Couple Additional Thoughts

Bounty's got us covered on the hangover today, but I wanted to add a couple of quick notes as well:

That game last night was uber frustrating.  In the end, it went as more of a bullpen blowout than a bad breaks loss, which is somehow both more and less annoying, but for a lot of that game everything was coming down to some wet grass, the ball dropping in that hole right there, the seeing-eye grounder bounding between those two fielders over there, etc.  I realize that's the dang ol' Jeterianess of that franchise at work, but those are always frustrating games to be on the wrong end of. 

Tough night from Lidge, but really you have to put this series on Hamels.  When you're looking at the pitching matchups, that's the guy who had to come through.  Two wins from Lee, two wins from Hamels, and the Phils could have won this thing (not that there's not still a chance).  Even two, one and a cobbled together Pedro/Bullpen affair could have worked by the end.  Oh well, he was great last year.

/phillies

Does 5-2 feel like unfamiliar territory?  It should:

Pretty amazing how often we've been 4-3 under Reid.

There were some interesting young receivers running around in that game.  Sam sent me an email yesterday saying: "Nicks shows why I wanted him, and Maclin shows why I think he can develop into a strong traffic player."  Very true. 

Every week we get a better sense of how different Maclin and Jackson are as receivers.  DeSean is a physical freak who doesn't have to catch that many passes in traffic because that traffic is often five yards behind him.  That isn't to say he doesn't have good hands.  He does, and if you're looking for a guy to make a diving catch on a deep ball, I think he's your man.  But he's a smaller guy in a couple dimensions, which means it's a bit harder for him to make those in-traffic grabs, just because he gets bumped around so much. 

Maclin, on the other hand, may not have the pure explosiveness, but he's got amazing body control, which allows him to get his hands into place to catch balls that are contested. 

They're quite a pair.  It's going to be fun to watch them develop together.

So I guess he can adjust.  Score one for McDermott's ability to make changes in-game.  I'm a little surprised that wasn't the plan from the outset, though.  I just don't put Eli Manning and a guy like Tony Romo in the same category in terms of beating you when they're hot.  If you give Romo all day in the pocket, he'll just keep dropping back and killing you.  Eli's much better when the running game is rolling and he can keep hitting things off of play action.

Speaking of Eli ...  From his biggest fan:

This will go down as Manning's first regular-season loss at the Linc in five tries. He has come in here and had huge games in the past, but this wasn't one of them.

Not my recollection, actually, so let's go to the tape:

 
His first appearance at the Linc was mop-up duty for Warner.  The next was a scintillating overtime thriller in which he threw three interceptions but managed to outduel the immortal Mike McMahon.  In 2006 he did have a heck of a game, in which despite getting sacked eight times he threw for 371 yards, had three touchdowns and amassed a sterling QB rating of 111.7.  Since then, he's basically been Eli Manning, with numbers that are about what he's managed overall in his career.

I'm happy to give him one huge game.  I'm not seeing any others.  And that one came way back in 2006.

Still not as good as Drew Brees though, I guess.