Pathetic Effort

Let's get this out of the way right up front: the refs fucked the Eagles today.  There's no other word for it.  From the first play to the last -- when Juqua Thomas was held -- the refs absolutely sucked today.  Complete bailout job.

With

   that

      said

This was a pathetic effort by the Eagles today.  The Bears are not a good team.  At all.  The Eagles dominated them in the first half and ended up with nine points.  Three field goals.  No touchdowns.

And when the offense finally stepped up and scored to put the Eagles ahead, the defense allowed the Bears to march easily down the field, 97 yards, for the game-winning touchdown.

This team is not making plays.  That's the difference between the good teams and the mediocre teams in the NFL.  The good teams have guys who make plays, the mediocre teams don't.  (The great teams and the shitty teams are another matter.) 

Right now, there are 1.21 guys on the Eagles who make plays.  The 1.0 would be Westbrook.  The 0.2 would be McNabb.  The 0.01 would be everyone else. 

There's a real and serious problem with this team, one that has nothing to do with playcalling, red zone efficiency or rolling over like ------- ------- when all you need is a three-and-out to win the game. 

The problem is that these guys are losers.

Week in, week out, they play just well enough to lose.  In fact, they often play better than their opponents, but they still end up finding a way to lose. 

L

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And that's a humongous problem, because while it may not be easy to establish a culture of winning in the NFL, it's 10 times harder to reestablish it once it goes away. 

That was a pathetic loss today, and for once, there really aren't any excuses.  Yeah, they're still missing LJ and Dawk, but every team has injury issues right now.  This team is healthy enough and they've been together long enough that there's no defense for an effort like that. 

With this loss, the road to the postseason just got insanely difficult.  Even the most optimistic fan would find it hard to argue that the Eagles can beat the Pats and do better than a split with the Cowboys, so that's your six losses right there.  No other margin for error.

Something has to change this week.  Whether it comes from the players or the coaches, something needs to be done.  A .500 record and waittilnextyear isn't what we signed up for this season.

What a waste.  And now this week is going to suck. 

Fucking Eagles.

Comments

[Boss Hot Sauce]

Throw out the Lions game. We won't see that kind of offense again. The real shame of it all is that the defense is doing their part... for the most part. I just want to know where the explosive plays are on either side of the ball. Two sacks called back for penalties. No interceptions. No forced fumbles. No plays being made. Of course, the offense is so bad it doesn't put teams in the position where they NEED to make plays. The Bears got to play it safe until their last possession, then we let them off the hook (again, no impact plays. No sacks and I think only one play where we stopped them in bounds short of a first down. Too easy).

[slackerjoe]

Wow, that was a bad loss.

I would be very interested in hearing Jim Johnson's comments following the game. I know they tried a few blitzes (that backfired) once the Bears got near midfield, but that was one of the worst game winning drives against the Eagles that I can ever remember.* I fully expected the Eagles defense to stop the Bears on that drive and I was stunned that they moved down the field and scored so easily.

As you said, we seem to be missing the "big-play" players on defense. The two big plays by the Eagles defense were both overturned by penalties: the phantom James holding call and the bizarre non-fumble bad snap). So basically, the defense made no big plays all day. On 3rd and goal from the 1 yd line, luckily Griese slipped and fell otherwise it very easily could have been another TD. Considering the talent of the Bears offense, giving up 19 points is a bad day at the office.

By the way, I am really not looking forward to all the Kevin Kolb talk that's going to start up pretty soon here.

*I seem to remember two pretty bad game winning drives against the Eagles by the St. Louis Cardinals during the Buddy Ryan era, but since 1990, I'm racking my brain to find a worse regular season loss on the last drive.

[Paul]

I was at the game and what pissed me off most about this loss was watching Lito and Kearse joking around out there on the field 2 minutes after the Bears scored that touchdown. I lost a lot of respect for those two after that.

As fans we invest so much god damn emotion into this team and we expect the players to do the same, but they don't. There are a handful of players who I feel actually care about this team as much as the fans do. One being B-Dawk, and another currently on the Tampa Bay roster, Trot. I'd consider throwing Sheldon in there, just from his display of emotion week in and week out.

All the rest are in it for the money. Which is fine because it's their job, but take pride in what you do and show some heart out there. What a joke...GO FLYERS!!

[Paul]

Oh, and slackerjoe...

Del Greco's last second 50-yard field goal in 2000 and the 63 yarder for Tampa last year come to mind.

Probably not quite as bad as this though. Since this one pretty much ends our season.