The Philadelphia Eagles play the Bengals in their last preseason game this weekend. I hope Tanner McKee is finally named the backup quarterback for the season. I trust him a lot more than I do Andy Dalton. I hope to see the team's No. 1 draft pick, Makai Lemon, play at least a little bit in the last preseason game too. 

The Eagles start their season Sunday, Sept. 13. against the Washington Commanders. I hope they have already posted the Sports Illustrated predictions on the wall in their facility, because I don’t get how SI came up with their prediction of 8-9 for the Eagles' season record when the Eagles haven’t missed the playoffs in years. The Birds should use this slight as motivation for the whole year. 

On a more positive note, the NFL has finally come to their senses and gotten rid of the Pro Bowl. I’ve always thought it was an odd concept to have the all-star game after the season is over, given how violent football is and the risk of injury. None of the players will miss it very much. In the last two or three years, when they changed to flag football and dodgeball as part of the celebration, I thought that was a good idea. A great way to see favorite players play under much safer conditions.

I am struggling with the fact that there are only 28 more games left in the regular season in baseball. How did that fly by so fast? The Phillies are definitely in the playoff picture in terms of the wildc ard, but as I am writing this, they are 4.5 games behind the Braves in the Eastern Division. They will have to play great during the last month if they want to win the division. 

There is one big concern about that over the last month for the Phillies and looking forward to the playoffs. That is Zack Wheeler's performance on the mound. The best-case scenario is that he is just tired from recovering from his significant injury last fall, but they need to figure out his issues quickly. If he keeps struggling, Jesus Luzardo should be the second pitcher behind Cristopher Sanchez in any playoff series. Zack is really struggling with his control right now. 

On a positive note, I’ve been pleasantly surprised how well Luis Arraez is playing for the Phillies. He has changed the whole approach for most of the lineup in terms of not swinging at pitches outside the strike zone. This team mindset switch has been quite noticeable and quite productive. I hope this continues during the last six games of the Phillies west coast trip to Anaheim and Arizona.