On Monday Night Football the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Chicago Bears by a score of 29 to 14. The Bears defense kept the game close in the first half by the well known football phrase of "bend but don't break" philosophy. The Eagles’ offense could not capitalize on opportunities to score touchdowns in the first half. At the end of the half, the score was only 9 to 7 Eagles. The offense eventually overwhelmed the Bears tired defense in the second half. The Bears offense was anemic after the first drive of the game.
I don't understand why the media hounded quarterback Jay Cutler for taking himself out of the game. He obviously had a thumb injury and couldn't help his team come back to win the game. The media is part of the problem of the continued serious injuries in football because they always talk in terms of the macho man culture.
It puts pressure on the players to withhold telling their medical staff what is wrong with them. And while I'm speaking of injuries, the Eagles offensive line has got to protect Carson Wentz a lot better so that he can play the whole season.
I know I did not cover US Open tennis last week. Sorry about that. On the men's side, Stanislas Wawrinka won his third major tournament in a strange match over number one player in the world, Novak Djokovic. Wawrinka is doing a great job stepping out the shadow of his fellow Swiss player Roger Federer. Now he has three majors and will probably make the Tennis Hall of Fame himself. The match was strange because Novak had a toe injury. If it weren't for the fact that it was the finals, he probably would have defaulted the match.
On the women's side, Angelique Kerber won her second Grand Slam championship of the year. She took the number one ranking away from Serena Williams for the first time in almost 2 years. Serena lost in the semi finals. It seemed like her shoulder injury eventually caught up to her. If she wants to set the modern-day record for Grand Slam tournament wins at 23, she needs to get healthy and then play a little more. She will have to stop cherry picking the tournaments that she is willing to play in. This year she only played in eight tournaments.
It's going to be a short baseball season for Phillies fans. This is not a surprise given what they were up against. They seem to be playing better baseball coming down the stretch. I've been quite impressed with the new outfielder Roman Quinn. He is very fast and has hit the ball pretty well. It will be interesting to see if he can maintain his consistency over a full season. Also, young pitcher Jerad Eickhoff has had a very impressive second-half of the season. I think the Phillies will end up with about 75 wins for this year. That's at least a sign of progress for what we will hope for next year.
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A 2002 Cape grad and 2007 UD grad, Lewes resident Sumner Spence is one of the Cape area's biggest sports fans. Although he’s used a wheelchair his entire life, he has lived vicariously through his sports-playing father, brother, and friends, who gave him his love of sports. He hopes to provide new and interesting perspectives on the sports stories and issues of the day. Email Sumner at sumspence@gmail.com.
