More so than new players and coaches, I think the Eagles are lacking in the philosophy department. The team is basically built to win games in the first quarter. Watch how they play, they come out immediately passing (nearly every game their first play is a play action). They blitz heavily with the thought to turn the ball over, and have a short field to score. Problem is this isn’t working, and primarily hasn’t since the 2004 magical season. The defense while solid, isn’t changing games. They have 9 forced turnovers this year, which is tied for last in the NFC with Arizona and Atlanta. The offense similarly isn’t changing games. The team’s style has been to pass first, take a few shots down field, and rack up the points early. When the team is rolling this has worked well. Unfortunately, Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown, aren’t getting open downfield. Ironic thing is the Eagles seem willing to change philosophies…they did down the stretch last year. They changed players on defense and changed the style of attack on offense, by running more and throwing more short routes to receivers and TEs in an effort to increase efficiency. This led to them rattling off a win streak that led to another division title. Unfortunately, the second Donovan McNabb comes back into the lineup, they return to the pass first, deep route style that hasn’t been working. There is a reason they seem to win more with Jeff Garcia and AJ Feeley under center when McNabb is out of the lineup. Reason is they change philosophy. The only time their style worked for long stretches of time, was when Mcnabb, Brian Westbrook and Terrell Owens were in the lineup and healthy.
November 2007
Tue 6 Nov 2007
Tue 6 Nov 2007
The wonders of mergers, how could Adobe screw up acquiring Macromedia’s catalog of quality software. Well, by making it like Adobe Reader. I love Photoshop, great application. I’ve never had a problem with Acrobat, Illustrator etc (in my limited use of them). But Adobe Reader on the other hand is annoyingly slow loading, and often has crashed, especially when in use from a browser. I’ve switched to Foxit Reader, on my Vista, XP, Mac Laptop and Windows Mobile Phone.
Additionally, one of the hot trends among software developers is auto updates. I HATE THEM. They have become an unnecessary evil. Problem with these packages is they prompt you to download and install upon launching the software. So picture yourself on a deadline, and you pop open Photoshop and it prompts you if you’d like to install an update for Illustrator. Sure you tell the software, remind me later, and it will remind you. Isn’t that sweet. Firefox does a decent job of updates, although the quick string of 2.0.7 to 2.0.8 to 2.0.9 was a bit annoying, but at least it is fast. CS3 often needs to download large packages, as does Apple’s QuickTime/ITunes. I just want to listen to some music, not download a 70 mb updater. Another trend is services. Apple has Bonjour, which they now have partnered with Adobe to use as a communication tool with Version Cue. Great….if I used Version Cue. So hence I have a running service, which apparently I cannot stop. Oh, Apple, I do love you…but I don’t have an iPod, iPhone, iTouch, iAnything, but you insist on my having the iPod service. Thanks. Services have been a notorious cause of slow running computers, and because many of these now come from “established” companies, tools like Windows Defender, Adaware etc, don’t really care about them.
