* The Los Angeles kings snapped the Flyers' six-game winning streak, beating the Orange and Black 4-1 last night. Once again, LA goalie Jonathan Quick was brilliant. He's one of the best net minders in the NHL, and he seems to always play well agains Philadelphia.
The Flyers play one more home game tomorrow night vs the Red Wings, before hitting the road for the holidays for four games. They won't be home until 2018, January 2 against the Penguins.
* The Sixers lost by a slim two points in Chicago. It was the Bulls sixth straight win. Without Joel Embiid, who sat out due to a bad back plus "management overload' ( he played 48 minutes in the triple-overtime loss to Oklahoma City on Friday night).
Again, you can't take this 76'ers team seriously until they stop limiting Embiid. Or is it that Embiid is fragile, and his injury problems will continue thru-out his career?
* The Eagles will start preparing for Christmas night at home against Oakland. Rightfully so, the defense is getting tortured for it's dreadful performance Sunday afternoon. They took the Giants for granted, plus it sounds like the players may have slacked-off in practice as well. Did the third road game catch up to the team/ The travel and west coast journey tire the squad out?
The players need to play and take responsibility for their play. But Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz needs to share in the blame. The defense looked ill-prepared and the game-plan sucked. Schwartz turtled-up and refused to blitz Eli Manning, who picked apart the secondary.You gotta put pressure on a quarterback like Manning. One would think Schwartz would know better.
Was Sunday's close game vs the 2-11 Giants another wake-up call? The wake-up call loss in Seattle produced a great effort against the Rams. With the home crowd behind them I look for the Birds' defense to step up during the national game on Monday night and stick it to the Raiders.
My pick will come later in the week. I'm 14-0 picking Eagles games so far this year.
* The Falcons beat Tampa Bay last night, 24-21. Atlanta has it's destiny in it's own hands now. They go to New Orleans this week, then go home to face Carolina. Atlanta, Super Bowl losers last season, would be a dangerous team in the playoffs. Still I would rather face them in the post-season then Seattle. The Falcons getting in would also mean that Dallas sits home.
The way the Falcons can score, I would give them a shot in a wild card game even on the road vs the Rams or Saints.
Finally, the NFL needs to simplify the "catch or no-catch" rule that doomed the Steelers against new England. It has become ridiculous. A catch should be ruled so, whether a receiver doesn't complete the catch once he hits the ground. Why not go back to the way it was years ago, even before replay.Use common sense and trust your eyes. It's no fun for the fans anymore. In fact, it's a turn-off, when the rules become too complicated.
It's no wonder why TV ratings suffer. Between all the stops and commercials, the referees and penalties, and the stupid rules, football isn't fun when stupidity takes over.
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