The loss was baffling to the Eagles. Critics wondered about the lack of urgency during the Eagles’ fourth-quarter touchdown drive that resulted in a 30-yard touchdown pass to Greg Lewis with 1:55 left. Down by 10 points with 5:40 left in regulation, McNabb and the Eagles didn’t go into a no-huddle offense. The Eagles ate up too much clock on that 13-play, 79-yard touchdown drive.
“I don’t know what happened,” Eagles tight end L.J. Smith said.
The Eagles were unable to explain their clock management at the end of the game.
“Well, we were trying to hurry up,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said. “It was the way things worked out.”
Durrrrrrrrr… oops!
The beleaguered Eagles coach took even more criticism at the end of the first half. The Eagles, with the scored tied 7-7, had the ball at their 19-yard line with 1:10 left. Donovan McNabb completed a 10-yard pass to Todd Pinkston, but Reid didn’t call a timeout. The clock went from 43 seconds to 17. McNabb hit Pinkston for a 15-yard completion, and Reid called his first timeout of the half.
Suddenly, the Eagles were at their 41-yard line when maybe they could have gotten in range for a David Akers field goal. Instead, they ended up having two unused timeouts and had to answer questions from the media.
“I don’t remember that at all, to be honest with you,” Reid said of the halftime question.
I’m gonna cut Andy a lot of slack. It’s not like he’s the head of a bunch of coaches or has a ton of assistants helping him out in a big important game or anything. Oh wait…
Absolutely right. The blame goes to McNabb for throwing that ball in the first place… it’s not Westbrook’s job to decide what ball to catch. If it’s thrown to him, he catches it if he can. Things like that are decisions the quarterback makes.
It’s funny, my friend Kyle and I were playing ESPN NFL 2K5 before the game and did a Pats-Eagles match-up in one of the matches.
I’d been having considerable success running the ball against Kyle, but I was utterly unable to do it with Westbrook. In fact, I ended up losing yards so many times I started referring to him as “Westbitch”.
Funny, that name stuck for the Super Bowl matchup :/
I don’t want to pick on you too much bags, so I’ll leave this one alone.
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ROOFLES
Dude, did you not see that would-be TD pass to Westbrook that didn’t happen because of a bad throw? Normally, McNabb would have made that. That alone would have put us up by four, even if he still made the rest of those bad throws, we still didn’t pass to T.O. enough, etc.[/quote]
Bags.
BAGS.
The Eagles lost. I…I hate to be the one to tell you.
If Brady hadn’t fumbled near the goal line, the Pats may have won by 10 - I mean, 3 still, accounting for your “if.” Do you think the Patriots would have played their last possession so safe if they were down 4? Could the Patriots have moved the ball easily on the beleaguered Eagles’ D to score the winning TD? Yes, the Eagles almost won. So did the Panthers, Rams, and Titans. It’s great they hung in there and only lost by 3. They had more opportunities than that one play to get ahead or even tie, and they blew all of them. The Eagles played the worst 2-minute drills at the end of both halves that I’ve seen in any close Superbowl game. It’s comforting to console yourself with the fact that if one play was different, the Eagles would have won, but that play didn’t occur in a vacuum. The game would not have played the exact same way if the Eagles had taken the lead.
All I’m saying is that it was presumed by many that the Patriots were simply a better team, and that they would destroy us. Instead, I think it’s clear to anyone who watched the game last night, but especially to anyone who’s been watching the Eagles at all this season, that they are not a better team, that they only barely edged us out, and that we were not playing up to the standard that we set with this season/postseason. Therefore, don’t be surprised to see us take it next time.
Also, is it me, or are the Patriots the whitest god damned team in the league? Even the very few black guys they have are about the whitest black guys you’ll ever see whose first name doesn’t rhyme with “blondie.”
I hate this ‘the better team didn’t win’ mentality. Yeah the Eagles had an off game, but the Pats weren’t exactly playing to their best either. I was actually kind of surprised at the level of play of both teams. Look how both these teams played in the playoffs v. the superbowl.
The Eagles have more marquee-style talent, maybe, but it’s silly to call them the “better team” when the Eagles were the ones who made more mistakes, failed to capitalize on opportunities, made huge coaching mistakes, didn’t play as well as a team and lost the game.
But yeah, you’re right, the Eagles will come back next year most likely. Hopefully wiser.
I thought McNabb was terrible for the most part. He did nothing with his legs and his passing was crappy. If the guy isn’t going to generate some yardage with scrambles the Eagles might as well get another QB who can throw with more accuracy. He’s never been a good pocket passer. I doubt he ever will be.
Both defenses played well. It wasn’t a particulary exciting game – the Eagles killed the 4th quarter drama with their “no-hurry” offense. That was one of the most baffling things I’ve seen in a big game.
Westbrook is a good player, but the Eagles are lacking in the rushing game. He’s not a premier rusher. They really needed someone to generate a rushing attack and they didn’t have anyone to turn to.
I was impressed with the way Owens played. He had a big game when no one was sure he could even be effective.
And yeah, the commercials were lame this year. Oh well, football’s done now. On to the Stanley Cup playoffs!
I didn’t. And wow, that’s not all what you’re saying.
Seriously, dude. Seriously. Nobody outside of Philadelphia’s city limits is saying that. No offense, but it’s a dumb thing to say. The team that lost to a team getting its third Superbowl win in four years is the better team? It’s great that you’re a big Philly fan, no shame there, but wow. The rules of professional sports are thus: if the team that is favored to win wins, there is no basis left to call the losing team (that was expected to lose) better.
Yeah but…they won.
Yeah…neither did they. Neither team had their A game going most of the game. That’s football, that’s sports for you. It gives you or any fan of a losing team a measure of consolation and rationalization, but that’s it. There is no asterisk next to this victory. Nobody cheated, the refs didn’t screw up a key play. Both teams played a little clunkier than they should have, but the Patriots scored more points and kept the Eagles from scoring the winning points at the end. They won, they deserved to win, it was legal and legitimate.
I’ve yet to be surprised to see the Eagles in the playoffs since McNabb took them there the first time. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see them win it at some point. I doubt they will next year, unless they break a long-running trend that has the losing Superbowl team be lucky to even make the playoffs the following year.
And your bizarre What’s-With-Them-Whitey-Patriots? thing is, well, bizarre to say the least. Jason Levine is right, the only reason could possibly be because of Vrabel and Bruschi. Offensive lines are often all white guys. The secondary is all black dudes. The WR corps are all black dudes, really black dudes to counter your peripheral, even stranger, argument.
Man, ain’t that the truth. If you’re going to go with an offensive plan like the Eagles have been using, what’s the point of having a guy like McNabb at the most important position? Then again, what sort of offense could McNabb truly run effectively? He doesn’t scramble particularly well anymore. His arm is no hell, and neither is his vision.
Swap QBs yesterday and the Eagles win that game, maybe going away. And I don’t think Brady is the second coming of Joe Montana, either. There are at least six or seven QBs in the league today who would be better options for the Eagles than McNabb.
As for next year, I think the Eagles will drop back in the pack. Competition in the NFC will be stronger, that you can almost guarantee. I mean, how could it be any worse than it was this past season?
I didn’t say the Eagles were a better team. I said that the Patriots were not a better team. Meaning that they’re about evenly matched, and that the game could have gone either way.
And Bill, I’m not saying there’s an asterisk next to the win or that it was illegitimate or anything like that, only that three points isn’t the kind of decisive slam-it-down-your-throat victory that most people seemed to be predicting.
And I guess I don’t know what to say about the white thing. They just seemed to have a lot more white guys than I’m used to seeing. Maybe it’s an AFC thing?
