NHL hockey and Flyers hockey is back as they opened their 2018-2019 season off in Vegas and Colorado where they split games.

Introduction

This post will focus on the first two games of the Philadelphia Flyers 2018-2019 season. I will give the positives and negatives from the first and second games of the season where the Flyers split 1-1. Then I will give my thoughts on what is to come when the Flyers return home for their home opener on Tuesday, October 9th.

Striking Gold in Vegas

The Philadelphia Flyers seem like they always get stuck opening the season on the road in the West. The Flyers last Thursday night were going into T-Mobile Arena in Sin City to open their season against the Golden Knights who came off their miracle run to the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season. So, the Flyers were going into a place that would be rocking and will have a lot of energy to start the season. The Flyers did well being able to contain the pressure and weather the first five minutes of the game, until Andrew McDonald got lost on the ice and let a speedy John Marchessault take the puck into our zone on a busted line change and snap a quick wrist shot into the top right corner past Brian Elliot. After the goal the Flyers settled into the game and controlled the rest of the game by scoring two goals in the first period with Oskar Lindblom opening the scoring for the Flyers and a healthy Wayne Simmonds cashing in on a rebound at the net. The Flyers then tallied on three goals in the second period with goals from Wayne Simmonds, Robert Hagg, and Scott Laughton.  The Flyers didn’t score in the third and rounded out their season opener with a 5-2 win against the Stanley Cup runner ups.

Not Flying High in Mile High

The Flyers on Saturday were looking to go 2-0 in their first two games of a season since 2011-2012 season. The Flyers didn’t have a great start to the game and were caught chasing early when Colin Wilson scored 1:35 in. Sean Couturier answered back with his first of the season about 6 minutes later. The Avs were able to score again in the first and take the lead at the first intermission. Two minutes in the second the Flyers Rookie Mikhail Vorobyev got a gift for his first NHL goal after a member of the Avs defense ran into Varlamov and the puck sat right in front of an empty net. After this point the Flyers offense went quiet where they were not able to respond to the pressure of the Avs and ended up losing the game 2-5.

Positives

Brain Elliot looked very good in goal for the Flyers so far this season. He made a lot of big timely saves during both games to keep the Flyers in those games and gave them a chance to win. The Flyers have had an everlasting issue with consistency with goal tending, but if Elliot can play like he has and gets some support from our defense he should be in for a great year. Another positive was the Flyers penalty kill looked strong in the opening two games which is an area the Flyers must improve this year if they want to win games. The PK this season is 6 for 7 which leaves them at an 86% penalty kill ratio heading into their home opener. A healthy Wayne Simmonds is back, and the Wayne Train was rolling in Vegas where he picked up his first and second goals of the season. Another surprise was Mikhail Vorobyev, the rookie made the Flyers this season after having a very productive preseason in terms of scoring and showing his strength and hockey IQ. He was able to pick up his first point of the season with an assist in Vegas and his 1st career goal in Colorado.

Negatives

After the Flyers first two games of the season the glaring negatives on this team are the defensive side, Andrew McDonald looks lost as always and Gudas picked up right where he left off on trying to throw games like he did in last season’s playoffs against the Penguins. In Vegas the Flyers were able to survive all the miscues with these two because of great goal tending and an offensive burst, but in Colorado the defense was the ultimate downfall in Saturday night’s loss to the Avalanche. Radko Gudas turned the puck over too many times in Vegas and Hakstol didn’t like it so he brought up Christian Folin from Lehigh Valley for his first NHL start. Folin had a poor preseason and it showed on Saturday night. Folin turned the puck over numerous times in our own defensive zone and one of those turnovers lead to an Avalanche goal which kills any momentum the Flyers were trying to build. The Flyers over the off-season brought back long time Flyer James Van Riemsdyk who just had a career season in Toronto by scoring goals. His ability to score goals would help the Flyers who lacked scoring depth while even strength last season and seemed like the only production was from the top 2 lines. Well the hope of having him for scoring depth has gone away for 5-6 weeks after JVR was hit in the side of the right knee with a clearing attempt on Saturday night.

Flyers Hockey is Back on Broad Street

The Philadelphia Flyers are coming home to the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night to host the San Jose Sharks who might have the best defenseman pairing in the league with Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson. This the Flyers home opener so Wells Fargo is going to be cranked up on Tuesday night by anxious Flyers fans who have waited to see their team play again at home. The Flyers last season had a fairly even record at home and away, so the Flyers will look to make sure they take advantage of the fans and the noise this season to be able to produce more wins at home.

Conclusion

So far through the first two games of the season the Flyers looked decent even though they are 1-1, and they lost 5-2 on Saturday night which the score really doesn’t indicate how close the game really was. If the Flyers can dominate like they did against Vegas and play with an edge they should be good this season. The Flyers need to stay out of the penalty box and play disciplined hockey, fix the blue line miscues and turnovers, and get production from all four of their lines the Flyers should be looking at a decent run in the playoffs this year. My prediction for the Flyers this season will be making it to the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2nd place in the Metro and being able to win at least one round. Anything under that I think it will be a disappointment especially when our team last season was able to make the playoffs.

Sources

https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/phi-vs-vgk/2018/10/04/2018020014#game=2018020014,game_state=live,game_tab=stats,lock_state=live

https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/phi-vs-col/2018/10/06/2018020026#game=2018020026,game_state=live,game_tab=stats,lock_state=live

https://www.broadstreethockey.com/2018/10/8/17951228/james-van-riemsdyk-injury-flyers-nhl-philadelphia-knee-lower-body-replacement-analysis

https://www.nhl.com/flyers/standings/2017/wildcard

 

The Philadelphia Eagles throw a game in awful fashion during OT vs. the Tennessee Titans in Nashville.

Introduction

In this post I will be focusing on the three key reasons why the Eagles threw away a win in overtime against the Titans this weekend. The Eagles had some bright spots in the offense with Alshon Jeffery coming back after his injury, Carson Wentz, and Zach Ertz. The glaring issues from the first three weeks with our secondary defense, shaky offensive line, and killer penalties have not been resolved still. These problems keep showing that the Eagles might be still in the Super Bowl hangover state, because they do not look like the team that just won a Super Bowl even though most of the roster has stayed intact. Eagles were up 17-3 at one point then lose 23-26 in OT.

1. The secondary week after week is being exposed.

Another week the same old story of the Eagles secondary just being picked apart from the opposing teams QB. Seems like a regular occurrence, but Jalen Mills is still a really bad corner back. So there have been two consistencies this season so far for Jalen Mills and that is, one being beat by every single double move a wide receiver puts on him, and/or second he is committing a pass interference call that results in giving the opponent great field position or big chunks of yards because it was a 20+ yard penalty down field. So until the Eagles move Jalen Mills to a safety position from corner back and let Sidney Jones play on the outside in a corner role nothing is going to change. Next is the OT drive that the Eagles lost the game on. The Titans were able to convert on three 4th downs on their game winning drives. The first 4th down was surely the downfall of the game and looked like it pretty much sealed the Eagles fate in this game because it was a 4th and 15. The only thing our secondary needed to do was play contain defense make Marriota throw the ball short of the 1st down marker and tackle the wide receiver and the game would have been over, but of course it’s Philadelphia sports we liked to just throw games away like it’s nothing. The secondary just stood still and didn’t even react to a wide open receiver for the Titans who caught the ball and easily went out-of-bounds for the 1st down. The following 4th and 4 was just handed to the Titans because the secondary was flagged for a pass interference. Then finally a 4th and 2 was easily converted for a big gain from a screen pass to the Titans running back giving the Titans all of the momentum and setting up the game winning TD pass in the dying seconds of overtime.

2. Offensive line was non-existent along with questionable play calling from a usually aggressive Doug Pederson.

So, this was the 2nd game back for Carson Wentz after his ACL recovery and he looked sharp. Alshon Jeffery finally came back from his rotator cuff injury and some virus he had leading up to the game this past Sunday which kept him out of practice, but it didn’t even matter he became and instant impact in the offense and had great chemistry with Carson. Alshon made some fantastic catches throughout the game and had one TD along with his first game with 100+ yards receiving for the Eagles (Next Gen Stats, 2018). Zach Ertz also had a great game with 100+ yards receiving (Next Gen Stats, 2018). Unfortunately that’s pretty much all of the good from the offense this past Sunday because the offensive line was awful. The offensive line let so many free rushers come in and hit Carson Wentz and really not give him any help of holding onto the ball in the pocket. Having Carson hit that many times is not really ideal when our franchise QB comes back from a season ending injury. Doug Pederson is an aggressive play maker and decision maker, but it looked like that was flat-out missing on Sunday. The calls just seemed so safe and reserved instead of going for chances to put away a game that was being handed to us by the Titans blown opportunities and mistakes themselves. Right before halftime Marriota threw a really bad interception and gave the Eagles prime field position to get points on the board before half with all their timeouts left. The Eagles played so passively that they just ran the clock down and used a timeout to kick a field goal instead of taking chances to move the ball and get a fresh set of downs and taking shots at the end zone. The next passive moment that hurt them was kinda the same scenario right before half was in the dying moments of the 4th quarter where DeAndre Carter had a very good punt return to put us in the Titans half of the field with 2 timeouts and plenty of time to score a TD. Once again the Eagles just wasted two downs for shots into the end zone instead of utilizing timeouts and moving the chains and getting closer to try for a TD into the end zone. They settled on a field goal to bring it to OT and déjà vu the drive in OT ended the same way as the other two questionable drives did.

3. Let the yellow flags fly again!

The Eagles are now the 2nd highest penalized team in the NFL through the 2018 season. This past Sunday the Eagles had 8 penalties for 77 yards (Team Rankings, 2018). The Titans gained three first downs off of penalties yesterday and all were due to pass interference’s and holdings in the secondary (NFL.com, 2018). The first one was a killer with Jalen Mills getting a pass interference on a 3rd down incomplete pass that put the Titans in our red zone and allowed them to convert on a touchdown after that penalty. The next one was also a killer with the 4th and 4 pass interference in OT that kept the Titans alive to go down the field and win the game.

Sources

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/penalties-per-game
https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/penalty-yards-per-game
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2018093007/2018/REG4/eagles@titans#menu=gameinfo%7CcontentId%3A0ap3000000967783&tab=analyze
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2018093007/2018/REG4/eagles@titans#menu=gameinfo%7CcontentId%3A0ap3000000967783&tab=ngs

 

Carson Wentz is back and gets a win vs the Colts, penalties are still a major issue, and the Flyers unveil their new mascot Gritty.

Introduction

I will be recapping the Eagles vs Colts game this past Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, analyzing Carson Wentz’s return to the playing field, the penalty trouble the Eagles keep getting themselves into, and at the end I’m going to talk about the Philadelphia Flyer’s new mascot Gritty who has become an internet meme immediately.

Eagles vs Colts

The Eagles and Colts battled it out at the Linc on Sunday around 1:00PM est. The Eagles were looking for Carson to come back and have a good game and the defense was looking for some redemption from their lackluster game down in Tampa last weekend where they gave up a whopping 400+ yards passing. The Eagles had 2 touchdowns and 2 field goals on the day and the Colts had 1 touchdown and 3 field goals the Eagles ended up having a pretty balanced game between running the ball and passing even though they were missing Jay Ajayi and Darren Sproles. The Eagles had 26 total first downs compared to the Colts 14. One of the big things that influenced the game was the Eagles third down efficiency compared to the Colts. The Eagles had a 42% and the Colts had a measly 16%. The Eagles had the ball for most of the game with possession time of 40:20 which was a little more than doubled the time of the Colts who had 19:40. The biggest drive of the game was the Eagles 11 min touchdown drive in the 4th Quarter that put them ahead 20-16, which ended up as the final result after the Eagles defense came up and provided two stops. Eagles moved to 2-1 and are heading down to Tennessee next weekend for a game vs the Titans, and for the Colts and former Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich they move to 1-2 and have a game vs the struggling Houston Texans.

The return of Carson Wentz

The moment Philadelphia Eagles fans have waited for 9 months, that itch we have had just wanting to see our franchise QB play again after his season ending ACL injury last December in LA. The king of the NFC East returned in fashion and opened his first drive of the game with a touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert. Carson’s first drive stat line was 5/7 completions, 55 yards, and the touchdown. After that it wasn’t all too smooth sailing as the Colts started to counter Wentz who favored his tight ends as his first 7 completions were all to his tight ends. The biggest thing most people were looking for in Wentz is to see if his mobility and elusiveness in the pocket was going to be affected after the ACL injury and having the brace on his leg. For the most part Wentz looked like the same old same old from last season using his feet and awareness to get out of tough situations in the pocket and turn zero into nothing. There was a couple of times where Wentz tried to do too much though with the ball and was sacked for holding on to the ball to long. Wentz was sacked 5 times which was definitely not ideal for someone coming back from such a bad injury and having to play on  a wet and muddy field didn’t help calm the nerves of Philly fans. Carson did show some rust though which is understandable when you don’t play any game action for over 9 months, he had some throws that were not too accurate, he threw a pretty bad interception which came in a crucial spot during the game giving the Colts excellent field position to try to capitalize on the mistake with a touchdown  and swing the momentum of the game. Carson also had a fumble giving the Colts again great field position. Carson Wentz is back though and Philly fans can rejoice because once he gets that rust off of him the NFL will be put on notice. Carson’s returning stat line was 25-37, 255 yards, 1 touchdown.

Laundry was flying everywhere 

The Eagles once again had themselves in penalty trouble this past weekend with 10 penalties for 110 yards and most of the issues came from the defensive side of the ball. The Eagles defense bounced back this weekend with a good game especially the secondary… Well for the most part, but once again Jalen Mills hurt the Eagles a lot with pass interference calls on two under thrown passes from Andrew Luck. These PI calls were also poorly timed as well because the first one gave the Colts the ability to put a touchdown drive together in the first half to tie the Eagles at 7-7 when all the momentum was on the Eagles side. The following one was near the end of the game where the Colts were trying to march down the field in the 4th and put a game winning drive together by Andrew Luck. Luckily the Birds defense showed up and shutdown the Colts in the red zone. The Eagles held the Colts to a 1-5 red zone success rate on Sunday. The penalties though were a key reason why this game was even close because it was giving the Colts the ability to keep drives alive and giving them good field position through the day. The Colts though had penalty problems as well which in the end gave the Eagles ability to win the game, by keeping their 11 minute drive alive and it being capped off with a running touchdown by Smallwood. The most crucial play of that drive was a defensive holding call on a 4th and 5 by the Eagles which was incomplete but it gave the Eagles an automatic first down and lead the game into a 20-16 scoreline. Colts ended the game with 11 penalties for 77 yards.

Hello, Flyers marketing team are you okay?

So, on Monday morning the Flyers announced their new mascot Gritty. Gritty looks like the long-lost orange cousin of Oscar the Grouch. So this move was supposed to cater towards kids, but this mascot just looks creepy and will haunt children. Talk about clowns as a fear, looks like the Philadelphia Flyers decided to give the clown a run for their money in a creepy and uncomfortable looking figure. Gritty with his odd  looks and characteristics made him an internet meme instantly. Personally I don’t think the Flyers need a mascot and this definitely doesn’t match with “Flyers.” So, looks like we are going to have more comedy relief and nightmares of Gritty for days to come. Welcome to Philly Gritty.

Sources

https://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2018092308/2018/REG3/colts@eagles

 

Introduction

This post will be summarizing the Eagles vs. Buccaneers game that happened on September 16th at 1 PM est in Tampa, Florida, it will also give my own analysis of the game and what went wrong for the Eagles, and then give some of my own thoughts on whats next for the Eagles.

Summary

The Eagles and Bucs met this past Sunday in Tampa, Florida. The game started at 1 PM est where the temperature topped off at 102 degrees. So needless to say the heat was a big factor in how the game unfolded. The Bucs got the ball first and 11 seconds into the game took a 7-0 lead from a 75 yard TD pass to DeSean Jackson by Ryan Fitzpatrick who carved the Eagles very strong defense all day. The Eagles did not have a great start to the game where the injuries started to pile on which plagued the team through all of the first half. They ended up losing Jay Ajayi because of a back injury after the very first play on offense. Next was Jason Peters who seemed to be having problems with his leg and did not return to the game. Yes and only a couple plays later it looks like the Eagles lost yet another WR in Mike Wallace for the rest of the season due to a broken fibula. The Eagles are now very thin at WR and still have a while for Alshon Jeffery and Mack Hollins to return from the injuries. The Eagles offense was slow all day until the fourth quarter where they trailed at one point 27-7. Ryan Fitzpatrick was the better QB on the day with 402 yards and 4 TDs passing. He had two 75 yard TD passes on the day and continued to use DeSean Jackson to torch our secondary. The Eagles ended up putting in a good fight in the fourth quarter but it happened too late and ended the game as a 27-21 score line for the Bucs. Bucs go 2-0 for the season as the Super Bowl Champs are 1-1 going into week 3.

Analysis- What went wrong?

Eagles are regarded to having a premier defense in the NFL and looked to come into the game this week slowing down Ryan Fitzpatrick who absolutely demolished the Saints defense a week prior. The Eagles defense though had a lousy day in the secondary where they let up two 75 TD passes due to poor coverage and just downright awful tackling and effort from DBs. Jalen Mills might be the most overrated corner back on the Eagles team. He continuously played soft throughout the day and gave up ample first downs and big gains to DeSean Jackson and Mike Evans. The Eagles front line though was great throughout the day shutting down the run game for the Bucs, but you would of hoped the secondary would’ve been able to match the effort of the defensive line in the pass game. The Eagles first offensive drive was a complete disaster losing 3 players in one drive, but luckily got Jay Ajayi back after halftime. On top of all the injuries they committed some stupid penalties and ended up putting themselves into a 3rd and 41… Yes you read that right a 3rd and 41. That ended up being the longest third down the Eagles have had to play since 1998. The Eagles had trouble once again of putting any points on the board in the first quarter. That seem to be the theme though throughout the day until the fourth quarter hit. Jake Elliot is so inconsistent it’s not even funny. The kid can hit a 61 yard field goal to win a game with all the pressure on his back but can’t make a 42 yard field goal before halftime that would’ve made the game 20-10 instead of it being 20-7. The Eagles were aggressive once again on their 4th down attempts where it ended up hurting them in the third quarter where they couldn’t convert on a 4th and 4, but the spot the refs gave was very suspect, but anyway it gave Tampa who had been hot all day on offense with their pass game with great field position where they converted into a touchdown that put the game at 27-7 and making it look pretty much over. Next thing that was pretty bad was the refs not making a call and one bad call that ended up ending the game before the two-minute warning. The first call that did not even happen was a crucial 4th and 10 with the Eagles in the Bucs side of the field where they were trying to kick start their comeback and making the game 27-21 with 8-9 minutes left in the 4th quarter. Nick Foles ended up scrambling around in the pocket and throwing the ball to Corey Clement who was running down the left sideline and stretched out to make a catch and the Bucs DB comes out of no where and goes head first into Clement and hits him in the stomach which brings up the case why was there no penalty on the play? The whole point of emphasis this year in the NFL was to protect defenseless players from players leading with their helmet. It ended up sidelining Clement with an injury. The play could’ve been a lot worse if Clement was lower to the ground where a helmet to helmet situation could’ve ensued so where is the consistency. Next penalty was called on Jalen Mills with 2:20 left in the 4th quarter on a 3rd and 5. Jalen Mills was burnt all day and got robbed on this one. The pass was completed by Mike Evans but Jalen Mills got called for a holding call while Mike Evans grabbed Mills face mask and tugged down on it to throw him off balance. So the penalty was called on the wrong person where it should’ve been illegal hands to the face and made the play a 3rd and 10 and given an Eagles another shot of making a stop and getting the ball back to make a late game winning drive push. So the Eagles lost their first game of the season down in a very hot Tampa which could’ve factored in some of the injuries they had to deal with, but they ended up making a valiant effort into make a comeback after they just looked lost all day on both the offensive side of the ball and defensive side of the ball in the secondary.

What’s next?

So the Eagles are coming back to Philadelphia where they are getting ready to host the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles have received great news that Carson Wentz is finally cleared for contact after his recovering from a ACL and MCL tear last December when they were in LA and will be starting on Sunday vs. the Colts. Carson though is going to need some help from offensive weapons so he doesn’t feel he needs to do everything himself and risk of exposing himself and getting injured again. The Eagles are almost out of WRs and should be looking on the hunt for either free agents or possibly through the trade market. The Eagles missed out on the troubled Josh Gordon on Monday when he was traded to the New England Patriots from the Cleveland Browns. The Eagles I think should look into maybe trading for Amari Cooper from the Oakland Raiders or maybe signing Jeremy Maclin from free agency to help give Wentz and option for a deep threat to open defenses up with the mix of the run game. All in all the Eagles just need to hit the reset button and not panic look for weapons to help Carson until Alshon and Mack get back. It’s better off the have a loss earlier in the season where they can work from it and learn and finish the season stronger and stronger. Just like last season the Philadelphia Eagles lost their week 2 game to the Chiefs and ended up going 13-3 the rest of the way and going to the Super Bowl and winning the first one ever in franchise history. #FlyEaglesFly

About me

Hello I’m Austin Zeitter. I’m a 21 year old undergraduate Senior at Saint Joseph’s University and I’m double majoring in International Business and Sports Marketing. I love to travel and love all things Philadelphia sports. My favorite sport to watch is NHL ice hockey and favorite team is the Philadelphia Flyers. I hope to work in the realm of sports after college and my dream job is to be a higher up board member in FIFA or the Olympic Committee. I am also involved in the Esports industry and looking into how the traditional sports market and Esports market can close the gap to bring them together and bringing in bigger audiences in both industries as in bringing new people from traditional sports to Esports and vice versa.

My Blog

The point of this blog is to write and entertain readers who enjoy sports as much as I do and like to read analysis and thoughts on what happened on key moments or games from a fan standpoint. I will be providing my insight on key moments in the Philadelphia sports world each week. It might be moments in where I felt that stood out in defining a win or a loss or just plays that might help define that team for the year. I will also be highlighting some key players on Philadelphia teams and their comebacks from injury like Carson Wentz for the Philadelphia Eagles and Wayne Simmonds for the Philadelphia Flyers. Also I would like to give my opinions on trades and roster moves/acquisitions and how I personally feel on how they will make the teams better or worse. Another topic I may post about is how the relationship between the Philadelphia 76ers and Dignitas affect each other and how it helps both businesses grow in their respective fields.

Quality over quantity — Anonymous