tr1
October-22nd-2007, 07:04 AM
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/256-10222007-1427636.html
Put aside the rationalizing and references to recent history spinning out of the Eagles' locker room last night, and understand something right now:
No team that allows the NFL's 28th-ranked offense — led by a backup quarterback without a timeout at his disposal — to drive 97 yards for the game-winning touchdown with less than two minutes left in regulation can seriously be considered a playoff contender.
Understand that, because the Eagles don't. They said all the proper things about not giving up and not letting Brian Griese-to-Muhsin Muhammad ruin their season and kill their collective confidence, because really, what else were they going to say? Donovan McNabb keeps insisting the road to the top of the NFC East runs through Philadelphia, and Sheldon Brown keeps speaking of minimizing mistakes, and it's all so much noise, the notion that the Eagles are close to turning everything around. They're not. They're 2-4, on merit.
Bears 19, Eagles 16.
Welcome to hockey season.
“We have great leadership,” said safety Sean Considine, who was covering Muhammad when he caught that 15-yard TD pass from Griese with nine seconds to go. “Unfortunately, it's not the first time we've let something like this happen. We're going to see what type of team we are and see how strong we come out of this.”
Really, that's been the issue with the Eagles all season: They have played and coached as if they believe they are something they are not. Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg call plays as if McNabb were still a 26-year-old, healthy, mobile quarterback. Reid sends out Greg Lewis and J.R. Reed to return punts as if each were the reincarnation of Brian Mitchell. All of them talk as if their inability to score touchdowns once they get inside an opponent's 20-yard line were a 48-hour flu bug that they'll simply shake, when they've been inept in such situations all season, with few signs of improvement. And now, these players claim they'll draw on some inner strength, some reservoir of resolve, to get them through these tough times, when the truth is, they haven't shown much of that strength this season.
They've gritted their teeth to get one win, to beat a gimpy-armed Chad Pennington and the lowly New York Jets last week. Aside from that, when have these Eagles displayed the intangibles and resilience that once defined them? When they were dropping punts against Green Bay? When they turned their quarterback into a tackling dummy against the New York Giants? When they made the mediocre Bears — with the neat symmetry of having the league's 28th-best offense and 28th-best defense — look like the defending NFC champions again? Consider: It took John Elway 5 minutes to complete “The Drive,” the Denver Broncos' famous 98-yard march to tie the 1987 AFC Championship Game. Griese needed less than half as much time to beat the Birds.
“This might be the worst one right here,” defensive end Juqua Thomas said. “We had the game won.”
Yes, they did, which makes it worse than either of their 27-24 losses to New Orleans last season, or even that stunning 23-21 loss in Tampa on Matt Bryant's 62-yard field goal.
The Saints were the better team then, and a 62-yard field goal is a freak thing, a bolt from the blue that doesn't have the implications that this defeat did. By comparison, yesterday's was a slow unraveling, a more excruciating collapse and a more revealing development. This wasn't a once-in-a-generation kick by a journeyman. This was a 97-yard torture chamber, play after play of incompetence until Griese held off Thomas, twisting his torso to heave the football to Muhammad in the back of the end zone — a total meltdown by a team that couldn't meet the measure of the moment on offense or defense.
“When everybody ain't working and functioning, you can't win games,” defensive end Trent Cole said. “Say the offense is down and the defense is doing something. We've got to put in on our backs and try to win the game. ... I couldn't believe it. We let them get from the 3-yard line to a touchdown. That's not Eagles defense.”
There it is again: that presumption of a carryover from year to year. That's not today's NFL. Even the best teams retool annually. The Colts did last year, adjusting their offense, running the ball more, and it led to a Super Bowl victory. The Patriots did, bringing in the best wide receivers Tom Brady's ever had, and they look darn near unbeatable now. These Eagles are different, too, but in all the wrong ways. They banked on everything staying the same, and right now, they're bound for nowhere.
“Nothing's impossible,” Andy Reid said.
He would know.
His team just proved it.
Put aside the rationalizing and references to recent history spinning out of the Eagles' locker room last night, and understand something right now:
No team that allows the NFL's 28th-ranked offense — led by a backup quarterback without a timeout at his disposal — to drive 97 yards for the game-winning touchdown with less than two minutes left in regulation can seriously be considered a playoff contender.
Understand that, because the Eagles don't. They said all the proper things about not giving up and not letting Brian Griese-to-Muhsin Muhammad ruin their season and kill their collective confidence, because really, what else were they going to say? Donovan McNabb keeps insisting the road to the top of the NFC East runs through Philadelphia, and Sheldon Brown keeps speaking of minimizing mistakes, and it's all so much noise, the notion that the Eagles are close to turning everything around. They're not. They're 2-4, on merit.
Bears 19, Eagles 16.
Welcome to hockey season.
“We have great leadership,” said safety Sean Considine, who was covering Muhammad when he caught that 15-yard TD pass from Griese with nine seconds to go. “Unfortunately, it's not the first time we've let something like this happen. We're going to see what type of team we are and see how strong we come out of this.”
Really, that's been the issue with the Eagles all season: They have played and coached as if they believe they are something they are not. Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg call plays as if McNabb were still a 26-year-old, healthy, mobile quarterback. Reid sends out Greg Lewis and J.R. Reed to return punts as if each were the reincarnation of Brian Mitchell. All of them talk as if their inability to score touchdowns once they get inside an opponent's 20-yard line were a 48-hour flu bug that they'll simply shake, when they've been inept in such situations all season, with few signs of improvement. And now, these players claim they'll draw on some inner strength, some reservoir of resolve, to get them through these tough times, when the truth is, they haven't shown much of that strength this season.
They've gritted their teeth to get one win, to beat a gimpy-armed Chad Pennington and the lowly New York Jets last week. Aside from that, when have these Eagles displayed the intangibles and resilience that once defined them? When they were dropping punts against Green Bay? When they turned their quarterback into a tackling dummy against the New York Giants? When they made the mediocre Bears — with the neat symmetry of having the league's 28th-best offense and 28th-best defense — look like the defending NFC champions again? Consider: It took John Elway 5 minutes to complete “The Drive,” the Denver Broncos' famous 98-yard march to tie the 1987 AFC Championship Game. Griese needed less than half as much time to beat the Birds.
“This might be the worst one right here,” defensive end Juqua Thomas said. “We had the game won.”
Yes, they did, which makes it worse than either of their 27-24 losses to New Orleans last season, or even that stunning 23-21 loss in Tampa on Matt Bryant's 62-yard field goal.
The Saints were the better team then, and a 62-yard field goal is a freak thing, a bolt from the blue that doesn't have the implications that this defeat did. By comparison, yesterday's was a slow unraveling, a more excruciating collapse and a more revealing development. This wasn't a once-in-a-generation kick by a journeyman. This was a 97-yard torture chamber, play after play of incompetence until Griese held off Thomas, twisting his torso to heave the football to Muhammad in the back of the end zone — a total meltdown by a team that couldn't meet the measure of the moment on offense or defense.
“When everybody ain't working and functioning, you can't win games,” defensive end Trent Cole said. “Say the offense is down and the defense is doing something. We've got to put in on our backs and try to win the game. ... I couldn't believe it. We let them get from the 3-yard line to a touchdown. That's not Eagles defense.”
There it is again: that presumption of a carryover from year to year. That's not today's NFL. Even the best teams retool annually. The Colts did last year, adjusting their offense, running the ball more, and it led to a Super Bowl victory. The Patriots did, bringing in the best wide receivers Tom Brady's ever had, and they look darn near unbeatable now. These Eagles are different, too, but in all the wrong ways. They banked on everything staying the same, and right now, they're bound for nowhere.
“Nothing's impossible,” Andy Reid said.
He would know.
His team just proved it.