Pondering the Pigskin

Eagles first:

The Eagles attempted to rush the ball a season-high 41 times yesterday (in spite of averaging only 3.5 yards), and they beat the best team in football.

Three weeks ago, the Eagles passed 78% of the time and tied one of the worst teams in football.

Coincidence?

As the Birds look to be starting another December run, should we give kudos to the coach? Or can we wonder aloud why he ignored the running game for the first 2/3 of the season? This isn't new evidence, but the Eagles have been more successful when they attempt to run the ball for the past decade. Instead of 7-5-1, the Eagles could easily be 9-4 with just a handful of good decisions and slightly better play-calling.

But as it stands, they almost control their own playoff destiny. With three games left, if they win out they will be in second place in the division. They need Atlanta to lose one more game, or one of Tampa/Carolina to lose three (not as farfetched as it sounds, as they play each other tonight so one of them is guaranteed to lose.) And if they do sneak into the playoffs, the first round game will be at Arizona, so suddenly there is some reason for hope.

Speaking of playoffs, how about that BCS? Two one-loss teams will battle it out for the championship, while a half-dozen other one-loss teams and two undefeated teams play meaningless games. Beautiful. Imagine if after the NFL regular season last year the voters matched up the Patriots and the Cowboys. Here's how my eight-team playoff matchups of conference champions would look instead:

1) Oklahoma vs. 8) Boise State
2) Florida vs. 7) Virginia Tech
3) USC vs. 6) Connecticut
4) PSU vs. 5) Utah

This would set up semi-finals of Oklahoma-PSU and Florida-USC. Man, that would suck. And meaningless, money-making matchups of second-placers could still take place like OSU-Texas and Alabama-Texas Tech. Why is this bad? How does this system make less money for anyone? At least Obama and I agree on this issue. My ranting can't change the system, but maybe he can.

Meanwhile, hockey playoffs again tonight. The beard is coming in nicely.