Archive for December, 2010

by Ryan Messick Lead Writer More Headlines: Asante Samuel Questionable , ITI Weekly After playing four games in 18 days, including three in prime time, the Eagles were a bit worn down and banged up.  Their reward: a mini-bye, three extra days off after a Thursday game against Houston.  The time off has Michael Vick back to full strength after taking a bevy of hits and feeling a little bruised up last week. “The extra time really helped,” Vick said. “I feel fresh, I feel good, I’m 100 percent and just ready to go play some football. That’s what it’s [...]

Asante Samuel is officially listed as questionable for Sunday night’s game in Dallas, after missing practice for the last two days due to his knee injury. Samuel missed the last two games after spraining his knee in a 27-17 win over the Giants three weeks ago Sunday.

“It’s a day to day thing, you know, every day progress is being made so you’ve just got to see,” Samuel said. “It’s feeling better.”

Head coach Andy Reid said Samuel tried to do more in practice today, but wasn’t able to do very much.

“He was going to give it a try and see how he felt and so, it didn’t feel very good on Wednesday,” Reid said. “So we backed off him and we’re giving him treatment and we’ll just see how things go.”

Yesterday, a teammate of Samuel’s told Inside the Iggles that the veteran corner “might be 50/50,” in terms of his chances of playing on Sunday.

This week on ITI Weekly, Ryan Messick and Matt Martucci discuss the Eagles/Cowboys game and break down some of the matchups, in addition to discussing the crazy playoff picture in the NFC and the Eagles chances of getting in. Weekly Show – December 10, 2010

Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel was unable to practice today after being limited yesterday with a knee sprain, and “might be 50-50,” to play on Sunday night in Dallas according to one teammate.

Samuel originally injured his knee in the 24-17 win over the Giants on November 21, and has missed the two games since.

by Ryan Messick Lead Writer It’s never fun when your archrival ends your season.  Just ask the Eagles.  Last year, the Cowboys crushed the Eagles in back-to-back weeks, 24-0 and 34-14 in Week 17 and during the wild card round of the playoffs. This year, the Eagles can’t quite return the favor, even though it’s only Week 14. At 4-8, the Cowboys are already mathematically eliminated.  Even if they win out and the Giants and Packers lose out, leaving all three 8-8, the Cowboys would lose the tiebreaker to the Packers based on their earlier game this season.  The Eagles [...]

At tonight’s National Football League Players’ Association tailgate stop at The Waterworks in Philadelphia, one thing seemed to be evident. The NFLPA does not want a lockout. Unfortunately, something else was also clear to the collection of current Eagles, former NFL players, and fans in attendance: it may be inevitable if some sort of compromise doesn’t happen soon. Here are the facts: 1) According to Forbes Magazine, NFL owners saw the average value of a franchise drop down from $1.04 billion to 1.02 billion this past year. While that may not seem like much of a decrease when we’re talking [...]

1. New England Patriots (10-2) – They left no doubt.  What else can you say? 2. Atlanta Falcons (10-2) (+1) – Their resume isn’t full of impressive wins, but they keep beating the teams they have the chance to play. Barring any hiccups, they should end up 13-3 at worst. 3. Green Bay Packers (8-4) (+1) – The Packers will be a tough out in January, but if they can get their running game together they could be really scary.  Could James Starks possibly be the answer? 4. Philadelphia Eagles (8-4) (+1) – The Eagles have the potential to be [...]

The Eagles 2010 offense is putting up some big numbers and drawing comparisons to the 2004 version that made it all the way to the Super Bowl before losing to the Patriots.  Here’s a position-by-position comparison between 2004 and 2010′s offenses. Take a look and place your own vote on the poll on the last page. Quarterback 2004: Donovan McNabb – During the Super Bowl season, McNabb ahd one of his best years as an Eagle, racking up 3,875 yards while throwing 31 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. McNabb completed 64 percent of his passes for a 104.7 rating and ran [...]

It’s a crazy year in the NFC, with an 8-4 team currently on the outside looking in, thanks in part to an NFC West that has an automatic spot reserved for a team currently at .500 and due to a Panthers team that’s giving two free wins to every team in the NFC South, it seems. The scenarios for the Eagles can get complicated in a hurry, but for now, the simplest is this: beat the Giants.  If the Eagles win their game at the New Meadowlands on December 19, they can afford one more loss the rest of the [...]

It wasn’t a particularly good NFL Sunday for the Eagles, with the Giants, Packers, Bears, Falcons and Saints all winning.  That leads to a lot of teams in the NFC with good records battling it out down the stretch.  Here are Monday’s Musings after a lot of interesting action this week. 1. From an Eagles perspective, it’s a shame they didn’t get a game against the Cowboys earlier this year when they seemed completely inept.  They’re now a handful and it might be a good thing Philadelphia has a mini-bye going into next week’s game, which looks like a must-win.  [...]

Washington Redskins at New York Giants (1:00, FOX) - This is the most important game of the day for the Eagles, who will be pulling heavily for Donovan McNabb and his Redskins.  New York would keep pace with the Eagles at 8-4 with a win, while they’d fall a game back with a loss.  Philadelphia would love a little bit of breathing room down the stretch. Cleveland Browns at Miami Dolphins (1:00, CBS) – The Eagles have no rooting interest in this game, as they don’t face either team and both are in the AFC and out of the playoff hunt.  [...]

Michael Vick is always one play away.  One play away from a dazzling touchdown, but also one play away from heading to the sideline with an injury.  Vick already missed three games this year with cracked rib cartilage, and has continued to take a large number of hits due to his scrambling style of play. Beyond that though, opponents seem to be getting away with more and more late hits on Vick, and Andy Reid is taking notice. “Yeah, it bothers me, to be honest with you,” Reid said. “That bothers me and I see the same thing you’re seeing [...]