Well, That Sucked

The Phillies may have ended the drought and cleared the aura of doom and gloom that previously engulfed Philadelphia, but at the end of the day, the Philadelphia Eagles are still the Philadelphia Eagles.



No Super Bowls victories. Ever. And that won't change this year either. Off the opening kickoff, the Cardinals marched down the field 80 yards and made it look easy. At halftime the score was 24-6 Arizona. Someone forgot to tell the Eagles the game started at 3, not 5.

It's hard to win a game when you only show up for half of it. In the first half, nothing went right. The defense was awful. Just awful. For some reason, Jim Johnson had Sheldon Brown covering Larry Fitzgerald most of the opening 30 minutes, and Fitz went nuts.



The man is absolute beast. But Sheldon wasn't the only one sucking it up. The line got no pressure, the linebackers made no plays and the safeties were embarrassed. It was almost as if this defense that had dominated for weeks didn't feel like playing. They said, "Screw it, this one's on the offense."

Well, the offense had its own struggles in the first half. Donovan was inaccurate, receivers were dropping the ball like it had the HIV, and the refs sure didn't help out. If that 3rd down pass in the red zone to Jason Avant wasn't pass interference then that penalty doesn't exist.



Oh, and David Akers. David Akers. What a game to pick to finally miss a field goal, which led to the gadget play touchdown to Fitz by the way, and miss an extra point (nice hold, Sav. Haven't you ever seen Ace Ventura?). By missing the field goal and the extra point, Akers left 5 points on the board, because the Eagles would have only went for one instead of two on their last score. That means, all the Birds would have needed was a field goal to take the lead on their final drive that ended with a Kevin Curtis drop on a perfectly thrown ball, as Curtis was interfered with.

Nothing went right. Sure, the Eagles came out gangbusters in the second, going touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, and I have to admit, when DeSean caught the bomb by McNabb to take the lead, I thought the Eagles were going to win. But they didn't deserve to win. The defense, which was well rested and healthy, gave up another long drive with ease right after taking the lead. Then Donovan couldn't bring them back.



And that's what we're going to hear. Donovan can't get it done. He chokes in big games. Well, guess what? After struggling in the first half, McNabb woke up and brought his team all the way back. He got them the lead late. He set up his defense to win the game. And the defense couldn't. I have no qualms with Andy Reid yesterday. No qualms even with the offense. They put up 25 points against a defense that had come around. Truth be told, it should have been more had Akers just done his job.

No, the offense didn't lose that game. Jim Johnson and the defense did. They were embarrassed. They were embarrassing. And now, Eagles fans are left in a familiar place. Out in the cold.



Thank God for the Phillies.