All Philly Steak and No Cheese
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by Kroberts
The Philadelphia Eagles really blew a huge opportunity last night. Not only did they fail to get over the hump and break .500, but they blew what could have truly been a season changing game.
It took a McNabb-less offense to nearly derail the Patriots for the first time this season, yet it was that same offense late in the game that killed them. I give A.J. Feeley all the credit in the world for coming in for his first start since being with the Dolphins, but he really messed up. He overthrew Kevin Curtis and hung him out to dry on a play that should never have happened. I don't know if that was the play call or not, but regardless of whether or not it was, Feeley should have used better discretion. The Eagles were in perfect position to run out the clock a bit and settle for a tie. I mean, they have Brian Westbrook, for goodness sake. The least they could do is try some slants or dumping it off to Westbrook. But instead, they got greedy after playing a nearly flawless offensive game, and went for gold to Curtis in the end-zone.
With that said, I'm already tired of watching ESPN analysts pick apart this game as if it were the Super Bowl and the Eagles were some grand underdog geniuses that barely came up short. While they were in fact huge underdogs (23 points) and they did barely lose, they have only themselves to thank for letting New England back in it. That's a big reason why this team is 5-6 and most likely spend the remaining games of the regular season struggling to get to .500. They lack the killer instinct to beat a team as good as New England, much less any of the upper-tier NFC teams.
I'm an unbiased non-Philly fan, and can easily say that they just lost their season. It's very debatable that they would have been better off getting blown out by the Pats, rather than come so close and lose it at the very end. This loss will undoubtedly hang over into next week's match-up with an up and coming squad in the Seattle Seahawks. And with a 5-7 record at that point, 8-8 alone will be a nearly insurmountable task.
My hat goes off to Jim Johnson's defensive schemes, keeping Brady very non-Brady-esque, as well as Andy Reid's steady play-calling. Unfortunately, all that hard work will only go down as the game that helped future Patriot opponents learn how to stop them. Not a game that saved their season.
