After starting Year 2 of the Rooting guide, I received a message from a concerned poster who was unhappy that I would suggest rooting for anyone but the Eagles. Obviously, my intentions were to guide the best interests of the Birds, but truth be told, that guy is right! A PFO Board Meeting was had and it has been decided that the Rooting Guide will now be known as the Watching Guide. Spread the word on advertisements nationwide. On to Week 2 of the Eagles Watching Guide…
Thursday Night 1pm 4pm Sunday Night Monday Night
THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
- Detroit Lions at Buffalo Bills, 8:15p on Prime
- Lucky bastards. Detroit absolutely should have lost that game to the Saints and would have if not for an insane interpretation of the NFL rule book. As Eagles fans know though, a win is a win. Take some pride in jumping out to a 21 point Week 1 win and forget about being forced to OT. Dan Campbell should be happy that he isn’t the coach in Philadelphia, he would be afforded considerably less patience.
- Well, that was impressive. The Bills absolutely handled the Texans defense and made Kamari Lassiter look like a fraud. To pick some nits though, they did give up 31 points to CJ Stroud who has a habit of not scoring and they have to play a short week after getting beat up by the Texans’ defensive line. If the Bills come out flat, I would chalk it up to that rough scheduling.
1PM GAMES
- Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons
- Would you be happy scoring 37 points against a playoff contender? I think that’s a fair consolation when you are evalauting whether you have a long term answer at QB. Of course, they also gave up 59 points after doing some splurging on defense in free agency the last few years. The Bears are good, but they aren’t 59 points good. Of course, if they follow that up with less points against the Falcons, then there’s a problem
- What a mess. Who is playing QB this week? After 3rd stringer Cooper Rush started last week and playe through back spasms, it’s fair to wonder just how many QBs might start this year in Atlanta. It’s not like Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix are paragons of health and availability. Can they get to 5? I bet they can!
- Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears (Eagles vs Bears next week)
- Ginger Jesus was at it again on Sunday, leading a Vikings comeback over the Packers in one of the more inexplicable wins we’ll see this season. Is he going to play this week? Will it be Kyler Murray? How about Double J? This could be just as fun of a QB carousel as the Falcons.
- Will Bears vs Vikings be the game of the week? Are we going to see 100+ points scored? Considering Chicago let up 37 to the Panthers, this game could be a barn burner. For Eagles fans, this game is your scouting priority for next week’s Monday Night Football revenge showdown at Soldier Field
- Pittsburgh Steelers at New England Patriots
- Well, that was about as bad of an offensive performance as you can imagine for the dawn of the Mike McCarthy era in Pittsburgh! Aaron Rodgers is going to do more crazy interviews this season than he will throw TD passes, and it won’t be close. At least the defense is competent, not that beating a 3rd string QB with a back problem should have been very hard. Omar Khan is not so secretly bad at his job.
- Schadenfreude – noun – enjoyment obtained from seeing or hearing about the troubles of others. Example: Eagles fans reveled in schadenfreude watching Patriots’ QB Drake Maye throw 3 interceptions and underthrow A.J. Brown in the endzone. Of course, Brown getting hurt was not supposed to be part of this, we just wanted him to know the grass isn’t greener, especially in Boston. Even though we need the Pats to be bad next year instead of this year, it still felt amazing watching that game last week.
- Green Bay Packers at New York Jets
- Some things just stick with you. The people of Green Bay last year telling me that they didn’t beleive in Jordan Love or Coach LeFleur told me everything I needed to know about the Packers. Then they went out and go rocked by a Carson Wentz led Vikings team in Week 1. LeFleur’s coaching seat just got VERY hot.
- On the other end of the hot seat spectrum, did any coach need a win in Week 1 more than Aaron Glenn? Who cares if it was against a bad Titans team. It doesn’t mean his seat is any less hot, but taking care of the Packers at home would really turn down the temperature.
- Cleveland Browns at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- What the Browns and Deshaun Watson displayed last week was completely embarassing. Was Jimmy Haslam in those massage parlors with Watson? Why the hell is he letting this charade continue? Tune in just to see how low things get this week for Cleveland having to face Tampa in Tampa for a sizzling 1pm game. This could be a mess!
- One of my big complaints from the scheduling gods over the years is seemingly always facing the Bucs in September in Tampa at 1p. Their record in those games is 6 and 2 (one of those losses was to Philadelphia last season). That is a serious home field advantage. Watch for Reuben Bain’s introduction to the NFL this week at the expense of Watson. Also, Baker Mayfield, were you really going to turn down all that money??? MFer get out of here.
- New Orleans Saints at Baltimore Ravens
- A lot of people are picking the Saints to be this year’s Panthers and it is because of games like last week that was basically stolen from them by absurd officiating. Have you ever heard of the “intent” of the quarterback to matter in whether something was a forward pass or not? Think of how subjective that is to be applied to real rule situations? Anyway, the Saints lost in OT and in the end, they will be better for it. The more they competitively lose, the better.
- John Who-baugh? Sorry. All season it will be interesting to see how Baltimore is different without their long time head coach. In week 1, everything went swimmingly. Granted if we don’t know if the Colts are any good at all despite last season, but still. An ass kicking in the NFL is always impressive.
- Cincinnati Bengals at Houston Texans
- Everyone is loving the Bengals defense because they made Baker Mayfield fumble 3 times. He almost fumbled $150m, that’s what this man does!!! They should be able to do more of that against CJ Stroud and a Houston offense that I don’t trust in the least.
- Houston’s defense on the other hand? They are going to eat Joe Burrow alive. Unless Kamari Lassiter is a total fraud that is. I don’t think he is.
- Philadelphia Eagles at Tennessee Titans
- The term “a win is a win” is cliche at this point but for the Eagles to get by with having a faulty interior lineman for the debut of their new offense, winning was the only thing that mattered. There was a lot to like last week and now getting another week to work out the kinks against a bad Titans team is a very lucky and rare scheduling win.
- The Titans do not have much going for them, but the do have Jeffery Simmons salivating at the opportunity to give Drew Kendall a “Welcome to the League” moment. That’s the only potential problem. If Javon Kinlaw was making plays against Dickerson, let’s hope Kendall can at least get in the way of Simmons for a few moments.
4PM GAMES
- Jacksonville Jaguars at Denver Broncos
- Are the Jaguars the Dolphins of 3 years ago? They put up simply amazing numbers against bad teams but then nothing special against good ones. That’s a perfectly fine building block, but let’s pump the breaks on wrecking Deshaun Watson and a lifeless Browns team. They did beat Denver last year though…except Denver might not be any good.
- Oh man did that dud feel good, 3rd best loss of the week behind New England and the next game. I do not understand why everyone was so quick the crown Bo Nix and the Broncos. He isn’t special. They won a lot of games last year but damn near all of them were freak wins that had no business reflecting on this season. Getting WRECKED by the Chiefs without Mahomes doing anything special was cathartic.
- Washington Commanders at Dallas Cowboys
- Did anyone see Kung Pow: Enter the Fist? It’s a ridiculous movie that my wife’s family loves way more than they should. One character, Wimp Lo routinely gets his ass kicked and claims victory by doing things like saying Face-to-Foot Style when he gets roundhouse kicked. That reminds me of Washington. No matter how many times they lose, they are fooling themselves into thinking it was closer than it was. They feel like they won this game despite 3 quarters of complete ineptitude and the final score. Fun game, but they are not close to contending thanks to a never-ending string of poor roster decisions.
- Yikes! Christian Parker did not have the best debut in the world against a Giants offense that has no ability to counterattack pressure. I’m not getting technical: Dart think? Giants go boom. They couldn’t get to him. It was bad. Then there’s Dak. Every week, Prescott is throwing the ball into problems and usually gets away with it. Not against New York. The Giants new the assignment: Get to Dak, Cowboys go boom.
- Seattle Seahawks at Arizona Cardinals
- The champs came back and beat the Patriots again. It wasn’t a good game by any means, but things went sideways from the beginning, they recovered, and won the game. That’s what matters. Now they get the Cardinals, Commanders, and Chargers in what shouldn’t be a very troublesome 4-0 or at least 3-1 start without Sam Darnold.
- Arizona, I could kiss you! Beating the Chargers was not a very good start to their drive for the #1 pick, but an interesting way to start the season it was. However, unless they beat the Cowboys or Giants, there are 10 straight losses staring them in the face right now starting this week.
- Miami Dolphins at San Francisco 49ers
- This is going to be a very long season for the Dolphins. Other than the Jets, the Raiders were Miami’s most winnable game on the schedule and it wasn’t particularly close. It’s going to be a long year, but they probably want it that way. If I were handicapping a team to get the #1 pick, they would probably be at the top.
- 49ers just keep doing what they do and put together sound offensive plans with a stout defense. Were the Rams jetlagged and this non-competitive? Maybe, but 27-7 tells the story of a game that was never close. At the very least, SF fans know that their team will be in every game because of how prepared they are.
- Las Vegas Raiders at Los Angeles Chargers
- Good for the Raiders. They are not exactly aiming for the bottom this season thanks to Fernando Mendoza being in the cupboard. Instead, it is more like a, let’s try things out kind of thing where any kind of success is good and losses are not a problem. As long as Mendoza isn’t a bust by the time he gets on the field, everything is gravy in Vegas.
- HAHAHAHA!!!! I’m sorry I hate Justin Herbert so much, I promise it has nothing to do with him personally. Every time he launches a perfectly thrown spiral 60 yards down the field into triple coverage though, I just can’t wait until the experts tell me how it’s not his fault and “well, actually…” getting picked off is a good thing. The Herbert excuse machine never stops. That was against Arizona, man!
SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
- Indianapolis Colts at Kansas City Chiefs
- Was anyone buying the Colts as a contender with Danny Dimes? I know last year started off great, but this team is ice milk, unbuttered toast, and room temperature water all at once. Jonathan Taylor is good, but everyone else’s favorite color is gray. Ask them how they are doing and they will tell you “fine” and they won’t be lying. More like Indianaverage Colts.
- Saying that the Chiefs are back is getting ahead of ourselves when you look at their roster, but Andy Reid knows how to prepare for a team, especially an overrated one like the Broncos. That being said, Indy is overrated too so prepare for all of the think pieces in the world praising Andy and Patrick Mahomes after they go 2-0.
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
- New York Giants at Los Angeles Rams
- The one thing I did not want to see from the Giants was competence. That’s what Harbaugh was brought in to bring and it looks like that is what the Giants have. It was against the Cowboys, but the Giants showing out against anyone was a good thing for them and their defense is going to have a hell of a pass rush all year. Giants a re a frisky playoff contender.
- There’s nothing to make of the Rams opening stinker in Australia other than a lesson to everyone that you have to play the games. We all remember Vince Young calling the Eagles the Dream Team and there are serious vibes like that with the Rams. Now Aaron Donald may miss another game and Myles Garrett is out for at least a month. The next 3 weeks for the Rams are against Denver, Philadelphia, and Buffalo. This season has a chance to get off to a VERY rough start if they do not take care of business at home against the Giants.
Photo: Dekema, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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