Says Charlie Manuel of Jimmy Rollins, the NL’s leading MVP candidate, “He’s done everything a guy can do . . . I don’t know what else he can do except sell tickets and popcorn.”
Words of wisdom from the boss. Despite years of negativity, Charlie Manuel is my hero. I believe.
Ouch, for the second time this week, I have lost a tremendously long post and it hurts. I am really pissed right now, and don’t have the time to re-write everything, so you’ll have to settle for what was only the first section of a three-part entry.
The Birds. Well, obviously, I’m disappointed by the result of the game. They had plenty of chances to put more points on the board, for instance, at the end of the first half when they let the punter run for a first down, and obviously, when they failed to capitalize on the Saints late game fumble. Plenty of people are going to be ripping on Andy Reid’s decision to punt on 4th and 15 at the end of the game, this week and long into the future. Personally, I didn’t like the decision, because I was always nervous with the Eagles ‘D’ on the field this year, especially against a team with such a potent running attack as the Saints, but I understand Andy’s reasoning. I really think that a coach, in that position, really has no other choice than to put his confidence in his defense and hope that they can get the other team off the field, give the offense another chance. I don’t quite understand what made the 4th and 15 so different than the 4th and 10, necessarily, but I guess you can look at it like – the offense had their shot on 4th and 10, made a bonehead penalty, so now the defense gets their shot not to flub up. Don’t forget, after all, that the Birds were behind in a game that, I thought, was one of the most evenly matched that I’d seen in awhile. In other words, they were running uphill at that point, so the burden is on the players on the field, not the coach. If either the offense or the defense had just made it happen there, after the fumble, the result of the game would have been much different.
