Mistakes end Eagles Season

Mistakes and missed opportunities once again ended the Philadelphia Eagles playoff run this past Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. It was the first playoff game in Philly since the 2006 team led by Jeff Garcia, and Andy Reid showed for the 7^th time that he is incapable of bringing home the Lombardi Trophy. Mistakes plagued the team from the first play when Clay Matthews came untouched from the right side of the offensive line nailing Micheal Vick from behind.

In a 21-16 victory, The Green Bay Packers used their running game and stout defense to keep the electric Eagles offense off the field. Green Bay took home the victory, but not without the help of the Eagles players and coaching staff giving a helping hand. The mistakes started early and continued until the final play when Vick lofted an under thrown pass to a covered rookie receiver Riley Cooper. The pass was undercut and intercepted basically putting an end to the game.

The mistakes started early with the Vick sack, and a missed field goal by the usually dependable David Akers after a fumble on the Packers  punt return gave the birds a chance to score early. The Packers went down the field converting third downs, and an offside penalty on the Eagles allowed the drive to stay alive.  Rodgers then threw a touchdown to a rookie receiver Crabtree putting the Packers up 7-0 in the first quarter. The Eagles failed to score again, and after Quinten Mikell failed to recover a fumble that was literally in his hands the Packers scored  another touchdown pass making it 14-3 at halftime. It could have been worse, but receiver James Jones dropped an easy touchdown pass after burning Asante Samuel late in the second.

As the third quarter started there was hope that the coaching staff could have fixed the early problems, but we were once again proved wrong.  Andy Reid decided to go away from the run only rushing Lesean McCoy twelve times the whole game.  McCoy averaged over five yards a carry and led the league with four runs of over forty yards. Early in the third the eagles scored a touchdown after Rodgers lost a fumble, but the Packers easily scored off a screen pass to Greg Jennings making the score 21- 10 with 7:33 remaining in the third. After a few stops by the Eagles defense, three penalties in two plays by Winston Justice stopped a drive and forced the Eagles to punt.  After a 15 play drive the Eagles scored on 4^th and goal with four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter to make the score 21-16. Brent Celek stepped out of bounds making him an ineligible receiver and the two point conversion failed.

As we all know Vick threw an interception to end the Eagles hopes of proceeding to the next round of the NFL playoffs. The mistakes and missed opportunities destroyed our hopes for a Super Bowl run that didn’t seem possible when this season started. The missed tackles, fumble recoveries, and 2 point conversion showed mental mistakes that a well coached team like the Patriots or Steelers wouldn’t make. David Akers missing two field goals was almost inconceivable but it wouldn’t even have mattered if Celek made the conversion. Vick would have never thrown the interception, and Akers would have had a chance redemption by kicking a field goal to win the game

With all these mental errors it all points to the coaching staff. Andy Reid’s Eagles have continually made the same mistakes over and over again for years, and all he can say is we have to get that fixed. It’s been 12 years Andy, and nothing has changed. He never runs the ball, and cannot make any sort of adjustment at half to make the game different. The defense is so undersized up front a no name running back can get 25 carries and over 120 yards.  The drafting process is controlled by Andy Reid, and he has failed in that aspect as well. So I ask one thing going forward. Do we need a new coach? If Andy can’t fix his mistakes and lets his arrogance get in the way of judgment I say yes. I can’t stand another season of teams scoring all over us, no running game, and an early playoff exit after a promising season ends rough.