The Eagles extended an unusual decades-long streak on Sunday: They didn’t lose the New Jersey Jets. Since the former AFL franchise began play in 1960, the Jets’ have never beaten the Eagles, in the regular season or the playoffs. It’s the longest such streak (11-0) of a short list of teams who have never won a game against another franchise (The Texans have also never beaten the Eagles, in five tries).
In honor of the achievement, let’s take a quick look back at the first contest between the two teams — a 24-23 win in Philadelphia on Dec. 9, 1973 — to get a sense of how much time has passed:
** Eagles WR Harold Carmichael was the star of that contest, catching five passes for 146 yds and a TD.
** The game happened so long ago that the Jets franchise was actually located in New York at the time, playing in Shea Stadium before moving to their current home in the Garden State.
** Almost three years to the day after the game was played, Donovan McNabb was born. He would add two more Eagles wins to the list in the early 2000s.
** At the time of this game, the Jets were still considered a good franchise. They won a Super Bowl just five years prior. The current New Jersey team has had only one winning season in the last eight years.
** The Jets won’t get another shot at the Eagles until 2023, unless the two teams meet in the Super Bowl before then. See the prior item for the likelihood of that.
WR: Will Fuller V, 39.47 pts — started by Mike
RB: Aaron Jones, 43.30 pts — started by Sam
TE: Darren Fells, 14.33 pts — on the wire
K: Justin Tucker, 16.00 pts — started by me
DEF: Philadelphia, 38.00 pts — on the wire
D: Orlando Scandrick, 17.50 pts — on the wire
And you call yourselves Eagles fans. Two Philly names on the top performers list and neither one of them started by anyone in the league. You all should be ashamed.
How crazy was this week for fantasy? Our top performers leave out WRs Michael Thomas (182 yds, 2 TDs), DJ Chark (164 yds, 2 TDs) and Amari Cooper (226 yds, 1 TD) along with RB Christian McCafferty (237 total yds, 3 TDs) and QB Dak Prescott (463 yds, 2 TDs and 3 INTs). Jones had four TDs in the game against the Cowboys, Fuller had 3 and 217 yds receiving, and Watson had 5 TDs, 426 yds passing and 47 more rushing to top the 50-point mark.
If you had the perfect lineup this week (the above 7, plus McCafferty, Thomas, Chark, RB Josh Jacobs, and LB Brian Burns) you would have scored an insane 332 pts. As is was, those points were pretty evenly spread among all of our teams. Way to be supporting the concept of group sharing and communism, you lousy hippies.
“Players from the Eagles/Jets game” edition
3rd place: Josh McCown, -0.20 pts — on the wire
2nd place: Luke Falk, -1.20 pts — on the wire
1st place: Corey Clement, -2.00 pts — on the wire
Clement gave the Jets their only points of the afternoon when he fumbled a punt deep in Eagles territory. Remember when this guy was a Super Bowl hero? So far he is worth -2.04 fantasy pts this season. Ouch. And now he's probably the Eagles #3 running back, because Darren Sproles is dead again.
Falk, the third-string QB pressed into service this season for the New Jersey Aeroplanes, was 15 for 26 with 120 yds and 2 interceptions (one returned for a TD). That’s a passer rating of 37.3, slightly worse than your QB rating of 39.5 on Sunday (1 attempt, 0 yds). He also had a fumble returned for a TD and was sacked 10 times. Also, there are reports that the Eagles defense stole his lunch money.
It’s worth noting here that the Cowboys defense was worth -1.00 pts this week. So, that’s fun.
** After K Cairo Santos missed four FGs in a 14-7 loss to the Bills on Sunday, the Tennessee Titans cut him from the team. To replace him, the squad signed former Bears K Cody Parkey.Because nothing settles your kicking problems like bringing in another guy who missed four FGs in a game last year and is best known for hitting the uprights twice to lose a playoff contest.
** Phillies Manager Gabe Kapler still hasn’t been fired, which is pretty dumb.
** There is a ceramic Halloween display up the street from my house that has a bunch of jack-o-lanterns and the word “Scary!” written underneath. And it’s clearly not scary, and it hurts my brain every time I drive by.
For the second week in a row, the NFL boasts a rare treat for October this weekend: A match-up of two winless teams. Next Sunday it’s the 0-4 Dolphins hosting the 0-5 Maryland Racial Slurs in Miami, where the visitors are actually a 3.5-point favorite in the early betting. And even though one team will likely come out of this contest with a win (0-0 tie is in play), there’s a good chance it’s not the last time we’ll get to see a battle of the worst this season. Here’s a quick overview of the bottom of the NFL standings:
** Maryland Racial Slurs
0-5, 14.6 pts scored per game, 30.2 pts allowed per game.
The Slurs have faced a brutal early schedule featuring four 2018 playoff teams: Eagles, Cowboys, Patriots and Bears. But they have also fielded three mediocre QBs, inflamed a months-long standoff with their top offensive lineman, and just yesterday fired their head coach. So maybe the schedule alone isn’t to blame.
** Cincinnati Bengals
0-5, 16 pts scored per game, 27.2 pts allowed per game
On paper the Slurs are a worse team, but the Bengals just lost to the previously 0-3-1 Cardinals this week on a last-second FG, so they get ranked lower. Their four of their next five are against teams with winning records, with the Jaguars as the only sub-.500 contest. So 0-10 is in play.
** New Jersey Jets
0-4, 9.75 pts scored per game, 25.25 pts allowed per game
The good news for the Jets is that they get to play the Slurs, Bengals and Dolphins twice in a six-week span starting in November. The bad news is they play the Patriots, Cowboys and Jaguars before that, so they could enter the Dolphins game in week 9 at 0-7. The team fielded their fourth QB of the season against the Eagles on Sunday, but starter Sam Darnold is expected to return from mononucleosis treatments soon. Unless he doesn’t.
** Miami Dolphins
0-4, 6.5 pts scored per game, 40.75 pts allowed per game
Read that again. That’s a 34-point difference in games so far this year. It’s like the Dolphins managed to give up additional points in their bye week. If they continue at this pace — and they might — they could end up being outscored by more than 540 points this year. It’s truly spectacular ineptitude.
One of the more surprising rookie additions to the Dallas squad this year has been WR Ventell Bryant, not because of this production but because of his origin. Bryant is the all-time leading WR in receptions and yards at Temple University, the pride of the City of Brotherly Love. So how does a man who spent time playing football in Philadelphia end up as a Cowboy?
Fate, in this case.
Dallas Rookie Wideout Ventell Bryant
** Deadly traitor be a known, vile sell-out
Sometimes all the education in the world can’t make you a better person.
** A tie is a win — I managed to go 2-2 against Dad in the picks this week for my first non-losing match-up of the season. Thank you to the Niners and Seahawks for holding me up, even though I don’t really believe in either of your teams. Still seven down on Dad for the year. ** Please make the Washington Natinals go away already.
Week 5 standings 1 — McCown or Never (Capt. Awesome), 639.27 pts
2 — SweatpantsEnthusiast (Mike), 620.84 pts
3 — For Who? For Wentz? (Ant), 615.68 pts
4 — Peabody and Sherman (Dad), 597.78 pts
5 — Blue Collar Killers (Jeff), 590.49 pts
6 — Philly Special (Jo), 586.27 pts
7 — We Love the Mud (Mom D), 576.13 pts
8 — Kneel Armstrong (Sam), 571.01 pts
9 — Last Exit 2 Kutztown (Bob), 565.58 pts
10 — ToInfinityAndBeyond (Paul), 529.73 pts
11 — Ezekiel34 holdout (Joel), 484.60 pts
12 — I love the Cowboys (Joey McDeadaccount), 4.13 pts
Doyle corner has one less occupant, as Mike surged up the standings this week behind a 152-pts performance. He’s just one good Mike Evans performance away from taking over the top spot (Evans was held scoreless this week, FYI) and could have all-world fantasy performer Saquon Barkley back soon.
I’m still atop the standings but definitely looking back and Mike and Ant. Dad, who thinks he is getting closer to first place but still is not, remains in fourth with all the other teams that haven’t cracked 600 pts on the season yet. Toy Story Paul is pulling away from Joel for the second-to-last spot, but we’ll see if that can last.
Good old Joe McDeadaccount didn’t pick up any extra points this week, because his one active receiver was on a bye week. He is averaging less than a point a week so far this season, which puts him on pace to finish just ahead of the Dolphins.
Thursday night game this week is the Giants vs the Patriots, so expect 10,000 replays of the Super Bowls where Eli got MVP awards for no real reason. And Sunday marks our first 9:30 am game of the season, Panthers vs Bucs, because the NFL hates you and does not want you to be able to watch football when it’s convenient.
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