Eagles CB Cary Williams is not afraid of Peyton Manning. He'll be the first to tell you so.
"We took him down on their home field in the worst of conditions," said Williams in an interview yesterday. [Williams was referring to the AFC Championship Game last January when Williams was still a part of the Ravens]…
Williams and the Ravens respected Manning, as Cary pointed out in his interview, but it is also clear that they were not afraid of him.
''Why not blitz him? What, you gonna play scared?" Williams said. "He's a man, and he's a great player. But we just have to do what we've been doing."
Hopefully the Eagles defense can do a little better than what they have been doing, as they are coming off back-to-back poor performances against two offenses not in the same class as the Denver Broncos. Williams knows a thing or two about success against the Broncos, however, as he went into Denver with the Baltimore Ravens last season and knocked them out of the playoffs.
"We tried to show him different things and give him different looks," Williams said. "Not give him an easy read. He's going to come up and do his show, he's going to try to get you to show what you're doing. You have to try to stay as calm as possible during those situations. Don't give him anything. He's been around the game for so long, it's tough to really figure this guy out."
Even the littlest thing can tip off Manning on what the defense is doing, allowing him to switch the play and expose a defense.
"He can look at a defensive back's eyes, whether a guy is getting out of there too early in the post, whether there is going to be help over top," Williams said. "Little things like that, Peyton has mastered. But at the end of the day this is what we play the game for."
Williams has faced off against Manning twice since the quarterback left Indianapolis and signed with the Broncos, going 1-1. After watching tape of Manning last season compared to this year, Williams did not see much different.
"Some of the same things," Williams said. "He's able to go out there and do what he's used to doing—there is not much in the scheme that has changed except for his weapons. He has different guys who are capable of giving you 100 yards receiving."
Since the day he arrived in Philadelphia, Williams has been very vocal about the attitude he wants this defense to adopt, saying other teams should be afraid to face off against them. It is an attitude he played with in Baltimore, and one he felt helped them against Manning.
"We went out there and played together," Williams said of the Ravens' mentality vs. Manning. "We played as a family. Here, we're developing that. We're trying to get that built here, especially on the defense. We got a lot of new faces. It's kind of like you're getting your third or fourth cousin that you didn't see for a long time, or you might have seen him when he was three. So you're trying to build that relationship."
This week would be a good one for the defense to put it all together. At 1-2, the Eagles would be putting themselves in a very tough situation if they were to lose and fall to 1-3. Even with the NFC East as weak as it is, falling two games under .500 is certainly not a place they want to be in after four games.
Which makes the challenge for the defense clear. Slow down Manning enough to let the Eagles walk out of Denver with a win, and the last two performances will be forgiven. It is a tall order, but one Williams is looking forward to— and hoping his teammates are as well.
"I'm a competitor," Williams said. "If you don't want to play the best, you don't belong here. If you wanna be the best you have to play the best— and you have to beat them. We were able to do that last year at Baltimore, and hopefully we can duplicate that here."
I'm guessing we as Phans will just have to take it one defensive series at a time in Denver, and hope we can build upon some early stops.
BRISUKSEGG Fantasy Football Update…
The Bri Slapper (JB99) 139, Prime Beef (Boner) 83…
Severed Stones (Harry) 114, Barking Spiders (Spiffo) 52…
Filled With Rage (Jerky) 120, Amish Mafia (Dutchy) 99…
Palm Feathers (Palmy) 82, Bri's Gigantic Face (Broz) 70…
Bad Jews Bears (Benny) 147, The Greatest PPW 113…
Great White Mooks (JHop) 136, Dirty Stinkin' Bums (ATV) 71.
The Standings:
EAST DIVISION
The Severed Stones 3 0 0
The Greatest PPW 2 1 0
Bad Jews Bears 2 1 0
Barking Spiders 1 2 0
Palm Feathers 1 2 0
Bri's Gigantic Face 0 3 0
WEST DIVISION
Bri Slappers 3 0 0
Great White Mooks 2 1 0
Dirty Stinkin' Bums 1 2 0
Amish Mafia 1 2 0
Prime Beef 1 2 0
Filled With Rage 1 2 0
Finally today, we close with this little piece of Americana provided by our own Abe Linc, who found this little gem of a Letter to the Editor in his local Georgia newspaper (routed to him via North Carolina):
"Dear Editor:
"We Democrats are sick and tired of Republicans constantly using the Constitution to cover up their true plans, which are to make us afraid of everyone else…There are a lot of things about the Constitution that need to be changed, I'd say, and President Obama needs to change it.
"The Republicans are just trying to stand in the way, because the President is black. They even dared to question whether he was born in this country. I think all this demonstrates that the Constitution needs to be amended.
"Right now it says a person has to be 35 years old and a natural-born citizen to be President. Well, that is obviously unfair because there are a great many otherwise qualified people who cannot run for president because their mothers had to have a C-Section.
"But because the Constitution was written 100 years ago, nobody even thought of the discrimination that would result from having to deliver a baby in the unnatural way (of a C-Section).
"Now that we Democrats are in control, that's just one more thing we should change to make life fair.
"Please withhold my name because I don't want to get crank calls— PROUD TO BE A DEMOCRAT "
Thanks for that, Abe… or as Abe would say— God help us!
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