Flip-flop

In Philly, Andy Reid flip-flopped this week to go back from Kolb to Vick. He picked Kolb one day and switched sides the next. Now he claims that he has a great problem in his hands with 2 championship caliber QBs. First of all, neither him nor the Eagles should be talking about championships this season. Secondly, neither QBs are championship material. Vick has been playing well, but I think this is a bad decision. Granted, the stupid Philly fans will kill Kolb and Reid if Kolb started and faltered, but Kolb is their future. Vick's ceiling is set. He is a good runner and a mediocre QB. You traded away McNabb for Kolb and you have to set him up for the future. As somebody wrote on espn.com, seems like Eagles just wanted to replace McNabb with any QB NOT named Donovan McNabb! Kolb is young and talented and Vick's legs are not going to carry you that far. Sure, Vick is talented to win you a game or 2 all by himself, but this is becoming more and more of a passing league. There are more elite QBs right now than anytime in the recent past and Vick is not one of them. Let Kolb show what he is made up of before benching him for Vick.

I am not a Vick hater nor am I wedded to the "you can't lose your job to injury" philosophy, but there is some logic to that theory. You spent all your football intelligence and off-season training camps and OTAs and pre-season games to determine Kolb is your starter. Then he gets injured and Vick plays decent. Now you take the job and give it to Vick. So what if Kolb was indeed all that you told us he was? What if he was the next Peyton Manning? Are you going to derail his future just because Vick had 6 good quarters? I am not suggesting that Reid should be stubborn and stick to his decision, but he should let Kolb play and mature right now. It almost feels like Reid is afraid of his fan-base and would rather see Vick fail and then insert Kolb back instead of taking the tough, but right decision now. This might be a case of a fan-base influencing a head coach more than his common sense or football IQ. It's not a horrible decision, just a wrong one. Vick has played very well and he may even be better in the short-term than Kolb, but he doesn't do much for you long term and the Eagles have to think long-term here. Especially since they just got rid of Brian Westbrook and McNabb. This is the time to rebuild.

There are a couple of great games this weekend in the NFL. Houston is hosting Dallas in the Texas bowl and I am pretty sure they are going to whack the Cowboys. Schaub and the Texans are great on offense and are 2-0 after impressive wins. Schaub has been good for a couple of years now ever since he came to the Texans, though things never came together completely for him. This year might be the year where things jell together for him and the Texans. He threw for 497 yards (and crushed my team in fantasy) as the Texans beat McNabb and the Redskins 30-27 in OT. As McNabb and Shanahan and the rest of that team was walking to the locker room after this awesome game with all the yards and the twists and turns, I realized how draining NFL games should be. These guys spend the entire week preparing for this game and it should be hard to lose it in OT like that. It's a difficult, intense and physical line of work.

The Jets will be at the 2-0 Miami, who beat Favre and the Vikings last weekend. Jets payed a great game and shut down Brady and the Pats for a big win themselves. Darrelle Revis was injured on the play Randy Moss pulled in a superb one-handed catch for a TD. But the Jets did well anyways. Brady tried going to Moss on multiple occasions after the injury, but the strategy did not work. Chicago Bears will be facing the Packers next week to renew their long-standing rivalry. The Bears are a surprising 2-0 team and Culler and Mike Martz might get something going there. Cutler has the arm and Martz has the plays to use it. Last week, Cutler took care of the Cowboys in what was a great game. But the bears better be prepared for this one. It's one thing to stop Romo, but is a whole different ball-game if you want to stop Aaron Rodgers. Lets see how they do it.

In other sports, the Oregon State football team is going to Boise to supposedly give them their toughest game of the rest of the season. OSU actually painted their field blue to simulate road conditions. Not a bad idea, though a little newsworthy to say the least. If BSU wins, their BCS championship aspirations will not only stay alive, but look a lot more realistic. These mid-major teams always choke and lose these big games when it matters. But I think Boise state this year is different, In fact, they should not even be called a mid-major. Thats ofensive to a team like that. In basketball, Warriors coach Don Nelson is rumored to depart and turn the keys over to Keith Smart. This sounds like a great idea on paper and it probably upgrades the defense, rebounding and rotation. But Nelly's system provides a level of offensive success and excitement that sometimes translates into great fan and team energy and propels a team forward. This is especially true with young, talented teams and the only downside to Nelly leaving is that this offensive energy might dissipate unless Smart is smart enough to continue to tap into that well.

The Baseball pennant races are in full swing. The Yankees and the Rays are in a cut-throat battle for the AL East while the Padres and Giants are placed pretty close. With that pitching, Giants have had a season way better than expected. Hope they taper off and go away. They either win 13-0 or lose 0-1. That offense is feast or famine, but that pitching is forcing famine in a lot of cities around the National League. The ERAs of their starting pitching are 3 (Cain), 3.16 (Sanchez), 3.26 (Bumgarner), 3.6 (Lincecum) and 3.98 (Zito). Thats an awesome range even in this non-juiced, pitcher friendly year. They obviously have the best ERA in the league followed by San Diego, who is fighting them for the NL West crown. It should be a fun 10 days in this division, but unfortunately my DBacks have nothing to offer. Most of the other divisions are not competitive and the Twins actually clinched the division already and have the best record in Baseball. Ron Gardenhire is awesome! He and Matt Schaub may be two of the most under-rated talents in sports today.