New England

[Irish]

Pats -3.5 over the Eagles

Looking at these teams, I'm going the way of NE. They have the home field advantage, they are the defending superbowl champs and they added some good players to an already good squad. Tonight I expect a heavy dose of Corey Dillion.

Philly had a lot of trouble stopping the run last year and even with the addition of Kearse they will struggle again. The LB's will not have the freedom of being in the box as deep as they were last year with the loss of 2 All-pro CB's. Dawkins is hurting so I would expect to see him for only a few plays. That means NE offense is up against a totally new secondary. Even with Brady out, the Eagles secondary will have a hard time with Rohan Davey (world league all-star -ha).

IR -
Out
No. Player Injury
20 Brian Dawkins Knee
10 Koy Detmer Knee
71 Jermane Mayberry Hamstring
95 Jerome McDougle Shoulder
85 Sean Morey Knee
97 Darwin Walker Hamstring

On the other side of the coin, the Eagles offense lost Staley but gained TO. The Pats defense loses Washington gains Wolfolk and gets Colsvelt (sp) back. For the plays TO is in he will likely be matched up against Law. The Eagles line has a rookie starting a tackle, so expect Bilichek to take advantage there.

If anyone has some other game injury updates or important info please lay it on me. I'm locked and loaded on the Pats, but still working the other 2 games.

Also looking at KC (+2.5) over g-men
And Jet (+2.5) over saints

Be back later with my final plays!
GL
Irish

 

[Irish]

Adding

Adding

KC (+2.5) over NYG

The first team O shouldn't have trouble with the giants defense. KC has revamped their defense and Gunther should have something special for Kurt. IMO Kurt had a few great years but I think his best football is behind him. He will play till almost halftime which will hurt the g-men. I'm sure Eli will come in to lead a charge but Larry Johnson will grind the clock down for KC.

Jets (ML) over NO

Herm Edwards is a great motivator and should have his boys ready. Pennington will have success throwing against NO without T.Jones and C. Grant. McAllester has a hurt knee and Brooks is out tonight. Not sure if Bowman will be sharp enough during his time. I think the Jets take it with Bollinger at QB in the close. I like L. Jordan getting a lot of reps late in the game.

GL
Irish

 

[Tau Ceti]

don't take this the wrong way...but i think you are capping this game as a reg. season game.

good luck to you, but i am on philly

 

[Irish]

Thanks for the disclaimer but Don't worry, I didn't take it the wrong way. Great thing about MJ's is many people have good insight and capping ability. Not everyone does it the same, but it's a good informational source to use before making plays. After all, we are all here to win. I sure hope no one is posting with the intentions of losing.

My thoughts on pre-season
To the players that come in to replace the starters this is more than a reg.season game, this is a a playoff game IMO, if they don't play well, then they go home. I know the starters have nothing to play for here, but a football has to have that competitive fire, they all want to win even if it means nothing. I try to look at all those little intangibles, but that's just my brand of whiskey.

GL on your play

Irish

 

[Blackman]

Just to add on the Philly injury notes: the loss of Koy Detmer is actually big because he is the only holder that David Akers feels comfortable with. He's said many times that he gives a ton of credit for his success kicking to Koy. Eagles might be scrambling and trying out people to hold tonight, so it could be a factor.

 

[AR182]

irish,


great write-ups !!

ne/phil gamt to tough for me to cap but am leaning to the jets also.

good luck this season.

 

[ajoytoy]

gl on the plays Irish

 

[Irish]

I'm sorry

I'm sorry

Never in a million years would I have expect the type of defense KC came to NY with. I think they had close to 20 calls against them! Holding almost every play. Just rotten overall play on the defenive side of the ball. Gunther should be beaten with his own clipboard! I was hoping fora 2 min miracle when(as ever other person in the world knew) the giants called a straight 34 belly ru and break it for a 30 yard score! I would make the team run behind the bus all the way to KC. At least NE played up to expectations. But the Jets really hurt me!