Category: Football

It’s late to be posting this so I won’t write much, but I couldn’t let the week go without celebrating a victory over that hated team from North Jersey. The Eagles dominated the game from start to finish; the Giants’ offense didn’t so squat until garbage time. I hope Reid took some notes. This is what happens when you don’t abandon the running game and you keep pounding it in there: you wear the opposing defense down and dominate in the second half, though we probably have Mornhinweg to thank more than Reid since he was clearly calling the plays again.

It’s great to see them playing this well now, but I still fear it may be too little, too late. You can’t help but wonder where the team would be if Reid hadn’t gone brain dead and pulled McNabb against the Ravens. Oh well, at least they control their own destiny within the division now (thanks to the Cowboys’ meltdown against the Steelers). If the Eagles run the table, they will finish second in the division. However, that still may not be good enough to reach the playoffs because they still need Atlanta to lose one more time, though that could happen as early as this week against Tampa Bay.

Bottom Line: the Eagles are in much better shape than they were two weeks ago, but they still need a little help and obviously have zero margin for error.

It was a dominant effort from start to finish on both sides of the ball . . . so why am I angry? Because it’s probably too little too late, because this is the team they should have been all season, because this is the way they are capable of playing when their heads are in the game and the coach isn’t going brain dead. The Cardinals were overrated anyway coming out of the dismal NFC West, but to dominate any NFL team like that takes the type of talent we’ve known they possessed all year. That’s what makes this victory more frustrating than gratifying, knowing what should have been. Yeah, it was fun to watch this game (Westbrook gets more than one consecutive carry and look what happens!), but also bittersweet because they still have almost no shot at the playoffs. It reminds me of last season when the Eagles were playing the best football in the NFC over the final third of the season when it didn’t matter anymore.

So Reid may get them playing well enough down the stretch to save his job (not that his job is ever in much jeopardy with Lurie being so in love with him), but what’s the point? It’s going to be the same crap next year when Reid reverts back to his stubborn, pass-happy self, making the same lousy decisions he makes every year . . . only this time he won’t have McNabb to scapegoat since Donovan will likely be somewhere else helping some other team make the playoffs . . . and we’ll see for perhaps the first time in Reid’s career what kind of coach he really is when he doesn’t have a stud quarterback to make his predictable, one-dimensional offense look good.

By the way, the refs were flat-out awful in this game. This has to be one of the worst officiated seasons I can remember.

First off, I would like to thank the Ravens for putting Eagles fans out of their collective misery. Now that we know the playoffs are over, we don’t have to spend the rest of the season biting our nails only to have our hearts broken at the end. And better yet, we can now enjoy Thanksgiving with our families without worrying about getting home in time for the game against Arizona.

On to Reid. I knew it would happen eventually and he finally did it. Reid finally made Donovan McNabb the scapegoat for all of his own shortcomings, and in the process he threw away the game and the season just to make a point about nobody’s job being safe. Only a complete moron would pull his starting quarterback at halftime of a 10-7 game with the season on the line. Was Donovan playing well? No. But the defense was playing well and they were THREE POINTS DOWN!!! That’s not the time to make such a drastic change when you still have a shot at the playoffs! Who in their right mind would throw an inexperienced quarterback to the wolves like that against a defense like the Ravens? Did Reid honestly think Kolb would provide a spark? Please. It was nothing but a desperate move by a desperate man who has simply run out of answers.

Most coaches get better with experience but Reid has regressed (a delay of game penalty when you’re running a no-huddle offense? Really???). He makes mistakes that rookie head coaches make. He doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing anymore and it’s painfully obvious that things will never get better as long as he’s the coach. Yes, he brought us several successful seasons, but this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league and he will now have missed the playoffs for three out of the last four years. At some point you have to realize that it’s not working anymore and that it’s time to move on. I wish Lurie would show some guts and fire him tomorrow. The season is already lost anyway, so what’s the point of keeping him around? Let Jim Johnson take over. Even if it’s just for the rest of this season, he has earned the opportunity to finally be a head coach in this league. If Lurie lets Reid keep his job after this embarrassment, he’s an even bigger idiot than Reid.

As for McNabb, he is not blameless in what has become of this dismal season, but no quarterback is going to be successful in a system that requires you to drop back to pass 60 times per game while paying nothing but lip service to any semblance of a running game. I really don’t want him to go, but perhaps a change of scenery is what he needs. In any event, it looks like the cabal of McNabb haters in Philly will finally get its wish after this season. If this is indeed the end of the McNabb era, I wish him well. I am sure that he will start somewhere else next year and have tremendous success . . . and those same McNabb haters suffering through a 4-12 season with Kolb at the helm will rue the day he left.

At least that’s what the headline should read. Today’s game has caused my mind to break with reality, and I now live in an alternate universe. In this happy place, my beloved football team did not tie the cellar-dwelling Bengals, they blew them away. The Eagles’ offense did not look like crap all game, they came out and took care of business like the playoff-bound team they are.

In this blissful nirvana, McNabb did not drop back more than 60 times to pass. On the contrary, Andy Reid took the pressure off his struggling quarterback by giving Brian Westbrook more than 20 carries . . . and he actually handed him the ball more than once in a row on several occasions!

In this euphoric world, Reid finally discovered that running the ball is a strategy, not an afterthought. He realized that he has the largest offensive line in the NFL and he rode them to victory. He allowed them to fire off the ball instead of dropping back into pass protection all game, wearing the other team down so that when he needed to convert a third-and-short, it was no problem because the Bengals’ defensive line was on its heels from being pushed backward all game.

Yes, all of this happened in my happy place.

Now, back to reality.

They say in sports that a tie is like kissing your sister, but I don’t think that applies here. When you need a missed field goal to barely escape losing to a 1-8 team, you are kissing something much worse than your sister. And to quote Forrest Gump: “That’s all I have to say about that.”

The media just can’t resist a juicy story about those “boorish” fans from Philadelphia booing somebody. In this case, the claim is that they booed our Vice President-elect…
Biden Booed

Yeah, they’re really going to boo the guy they just voted for. This is another idiotic non-story by media morons who don’t do their homework.

The fans were booing the call on the field. Eli Manning had just thrown a ball into the dirt that should have been intentional grounding. It wasn’t called, which caused the fans to boo at the same time NBC happened to be showing Biden on TV. Then the fans saw the replay on the jumbo screens and began to boo even more. And each time the replay was shown, they booed even more. In fact, I doubt the fans even knew Biden was on camera at that time. When you’re at a sporting event, you don’t see what the people see on TV at home, and any reporter doing just the tiniest bit of research would know that. But they’d rather just jump on a sensationalist story, because hopping on the “bad Philly fans” bandwagon is the easy thing to do—it doesn’t require any actual journalism.

I remember when I was watching it last night thinking, “Oh great they have to show Biden at the exact moment the fans are booing a call. The media is going to jump all over that.” And sure enough, they did. Nice job, CNN.

By the way, according to some people who were actually at the game, Biden was cheered when he was shown on the big screen at a different moment in the game. Nuff said. Next non-story, please.

When Reid called those two runs at the end of the game I literally screamed. As badly as the Eagles were outplayed for most of the game and as horribly as their run defense was gashed by the Giants’ running game, they still had a chance to win at the end. McNabb had just led them to a score, the defense came up with a huge stop, and McNabb was marching them down again for the potential game winning touchdown . . . so what does Reid do? He takes the ball out of McNabb’s hands, just as he did against Chicago and Washington, and the results were exactly the same—a loss. How can you not give McNabb the chance to win the game???? Again????? And people wonder why he hasn’t had a 4th quarter comeback in so long.

Here is what I wrote after the Chicago game: “McNabb got the team down to first and goal with a chance to win the game but he wasn’t even given ONE opportunity to throw the ball. He’s your best player, put the ball in his hands!!!”

And here is what I wrote after the Washington game: “On top of that, pass-happy-Reid has suddenly become Mr. Smashmouth at the goal line, as the Eagles were once again stymied from in close on consecutive running plays. Has Reid lost all confidence in McNabb’s ability to make something happen?”

Sound familiar? Reid did the same thing again tonight, only this time it was on his own 43-yard line and he had no timeouts, which makes the run calls all the more mind boggling. I have to ask again, does he not trust McNabb to win the game for him? Or is he just incapable of learning from his mistakes? My vote is for the latter. Case in point: he once again made a frivolous challenge that cost his team a pivotal timeout. The second challenge was necessary, but the first one was just plain dumb.

His mismanagement of Westbrook throughout the game was a disgrace as well. I love Jackson as much as the next guy, but Westbrook is what makes this team go. Sometimes Reid gets too cute with Jackson (like with that ill-fated screen pass in the first half) and completely forgets about Westbrook. Reid should have been running lots of screens to Westbrook to counter the Giants’ pass rush, but the Eagles’ most dangerous weapon only had three receptions all game. He didn’t catch his first pass until the last drive of first half and had just one catch in the entire second half.

The broadcasters kept talking about the running game not working, but that’s just B.S. Of course the running game isn’t going to work when you NEVER try to run (except when the game’s on the line, of course). When the 4th quarter began, Westbrook had a grand total of NINE carries—in a game they were never out of. And the carries were so spread out that he never had the chance to get into any kind of rhythm.

Despite all of that, the Eagles still could have stolen this game at the end, but as I’ve said before, “woulda coulda shoulda” is the realm of mediocre teams, which the Eagles have proven themselves to be. Even with a 5-4 record, the odds are against them making the playoffs. Forget about the division, that’s over, but their wild card chances are looking pretty remote as well. The Eagles have the third toughest schedule for the remainder of the season, they have three teams in their own division ahead of them, and they have horrible division and conference records. They need to go at least 5-2 (maybe even 6-1) for the rest of the season to even have a shot, but the more likely scenario is that the Eagles will miss the playoffs for the third time in four years.

Reid is obviously not the only reason they lost tonight (the so-called 8th-ranked run defense played the biggest part), and he’s not the only reason they are sitting at the bottom of the NFC East, but his awful decisions add up over the course of a season (and a career), and those two running plays at the end were the last straw for me. He has driven me crazy over the years with his often baffling play calling, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt because his teams were always competitive and he reached four straight championship games and a Super Bowl. But it is painfully apparent that he has reached a plateau as a coach and he’s not going to get any better. He doesn’t learn from past mistakes and rarely adjusts to what’s happening during the game. He still has good qualities in a coach, but play calling and game management have never been among them, and he’s had ten years to improve. Unless he is willing to give up the play calling once and for all (which he won’t), I want him gone.

It took a while to get going, as the Eagles once again played a shaky first quarter, allowing a long touchdown and doing virtually nothing on offense. After that, however, it was all Eagles as they dominated the rest of the game on both sides of the ball, as well as special teams, with Akers finally seeming to get on track after a two-season slump. McNabb was near perfect after the first quarter and Curtis looks like he is back at full speed from sports hernia surgery, but the star of the game was Celek. I’ve liked him from the beginning, and remember thinking last year that he could be special if given the chance.

Celek was a big reason why I couldn’t have cared less whether they re-signed LJ this past offseason. He doesn’t have the speed and physical gifts of the elite TEs, but he catches everything you throw at him, and he was certainly fast enough to make some big plays today. However, we need to be realistic—Celek is not going to put up huge numbers like today very often, but I’ll settle for a guy who’s dependable and can stay healthy, something LJ has never been able to do. Chad Lewis was a guy without great physical tools, but McNabb knew he could count on him when he needed a big catch, and that is something that has been missing from the Eagles’ arsenal ever since Lewis left. I believe Celek can be that guy for McNabb, and sooner rather than later. LJ may have the talent of an elite tight end, but we have rarely seen it during his tenure in Philly, whether due to injury or inconsistency. I know LJ is making a lot of money, but at this point Celek has earned the right to show whether he can be the long-term option. We already know LJ won’t be.

It’s still hard to get a good bead on the Birds though, as they have now won three straight over mediocre-to-lousy teams. Next week will certainly give us a good idea of where the Eagles are when they host the Giants. I am still not convinced the Giants are as good as their 7-1 record, but it will nevertheless be a big test for the Eagles, and it is a must-win game, as a loss would essentially knock them out of the division race.

This one was a little close for comfort but a win’s a win. The Eagles caught a break with that bad muffed punt call, but I don’t think Atlanta was going to score again anyway, and the Birds had their share of bad calls go against them (like the brutal roughing call on Cole). The inability to score from in close continues to be worrisome, though I think Westbrook was in on 2nd goal with his second effort (the same play as the offsides penalty), but the refs blew the whistle early. Still, Reid better figure out a way to punch it in. Stop with the fancy wishbone looks and shovel passes and just put the ball in the hands of your best players. He finally tried a sneak but he didn’t spread the defense out and it failed—now we’ll never see another one.

Anyway, what a difference a healthy Westbrook makes to the offense. They still have a ways to go before my confidence is restored (relatively close wins against mediocre teams like Atlanta and the 49ers aren’t exactly awe inspiring) but they seem to be headed in the right direction.

Nothing to get too excited about here; they beat a team they were supposed to beat, but they do deserve credit for showing some character in coming back from nine points down in the 4th quarter, and the defense came up huge in the 4th quarter after playing crappy for much of the game (way too many missed tackles). There are still plenty of things to be concerned about (the suddenly porous run defense, the inability to kick a long field goal, leading the league in dropped passes, etc.), but in a week when Washington and Dallas did the Eagles huge favors by losing to inferior teams, it’s a step in the right direction.

I guess it’s only fitting that my initial post will be a rant about the Eagles. This is what I had to say following the Eagles/Bears debacle on Sunday night:

The Bears were a team of great fortune tonight. Their first touchdown was caught out of bounds, their second was gift-wrapped by Jackson’s muffed punt, their third TD drive was only kept alive by a horrible spot on third down, their field goal was made possible when the refs failed to flag Orton for intentional grounding, and the top view of Buckhalter’s carry at the end of the game showed the ball clearly breaking the plane.

That being said, the Eagles did everything in their power to lose to a vastly inferior team tonight. This game was an utter disgrace and one of the worst coaching performances of Reid’s career. Why is he suddenly afraid to throw the red flag??? He could have challenged three different plays: the Bears’ first TD that was out of bounds, the spot of the ball that kept Chicago’s third TD drive alive, and Buckhalter’s 4th down carry, but he kept the flag in his pocket all game. He did the same thing against Dallas two weeks ago when Baskett recovered that fumble in the end zone. I just don’t get it. Maybe the refs wouldn’t have had the guts to overturn the Buckhalter run, but how can you not even try? Everything was on the line there; screw saving the timeout.

Of course it wouldn’t have been necessary if the play calling hadn’t been so horrible at the goal line. The McNabb-hating morons are going to blame him again and call him a choker, but this one is entirely on Reid. McNabb got the team down to first and goal with a chance to win the game but he wasn’t even given ONE opportunity to throw the ball. He’s your best player, put the ball in his hands!!! Whatever happened to rolling him out and giving him the option of throwing or running it in? Or how about spreading the field and letting him sneak it in? It’s a higher percentage play than trying a tight-formation run into the middle of the Bears defense! I never thought I’d see the day when Reid would try four straight runs; he sure picked a hell of a time.

I am sick. It’s almost impossible to lose a game where you force four turnovers and outgain the opposition by nearly 100 yards, but they found a way. Westbrook or no Westbrook, championship teams don’t lose games like this. That Bears team stinks—and what does that say about the Eagles?

Some other observations: Akers is no longer reliable outside of 40 yards, Rocca is still too inconsistent, and Booker is a waste of a roster spot.