Eagles of a feather

By Os Davis  |   Monday, January 15, 2007  |  Comments( 4 )

Philadelphia Eagles
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Along the way to the divisional round Saturday night, the Philadelphia Eagles' season was filled with fits, starts, ups, downs, questions, answers but always, always an unpredictability doled out in equal parts edge-of-your-seat exciting and head-scratchingly frustrating.

But New Orleans Saints 27, Philadelphia 24 revealed the Eagles doing as the Eagles are, and the season finished thanks to two old bugaboos that have haunted this team throughout the Andy Reid Era: Questionable coaching vis-à-vis clock management and penalties.

Everything was working as it should for this team that Donovan McNabb (who?) proclaimed "a Super Bowl team" at season's beginning. Yes, the bone-tired 'D' couldn't stop Reggie Bush most of the time and Deuce McAllister all of the time, but managed to keep the Eagles in this game.

(Ironically, the best Eagle defensive stand in the game may have been on the Saints' first possession in the fourth quarter. After David Akers' field goal made it a three-point game. Needing the defensive stand, Philly got New Orleans to go three-and-out: sack for minus-6, pass for no gain, incomplete pass. Unfortunately, the Philly 'O' went out there to go three-and-out.)

Brian Westbrook contributed how he needed to, matching Deuce's heroics with a sweet stat line of 13 carries for 116 yards, plus two TDs on a Sergei Bubka goal-line leap and a 62-yarder. Jeff Garcia was as awesome as ever, looking like John Elway when finding Donte' Stallworth on his third-time charming attempt for a simply great 75-yarder. And when Bush got the ball knocked out of his hands late in the fourth, yours truly was ready to write up a warning to the remaining contenders, for fear that the Eagles had pulled an outstanding capacity for The Big Play out of their collective derriere.

But no. Penalties dogged them along the way, and the season itself was whimpered away with one killer of a call. Bad enough was the illegal contact call on Dhani Jones that erased a Trent Cole sack and a second-and-27 from just outside field goal range to a first-and-10 from the Saints - a play that led to the fatal touchdown. Bad enough was the holding penalty that erased Garcia's mad 22-yard dash on the first play of the fourth.

In a game already packed with lead switches and clutch play, Garcia, about to be anointed a Miracle Worker by journalists everywhere with our fingers poised millimeters from keyboards, did it again. On fourth-and-10, St. Jeff connected with nearly-unknown rookie WR (and former University of New Mexico Lobo) Hank Baskett for 24 yards. First down, and the feeling that the Saints would not stop this Eagle team that had all the magic.

But no. "False start, number 71, offense." And the last Eagle highlight clip for the 2006-2007 season did not feature Garcia or Reid or Stallworth or Westbrook or my man Baskett or anyone in midnight green, but rather the dude in black and white: Mike Carey.

And here's the other thing: Why, why, why did Reid punt on fourth-and-15? He'd already put the entire season on the line on fourth-and-10. Yes, an argument can be made for the fact that few plays are designed to pick 15 yards, while relatively many are made to pick up 10. Plus, the Eagles' first time out had been burned during the same kind of long drive New Orleans used to beat Philly in Week 6, presumably to give the 'D' a breather -- a tactic that seemed to have oddly worked, as the Eagles recovered the fumble on the next play.

In any event, with only two timeouts left, the Eagles would have had about 67 seconds maximum with possibly better field position than that of the punting play. After all, Reid must have known that the play call would be McAllister run, McAllister run, McAllister run. Everyone did, right? Reid must have known that his defense had finally reached its limits, having been out there too long, having been too freaking pounded by the unstoppable Deuce.

Oh, Andy, the 'O' was hot. Garcia was going to win it for you. You still had just under two minutes and two timeouts.

But I guess an Eagle never changes its spots. Or something like that.

RealFootball365.com: Where we offer congratulations to the New Orleans Saints, condolences to the excellent Philadelphia Eagles, and thanks to both for a killer playoff game.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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CommentsComments: 4  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
Mike		01:48 PM
01/15/2007
I agree, it was a great game. But as a lifelong Bird fan, I have to say that the Silver and Green will never win a Super Bowl...
No.2
fr8ttrain		04:14 PM
01/15/2007
Getting to the Divisional Round was a miracle run for the Eagles. There should be no shame! If you thought they were going to run...
No.3
Don		10:48 PM
01/15/2007
Getting to the Divisional round was not a miracle but a team coming together in the face of adversity and rallying behind its 3...
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