The Beginning of WENTZYLVANIA

Posted on by The Great Blondbino

If you’re a Philadelphia Eagles fan, you have probably known about Carson Wentz since he was a draft prospect back in March. The rookie quarterback was drafted by the Eagles 2nd overall in the 2016 NFL Draft out of North Dakota State University. You may wonder who the last QB the Eagles Selected in the first round was… no other than the beloved franchise quarterback, Donavan McNabb, who coincidentally also went second overall.

Wentz wasn’t named the starting QB at North Dakota State until his redshirt junior year of college. His first game of the 2014 season, he threw for 204 yards in a 34-14 victory over Iowa State. In Wentz’s first year as the starting quarterback, North Dakota State went 15 and 1, which led them to the FCS National Championship game against Illinois State, where they won 29-27. Carson threw for 287 yards, had 87 rushing yards, and even had a 5 yard rushing touchdown. After a season like that, there is no wonder Wentz was such a highly talked about draft prospect.

In his Redshirt senior season, Wentz set a career high in passing yardage against Northern Iowa, throwing for 335 yards. The next week, in his game against South Dakota, Wentz broke his wrist. After 8 weeks out, his next game back wasn’t until the 2015 National Championship. Wentz recorded 2 rushing touchdowns and one passing TD in the 37-10 victory over number 1 ranked, Jacksonville State.

Due to his injury, Carson was projected to be drafted in the middle of the first round. It wasn’t until his NFL Pro-Day where he proved he was fully healed and projected to go in the top 10. Wentz is a whopping 6 foot 5 inches tall and 237 pounds. To have someone with this size and his athleticism at the QB position is something that draws attention.

Wentz made his NFL debut on September 11 against the Cleveland Browns, where he threw for 278 yards and 2 touchdowns in the 29-10 victory. Many felt the Eagles started off with an easy schedule. It wasn’t until week 3 against the Pittsburgh Steelers where Carson Wentz truly showed what he was about. The Eagles won 34-3 in the game many called “The Battle of the State” and Carson threw for 301 yards and 2 touchdowns. After this performance, Carson solidified his nickname, Wentzylvania.

So far this season, Carson Wentz has led the Eagles to a 3 and 0 record with 769 total passing yards, 5 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. According to CSNPhilly.com, he is the only rookie to ever put up those kinds of numbers in the first 3 games of a career. Wentz has already won big-time awards this season, such as NFL Rookie of the Week in week 1, NFC Offensive Player of the Week after The Battle of the State, and then NFL Offensive Rookie of the Month.

Carson Wentz has surprised not only the NFL, but the passionate Philadelphia fans. Hopefully he can stay healthy and have a long successful career in Philly and bring a few Super Bowl titles to the City of Brotherly Love. Have a Career Carson!

 

 

BIG Battle of the BIG Men

Posted on by The Great Blondbino

This media day, the most talked about topic in the press room was the strength and the depth of the 76ers big men. Right now, the roster has 4 big name forwards and 2 big time centers listed.

Ben Simmons is listed as a forward. He measures in at 6’10” and stated today that he had went from being 215 pounds at LSU to now weighing in at 250 pounds right before the start of the season. Ben is known for having the big man power and strength, but the vision of a point guard. Going into the draft Ben was said to be “positionless” by NBADraft.net, meaning he would be able to play any position at the NBA level. That’s not something you see too often in a player this big and at only 20 years old.

Simmons had an incredible year of basketball in his only year at LSU. Simmons tied the record for most points scored in a game at LSU with 43, the person who set the mark… Shaquille O’Neil. In his 33 games played, Ben averaged 19.2 ppg, 11.8 rpg, 4.8 apg, and had a .560 fg%. Simmons was stated as the best all-around player since LeBron James by NBA icon, Magic Johnson.

Ben was the number 1 overall draft pick by the 76ers in the 2016 NBA draft. Not only is Ben expected to be the franchise player for years to come in Philadelphia, but also a potential Hall of Famer in the future. Although all these high expectations surround Simmons, he says he doesn’t like to look too far into the future, “Potential… you can either go up or down from that. We’ll see how it goes,” says Simmons.

Jahlil Okafor is heading into his second season in the NBA. He’s listed as a center and measures in at 6’11” and 271 pounds. He was drafted number 3 overall by the Sixers in the 2015 draft after his freshman season at Duke University. Okafor put up impressive numbers his one year at Duke, averaging 17.3 ppg, 8.5 rpg, and had a .664 fg%. These numbers helped win his team a national title and allowed Okafor to be the first ever freshman named the ACC Player of the Year.

Okafor played well in his NBA rookie season, despite the tough season for Philadelphia. In his 53 games played, he averaged 17.5 ppg, 7 rpg, and had a .508 fg%. Jahlil got into some trouble off the court throughout the season. With the competition he is facing this year for playing time, he needs to keep his temper and speed in check.

Joel Embiid was the Sixers 3rd overall pick in the 2014 draft after his freshman season at the University of Kansas. He measures in at 7 foot, 250 pounds. At todays media day, Embiid admits he didn’t want to declare for the draft because he didn’t think he was ready as a man, but after talking to some friends, he later changed his mind and he’s happy with the decision he’s made, despite missing his first two seasons due to injury. Joel has never suited up as a Sixer. His first two seasons Embiid was still benched due to a foot injury that he received in college. At Kansas, Joel averaged 11.2 ppg, 2.6 bpg, 8.1 rpg, and recorded a .626 fg%.

Despite Joel’s slow start to his NBA career, he says he’s still confident he will have a long and successful career, “From what it looks like now, I’ll have about a 20 year career,” laughs Embiid. Philly fans should be excited to finally see Joel suit up and play in the first game of the season.

Nerlens Noel is listed as a 6’11” power forward for the Sixers. He was their number 6 overall draft pick in 2013 out of the University of Kentucky. Noel is known for his impressive ability to block shots, he set the record at Kentucky for most blocks in a game with 12. Nerlens was projected to be the number 1 overall draft pick in the 2013 draft, before tearing his ALC in a block against the Florida Gators. Despite the injury, Noel was still named SEC freshman of the year as well as SEC defensive player of the year. He recorded 10.5 ppg, 4.4 bpg, 9.5 rpg, and a .590 fg% in his one season at Kentucky.

Today, Noel expressed his frustration about having so many big men on one team, “Do I think it can work? No, ” Stated Nerlens, “We have 3 big centers all capable of playing 30 minutes a game.. obviously that can’t work.” It will be interesting to see what he decides to do in the future depending on how the play time in dispersed this season. So far in his career at Philadelphia he has recorded 10.5 ppg, 1.7 bpg, 8.1 rpg, and a .490 fg% in 142 games.

Dario Saric is a 6’10” Croatian drafted 12th overall by the Orlando Magic in 2014, but was immediately traded to Philadelphia for Elfrid Payton. Saric didn’t officially sign with the Sixers until July 15, 2016. In the media day press conference, Dario said he felt he wasn’t ready as a man to leave his family, go overseas and play in the NBA. He now feels after waiting 2 years, he grew a lot as a person and a player and is finally ready to play in the NBA for the 76ers. Here are some of Dario’s euroleague stats- 10.1 ppg, 6 rpb, and a .457 fg%.

The last big man to watch this season is Elton Brand, who announced his retirement in August 2015, then decided to come back to the NBA in January 2016 and sign with the Sixers for the second time in his career. Brand was the first overall pick by the Chicago Bulls in 1999 after being named the National Player of the Year out of Duke. Brand has played for 5 teams throughout his 17 seasons in the NBA. His regular season stats include- 15.9 ppg, 8.5 rpg, and a .500 fg%. Although Brand has much more experience then the youngsters on the team now, there is no denying that they are major competition. In his media day press conference, Brand admitted the battle of the big men will be a “blood bath.”

The last few seasons have been rough for Philadelphia sports fans in general and the Sixers have been a big part of that. Having all this talent excited and ready to play is extremely encouraging to see for this franchise. The battle of the big men should be fun to watch as the season goes on and in hopes that everyone can stay healthy. My big name for years to come is Ben Simmons. Although he is the youngest one, I have no doubt he will be the leader and franchise player this team needs. In his press conference he seemed calm, cool, collected, and ready to make something out of himself. 2016 may just be the year of the rookies for Philadelphia.

 

 

 

Summer of Fatherly Love

Posted on by The Great Blondbino

I know, I know. I apologize for my abandonment of this page. I promise I’m back and will be writing about the greatest sports teams and fans on Earth! But first, to get back into the swing of things.. I would like to catch people up on my life a little. After all, the world may not know it yet, but I’m one of the biggest sports icons that will ever come out of Philly… So I self proclaim myself as a suitable subject for this blog (semi-kidding, but not really).

This summer has taught me so much about myself and life in general. On June 14th, the greatest man to ever walk this earth and the only man who will ever have my whole heart, my dad, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer (after 45 years of smoking) that had spread to his brain. He had a mass so big in his prefrontal cortex, they had to operate immediately. Luckily, the surgery was a success and removed that mass. But, this was still not something that would ever be cured and will most likely take his life eventually. This was by far the absolute worst day of my life.

After staying with my dad for a few weeks, he and I both agreed it was time for me to get back to school. Leaving my dad was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. But, almost like it was the plan from above all along, a friend of mine (shout out Ryan Fink), got me a job as a diamond girl with the local minor league baseball team… the Williamsport Crosscutters, the single A short season affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. As soon as I got the job, I told everyone that I would wiggle myself in with the media department… less than three weeks later, I was offered an internship with ESPN Radio Williamsport (shout out to my boss, Todd Bartley, for seeing all my potential right away).

As the summer went on, I continued to be a diamond girl as well as an intern and it was the greatest thing to happen in my life. My first week as an intern, I got the opportunity to go to Baltimore for the Ravens media day! (Not the Eagles….but still crazy awesome!) Everyday I was making more and more connections to put myself two or more years ahead than most people trying to pursue this career at my age.

Not only was I making great connections, but I also became great friends with some of the guys on the team. It sounds bad, but I was expecting them to be stuck up and to think they were the greatest thing to walk this earth… I was way off. These guys showed me, no matter where you come from, if you love what you do and stay humble, life will work its way out. None of them ever knew about my  dad and they will never know how many times their goofiness has helped put a smile on my face when all I wanted to do was cry (I know, weird… I’m the least emotional girl ever). I am forever grateful for some of the relationships I made on that team and I can’t wait to watch their journeys through life, whether they make it to the majors, or if they go back home and get an office job and have a family. I truly wish them the best life has to offer. Stay cool dudes, always.

The end of August, I was finally given the opportunity to cover my first major sporting event, The Little League World Series. I would record in-game recaps after every inning and they would be put on air! (SO COOL!!) I made even more connections and met so many awesome people again. It really was an opportunity a young reporter, such as myself, could only dream of. At this point, covering the LLWS by day and the Cutters by night, I was getting asked for my autograph and to get pictures taken with me so often. It was surreal and I absolutely loved every minute of it (If you know me, you know my passion for sports and my love for having all eyes on me). All these experiences and opportunities were so incredible and made me realize, not only do I have so much passion and determination to become an NFL sideline/ MLB post-game reporter, but I was truly meant for this career and lifestyle.

As all these amazing things were happening, my dad was getting worse. The cancer had spread to his liver and more small masses were moving to his brain. It seemed to be a cruel joke. The most amazing things were happening alongside the worst time of my life. It took everything I had and countless talks with my dad to realize, life is going to suck a lot sometimes… But, 1. people will ALWAYS have it worse and 2. God has to put you through battles, to show you who you are.

I’ve always had a pretty good grasp of who I am. But after this summer, I realized I’m incredibly strong, loving, driven, and right where I’m meant to be. I’m a firm believer everything happens for a reason. Not only do I plan to be one of the best sports reporters ever.. but one heck of a great human-being. If I do something as small as use my new found strength to comfort someone during their worst moments, this will have all been for a greater purpose.

Right now, school is starting. My heart is breaking, because I wish I could live this summer forever. I’ve learned so much about myself and life. I’m stuck between wishing time would hurry because, the faster I get these next two school years out of the way, the faster I will be living the dream I’ve dreamt since the 7th grade. But, also wishing time would stand still and let me have my dad forever.

When he was in the hospital, I asked if he regretted smoking, because that is what caused this all. Yesterday, on the phone, he said, “Remember when you asked if I regret smoking? Well, I don’t.. there’s going to be something that kills everyone. The only thing I regret is that it may cut short my time here with you.” My dad makes it clear every time we talk, how proud he is of me for being such a great person and for going after my dreams right away. Also, how much he loves me and that whether he leaves this earth earlier than planned or if he is still around to watch me on TV- he will always be my biggest fan and strongest protector. The thing he doesn’t seem to realize is, everything I am is because of his unmeasurable fatherly love. “We are one, babe.”

Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye

Posted on by The Great Blondbino

One week before Chip Kelly’s third season with the Eagles comes to an end, he’s been fired. Pat Shurmur will replace Kelly as interim head coach for this weeks game against the New York Giants.

There has been talk by Philadelphia’s hot-tempered fans for a few weeks about Chip Kelly being gone after this ugly season. But, it seems that the Eagles organization has had enough after the embarrassing “win or go home” loss last week against the Washington Redskins.

Chip’s first season, the Eagles went 10-6 and claimed the NFC East Championship, only one year after going 4-12. He seemed to be the answer, introducing one of the fastest no huddle offenses in the NFL.

His second season, the Eagles went 10-6 again, but this time it wasn’t good enough to claim a spot in the playoffs. Kelly made it seem that if we wanted to win, we had to let him call the shots. Chip was named Head Coach as well as General Manager of the Philadelphia Eagles after the 2014 season.

After a hectic, “What are you thinking?!” kind of offseason, Philadelphia fans thought Chip was insane, but his insanity might just be what we needed. As the 2015 season comes to a close, it seems our first reactions were right.

One of the only changes Kelly made that hasn’t backfired on the team was giving Sam Bradford the starting quarterback position, and even this change didn’t appear to be the right call until half way through the season.

Even with Bradford’s play picking up, Chip gave him no targets to throw to. The Eagles lead the league with most dropped passes.

Although I agree with owner, Jeffrey Lurie’s decision, I must admit, I am a bit shocked.

I assumed that Chip would be given one more year to try to get all his new guys to mesh together and play well as a team.It is also a bit weird that he was fired on a Tuesday before week 16, instead of waiting until the official end of the season.

Jeffrey Lurie will hold a press conference Wednesday, December 30 at noon to answer why he believed this was the best decision and why it had to be done now.

But overall, I think this is what is best for the franchise. Hopefully it doesn’t take too many seasons to get to where the Philadelphia fans always dream of being.

In my previous Eagles posts, I would always end with, “In Chip we trust, until we’re proven wrong.” Well Chip, you did it… you proved us wrong.

 

Oh My, O-Line

Posted on by The Great Blondbino

Logically speaking, there was no way the Eagles had any chance in beating the undefeated Carolina Panthers last week. But, for Eagles fans, we tried to create hope in our chances by repeating to ourselves previous statistics. Such as how we beat them 45-21 in the 2014 season and our 6-3 career record against Carolina.

Sam Bradford (205) threw for more yards then Cam Newton (197) and the Panthers (21) only had one more first down than the Eagles (20) by the end of the game. This shows that we have tools to be good, but for some reason it just isn’t working out.

There are two major things that keep reoccurring: Our secondary’s tackling skills and our offensive line.

Our Eagles secondary seems to think the proper and most effective way of tackling is bumping into whoever has the ball… you would think they’d realize it doesn’t work. Mike Tolbert got hit by 3 different eagles and was still able to stay on his feet and score the touchdown.

One of the first things you learn in football is to not tackle with your head down and to wrap them up. It seems we need to go back to the basics.

From the beginning of the season, we knew our offensive line was going to be nerve-wrecking to watch. But it feels as though we keep getting worse as the weeks go on. This week we allowed Bradford to get sacked FIVE times! That’s not good for any quarterback, let alone our new QB that has been injury prone his entire career so far.

We took a big blow with the injury of Jason Peters this week. The good news is- it is was just back spasms, which will only keep him out for a couple of weeks. Peters is the 3rd oldest starting offensive lineman in the NFL. This is scary, considering he is our strongest lineman. We clearly won’t have him for too much longer.

Hopefully Chip has some kind of mastermind plan to rebuild and strengthen our offensive line in the near future or maybe his original mastermind plan will somehow start working. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will find out anytime soon.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Posted on by The Great Blondbino

As an Eagles fan, it always feels great to beat Eli Manning and his guys to be ranked first in the NFC East! But, as a football fan, the 27-7 win over the New York Giants does not convince me that we are a playoff caliber team.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many improvements that are clear from watching the game. Like our defense finally becoming the powerhouse we knew they could be!

The defense had 3 takeaways, caused two intentional-grounding penalties, and sacked Eli not once, not twice, but THREE times! There’s nothing better then seeing a rival quarterback take a few shots from our guys.

Our offense had some good points too, Sam Bradford had 280 passing yards and DeMarco Murray had 109 rushing yards. Both, look to be powerhouse performances on paper.

But, when looking at the overall picture, Bradford still threw 3 interceptions. If we played any other team or if the Giants would have taken advantage of the turnovers, it could have been a whole different ball game.

There were a combined 7 turnovers and 21 penalties. That’s just an ugly game of football for a fan of the game and an emotional rollercoaster for the fans of the teams involved.

Hopefully in the next few weeks our offense can become as strong as our defense is becoming, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

This MNF win was a good team to beat, a bad way to win, and an ugly game to watch.

Taking Off

Posted on by The Great Blondbino

Eagles collected their first win of the 2015 regular season with a 24-17 victory over the New York Jets.

This win makes the Eagles 10-0 in their career against the Jets. Their perfect record happens to be the best franchise record between any two teams in the National Football League.

To the Eagles haters who say, “Congratulations, you beat the Jets,” thank you. Beating the Jets last year wouldn’t be much of an accomplishment, but beating the 2015 New York Jets, I count as a good first victory.

The Jets went into this game 2-0, with a 31-10 win over Cleveland and a 20-7 victory over Indianapolis. Their offense has obviously been a strong force through out the start of the season, as well as their defense, holding Indianapolis QB, Andrew Luck, to only one touchdown.

The Jets offense was rolling in the first two games. But with Jets best wide receiver, Eric Decker, out with a sprained knee and the Eagles defense causing four turnovers, it looked bright for our guys.

Early in the second quarter, Darren Sproles got the Philadelphia fans going crazy after a punt return you would only expect from a player like Sproles.

Darren Sproles’ punt return was the second longest punt return score in Eagles history, behind Demaris Johnson’s 98 yarder against Dallas in 2012. It was also the longest punt return for a touchdown- and sixth overall – of Sproles’ career. He’s the only player in NFL history with 15-plus rushing touchdowns (18), 25-plus receiving touchdowns (27) and 5-plus punt return touchdowns (6).

Eagles out scored the Jets 24-7 at halftime. But after the half the eagles offense stopped producing, making the fans nervous as the Jets offense started moving forward.

With 3:33 left in the fourth quarter, Walter Thurmond (safety) picked off Jets QB, Ryan Fitzpatrick, at the Philadelphia 18, causing New York to end up with only a field goal later in the quarter, instead of a touchdown with time to get the ball back.

This is the progress Philly fans like to see, especially going into Washington week. Hopefully we see more and more progression as the weeks go on.

Not Too Late To Spread Our Wings & Take Off

Posted on by The Great Blondbino

There has been quite an uproar between Eagles fans and even non-Eagles fans about their performance so far this season. It’s still too soon to tell whether to point the finger at the players or the one who calls the shots (Chip).

The Eagles are ranked 32nd out of 32 teams in rushing yards, with only 70 yards in the first two games. Comparable to being ranked 7th in passing yards with 555.

If you didn’t know we had three power house running backs, you would think we didn’t have any running backs at all. Chip has only called 33 run plays within the first two games and 89 pass plays.

The thought behind this confuses not only me, but a lot of Philly fans. It seems that maybe Chip is trying to prove he made the right decision with Bradford by giving him more than enough chances to prove himself. Or that maybe even Chip is a little hesitant to trust our offensive line this early in the season.

DeMarco Murray went from being the number one ranked running back last year with 392 run attempts for close to 2,000 yards, to this year, with 21 attempts for only 11 yards in the first two games. Making him look like he should be our second string running back, behind Darren Sproles who has only 6 attempts for 46 yards.

We can argue that we have new players who just need time to mesh together… but there’s always that thought in the back of our mind, “What if it doesn’t happen?”

On the bright side, its no where near being too late to flip this season around. In the 2004 season, the Eagles began the season at 0-2 and finished 12-4 in the regular season and went on to lose in the NFC Championship game.

This group of players is a powerhouse line up… on paper. Now it’s Chip’s job to bring their potential out to the field and get them to be NFC East champions and to achieve the dream that Eagles fans believe we can obtain every preseason, Super Bowl Champions.

Draft Day: Don’t Let Kendricks Fly Away

Posted on by The Great Blondbino

With the draft quickly approaching tonight, there are still many Eagles fans wondering what to expect from Chip.

News circulated on twitter Wednesday of the possibility that Kelly may try to do a last minute trade of Mychal Kendricks to receive another 2nd round draft pick, then use that to trade up for a higher first round pick. This has made some Eagles fan’s hope for Marcus Mariota come back alive.

I personally, hope this news is just a rumor. With Kendricks, Ryans, Graham, and now Alonso I do agree that we could use one of them to our advantage for a better draft pick. But I do not think Kendricks is the answer to this situation. If we keep Kendricks, I believe he will be the next franchise energizer for the Eagles defense, something we have been without since we traded Brian Dawkins to the Denver Broncos in 2009.

Aside from being that passionate animal that our defense needs, Mychal has only been in the NFL for three seasons and has an impressive track record so far with 263 combined tackles, 42 assisted tackles, 9 sacks, and 3 interceptions for a total of 25 yards.

With the lose of our “Weapon X” in 2009, I think we finally found our energy again when the “Angry Bird” flew in. Trading Kendricks would be the first decision Chip has made that I highly disagree with.

But with the Draft tonight, In Chip We Trust.

Tebow Time or Ego Time

Posted on by The Great Blondbino

There have been rumors during free-agency that the Eagles would sign QB Tim Tebow who graduated from the University of Florida. But no one thought it was likely, due to Chips interest in Oregon QB Marcus Mariota. Welp, Chip surprised us again.

Tim Tebow had a successful time playing quarterback for the University of Florida from 2006 until 2009. There, he was an All-American in 2007, as well as a Heisman trophy winner that same year. In his overall career at Florida, his winning percentage was 66.4 percent and he threw for 88 touchdowns with only 16 interceptions. He also rushed for 57 touchdowns as well. He accomplished all of this while being apart of the SEC, which at the time, was arguably the best conference in college football.

When he was drafted 25th overall in the 2010 NFL Draft to the Denver Broncos, he did not live up to his expectations. After two seasons with the Broncos, he was traded to the New York Jets, then from there to the New England Patriots.

It wasn’t until Tebow got the chance to play for Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, that everyone started to think that maybe the NFL just wasn’t for him when he got cut from the team during the 2013 preseason.

But, after being out of the league for a season, Chip Kelly comes to Tebow’s  rescue and decides to give him another chance and no one can think of a reason why, besides the fact that Chip may have let his ego get the best of him on this one.

In 2011 Chip stated, ” I look for a quarterback who can run and not a running back who can who can throw. I want a quarterback that can beat you with his arm. We are not a Tim Tebow type of quarterback team. I am not going to run my quarterback 20 times on power runs.”

So what has changed? it’s no secret that Chip Kelly thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room. An article from Bleacher Report puts the thought out there that maybe Chip’s thinking, what if he can make something out of Tim Tebow in the NFL, thats something not even Bill Belichick (who most likely only wanted Tebow for the same reason: ego) could do.

Like every other move Chip Kelly makes, we will never know the reasons why. But as Philly fans, we just gotta keep saying “In Chip We Trust” until he proves us wrong.