That Was UnBEARable

"Dammit!" The one word simultaneously muttered by every fan who watched their beloved Eagles snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on Sunday afternoon. The Bears, trailing by 4 with under two minutes to play and no time outs remaining, orchestrated an 11-play, 97-yard drive which was capped off by a 15-yard touchdown pass from Brian Griese to Muhsin Muhammad with nine seconds remaining. The Eagles defense kept the Griese-lead Chicago offense contained all day, allowing 12 points on four field goals, despite defending a short field for the entire game, as the Philadelphia coaching staff wisely chose to kick off and punt short and away from special teams phenom known as Devin Hester. The Bears rushed for a total of 72 yards, and before the final drive, Griese had only completed 18 of 30 passes for 225 yards and no touchdowns. A good day for any defense. But the Bears' final drive did take place, and the Eagles head into Minnesota to face the league's top run defense as well as the NFL's leading rusher, rookie sensation Adrian Peterson.
Despite giving up the 97-yard drive and game winning score, the defense really cannot be held responsible for the unlikely loss to Chicago. After finally scoring the game's first touchdown midway through the fourth quarter, and ending an 0-for-7 redzone TDless streak, the Birds' D forced a 3-and-out and returned the ball to the offense with 4:02 remaining in the game. Conventional wisdom (aka: common sense OR unwritten football rules, take your pick) says run the ball, kill the clock, go home winners, Eagles are 3-3. But no. Andy, Marty and whatever other jackass has a say in the offensive play-calling decided passing was the best way to beat Chicago, despite Westbrook and Buckhalter averaging 5.4 yards per carry on the season, and the knowledge that the Bears were one of the worst rush defenses in the league (see Adrian Peterson's week 6 performance). So after deciding to forego the run in time-wasting situations in the fourth quarter, the offense was forced to punt the ball back to Chicago after six plays, four of which were designed passes (incomplete, 9-yard scramble, sack, 8-yard completion on 3rd & 17). Punter Sav Rocca was given explicit instructions not to punt near Devin Hester and gave kicking for accuracy his best shot and averaged 28 yards on 4 punts, but was able to boot a 43-yarder out of bounds at Chicago's 3-yard line with 1:52 remaining. But that was not enough, as the Eagles defense, worn down from defending a very short field in the wake of keeping the ball away from Hester, surrendered only their eight touchdown of the season, but it was the deciding score in this showdown of former NFC Champions.
The list of deficiencies with this team is long and well documented. The lack of a tight end and "power back" has resulted in a low red-zone scoring rate. The lack of explosiveness in the return game has resulted in losing the field position battle every week. The lack of a mobile quarterback has resulted in lackluster production from a receivng corps that needs their QB to buy them extra time to seperate from defenders. But most troubling of all is the lack of improvement, in all phases of the game, shown week to week. The receivers, except for the occassional burst from Curtis, haven't made any more plays than they were making before the bye week. Donovan McNabb still hasn't realized he has little-to-none of his pre-injury speed and needs to release the ball and avoid negative plays. The defense, although playing well and denying opposing offenses points, isn't providing the BIG plays (sacks, interceptions, fumble recoveries) that will set up the offense with the field position it needs. The special teams have improved more than any other phase since week 1, and that assessment is based solely on the fact that the special teams haven't turned the ball over since week one. The return game has not provided much of a spark. The coaching seems to have flatlined. Play-calling, personnel decisions, preparing the team to play football, it does not seem like Andy Reid and his staff are profecient in any one of these categories. Brian Westbrook, the team's best (only) chance to score is not being given the ball inside the 20. Trent Cole, the team's best pass rusher, was not on the field for part of the Bears' final drive. Passing in the final four minutes of a game, while leading, is simply bewildering. Not only was passing a bad call, but it lost the game for the Eagles. Not carrying an experienced punt returner into the opening day of the season lost the game in Green Bay. Refusing to run the ball against the Giants and allowing Winston Justice to play matador to Osi Umenyiora's not only cost the Eagles the game, but could have cost Donovan McNabb yet another season to injury. Three games, three losses. The victory over the Jets was not exactly a gem either, but the Eagles deserved to lose less than the Jets, hence the win. Today (Tuesday 10/23/07) the back page of the Philadelphia Daily News features the headline "TIME TO GO?" underneath a close-up of Andy Reid's face. After the decisions made not only this season but since the Superbowl, should the headline really be a question?