In an effort to follow the Eagles on their Manifest destiny of self-purported greatness, I’ll hit the road to enjoy the Delaware Valley on NFL Sundays. Week 2’s journey ends up about 10 minutes outside of Joe Flacco’s hometown of Audubon.  

Week 2: Oaklyn, NJ – Catch It, Grog N’ Grill aka “The Grog” 

The Scene: Decision time. Head to the Linc or a dive bar in Joe Flacco’s backyard? Yep. Dive bar it is…

Menu: Buffet: Sausage and peppers, some sort of creamy noodles, and corn dogs. 

Game: Baltimore at Philadelphia. Joe Flacco plays his first regular season game against the Eagles. The Audubon, New Jersey native lives roughly 15 minutes away the Linc. 

The Grog is a South Jersey dive bar that doubles as a safe haven for NFL fans. As a veteran of the South Jersey bar scene,  this is actually one of the better NFL Sunday viewing experiences you’ll get in the area.

It’s not the circus atmosphere of the Philly bars; and it’s not overrun with college kids like some of the South Jersey spots.

In other words, whether you’re a Texans, Raiders, Dolphins, Steelers, or Redskins fan, it’s a good place to go without having to worry about catching a five-knuckle shuffle from your local disgruntled Eagles fan.

Plus, they have a free buffet. Whether it’s quality or not (trust me, I wanted to take photos of their buffet but employees were manning the line), how many bars offer that during NFL games? Not many.

Ah, but back to the fans.

For reasons to this day I cannot fully fathom, the Philadephia/South Jersey area is a large, metaphorical halfway house for Dallas Cowboys fans.

That’s why I wasn’t shocked to learn that a member of the Grog’s management team is a huge Cowboys fans.  He sauntered around on Sunday in a Michael Irvin jersey, greeting his fellow Cowboys brothers in preparation of their late afternoon meeting with Seattle.

For much of the first three quarters of Sunday’s Ravens/Eagles game, Cowboys fans were one of the few sets actually happy.

The Eagles floundered their way to a 17-7 halftime deficit prompting my first in-game text from my good buddy, the  Barrister:

“Watchin’ halftime highlights – I wanna go on record and say that Michael Vick is a big —–. He can’t take any hits.”

I’m not sure I’d sign-off on that statement, but point well-taken.

On the TV adjacent to the Ravens/Eagles game was the day’s most perplexing head-scratcher…Arizona at New England.

A pair of Patriots fans, including a 60-year-old gentleman rocking an old-school Deion Branch jersey (#83, not #84) and a random 20-something dude wearing a Tom Brady jersey, sat by pensively watching New England’s offense sputter against Arizona. Surely though, they’d turn things around.

Patriot problems aside, the Eagles were on a slow burn to 1-1 unless the offense did something constructive with the football besides give it to the Ravens.

As 1 p.m. became 4 p.m., a few more Cowboys fans trickled in. Much to their delight, the Eagles were in peril.

The Eagles hate extends past Dallas fans, of course. A mouthy fella decked out in a pink shirt happily jumped out of his chair with each positive Ravens play, adding additional commentary along the way.

On a throw to tight end Dennis Pitta: PITTA!!!!!!! PITTA!!!!

On a random Ray Rice run: I SEE YOU RAY!!!

On Justin Tucker’s 51-yard field goal: SHOW ME WHAT YA WORKIN’ WITH SHAWTY, SHOW ME WHAT YA WORKIN’ WITH SHAWTY!

Eagles fans grew restless over his constant taunting and random shout-outs. They not-so-kindly reminded him to keep his Ravens love to a minimum.

“No, I’m a Bears fan.”

Wait, what?

“When the Bears aren’t playing, I ROOT FOR FLACCO…I ROOT FOR FLACCO!!”

His loudmouth tactics continued and so did the heckling towards him. While the Eagles slowly climbed back into it, some of my friends and other Eagles fans were jaw-jacking with the Mouth That Roared.

Of course, he did what any over-defensive fan would do in that situation; recite recent NFL history.

“Y’ALL AIN’T EVA BEAT US! Y’ALL AIN’T EVA BEAT US!”

Sir, if by “eva” you meant in the last two years, I suppose you have a point.

Seated to his left was a burly Cowboys fan, watching on with a grin. More on him later…

Meanwhile, on the TV directly in front of them the Patriots were on a fast track to defeat after they failed to convert on a two-point conversion, trailing 20-18 with just over a minute left. Then, a funny thing happened.

Cardinals running back Ryan Williams went off left tackle, in an attempt to kill the clock.

“OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Miraculously, Williams fumbled and in turn, forced me to yell like a banshee in the bar. The Patriots had new life and a gift-wrapped victory in tow. Finally, those other two downtrodden Patriots fans awoke.

I shared their enthusiasm. I just wasn’t going to tolerate Arizona winning in New England. Watching Tom Brady lose a game to a Kevin Kolb-led team at home would be the equivalent of Johnny Rodz pinning Hulk Hogan on national TV in 1985.

As the Patriots marched to an inevitable victory, I was feeling it. Once again, we were watching Brady and Belichick snatch another victory out of the fire.

Sure, the Eagles still trailed but at least Brady and Belichick would allow me to derive some joy out of my Sunday.

Or so I thought.

Ironically, my Sunday morning started around 8:30 with a picture text of a Rob Gronkowski cut-out from one of my friends who was in the New England region at a nearby Dunkin Donuts.

Unfortunately, Party Gronk was called for holding and a false start penalty on New England’s final drive, which set the table for Stephen Gostkowski’s shank job on a 42-yard field goal attempt to win the game, much to my chagrin.

My pal A, who loathes my constant pandering and support of Tom Brady (good thing she doesn’t know this blog exists), cackled for what felt like three minutes.

“IF I CAN’T BE HAPPY, AIN’T NOBODY GONNA BE HAPPY!” she exclaimed.

Once the bar settled down after the New England finish, the Eagles soon began their drive to victory. Trailing 23-17, Philadelphia’s offense stumbled and rumbled their way inside of the Baltimore 5 when Vick appeared do what he had done repeatedly in the first two games…turn it over.

Baltimore’s defense ran a Jedi mind-trick on the replacement officials, convincing them that Vick somehow fumbled when he actually threw it away while falling to the ground.

As the haters in the bar celebrated, common sense and instant replay interrupted, proving that Vick did indeed make a rather feeble attempt at throwing.

Soon after, Vick went in from one-yard out to put Philly up 24-23. Not willing to give up, the cross-section of Cowboys fans were still sure Philly would blow it.

Incredibly, they were still worried about the Eagles while Seattle was already leading their beloved Pokes, 10-0.

Burly Cowboys Man caught the ire of A, who had it with the bar’s Dallas-centric supporters.

“WORRY ABOUT YOU’RE OWN TEAM! YOU’RE GETTING YOU’RE A$$ KICKED BY SEATTLE!!”

Undeterred and obnoxious, Dallas fans have an answer for everything.

“I’M FINISHING THE (EAGLES) GAME WITH YOU…I’M FINISHING THE GAME WITH YOU!!!”

By the way, few visuals in a bar are as stunningly bizarre as a 300-pound African-American man decked out in a Tony Romo jersey, yelling at  a 120-pound blonde wearing a DeSean Jackson jersey.

While those two verbally slugged it out, I relaxed.

Clearly, Joe Flacco was not driving down for a game-winning field goal against Philly’s defense. All of his hometown mojo had been used up (he went 8 of 25 in the second half) and eventually, the Eagles extinguished Flacco and friends.

As Flacco’s 4th and 1 pass sailed over Rice’s head and signaled the end of Baltimore’s last-gasp, A’s immediate reaction and last verbal jab to Burly Cowboys Man summed up the day’s events.

“YEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!………F**K DALLAS!!!!!!!!!!”

Remember folks. No matter what happens with the Eagles, it’s always about Dallas.

For the second straight week, the Eagles survived by a point.

FINAL SCORE: EAGLES 24, RAVENS 23

Week 3 is a reunion for the Birds. They visit old teammate Kevin Kolb and the 2-0 Arizona Cardinals.