At least I had one prediction on FatMixx that turned out right. The scoring on the crazy McNabb/Brown/Buckhalter TD was corrected to reflect a tipped ball and completion to Buckhalter. Here’s the full impact of the scoring change:

OFF Phi +35.0 Passing Yards for Donovan McNabb
OFF Phi +1.0 Passing Touchdowns for Donovan McNabb
OFF Phi +1.0 Receptions for Correll Buckhalter
OFF Phi +55.0 Receiving Yards for Correll Buckhalter
OFF Phi +1.0 Receiving Touchdowns for Correll Buckhalter
OFF Phi -1.0 Receptions for Reggie Brown
OFF Phi -20.0 Receiving Yards for Reggie Brown
OFF Phi -1.0 Fumbles for Reggie Brown
RET Phi -1.0 Fumbles Recovered (Own Team) for Correll Buckhalter
RET Phi -37.0 Fumble Recovery Yds (Own Team) for Correll Buckhalter
RET Phi -1.0 Misc Fumbles Recovered for Correll Buckhalter
RET Phi -37.0 Misc Fumble Recovery Yards for Correll Buckhalter
RET Phi -1.0 Fumble Return TDs for Correll Buckhalter

Told ya so.

NFL.com has the updated GameBook if you’re interested.

That amazing Eagles TD by Correll Buckhalter is right now scored as a fumble recovery for a TD in the official GameBook. I think that this is going to get changed during the week as the NFL has a chance to review the film. I would’ve scored it as a tipped ball and a completion to Buckhalter. I was watching the game live and I’ve watched the play on several different highlight packages and every time I don’t think that Reggie Brown ever had possession of the ball. He was juggling it, tipped it into the air, where Buckhalter grabbed it and took off.

My bet is a scoring correction and 6 more points for McNabb on my fantasy team.

Update: As luck would have it, my game this week is tied. This could be a big scoring change…

It’s so weird seeing Al Michaels on NBC. Oh, and it’s weird seeing NFL football on NBC.

If it wasn’t clear, I didn’t watch any football this weekend, so you won’t have to bear with me complaining about the Eagles.

Man, what a sad, sad way to end a football game: McNabb injured, defense impotent on the deep ball, and a late lead change when it seemed all was going Philly’s way. Damn, that sucked. I’m not quite ready to throw in the towel on the season, but the way things are going, I think it’s pretty unlikely that Philly will make the playoffs. Heck, they might not even get out of the cellar in the East, which is shocking to say the least.

The most interesting thing about this situation is that one of my coworkers, a fantasy football guru, mentioned to me in August, right before the season started, that the loser of the Super Bowl hasn’t made the playoffs the following season for the past 5 or so seasons. That’s a bit depressing…

The story line tomorrow will likely be about Terrell Owens and the fact that he was missing from the game. Perhaps someone will dig him up in Atlanta and get him to critique McNabb’s performance on camera. Unfortunately, Owens will have a point even though that point will further reinforce the fact that the team is better off without TO.

See, the biggest problems with the Eagles of old was the lack of good receivers. Pinkston and Mitchell were pretty much the worst 1 and 2 receivers in the league. Getting TO was the answer to that problem. Unfortunately, getting TO allowed the fans and the team to ignore the other glaring problems that plague the Eagles. There are several important ones, but by far the most important is to figure out what happens to the Eagles under 2 minutes. Half of the problem seems to be poor clock management which start at the head coach and goes down. It’s the stupid punt coverage at the end of this game where the players waited for the ball to roll that one extra yard instead of pouncing on it quickly to stop the clock. It’s the complete lack of urgency in the Super Bowl or in several other games this year. The other half is McNabb. It’s McNabb’s consistent brain freezes on critical throws late in games that have directly lead to the most painful postseason and regular season losses.

For this is the painful truth: Donovan McNabb has a problem leading comebacks. He must sort those out if he wants to win the big game. The fans need to acknowledge this and, more importantly, the team must acknowledge this. All the other problems fall second to this. Don’t get me wrong. I love watching McNabb, I love rooting for the guy, and think he truly is one of the great quarterbacks in the game. When he’s settled, even the greatest pass rush won’t prevent him from simply destroying the other team. But he’s not the same in critical game situations. It needs to get fixed or else his legacy will be the guy that couldn’t hack it under pressure.

This may seem pretty harsh, but I think it needs to be said. The other problems facing the team are simply cyclical… Yeah, the defense isn’t that strong. The line is thin, the corners exposed too often, and the running game needs help. Perhaps we need that other playmaker on offense. These can all be fixed year over year. McNabb, though, is a franchise guy. He’s nearly the perfect QB for this team. He just needs to work this out. And the only way the team will is if the team acknowledges it and we talk about it. Because ignoring it will bring us yet another late game interception.

The Eagles game today and my roller coaster fantasy day has left me with little energy to comment on the weekend. So, here are some very brief comments:

First, Brian Dawkins and Donovan McNabb are what make the Eagles go. The sideline reporter during the game reported that Dawkins told the defense “They won’t score on us again” (or something like that). And sure enough, except for a meaningless TD late, the Chiefs didn’t score again. McNabb went out there nursing a number of injuries and simply threw another 300+ yard game. Talk softly and make big plays.

Second thought: Jerry Porter will be my biggest draft day mistake by the end of the season. The preseason hype and the logic behind it is solid, but watching the Raiders game today, I saw one big thing that worries me. Kerry Collins doesn’t scan the field very effectively. He only sees one side of the field it seems and that side is usually the side with Moss. Since Porter generally lines up on the other side of the field, Porter will only get good looks when Moss is on the sideline. With Donte Stallworth taking the #1 slot for New Orleans this week, I should’ve started him instead. I’ll need to figure something out for the rest of the season…. benching Porter will be expensive.

Third thought: Screw you, Neil Rackers.

This was a fun NFL weekend. Looking forward to my showdown tomorrow with Paul. I just need Kasay to hit like, say, 6 field goals for the win… yeah, I’m not holding my breath.

I don’t want to take anything away from the fine game played by the Falcons defense yesterday. I think they’re responsible for at least one of the missed field goals and pretty much kept McNabb from getting enough time to get a deep throw off. But, come on…. folks are acting like DeAngelo Hall played this unbelievable game against Terrell Owens. I didn’t realize 112 yards, including a 23 yard completion was getting shut out.

I want to sympathize with Terrell Owens and his contract dispute. He’s a great athlete and the labor situation in the NFL is actually pretty unfair. Teams can cut athletes more or less whenever they want yet for some reason, athletes have no way of renegotiating their contract up if they outperform their contract. So, holding out or asking for a new contract doesn’t automatically make the athlete a bad guy.

I watched 3 separate interviews and watched T.O. today with his agent get ready for the live interview during halftime of tonight’s football game (one of the perks of working at ESPN is that we get to see and listen to remote production prep and what happens during commercials on the in-house closed circuit cable system). Each time I watched him, he reminded me of an 8 year old. For all of his skill, he’s got an underdeveloped sense of consequences. I think he truly, honestly doesn’t get that there are consequences to his behavior. He simply justifies EVERYTHING he does in the moment. No context is applied. Kind of like a kid who doesn’t understand why the teacher always picks on him.

I wonder if there’s a point at which pro athletes are just too coddled and pampered for their own good. TO just seems to lack any idea that, you know, calling out teammates doesn’t really endear you to the team. Or that a coach can tell a player to shut up. Or that burning bridges might not make it easier to negotiate a deal with the folks on the other side of that bridge. At the end, I’m just pretty much thinking that he has no idea why anyone would not like him or would not want him on their team. He just doesn’t get it.

And that’s just sad.