Jody Mac
10-10-2011, 02:45 PM
What's the first thing anyone says to you when you hit the water cooler or the break room for coffee at work on Monday morning? "How was your weekend? " Since I am working under the assumption that you are at least a casual sport fan if you are reading this blog, on this website, I'll refrain from putting that reflexive rhetorical query to you. I know how your weekend was. It sucked!! (All apologizes to the few and far between St. Louis Cardinal or Buffalo Bills fans in town.) Can't get much worse than what Philly sports fans went through between Friday night and late Sunday afternoon. Since we NOW have all off-season to figure out where the Phillies go for 2012, we'll try and stick to, for the most part, what the hell happened in the Phillies 3-2 series loss to the Cardinals that brought this season to a crashing halt.
Where did the Phillies offense disappear? I understand that the Phillies bats have been inconsistent all year and they may have bloated their numbers in some blowout games against some bad pitching but I did not see this total collapse coming! Other than Rollins (who did go 0-4 in game 5) and Utley (who hurt the Phillies on the base paths) the Phils offense was non-existent in this series. Some (Howard, Polanco, Ruiz) were worse than others (Pence, Ibanez, Victorino) but they all stunk. If Ben Francisco doesn't hit his 3-run pinch-hit homer in Game 3 the output would have been even more putrid. To say the Phils were un-clutch with the bat would be a massive understatement! I realize Chris Carpenter is a former Cy Young winner and his game two start in this series was a toss because he was on short rest, but he is a guy who went 11-9 with the highest scoring team in the National league this season. How can you manage just three hits for the game? Maybe more egregious was what they did against Card's starter Edwin Jackson in game 4. After starting the game with a double, a triple and a single, the Phils managed just two more measly singles over the next six innings. After those 2 first inning runs, the Phils scored just one run (on a wild pitch) over the next 18 innings. This with the chance to advance to their fourth straight NLCS so close you could smell it. Shame on all who climbed into the batters box for the Phillies over those two games.
Could Charlie Manuel have been pro-active and juggled the lineup going into Game five, sure. Did Cliff Lee blow a 4 run lead in Game two when the Phils let a strangle hold on the series slip away? Yes he did! But this is about the bats. They just did not hit enough. Period!! Highly paid veteran guys did absolutely nothing. Was it a "choking situation?" When a lineup like the one the Phillies have comes up so small against an OK pitching staff at best like the Cardinals have, I have to label it a choke! Sorry!!
I know it was a shortened series in this first round, but so did the Phillies. They knew the task at hand and failed. If the Phillies were playing in the NLCS right now, would anyone in this town be suggesting that the 3 of 5 series is not long enough to allow the best team to advance? I think not. The umpiring was not great in this series, but missed calls and questionable pitch calls went both ways. There were no bad bounces that went against the Phillies. If you want to think an appearance by a squirrel some how doomed the Phillies, to ease the pain of this shortcoming, go for it for your own sanity. But the truth is the Phillies were just not good enough and did not deserve to win this series!
So where do we go from here? The Phillies will take a deep breath, a step back and begin the evaluative process. We will do the same and start to ask some hard questions about the 2012 Phillies right here next week!
Unfortunately the Eagles situation is all too similar to the Phillies. There are a couple key differences. The Phillies dominated the game for the entire regular season; the Eagles just dominated the abridged pre-season/free agent-signing period. The Phils do have a championship to lean back on (although it is finally starting to seem a little more removed after the Cardinal ousting) while the Eagles continued post-season appearances are more hallow everyday. Like the Phillies, I see one aspect more accountable for the Eagles shortcomings than any others. With the Phils it was the offense, with the Eagles it's the defense!
Michael Vick has to cut down on the turnovers. His line has to protect him better and not be directly accountable for picks like they were against the Bills. The wide receivers have to protect and hold on to the ball after making catches. These are problems that have a chance to be corrected. I do not know if this defense is fixable. New players are probably needed and they just are not available at this time. Since that is the case, something drastic has to be done from within, that is to scrap this nine-wide scheme. Yes it has helped Jason Babin lead the leagues in sacks, but so what? Teams move the ball up and down the field at will against the Eagles by just staying between the tackles. This just isn't Philadelphia Eagle defense! There is no toughness, there is no meanness. There is no one willing to punch someone in the mouth as there was from Buddy Ryan's defense, to Bud Carson's defense, to Jim Johnson's defense. For over two decades opponents feared having to face the Eagles de. Now opponents circle them on their schedule as a week to pad their stats. This team doesn't even blitz. Imagine the pressure on the linebackers and the safeties if they sent another man at the quarterback. Juan Castillio and Jim Washburn should have known that the lack of play makers on this roster at linebacker and safety would leave this wide defense, wide open to be gutted. Changing schemes mid-stream in a season is drastic, but drastically bad results call for drastic measures. Only one man can make this happen. Andy Reid is once again on record saying that it's on him, first and fore most to get this fixed. Well then fix it, by changing it!!
The Phillies season is over, the Eagles are not, but its getting there fast. They still can get right back in it, in their division. They are at the Skins this week and host the Cowboys next. Win both and they are right back in the divisional race. Easier said than done but not impossible. They have to change, right now!!
Two other thoughts before we wrap this Attack. To the members of the media and group of fans who referred to Philadelphia as "The epicenter, the sports capitol of the world" because of a couple player acquisitions (Nnamdhi Asomugha & Hunter Pence), a lesson learned. The sports capitol of the world is captured by championships, not headlines!!....If the Phils and Eagles losses were not bad enough, yours truly was defeated on Comcast SportsNet's "Full Contact" show on Sunday night. Congrats to my formidable, victorious opponent and pal Tony Bruno who got the popular vote. Perhaps I did not get the word out enough on my Facebook page or on my Twitter account (@jodymacman). I didn't get it out enough to the loyal phillysportspulse.com nation. My bad. I will try and get out the word out more quickly and thoroughly when next they invite me to compete. Perhaps my right-thinking followers were just so beaten down by the weekend they had given up on all sports by the time the final gun went off in Buffalo? Enough sour grapes. I'm starting to sound like a Phillie fan that is trying to come up with excuses as to why the Phillies lost, besides the fact that they just weren't good enough!!
Where did the Phillies offense disappear? I understand that the Phillies bats have been inconsistent all year and they may have bloated their numbers in some blowout games against some bad pitching but I did not see this total collapse coming! Other than Rollins (who did go 0-4 in game 5) and Utley (who hurt the Phillies on the base paths) the Phils offense was non-existent in this series. Some (Howard, Polanco, Ruiz) were worse than others (Pence, Ibanez, Victorino) but they all stunk. If Ben Francisco doesn't hit his 3-run pinch-hit homer in Game 3 the output would have been even more putrid. To say the Phils were un-clutch with the bat would be a massive understatement! I realize Chris Carpenter is a former Cy Young winner and his game two start in this series was a toss because he was on short rest, but he is a guy who went 11-9 with the highest scoring team in the National league this season. How can you manage just three hits for the game? Maybe more egregious was what they did against Card's starter Edwin Jackson in game 4. After starting the game with a double, a triple and a single, the Phils managed just two more measly singles over the next six innings. After those 2 first inning runs, the Phils scored just one run (on a wild pitch) over the next 18 innings. This with the chance to advance to their fourth straight NLCS so close you could smell it. Shame on all who climbed into the batters box for the Phillies over those two games.
Could Charlie Manuel have been pro-active and juggled the lineup going into Game five, sure. Did Cliff Lee blow a 4 run lead in Game two when the Phils let a strangle hold on the series slip away? Yes he did! But this is about the bats. They just did not hit enough. Period!! Highly paid veteran guys did absolutely nothing. Was it a "choking situation?" When a lineup like the one the Phillies have comes up so small against an OK pitching staff at best like the Cardinals have, I have to label it a choke! Sorry!!
I know it was a shortened series in this first round, but so did the Phillies. They knew the task at hand and failed. If the Phillies were playing in the NLCS right now, would anyone in this town be suggesting that the 3 of 5 series is not long enough to allow the best team to advance? I think not. The umpiring was not great in this series, but missed calls and questionable pitch calls went both ways. There were no bad bounces that went against the Phillies. If you want to think an appearance by a squirrel some how doomed the Phillies, to ease the pain of this shortcoming, go for it for your own sanity. But the truth is the Phillies were just not good enough and did not deserve to win this series!
So where do we go from here? The Phillies will take a deep breath, a step back and begin the evaluative process. We will do the same and start to ask some hard questions about the 2012 Phillies right here next week!
Unfortunately the Eagles situation is all too similar to the Phillies. There are a couple key differences. The Phillies dominated the game for the entire regular season; the Eagles just dominated the abridged pre-season/free agent-signing period. The Phils do have a championship to lean back on (although it is finally starting to seem a little more removed after the Cardinal ousting) while the Eagles continued post-season appearances are more hallow everyday. Like the Phillies, I see one aspect more accountable for the Eagles shortcomings than any others. With the Phils it was the offense, with the Eagles it's the defense!
Michael Vick has to cut down on the turnovers. His line has to protect him better and not be directly accountable for picks like they were against the Bills. The wide receivers have to protect and hold on to the ball after making catches. These are problems that have a chance to be corrected. I do not know if this defense is fixable. New players are probably needed and they just are not available at this time. Since that is the case, something drastic has to be done from within, that is to scrap this nine-wide scheme. Yes it has helped Jason Babin lead the leagues in sacks, but so what? Teams move the ball up and down the field at will against the Eagles by just staying between the tackles. This just isn't Philadelphia Eagle defense! There is no toughness, there is no meanness. There is no one willing to punch someone in the mouth as there was from Buddy Ryan's defense, to Bud Carson's defense, to Jim Johnson's defense. For over two decades opponents feared having to face the Eagles de. Now opponents circle them on their schedule as a week to pad their stats. This team doesn't even blitz. Imagine the pressure on the linebackers and the safeties if they sent another man at the quarterback. Juan Castillio and Jim Washburn should have known that the lack of play makers on this roster at linebacker and safety would leave this wide defense, wide open to be gutted. Changing schemes mid-stream in a season is drastic, but drastically bad results call for drastic measures. Only one man can make this happen. Andy Reid is once again on record saying that it's on him, first and fore most to get this fixed. Well then fix it, by changing it!!
The Phillies season is over, the Eagles are not, but its getting there fast. They still can get right back in it, in their division. They are at the Skins this week and host the Cowboys next. Win both and they are right back in the divisional race. Easier said than done but not impossible. They have to change, right now!!
Two other thoughts before we wrap this Attack. To the members of the media and group of fans who referred to Philadelphia as "The epicenter, the sports capitol of the world" because of a couple player acquisitions (Nnamdhi Asomugha & Hunter Pence), a lesson learned. The sports capitol of the world is captured by championships, not headlines!!....If the Phils and Eagles losses were not bad enough, yours truly was defeated on Comcast SportsNet's "Full Contact" show on Sunday night. Congrats to my formidable, victorious opponent and pal Tony Bruno who got the popular vote. Perhaps I did not get the word out enough on my Facebook page or on my Twitter account (@jodymacman). I didn't get it out enough to the loyal phillysportspulse.com nation. My bad. I will try and get out the word out more quickly and thoroughly when next they invite me to compete. Perhaps my right-thinking followers were just so beaten down by the weekend they had given up on all sports by the time the final gun went off in Buffalo? Enough sour grapes. I'm starting to sound like a Phillie fan that is trying to come up with excuses as to why the Phillies lost, besides the fact that they just weren't good enough!!