Eagles Wrap Up

The Eagles season is over, once again ending without a championship, as it has during every year since 1960. You have seen me write many times in this space that it is never O.K. to settle for anything less than a championship, that we in Philadelphia have had many come close (7 finalists in the four major sports since the 1983 Sixers title) and that close only counts in horseshoes.

After watching the second half of this Eagles season unfold, I add the following amendment to what I have said in the past: when you are 5-6, with every piece of momentum rolling against you, and your star franchise player is out for the year, and you have an impossible schedule staring you in the face, and you have a replacement quarterback that was not wanted by Cleveland and Detroit for God sakes, then less than a title is acceptable. In that case, winning your last five regular season games, including three in a row on the road against each of your division rivals, led by said quarterback who proves to be a gritty leader, then winning a playoff game, and almost winning on the road in the divisional round against a team that has karma on its side after everything that city went through last year, and, most importantly, enabling all their fans to believe in them again is more than enough.

The 2006 Philadelphia Eagles exceeded my expectations, despite the fact that I expected them to go to the Super Bowl this year.

Andy Reid did a great job in making changes on the run this year, playing to the strengths of his active players despite being against his natural tendencies. He made the right choice at quarterback after McNabb went down, despite 80%+ of the fans thinking he had eaten one too many cheesesteaks. He made the right decision to relinquish the play calling duties since he was not making the right decisions. Marty Mornhinweg did a splendid job calling those plays, balancing the run and the pass in a way that Philadelphia had not seen since the Reid era begun (the interesting question will be whether they maintain that healthy balance when #5 re-enters the huddle next season). Jim Johnston did a great job masking holes in his defensive unit that ultimately proved their undoing in the playoffs.

All the coaches and players did a fabulous job of coming together during a time of turmoil, when the easier and more likely outcome would have been to bicker, point fingers, and fall apart at the seams. Instead, this team came together and proved that sometimes it is true that the whole can add up to more than the sum of its parts. During the latter part of the season, not only was this team winning, but they were doing it as one, together, and they were as eminently likable as any Philadelphia team since perhaps the 1993 Phillies.

There is, as you would expect, much talk and blame coming from the fans regarding the Birds loss to the Saints this past weekend. Everybody is quick to blame Andy Reid for punting on 4th & 15, especially after having gone for it on 4th & 10. Personally, I have no issues whatsoever with the decision that the coach made. In fact I agree with it wholeheartedly, and would even like to present evidence to support that point. In the NFL this season, teams faced 4th & 15 or longer and went for it a total of 19 times. They were successful on one of those occasions, for a success rate of 5.3%. Surely, punting the ball, pinning the Saints deep in their own territory, and playing defense when you knew, I knew, and everyone in the stadium knew the Saints would run the ball was a better option. Armed with timeouts, the Eagles stood to get the ball back in great field position with more than a minute left if they could only stop them from getting a first down. They didn’t do that, but I maintain that there percentages of succeeding were far better than 5.3%.

Last week, I said both in this space and on the George Rogers Show (http://georgerogersradio.com/) that the Eagles needed to do three things to win the game. They needed to stop the run and make the Saints defense one dimensional, win the turnover battle and control the ball with time consuming drives. They won the turnover battle 1-to-0 and took great care of the ball. They, however, failed miserably in the other two areas.

The Eagles controlled the ball for 50 plays, versus 69 for the Saints. Two of their three touchdowns cam on plays f over 60 yards. They only had one drive all day that was 10 plays or more. That was not giving Jim Johnson enough to work with in his efforts to continue to disguise the holes.

As far as stopping the run, they did a terrible job there from beginning to end, giving up 208 yards on 37 carries. What was a glaring weakness for this team for much of the season turned out to be their fatal flaw when all was said and done.

Next season, this Eagles team should again be a contender, but they need a few things to happen in order to get them over the hump:

• They need Donovan McNabb to be back, healthy and confident. Garcia was a wonderful story this season, but he cannot guide a team to a Super Bowl over the course of a long season.
• They need to see the success they had with balancing the run and the pass and stick with that formula.
• They need to re-sign Garcia as a back-up to #5
• They need to re-sign Donte Stallworth or bring in another legitimate wide receiver.
• They need to focus their free agent signings and draft on their defense. Defensive tackle who can stop the run (maybe Bunkley?), linebacking help, and a replacement for Michael Lewis, who will clearly not be back.
• Keep the positive unity and team bonding together.
• Win

I will be back on Friday morning with my picks for this weekend.