Nutty Optimist

A friend responds to my recent delusions of playoff possibilities (Sleepless over Seattle):

Listen, you've got to get back to reality here. It would really be neat if for some crazy reason this team came together and rallied to win the final six games, went 10-6 and snuck into the playoffs and even won a game in the playoffs.

But, this is the National Football League. Teams that play bad all year and then catch a few lucky breaks and get "hot" at the end of the season, those teams don't ride that "momentum" to the Super Bowl.

This isn't the NHL, where it only takes a hot goalie to get to the Stanley Cup finals.
Remember how "hot" the Giants were at the end of the '02 season? Having beaten the Eagles on the final game of the year in OT to get to the playoffs, with Collins and Shockey in high gear. They couldn't even hold a three-touchdown lead against Jeff Garcia.

Motivationally, as a character building exercise, it would be wonderful to see this team win even five of the last six, go 9-7, having lost their two biggest offensive studs and seen a season in turmoil come to a nice conclusion.

but it will still be a MAJOR disappointment, a massive letdown and the biggest missed opportunity in Philly sports (considering how weak the NFC is and how easy it would have been to coast to a 12-4, 13-3 record if this team had been 90% of what it was last year) since the Sixers and their "We Owe You One" campaign in the '77-78 season.

Across the board, in every facet of the game, this team is demonstrably worse than they were last year. Although, their run defense is probably more solid and dependible. (not sure if that's the case statistically or not, but they have shut down some of the game's biggest stud running backs in impressive fashion).

but everywhere else -- the running game, the passing game, the defensive (non)pressure on the QBs, the defensive backfield, special teams -- we are far worse off than we were last year.

Because of that, there's just no way we can talk about the "potential" if we "just make the playoffs." This doesn't happen in the NFL. yes, sometimes a No 2 or a No 3 seed upsets a No 1 and advances to the Super Bowl, but go through the past 10 Super Bowls. Find me an example of a team that wasn't in the top of the league standings most of the year and got "hot" at the right time and rode that wave to the Super Bowl.

'04 season: Eagles v. Pats
'03: Pats v. Panthers
'02: Bucs v. Raiders
'01: Pats v. Rams
'00: Ravens v. Giants
'99: Rams v. Titans
'98: Broncos v. Falcons
'97: Broncos v. Packers
'96: Packers v. Pats
'95: Cowboys v. Steelers

Sleepless Over Seattle

huge game this week vs. Seattle. haven't given up on season yet. if anything, the mediocrity of the nfc has me salivating at the potential if the Eagles can just make the playoffs. The Bears scare you? their offense is terrible!

They beat the Seahawks and they will be on a roll going into the Giants game. those are the two hardest games left on the schedule.

Granted, the Dallas home loss will likely haunt them for the rest of
the season (imagine being 6-5, with a one game margin of error to get
to 10-6 - that should be good enough for the playoffs), but all is not
entirely lost. heck, even Troy Aikman yesterday was coming around to
the Eagles' possibilities by the end of the game.

Gotta root for Dallas, Carolina, Chicago and Seattle (monday night notwithstanding) to win every week.

Heck, even Troy Aikman wrote the Eagles off for dead at the beginning of the Packers game, but by the end had come around and was saying things like, "never underestimate the heart of a champion."

Heck

1-9?

One other thought about yesterday's game. How did the Rutgers Scarlet Knights go 1-9 with an offense that included at least three future pro football starters? McMahon, LJ Smith, and Giants o-lineman Shaun O'Hara.

8-8 Skinnies?

My washington friends are sullenly thining that 8-8 is now the likely final record for Gibbs' second year of Part II.

Which raised the point is 8-8 a good record for this team.

Relative to the mediocrity of past teams, 8-8 would be a good for this team. BUT

It would be very disappointing given how this season started for them and their record in the beginning. It would also be disappointing given the quality of competition in the NFC this year. The best the Skinnies could do is 8-8? That’s not very encouraging.

But worst, do you really expect the Skins to be more improved next year? With Brunnel at QB and perhaps Gregg Williams head coaching somewhere else?

Still a lot of football to be played and games to be won, but they are probably an underdog this week notwithstanding the cross-continent plane ride for the Chargers. And close with three straight division games. Since Parcells owns Gibbs, notwithstanding stealing that last game in Dallas, that would put them at 7 losses. Which means they beat the Rams, Cards, Giants, and Eagles to get a winning record.

We’ll see.

Farewell Bill Lyon

Great last column by the great Bill Lyon in Sunday's paper.

The nut graph that sum it all up for Philadelphia sports fans.

Our capacity for hurt is matched only by our capacity for loyalty.

another tough loss

Though Mike McMahon acquitted himself well. so too did rookie reggie brown.

Terrible pass interference call on Michael Lewis. It doesn't seem fair that the offense should benefit in a case like that where the ball is underthrown and the WR fights through the dback to get the ball cause the d has position, but somehow it is interference.

the mcmahon scramble was McNabb-esque.

with all the games that broke the right way yesterday that Cowboys game is just more and more of a killer. not to get too polyannish, but the Eagles would still be in the hunt at 5-5 if they had won last week.

which raises an interesting question. did Reid stick with a near-disabled Donovan too long? what would the offense have been like and the record be if #4 had been in there a couple of games earlier. Not a QB controversy in the slightest, just asking at what point a healthy backup is better than a hobbled star.

this team has problems at LB, d-line, o-line that need to be addressed in the offseason.

My former roommate Giant fans were none too impressed with their team's win. So unimpressive was the game that they declined to gloat.

Another week, another reminder of how close NFL games are. A blocked punt, a 4th and goal 1 yard pass, and a crappy 3rd and long hitch and go on a blitz were the difference makers.

Taking a Little Out of You

The great Inquirer columnist Bill Lyon is retiring after Sunday's column. In tribute, the paper is posting some of his old, classic columns online.

In reading the one the day after the Sixers 1983 championship, I came across a very interesting quote from Pat Riley about losing in the finals. Something the Eagles and Eagles fans should contemplate as far as the team's psyche and off-season moves.

But what Malone brought to the Sixers was a new attitude, best explained by Pat Riley, who watched his defending champions brutalized in four straight.

"When you keep losing in the finals," Riley said of the Sixers, "it takes a tremendous toll. You lose a little bit of your basketball life. They had a lot of guys who had tasted nothing but the pain, and that's bad.

"Getting Moses was the best move they could have made. It rejuvenated them. You could look at them and see they were more committed."

Uh-oh

Maybe the Eagles better reevaluate their options with TO after the 4-game suspension.

With McNabb likely out for the season, is it possible that there might be a groundswell of support in the locker room to bring #81 back to help the offense? That's the inkling I get from this article in today's paper by Bob Brookover, Time for Decisions and Revisions.

This would be an absolute disaster from a team chemistry perspective. this team in the long run will rise or fall with McNabb. Not TO. so why even take the chance or let this fester.

Cut TO. NOW.

Turn Out the Lights

Not to state the obvious, but the season is over.

Hard to believe that over the course of a 16 game season, or 60 minutes of a game, that three plays can define and impact an entire season the way the Terry Glenn TD, Roy Williams' INT TD, and Reggie Brown's drop at the end of the Dallas game did.

A spectacular crash

Has an athlete, not just a Philly player, been so high and crashed so spectacularly as Owens in the 18 months he's been here?

He was the long-awaited stud WR that turbo-charged last year's offense.

He was the faith healing ankle mender who made it back onto the field in six weeks and played against doctors orders.

He was a freakin' warrior in the Super Bowl, definitely coming to play, even if it was on one good leg/ankle.

If the Eagles had won the Super Bowl, Owens would have owned Philadelphia for longer than Dick Vermeil.

Alas, they didn't, and he won't.

soon after came the contract complaints and the incredible reserve of regional goodwill evaporated very, very quickly.

He's been digging himself a bigger hole every month, or every time he opened his mouth.

The wonder is why he didn't shut up and just play. If he had been a loyal teammate and produced even half of what he is capable of he would have put the Eagles into a corner by facing the public wrath of waiving him or paying him the $5 million signing bonus due in March. Owens, but more inexplicably the savvy and shrewd Drew Rosenhaus, should have realized that once the $5 million was paid the Eagles were committed to him for the long term lest they take the salary cap hit. and that would have meant some balloon-payment type base salaries in the out years. Shut up and play and he would have gotten his money. But they decided that was too long term and wanted an immediate renegotiation. Bad move. And it's now going to have longer term financial consequences for TO. He's now a bad teammate on two different teams. Who's going to risk a big investment in him now?

Such a shame, such a pity.

TOo Late

If only only Owens' contrite and somewhat sincere sounding apology had been issued Friday or Saturday, instead of Tuesday.

Too little, too late.

What a shame. TO is an awesome, AWESOME, wide receiver. But, alas, he is a world class jerk as a teammate. I actually feel bad for TO. Of course, I feel worse for the Eagles who have lost a gamebreaking playmaker whom they desperately could use as they try to stagger into the playoffs.

So many questions, and still so much speculation.

Where the hell has Rosenhaus been? It took him till today to get up to Philly and try to put out the conflagration that was TO's flameout with the Eagles? Where was he three days ago when this might have been salvageable. And by salvageable, i mean salvageable from TO's perspective. Had he apologized on Friday like he did today he would likely still be on the team. Maybe the team wouldn't have been happy, but he would be getting paid.

I guess the turmoil TO caused in the locker room was much, much greater than anyone realized. Not even the obvious stuff, like the Hugh Douglas altercation, but the slow, steady, and subtle undermining of the franchise QB and team leader, #5, and the divisiveness and egg shells players must have been walking on to avoid provoking the petulant Owens.

What the hell was Stephen Smith thinking when he wrote the ridiculous and nonsensical column on Sunday, "This Time, Owens' Isn't the Bad Guy," in which he absolved Owens, McNabb and everybody else but the Eagles management (aka whitey) for the latest Owens debacle.

How in the world did Team TO decide that giving anymore interviews on ESPN was going to be in any way helpful to TO's cause? Again, where was Rosenhaus? Did TO reject or ignore advice in this matter?

TO cost himself a lot of money. not just the fine and perhaps the recouping of the signing bonus, but what team in their right mind is going to commit big bucks to a ticking time bomb. He's going to be paid year to year. No big signing bonuses that can be amortized over several years. It means that in addition to a team willing to take the risk on him, it must also be a team that has enough cap room to sign him to a $5 million 2006 salary.

TO is not going to the Falcons. After torching Jeff Garcia and Donovan McNabb, what team in their right mind would allow him anywhere near a) a young, developing QB or b) a franchise QB in which you've invested your future? Mike Vick is both of those things. Plus, remember, the head coach is Jim Mora, Jr - San Fran's D coordinator when TO ripped that team apart.

What did Andy Reid see in the Redskins game that made him feel comfortable enough to sever ties with TO in mid-season. As Peter King reported on his site Monday,

"At 12:11 a.m. on Monday, Reid ducked out of his office and into the Eagles' somber locker room after their 17-10 loss to the Redskins. He went over to McNabb and said, "Come on and see me.'' He led McNabb, who played quite well on Sunday night (except for the blown spike play at the end of the first half and the interception on fourth down in the final minute of the game) to his office and closed the door. They stayed in the inner-sanctum for four minutes and McNabb came out smiling."

What did Reid see that gave him the impetus to jettison Owens? Reggie Brown's play? G. Lew? Just a more smoothly functioning offense? What

So many questions.