New Ways to Lose

Who says the Eagles aren't creative?  They keep coming up with new ways to lose every week. 

C'mon, a terrible no-call by the refs, a three-and-out forced by the defense, a snappy(ish) drive down the field and then one of the most painful misses in Akers' career?  That's a new one. 

I mean, that kick would have been good from 65.  It just cut a little too far right at the last second.   

Of course, if he'd made it, who thinks the Eagles would have won in OT?  As bad as their coverage units were playing, they probably would have lost the toss, kicked to the Giants, and given up a 50-yard return that put the Giants in one-first-down-and-kick-a-field-goal range. 

There's just something off with this team.  After two weeks of the A.J. Feeley experience, it was nice having a quarterback who remembered which color jersey his team was wearing, but the results still weren't pretty.  They kept showing replays of the guys running their routes with Moose saying, "There's just nowhere to go with the ball."  Well, to me, there looked like there were lots of places to go with the ball.  Those guys were a lot more open today than they were against the Patriots.  McNabb just wouldn't pull the trigger.

Dawk played his butt off today, jawing at everyone from the first snap to the last, trying to get everyone else to play with some fire for a change.

Didn't work.

Westbrook put up 154 yards from scrimmage and made something out of nothing on play after play. 

Wasn't enough.

Reid and Mornhinweg even obliged all the folks (like yours truly) who have been arguing that the best gameplan for the Eagles was to run run run and only pass when the running game had opened things up downfield.

Nope, that didn't work either.  The Eagles couldn't get anything going downfield.  I think I can remember one play -- ONE -- before the last desperation drive where the receiver caught a ball when he wasn't coming back to the quarterback.  Everything was herky-jerky, there was no fluidity.

Honestly, I'm going to be a little disappointed if Reid doesn't bring up the whole playcalling balance issue in his press conference this week.  "Happy now, guys?  You wanted us to run and look what happened, we still can't score."

Damn.

Damn.  Damn.  Damn.

'Tis the season to start thinking about the draft.  Maybe this time we can draft at least one guy who can contribute next season.

Damn.

Comments

[BrianS]

I expected Akers to miss. But I expected him to miss waaaaay short.

It's going to take a lot of beer to work up the willpower to even watch next week's game.

[BenZ]

Yeeeeeeessssshhhhh.
Well, as much as we've bitched and moaned this season, Andy's mockable "We're a hair off" at the beginning of the year might actually be accurate; we've only lost one game that was out of our hands-- that was to Dallas. It's easy to conceive this team being 11-2 and us all saying, "Isn't it great how they manage to pull it all together and win?" Instead, they're the most talented 5-8 team in the world and therefore the most frustrating to root for. They're not so out of it that we can get excited about the great #3 pick they're gonna get-- no, instead, they're going to be competitive in every game, and show you flourishes of greatness. I mean, that first drive? That was ridiculous.
It makes me appreciate when commentators talk about intangibles. Right now, the Eagles are the worst team in the NFL at intangibles.