The Eagles won't be playing football next week. Their season is over.
As a fan, I'm fairly apathetic. They lost. They deserved to lose. I'm most disappointed I won't get to waste five or so hours next week rooting for my team next weekend. But as for this loss to the Packers, it showed both the strengths and weaknesses of this Birds team. Bottom line, Green Bay allowed the Eagles to stay alive way too long yesterday and it almost cost them. Lucky for them, it didn't and Aaron Rodgers will get a chance to suit up next week.
The holes in this team were clearly known before the game with the Packers. The Eagles were lucky yesterday wasn't even uglier.
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We all know the culprits. And while injuries are always a factor to any team playing a secondary with so many rookies, part of the defensive issues simply stem from the personnel on the field. Who expects those guys to win a Super Bowl? The defense is a far cry from the confidence-inducing days of Jim Johnson. About the only guy on that side of the ball who gets the job done on a weekly basis is Asante Samuel.
The pressure created from the defensive line yesterday was pretty much non-existent. And when they did get back there, they couldn't catch Rodgers.
So what's the point of pointing out all of the holes we already knew existed? Mostly because Andy Reid seems to find a way to get a bunch of ragtag rookies and guys he traded a 5th round pick for to come together an be a pretty damn good football team for most of a football season. But not a great team.
Andy Reid's strength is taking his weaknesses and making them look just a little less weak, at least for parts of a season when you can scrape together wins against decent NFC East teams while beating some of the lesser teams in the league. If they get lucky, they find a way to squeek into the postseason.
Then the Birds face a very talented Green Bay Packers team with a top notch NFL quarterback. Even then, Andy's crew scraped and fought and almost pulled out another win they really didn't deserve based on the first 55 minutes of football.
That's why I'm relatively apathetic towards this loss. That's what Andy Reid does. He makes you believe that they can win, and maybe they can someday, but they certainly don't have the personnel that make you think they'll dominate anybody.
The Michael Vick experience is over. At least for this season. How much longer will the Big Red ride last?