Huh.

So the Ravens and the Cardinals went on the road and won in the divisional round.  Both teams feature avian mascots.

Surely this is a positive omen for tomorrow!

For those of you still wallowing in the emotional depths of the Giants game, feel free to take some comfort in the fact that the Eagles will be facing the one-win Cincinnati Bengals this weekend. Sure, the Bengals are coming off their bye week, but whereas other teams might use that time to rest and regroup, well, these are the Bengals. As such, we can only assume that they spent their time off burgling teammates, driving under the influence, and concealing firearms.

Also exciting for the Eagles: Carson Palmer has already been ruled out for Sunday. No word yet if he’s hanging out with Shawn Andrews in California waiting for both of their respective teams to put them on IR. In Palmer’s place the Bengals will trot out Harvard grad Ryan Fitzpatrick, who’s currently leading the league in Gentlemanly Club Life.

See? Reason for optimism!

(Random Ivy League football note: I caught a quarter of an Ivy League game a couple weeks ago, and was shocked to see both teams running the spread offense and chucking the ball all over the field. I had heard the spread was popular at smaller schools, but this was astounding, and a far cry from the 1950s offenses that these schools were running just 10 years ago. Who knew?)

Welcome to a couple days of looking on the bright side!

That is, after a few days of reflection in re: the deep spiritual ennui brought on by the (a) poor performance of the 2007 Eagles and (b) my limited enthusiasm for improvement and/ or change for the 2008 season, I’ve decided it isn’t actually that bad. The Eagles aren’t very good, but they’re not terrible. There are some positives out there. Seriously. It’s not as bad as it could be.

Item #1: at least the Eagles aren’t the Falcons.

Remember that the Falcons were the team that the Birds defeated in the 2004 NFC Championship Game, and looked like they might be a rival for the Eagles for years to come. They had the up-and-coming franchise QB, the sharp young coach, some exciting playmakers on defense, and an owner who was committed to building a legit franchise.

Yikes. Can’t say that really worked out for them, huh?
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Today was the first day I’d been in C@L (pronounced, “Seattle”) for a football Sunday. (I was in Jersey getting engaged for week 1, in Europe at the airport for week 2, and actually in attendance at the Linc and Meadowlands, respectively, the past two weeks.)

Whilst I’m sure you’d all be thrilled to hear the details of my recent travel adventures (I slept in 10 different beds in four countries and four U.S. states in the month of September), the relevant details in re: my return to C@L are as follows: this is the first week that I actually saw what the rest of the NFL looks like. That is, this is the first week I watched football at a bar with 23 TVs (though since it’s Left Coast you have to be at said bar by quarter of ten at the latest). Let me tell you what I learned about the rest of the NFL, and especially the NFC:

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Whilst most of my blogging efforts here on BountyBowl will be squarely focused on the goings-on surrounding the Philadelphia Eagles, the truth is that I don’t live in Philadelphia. Not even close. Thanks to the electric internets, you can actually follow the team pretty thoroughly from afar. But if you want to go see live action, you need to settle for the local (non-Eagle) teams.

Thus do I attend a couple C@L Nerdbird (Seattle Seahawks) games each season. I caught their final preseason game last night, against the Raiders. Not too too much to report, but I do have a couple quick hits:

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