens made us all feel a little better. But the worrying in the title isn’t about losing on Sunday, the Eagles fans have dealt with that before. (3 straight times, as the media has reminded us over and over again.) The worrying was about what everyone has to say.
On Sunday, as soon as it was clear that the Eagles would win the game, from pundit to troll, we all heard the same thing: Eagles will choke again. Atlanta has the momentum. Eagles were lucky (lucky!) to play Minnesota. Vick Vick Vick.
From the chatter, you’d think Vick was Tom Brady on speed. Vick is superhuman. Vick is the best quarterback in the game today. Vick beat God Favre at the holy shrine of Lambeau two years ago. Vick Vick Vick Vick Vick. I agree Vick is a great athlete that changes the way a game must be defensed. But we’ve seen Vick before. He’s Randall Cunningham with a better offensive line.
I vowed last week to stop frequenting the ESPN message boards. But I’m a football junkie and even though I knew it would rile me up, I couldn’t help myself. You will never find as much uninformed garbage as you will on the ESPN message boards. It is full of people whose IQs are usually the same as the number of their favorite player and who spend an inordinate amount of time trying to think of clever names like McFlabb and Beagles. I know, it’s a car wreck of a site, but we all have to watch.
If you can wade past the juvenile name calling and threats to “kick you’re ass”, you might find some actual football discussion threads. Unfortunately, 99 out of 100 are worthless drivel. Someone actually tried to make the argument that Brad Johnson is a better QB than McNabb. Yes, every football GM is desperately trying to trade for Brad Johnson.
Another site I went to just to see what “the enemy” was saying was the offical Atlanta Falcons board. Talk about delusional bandwagon fans. Apparently, beating the 8-8 Vikings who “backed into the playoffs” was no mean feat. But beating the 8-8 Rams who “made the playoffs” showed how great of a team the Falcons were. One poster claimed that the Eagles should be ashamed for only scoring 27 on the Vikings and the Falcons would have dropped 45 on them. That sounds logical to me.
One Falcons fan claimed that Dawkins didn’t want any part of Vick and that Vick would just run right by him. To which an Eagles faithful replied succintly with this. Another poster is already stating that the 12th man on Sunday isn’t the crowd but the referees. Talk about setting up an excuse well in advance.
It’s amazing that people, and I would venture that bandwagon fans are more susceptible to this, will trot out the same crap they hear from their favorite media source. Eagles can’t stop the run. Eagles have a mediocre defense. McNabb is inaccurate. Eagles fans get a bad reputation for raping and killing Santa Claus while laughing at Michael Irvin being paralyzed but most will take the time to actually analyze a game and not recycle soundbites.
I’m not going to take the time to break down why the Eagles will win in this article. You can read a very good analysis by a guy named JRJ (who has more football knowledge in his pinkie than Stephen A Smith has in his entire worthless body… wait, maybe that’s not much of a compliment… just trust me, he’s good) here. What I will tell you is that a knowledgeable fan doesn’t just say whatever he’s heard from other biased fans. The Eagles fan base has its share of morons but a higher percentage of us actually try to understand the matchup in question before talking a bunch of smack. And this is what drives me absolutely insane.
Well, let me correct that. What used to drive me absolutely insane. I had my Jon Stewart (c) moment of zen this week. There’s no point in arguing about football with people who don’t know any football. If someone comes to me talking about how the weather will favor the Falcons if it forces a ground game, then let’s talk about it. If someone wants to talk about how Tampa used a cover 3 when defending Vick but the Eagles don’t have the speed or personnel to do that, then let’s talk about that. If someone comes to me talking about how stacking the box might not stop the Falcons because Vick will throw to Crumpler, then let’s discuss that.
They may not be right but everyone has their opinions and I love debating football. What I will no longer do is talk football with a bunch of ignorant trash talking bandwagon fans who couldn’t name more than two starters from their team last year. They can play in their little sandbox and they can spew whatever nonsense they want. But I’m not worrying about it anymore.
The Eagles will win this weekend. I’m just going to enjoy the ride.
