Oh God, What Have I done! Browns 16 Eagles 17

 "It's all been leading up to this moment"

I'm pretty sure the Beastie Boys weren't rapping about my NFL watching life, but Sunday 9th September did feel like a seminal moment for me.  After all, the reason I started this blog last December was to find a team to support.  Eventually, I landed upon the Eagles as my team of destiny, and now nine months on I finally get to watch them play a game...at least I was if Gamepass let me!

It's been a long journey, but considering the lack of actual football, it's been a lot of fun.  I've learnt a lot about the Eagles, I've been in touch with some great people and I've received plenty of encouraging comments about this blog.  But, now it's time for the next stage of my journey..actually watching some Eagles football!

I had no idea how I'd feel on game day - would I be nervous pre kick off?  Would I get excited when the Eagles scored? And how would I feel after the game - elated, despondent or non plussed?  To put it into context, I spent the previous day in London watching the all conquering (well, so far this season) Gillingham FC sweep to an easy victory at Barnet.  The clash was a top v bottom encounter, but despite this I still had the usual does of pre match nerves. And even though the Gills completely controlled the game and strolled to a 3-1 win, I was anxious throughout the afternoon.

Why?  Call it experience.  I've seen plenty of Gills matches turn on their head and the team lose form seemingly unassailable positions.  I've got the scars and I can remember the pain.  Now, clearly the 2012 version of the Gills appears to be stronger and classier, and bears no relation to the rabbles that have worn the blue shirts over the years.  But like many sports fans, experience has turned me into an eternal pessimist.

Shirt number and QB rating!

Fast forward to the next day and my NFL pre game mindset was far more positive.  I've read about the various Eagles mishaps over the years, but I hadn't personally been scared by them.  I knew that the current team were prone to "bad days at the office", but I hadn't been an Eagles fan when they happened so I didn't fear them happening again.  In fact, my pre game build up involved a very relaxing afternoon at the local park and a couple of glasses of rjoca.  When 6pm came round and I was safely logged onto Gamepass, I was confident of an Eagles win.  Partly because we were playing the Browns, but also because I was a new fan and new fans don't have bad memories.  In fact, my main concern was how I'd react when a big play occurred   Luckily, I didn't have to wait long to find out.

To say, the Eagles display was error prone would be an understatement.  I'd argue that about 28 of the 32 NFL would have defeated Philly on Sunday.  Fortunately, the Browns had Brandon Weedon at QB and the worst set of Receivers this side of Miami.  Turnover followed turnover, as both Defences had plenty of chances to show off their skills.  They were a couple of superb picks from Rodgers-Cromartie, but neither had me jumping out of my seat.  Truth be told, it was pretty insipid stuff.  The teams exchanged field goals (and more turnovers), before Michael Vick finally got things together and located Jermey Maclin in the End Zone.  Sadly, this still didn't prompt much of a reaction from me.  I was pleased, but I couldn't bring myself to get too excited.  The poor quality of the game had left me feeling pretty pessimistic about the Eagles prospects for the season, and not even 7 points could lift the mood.

It was around this time that I began to notice a few issues with Gamepass.  During breaks in play, I was flicking other to other games using the multiscreen options.  The picture quality in Clevelend was fine, but the same couldn't be said for other games.  Buffalo v New York was blurrier than a britpop album, and the Redskins-Saints game was freezing on a regular basis.  In fact, Red Zone was so slow, that after half time I decided to use my red button on Sky and watch the Red Zone on there.  Imagine my confusion a few minutes later when Red Zone showed Michael Vick throw a pick 6 to give the Browns the lead.  Why confusion? Well, on my Gamepass "live" feed of the match, the Browns were on offence and the Eagles were in front!  After a quick double take and a visit to NFL.com I realized that Gamepass was a few minutes behind the live action.  Brilliant, I pay £130 for the service so I could watch all the Ealges games live and I end up finding out the live scores via a service I had in the first place!

Of course, this all distracted from the deep hole the Eagles had now dug themselves.  Instead of being disgruntled with the team, I was disgruntled with Gamepass. I really hope that this was just a few Week 1 teething problems, but judging from the NFLUK forums, the problem wasn't just confined to my laptop.  Meanwhile, the Eagles continued to turn the ball over (Vick through his 4th pick) but were getting it back pretty quickly thanks to some strong tackling and poor Browns offence.  nonetheless, the team were still a score down late into the 4th quarter.  However, I was still confident of victory.  The lack of scars were clearly helping me, so much so that when Vick did eventually find another TD pass I was again muted in my celebration.  Bizarrely, I was expecting it to happen.  I was also unsurprised when, moments later, Weedon threw his 4th pick to end the game and give the Eagles a 1 point victory.

As you can see, it was a strange evening and full of mixed emotions.  It was a win for the Eagles, but it was a highly unconvincing one against a below average opponent.  They need to improve their offensive play massively if they are to challenge for a Play Off place.  This was, on paper at least, the easiest game in the first half of the season, but Philadelphia came so close to messing it up.

"Loser buys dinner!"
Shurmur remortgages house

As for me, it was a weird experience.  I really wanted the Eagles to win and was fully behind them, but it didn't get me jumping out of my chair or punching the air when they did win. In some ways, that was due to the poor quality of football on offer, but I realise that becoming passionate about the Eagles won't just happen over night and it'll take some time for me to build up my support.  I was pleased that I mostly knew who was making the plays and there were only a couple of names that were unfamiliar to me.  Like must fans, I found Andy Reid's pass first tactics baffling and wanted LeSean McCoy to see more of the ball.  I'm clearly getting their but just need a few more (better) games to build up my excitement levels!  Of course, a more efficient Gamepass service would help, as would some better football and maybe even a couple of defeats to make the victories feel sweeter.  After all I do have a 100% record as an Eagles fan!

In other news, I made a successful start to my British Eagles Fantasy season. Largely thanks to my pre season sleeper pick Alfred Morris and my mid round QB Joe Flacco.  Maybe I do know a bit about this game after all.

Next week sees the Eagles take on the Ravens in Philadelphia.  Having watched the Ravens demolish the Bengals last night, the Eagles need to improve beyond all recognition.  A high quality, close game (and an Eagles victory of course) may be just what I need to take my Eagles fandom onto the next level!