What Went Wrong for the Eagles

Well, Andy Reid’s going to Hawaii again! (For those of you who don’t know, the losing coaches in the conference championship games coach their respective conferences in the Pro-Bowl.) This will be the 4th time in 8 years he has had that honor. Personally, I’m getting sick of it. I’m still a little bitter, can you tell? I’m sorry that this post has taken longer than some of you would have liked, but I needed 24 hours to decompress after that gut-wrenching loss. If I’m going to be “rational” I need to allow some time for me to write somewhat objectively.

So, what went wrong? I know that there will be a lot of discussions in the media (and maybe even by me later) that Donovan came up small when it counted on the last drive, but I think the bulk of the blame for this game rests on the defense. It was the defense which came out flat in the first half and surrendered 24 points. It was the defense that after the offense finally took the lead, had to stop the Cardinals and gave up a grueling 14 play, 72 yard drive that took 7 minutes 52 seconds off the clock. Say what you want about the game yesterday, but that was a drive that champions make and Kurt Warner proved he is a champion. In all my analysis, I think I underrated his role on the Cardinals and his importance in the game. Except for the 3rd quarter, the Eagles did not get the pressure on him that they needed and it showed.

I’ll go back to what I said last week, I was concerned about over confidence and playing like they had already made it because they beat the Giants. The way the defense came out and played flat, I think they had nothing left to play after dominating the Giants the week before. I guess maybe that confirms the explanation of that stat I referenced last week that teams that beat the reigning Superbowl Champs are (now) 0-12 the next week. I don’t mean to say that I told you so, but when the Eagles continued to give Larry Fitzgerald a free release from the line of scrimmage, I knew it wasn’t going to be good. What happened? Just 9 catches for 152 yards and 3 touchdowns. There were a few times that they jammed him, but for the most part they played off him in that soft zone that they like to play. On especially the 2 touchdowns where the Cardinals were in the red zone, the play was based on timing and Fitzgerald getting a free release allowed him to be exactly where he was supposed to be when Warner wanted to throw the ball. Warner and Fitzgerald were both comfortable and that was a deadly combination.

All that said, they still had a chance to comeback in the second half and they came up short. After the game was over, I said that I almost wish that they had not come back, because it was much more gut wrenching that they had the lead and then let it get away. I give them credit for not quitting. I have been critical of Andy Reid over the years, but one thing you usually cannot say is that his team quit. Unfortunately, one thing I do find myself saying a lot is that they cannot finish either.

So, where do we go from here? This was a tough loss to take. I heard someone on the radio say it was toughest of all the NFC Championship Game losses to take. I disagree. I still think the loss in 2002-03 to the Buccaneers was the toughest because that was our best chance to win a Superbowl. If we would have won yesterday, I think we would have had a tough time with the Steelers in two weeks. That being said, this may be the second toughest, if only because it seemed like everything had lined up perfectly for them and they didn’t take full advantage.

As we go through the off season, I’ll comment on what I think they need to do moving forward (i.e. do they resign McNabb?). For now, we’ll just have to repeat Philadelphia’s favorite mantra – “There’s always next year.”