Cincinnati Trip

For my first post, I figured I would share about the road trip my cousin Craig & I took this year. The weekend of November 15 & 16, we made the trip west to my old college stomping grounds & went to the Eagles v. Bengals game in Cincinnati, OH. Above is a picture of our view for the game. In case you forgot, this was the infamous tie that Donovan McNabb did not know could occur. One of my lasting memories of this game was the prediction my cousin made with about 7:00 left in the game. The Eagles were losing 13-10 at the time, but they had the ball and were driving. Craig’s words were, “You know what’s gonna happen. They’ll hold us to a field goal; the game will go into overtime & the way these teams are playing, it’ll end in a tie.” How true & how prophetic.

We took several pictures of the action that day. How fitting was it that the best one was of the defense bearing down, trying to pin the Bengals deep in their territory. That picture is to the right.

Now that the Eagles are in the NFC Championship Game, it almost seems like a distant memory. The Bengals game together with the Ravens game which followed the next week were certainly the low point of the season. Amazingly, the Eagles now stand one game from the Superbowl. However, in reflecting on that Bengals game, I must now admit that if it weren’t for that tie, I don’t think the Eagles would be where they are now. We all know now that if they would have lost that game, they would have been tied with the Cowboys, Buccaneers and Bears and they would have been out of the playoffs on the tie breakers. However, if they would have won, I don’t think Donovan gets benched the next week, and whether he wants to admit it or not, the benching in Baltimore was clearly the turning point for Donovan and the team as a whole.

Maybe I’m just trying to find the silver lining in what was a miserable game. Although, my response to Craig after the game was, “Hey, at least we’re still undefeated in our road trips.” We’re now 2-0-1 when following the Eagles on the road. Below is one more picture: the frustrating scoreboard at the end of the game.