Are Eagles Team Of Destiny? Perhaps Not
It’s amazing how the pendulum swings from week to week. Following the euphoric Miracle at the New Meadowlands, the Eagles looked like a team destined for a long playoff run. A game later, they look like a team that will be hard-pressed to win in the first round.
We have a tendency as fans to show a bi-polar disorder when it comes to the Eagles. The sweep of emotions is from one extreme to the other; the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. When they win, the mood of the entire city changes for the better. People are even nicer to one another. When they lose, it’s as if the sky is falling.
But after Tuesday night’s dismal performance against the Vikings, there’s reason to think the team’s recent run of success behind the incandescent Michael Vick has been the mirage. The real Eagles could be closer to what we saw against the Vikes.
This is a team that has struggled for seven of its last eight quarters of football. And that quarter was actually more like eight minutes. Furthermore, if you’re a Super Bowl contender, one still with a shot at a first-round playoff bye, you don’t get embarrassed by a team who’s been counting the days until the offseason begins – one that’s been cooped up in a hotel for two days riding out a snowstorm.
Key Eagles are banged up, most notably Vick who suffered that quadriceps injury on the initial play of the Vikings game. Tuesday night in the locker room, long after the final gun, Vick limped from the shower across the Eagles expansive locker room to his locker stall. He could barely make it, moving with the agility of an octogenarian. The resurgent QB has taken a beating this year, and one fears that the bumps and bruises have finally taken their toll. In his first six games, Vick had zero turnovers. No interceptions, no lost fumbles, and was sacked a total of 15 times. Over his last six games, Vick has been intercepted six times and has fumbled nine times, losing three. He’s been sacked 19 times.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Eagles will go into the playoffs with two seventh-round draft picks in the starting lineup. They lack a right corner. Their all-pro left corner is banged-up. They’re thin at defensive end. They’re thin at linebacker.
A few weeks ago I was willing to give the defense the benefit of the doubt. I thought they reminded me of last year’s Saints defense. They would give up a lot of yards but were opportunistic and thrived on forcing turnovers. I don’t feel that way anymore. The defense, particularly the secondary, clearly is not good enough.
Another part of the equation that we may not have considered came to the forefront during the Ed Rendell Memorial Wussie Bowl: What happens if Vick has a bad game?
The answer came Tuesday. His very special skill-set camouflages much of what ails the Eagles. Now they go into a meaningless game with Dallas. Rest is appropriate for the starters. But, there’s a fine line here. They need to re-establish their mojo and head into the playoffs with some momentum.
Let’s hope the Viking loss is the aberration. Otherwise we could be in for another late-season letdown like last year. Remember? How can you forget. Crushed by Dallas in the season finale. Crushed by Dallas in the first round of the playoffs. It erased all the good vibes of an 11 win season and led to the team’s overhaul. The pendulum never swung so far.
Steve Bucci is a veteran Emmy Award-winning Philadelphia sportscaster. He is the co-author of “Drinking Coffee with a Fork: The story of Steve Carlton and the 1972 Phillies,” due out in 2011.
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