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Madder Than Ever About the Philadelphia Eagles

B-Dub Written by B-Dub, Monday January 16 2012
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I know I should be over the Eagles disappointing 2011 "Dream Team" season, but I'm actually madder than ever now.  Why?  The playoffs.

Watching the unbelievably mediocre New York Giants win two rounds in the NFL Playoffs just proves that there are no dominant teams in the NFL anymore.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are perennial Super Bowl contenders, and winners for that matter, but they just lost to a team with a quarterback who can't even complete 50 percent of his passes.  The New York Jets proved to be nothing more than a product of the New York media hype machine.  And the Indianapolis Colts should be legally required to change their name to the "Indianapolis Peyton Mannings and a Bunch of Other Stiffs", for the way they went belly up after losing a single player.  The Colts need to look to the Houston Texans for a lesson on how to "man-up" when faced with injuries.

The New Orleans Saints haven't really been the same since winning the Super Bowl two years ago.  Last year they were upset by the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks in the first round of the playoffs.  This year, Saints quarterback Drew Brees had a record-breaking offensive season, but they still managed to get beat by the surprising San Francisco 49ers this week.  Score one for the "old-school" fans who think defense wins championships there.

The Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl last year when they had half their roster on the IR.  They followed that up this year with an incredible 15-1 season, where they looked unbeatable, until they lost their first playoff game?  And they didn't just lose; they came up tiny against a Giants team that barely squeaked into the playoffs.

The Giants won the putrid NFC East mainly because nobody else wanted it.  The Giants did win 3 of their last five games, including a Week 17 win over the Cowboys, but they needed a ton of help to even get that opportunity.

The Dallas Cowboys went belly-up in December and stumbled to the finish line by losing four of their last five games of the season.  That seems to be the pattern with this Tony Romo led Dallas team.  Then there was the performance of the Philadelphia Eagles.  

The Eagles did manage to win their last four games of the season to put a little pressure on the Cowboys and Giants, but their horrific start was too much to overcome.  Their inexcusable 1-4 start was only the beginning of a season that was 4-8 before they managed to beat some of the worst teams in the NFL at the end.

Sorry Eagles fans, but I'm still not impressed by beating a Dolphins team with a third-string quarterback, any team quarterbacked by the overrated Mark Sanchez, a free-falling Cowboys team with their backup quarterback for almost the entire game and any team quarterbacked by the immortal Rex Grossman.  That fact that beating those dregs of the NFL also saved Andy Reid's job makes it that much worse.

So because the Cowboys and Tony Romo can't win in December and the Eagles couldn't beat a single team with a winning record, except for the Giants, the Giants sneaked into the playoffs.  And now I have to watch them beat a couple of frauds that even this flawed Eagles team could have beaten.
 
The Atlanta Falcons are complete and utter frauds away from their precious dome and Matt Ryan has now earned the label of a playoff choke.  The Falcons were only 4-4 on the road this season and one of those wins was in the dome in Detroit.  Ryan and the normally potent Atlanta offense didn't garner a single point in losing to the Giants in the first round.  Personally I think their coach, Mike Smith should have been fired for one of the worst game-plans that I have ever seen, but it just made me angrier that the Eagles weren't the team hosting the Falcons that day.

The Eagles are a fatally flawed team, but they would have had more than enough talent on the field to beat the Falcons team that lost to the Giants.  Even worse, the Eagles would have also beaten that team that was wearing the Green Bay Packers uniforms on Sunday that lost to the Giants.  

The Packers lost six fumbles all season, but managed to lose three against the Giants?  The Packers had the No. 3 passing offense in the NFL and the Giants were ranked 29th, yet the Giants held NFL MVP candidate Aaron Rodgers to 265 yards, 2 TDs and intercepts him once?  What in the wide wide world of sports is going on here?

Eagles fans should join me in being madder than ever.  It's not bad enough that the Eagles underachieved, but they did it in a season where the division was there for the taking.  Hell, the Giants didn't even really take it.  The Eagles all but handed it to them by beating the Cowboys in Week 16.  Now the Giants have taken that gift and gotten hot at just the right time.

I don't believe for a second that the Giants are capable of beating any of the other team left in the playoffs, but that's not really the point.  The point is that the Eagles should have been in this spot where the Giants find themselves.  They didn't because of horrible coaching and even worse quarterback play.

Clearly I don't think this Eagles team could win the Super Bowl, but they certainly could have beaten that fraud of a Falcons team.  Vick was a turnover machine during the regular season (14 INTs & 4 fumbles in only 13 games), but he always plays well against the Falcons.  I'm also pretty confident that Vick would have thrown a bad interception or two and Andy Reid would have abandoned the NFL's 5th ranked rushing attack in the first quarter, but that's not really the point either.

The point is that Eagles fans were deprived of the chance at what appears to be an easy road to the NFC Championship Game.  And once there, the 49ers aren't exactly juggernauts.  

Then again, let's say the Eagles did make the playoffs and made this magical run that the Giants are on.  Let's say that the Eagles don't forget to run the ball for the entire second half while hold a lead this time and avenge their regular season loss to the 49ers.  Even if those incredibly improbable things happen, the Eagles would have to face the offense of the New England Patriots or the defense of the Baltimore Ravens in the Super Bowl.  I'm certain that the Eagles wouldn't have a prayer against either of those teams.

Hey, maybe Andy Reid was just saving us all the anguish of him getting out-coached in the Super Bowl again and having all Eagles fans' spirits crushed with another Super Bowl flop?

Nah.  I'm still madder than ever about Andy Reid and the Philadelphia Eagles.  


 


Tags:  AFC, Dream Team, Drew Brees, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, New York JEts, NFC, NFC East, NFL, NFL Playoffs, Peyton Manning, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco , Seattle Seahawks, Super Bowl



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