The Weekend Recap (Home Edition)

As mentioned before, I went home to the Philadelphia area this weekend to visit the parents, and it was nice to see them. It's quiet in the house these days since I'm not there and now that Jamie is up at the Penn State...but it's fun to go back every 6 weeks or so and check in.

This will be an abbreviated weekend recap since I didn't do all that much. Of course, much of my fall weekends are based around the football, so I must provide my commentary on the Penn State game from Saturday afternoon. Well, let me first admit that I didn't see that one coming. I tend to be a pessimist and was even quoted last week as saying that based on the way they played against Northwestern, they didn't stand a chance against Minnesota. My conclusion during the week was that the only way the Lions could pull off a win over the Gophers was to play a solid 60 minutes of football without too many turnovers. Well, PSU turned in one hell of a performance. Defense looked ridiculous....constant pressure, stopped the pass, and especially, stopped the run (Maroney was a non-factor). Offense played very well....Michael Robinson had some very nice runs, and some excellent passes. And it's also worth mentioning that the play calling on offense by coordinator Galen Hall was actually pretty good. (This is a rarity.) The team took advantage of Minnesota's mistakes and made them pay for it. There aren't many negatives I can mention when the team wins 44-14 against a tough opponent (or maybe Minnesota wasn't as tough as we thought). But now, the real challenge is next weekend at home vs. Ohio State, who has had PSU's number over the last few years. This will be a true test of how good this team really is. By the way, the Associated Press must have been impressed, as PSU is now ranked #16 in the country. Not too shabby...

Saturday night, met up with the Jessica, Danielle, Brandon, and Brian, at our favorite spot at home, the Lucky Dog. Not sure what it is about that place...it's just a small restaurant in our home town of Lafayette Hill, but it's very chill, and they have a nice beer selection. Sporting events are always on the TV's, and the staff is usually rather friendly. As an added bonus, it's so close that we always end up there anyway, so that we don't have to make any tough decisions as to where we're going to go. It was great to catch up with Danielle, Brandon, and Brian since I don't see them all that often, and of course, nothing makes me happier than hanging out with the Jessica!

The weekend's always seem like a whirlwind, since I come in on Friday night, and then by Sunday afternoon, I'm back on the road. Got back up here right at 4pm, just in time for the Eagles game. First off, I should mention that the Phillies wild card chances went down to the very last day of the season, and although they did win their game today, Houston won as well and secured the Wild Card spot. I have to give the Phils credit for making it exciting, but it's disappointing at the same time since they had so many chances throughout the season to win games, yet they found ways to lose them. Oh well, my attention is completely with the Eagles anyway. We'll talk about baseball again in March.

So if anyone saw the Eagles game or the highlights, you know that they had a slow start, and I was slightly freaking out after they fell behind 24-6. But somehow they fought back, got their act together, and by the end of the 3rd quarter, the game was tied at 24. Even with all of these injuries, McNabb continues to pull through. Some of his passes are pretty ugly, and it's frustrating to watch him completely miss on some wide open receivers, but I can we expect that to happen with as many passing attempts as he'll have each game. The Eagles go on to score 31 straight points and win it 37-31. Gotta love McNabb's character and another big game from TO. The defense stepped up in the 2nd half as well, which helped to turn the tides. One question is how they scored so many points and moved the ball as well as they did without Brian Westbrook being a factor? Let's just say that the Chiefs' defense won't be the toughest the Eagles will face this season. Now, I'm hoping the Birds will be able to beat up on Dallas next weekend. Looking forward to it.

I probably won't be back until Wednesday as the Jewish New Year is throwing off my rhythm this week. To all of my fellow Jews out there, Happy and Healthy New Year. I'm taking the day off of work on Tuesday to go to services. How exciting....

Enjoy the week. I'll be back soon.