Good start for the Eagles

Last Friday, the Eagles were able to defeat the Green Bay Packers in a close game in Brazil. You could tell that none of the offensive players had played much in the preseason because the first quarter offensive performance for both teams was really bad. The Eagles defense played well and held the Packers to two field goals after two turnovers by the offense. Then the Eagles offense relaxed and got used to the field conditions enough to win the game. 

The Eagles next game is on Monday Night Football this coming week against the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons did not play well against the Pittsburgh Steelers who were able to win the game with six field goals by a score of 18-10. The Falcons' quarterback Kirk Cousins did not look 100% healthy in his attempted comeback from his Achilles injury. It’s not just Aaron Rodgers who had that problem last year.

I hope by next week I’ll be able to report that the Phillies are the winners of the National League East. Currently, their magic number is eight, of any combination of Phillies wins and Mets and/or Braves losses. The Phillies will also be able to help determine who makes the playoffs between the Mets and Braves. The Mets are currently one game up on the Braves for the last wild card spot in the National League and the Phillies play the Mets seven times in the next 10 days. I can't believe there are only two-plus weeks left in the regular season for MLB baseball!

My two favorite events to watch in the Paralympics were the wheelchair marathon on the last day, and the blind soccer, which I had never heard of before. The swimming and track and field events were fun to watch too, but there are too many different classifications to be able to keep up with how the competition works. For the wheelchair marathon, I don’t know how the people don’t hurt themselves from having to be bent over all that time and use only their arms to move their chairs for the entire race. It is pretty amazing.

I also thought that the blind soccer was interesting. It was a four-on-four with a goalie format for competition with players on a field about the size of a basketball court. They used a slightly smaller soccer ball with a sound mechanism in it so the players could locate the ball. They were able to dribble, run and shoot the ball on a goalie who had no blindfold. It was pretty cool. The home team, France, won against Argentina in the final to win the gold medal.

In the U.S. Open for Tennis, Americans came up short in the finals. Jessica Pegula had a better chance to win in her match against Aryna Sabalenka, but she lost 7-5 in both sets. She had the score tied with two games to go and fell apart at the end of both sets. This is Sabalenka's third major victory. She has won back to back Australian Opens and now the US Open. On the mens side, Jannik Sinner from Italy won easily over Taylor Fritz of the United States in three sets. Fritz only had a chance to win the third set. Sad to see it end like that, but there was still some great tennis to watch.