The Eagles: Oh, How the Mighy Have Fallen

All you need to know about the Eagles is that they have been favored in all 8 of their games this season, and have only managed 4-4 in those games. Their first three losses were all on the last play of the game and were brutally painful, games in which stupid metal and physical mistakes let opponents back into games that they had in their hands, games that Super Bowl teams win every time. The Eagles lost all three.

Then came yesterday. The day started great. We started with an outstanding tailgate. Since J.B. was back in tow, we had all the essential ingredients that are typically lacking when I am forced to handle logistics: a football, a grille, food to cook on said grille, Tastykakes, beer, and, of course, the mighty Captain. The wind was gusting! It was such a fierce wind even my cannon arm was having trouble slicing through it in the parking lot. This was great news. The Eagles had an experienced quarterback in Donovan McNabb who, besides being the league MVP for the first half of the season, had played 8 years in Philly and 4 more in Syracuse, where despite playing in a dome, they played plenty of road games in the elements. The Jags, on the other hand, were starting a guy with 8 career starts and a college career at East Carolina. Easy game plan: stuff the box with 8 defenders, stop the run, and make David Garrard beat you. The Eagles, when they focus against the run, can shut it down. Just ask Tiki Barber, who they actually contained this year for about the first time ever. Then get ahead and bring the blitz. EASY.

So we ate. Burgers and dogs, cooked to perfection. The wind was blistering, but the food tasted good, and the Captain dulled the effects of the wind. Then we headed in to watch what promised to be the easiest game the Birds had played in a while. If I can figure out the winning game plan in the parking lot, then the genius Jim Johnson would certainly have no problems with it.

The Eagles got the ball and went three and out after a series that included a dropped pass and a sack. Then they punted. "Dirk Johnson" and "into the wind" are not, as an Eagle fan, items you want to see in the same sentence. Jacksonville started their opening drive on the Eagles 48. 7 plays. 7 runs. 53 yards (they had a 5 yard penalty during the drive). They shoved it right down the Eagles throats. Where the hell was my gameplan of stopping the run and making an inexperienced QB beat you. Isn’t this the same team that got demolished by Houston last week?

The insisted on playing the last 53 minutes and change of this football game. But they could have saved the 60,000 in the crowd a lot of aggravation if they just would have called it right then. Those opening drives were a microcosm of the entire game. Jacksonville shoved the ball down the Eagles throats. The Eagles offense was completely worthless. Both sides of the ball played with little emotion or heart. This team got outhustled, outhit, outworked, outcoached, and outplayed. This team played like a team that had quit on their coach and just did not care. Aren’t Andy Reid and Jim Johnson the guys who were the saviors in this town less than two years ago when they took the team to their first Super Bowl in almost 25 years?

The funny thing about watching all of this unfold is that, after a while, I just stopped caring. I mean, if the team was out there going through the motions and obviously did not care, why should I? Then I did something I do not ever remember doing before at an Eagles game. I left. With over 9 minutes left on the clock. 9:28 to be exact. The game was a 10 point game, and the Eagles had the ball. But the game was over. And for the first time ever, beating the traffic seemed like a better option that watching the team try futilely to pull a rabbit out of their hats.

Some dope (he was probably in Tampa last week, see description of those Philly fans in the 10/24 post) yelled at us on the way out that we were fake fans for leaving so early. After asking him if he knew how to spell the word fake, I pondered his assertion: that we were bad fans for leaving early. My answer: sort of. In his neanderthalish way, he does have a point. True fans live on die with their teams. They support them when they are up. They stick with them when they are down (although in Philly, by sticking with them, that means stay and boo). By leaving early, we did not do this.

At the same time, I flip it around and say that, as a true fan, I have the right to leave early if I see that the team, that I am supposedly living and dying with, quit on me first. And this Eagles team quit yesterday. So screw you upper deck guy. Watch the game to the bitter end if you want. Cost yourself an extra hour in traffic getting home. But this team did not earn that hour of my time yesterday, and I am not sure if they can get back on solid footing this year. They are heading towards the brutal part of their schedule once Thanksgiving hits. They need to go at least 5-3 if not 6-2 to make the playoffs. Unlikely at best. Which is a shame. It is a shame to get such great quarterback play (until yesterday) and waste that effort. It is a shame to waste of one the last productive years of Brian Dawkins career, who has played with nothing but heart during his time here and who is running out of precious opportunities. It is a shame to have the ability to be 8-0 but be 4-4 because of self induced mistakes followed up by a game without effort and pride.

Most of all, it is a shame that this team will be the 92nd straight team to play professional sports for the city of Philadelphia (big 4 sports only) without winning a championship.

Maybe next year…..