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Eagles' season ends with Packers' pick in end zone

THE SEASON DIED, just like that, so suddenly that fans who rose from their seats to cheer for a possible game-winning touchdown were able to quickly pivot and head for the parking lots when Green Bay cornerback Tramon Williams outfought Eagles rookie receiver Riley Cooper at the goal line for a jump ball.

THE SEASON DIED, just like that, so suddenly that fans who rose from their seats to cheer for a possible game-winning touchdown were able to quickly pivot and head for the parking lots when Green Bay cornerback Tramon Williams outfought Eagles rookie receiver Riley Cooper at the goal line for a jump ball.

The pass flew, rashly, unnecessarily, from Michael Vick's hand, on first down from the Packers' 27, with 33 seconds remaining, plenty of time to regroup and try again to win a game the Eagles had spent the entire late afternoon and evening losing, on merit. Plenty of time, if Williams hadn't expertly handchecked Cooper, then gone up and gathered in the ball, while Cooper watched, flatfooted.

"I could have checked it down to the back. I got greedy and took a shot at the end zone," Vick said afterward, as he and his teammates contemplated an offseason of unprecedented uncertainty, with a possible NFL lockout looming. "I didn't throw the ball I wanted to throw, and it got picked off. It's a bad way to go out, but, hey, I went out swinging."

Vick might have summarized for you, with the comeback he led, with that last disaster of a throw, and then with his reaction to it, what life with No. 7 is going to be like, assuming the Eagles find a way to get him under contract for next season. But that's a topic for another day.

Rest assured, there will be many topics for many more days, much chewing over exactly what this season meant and where the Eagles are headed. Right now, we know where they are not headed - Chicago and the divisional round of the playoffs, after yesterday's uneven, often inept 21-16 wild-card loss to a visiting Green Bay team that looked steadier and better-coached on both sides of the ball.

"I told the team I appreciate the fight that they gave, but we've got to do a better job as coaches and players, all the way around, but on third down in particular," said Eagles coach Andy Reid.

When the Eagles improved their record to 10-4 with that miracle comeback against the Giants back on Dec. 19, many things seemed possible. What did not seem possible was that they had won for the last time this season, but that was exactly how it worked out. The offense sputtered and sparked, never really catching fire the way it had in pushing the team to the top of the NFC East. The defense seemed to stretch to find new ways to disappoint; yesterday's wrinkle was suddenly not being able to stop a nonrunning team from running the ball and keeping Vick on the sideline for long stretches of the game.

Twenty-one points allowed to the Aaron Rodgers Pack wasn't the end of the world, but the way Green Bay got those 21 points was, a rookie running back named James Starks carrying 23 times for 123 yards, the Packers 3-for-3 against the NFL's worst red-zone defense, Rodgers throwing for three touchdowns and no interceptions. While the Eagles were digging a 21-10 hole, the Packers were converting seven of their first nine third-down situations. The fact that the defense stiffened late didn't change the result.

"They made plays," Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott said. "They're a great offense and you have to give them credit, they made plays. We didn't make the plays. Had some there to make, thought we were in position. But we've got to do a better job, and that starts with me, and that'll be a big emphasis this offseason . . . The players played hard."

McDermott wasn't sure the Packers went into the game planning to run, but he set his defense against the deep pass to Greg Jennings - Jennings was targeted five times and caught one pass for 8 yards. With the safeties deep, the Pack pounded the ball, and the Eagles didn't get key stops.

McDermott enters the offseason under a lot of scrutiny. There has been no indication his job might be in jeopardy.

Maybe the most improbable thing yesterday was what happened with the NFC's Pro Bowl kicker, David Akers. Had Akers not missed from 41 and 34 yards, the Eagles would have had six more points, in a five-point loss. Had Akers just hit the fourth-quarter 34-yarder - his shortest miss of the season - Vick would have been maneuvering for a possible game-winning field goal at the end, instead of throwing jump balls at the end zone.

Afterward, Akers, at the end of his contract, seemed to assume his reign as the longest-tenured Eagle was over.

"That's the way it goes," Akers, 36, said with tears in his eyes. "Looking back now on 12 years, it's been a nice run. It's not really the way I wanted to go out as an Eagle. It's tough for the organization, and I'm sorry that I didn't put my best foot forward today for 'em."

Reid said: "Our kicking game left a lot to be desired."

It wasn't alone. The offensive line seemed really hit-and-miss until King Dunlap replaced right tackle Winston Justice in the fourth quarter, after a bizarre sequence of three successive Justice penalties. ("I just shot myself in the foot," Justice said.) The linebacking corps was woeful; weakside starter Ernie Sims, trumpeted by McDermott as a "shark in the water" back in the spring, often flopped around like a shark on dry land, making only two tackles. Trent Cole, after all of his game-hunter bluster last week, never came close to sacking Rodgers. DeSean Jackson, hobbled by a knee injury, finally made his first catch of the game with 8:42 left. Reid abandoned the running game (huge surprise) as soon as his team fell behind by double digits.

Huge mistakes were as big a part of this team's personality as big plays. The thing about coming from behind in the fourth quarter to win in your final four victories of the season is, you have to have been trailing in the fourth quarter. That's entertaining but way less than optimal, especially against a team such as Green Bay, which began the season as a Super Bowl favorite (and with a 27-20 victory at the Linc structured much like yesterday's game). Maybe the Giants or the Texans wouldn't have made that interception at the end, maybe Vick would have completed another amazing comeback against their defenses. But the teams you play in the postseason often do make those plays.

"I look back and say, 'We screwed this week up, we screwed that week up, to put us in this position,' " tight end Brent Celek said. "There were a few points. The first Washington game. Tennessee. The Vikings game. There were times when we just didn't play consistently. It caught up to us the last few weeks."

"We worked on red zone really hard this week. We just didn't execute," said strong safety Quintin Mikell. "[McDermott]'s making the right calls in the red zone, stuff that we've been saying all year, and we're not executing. I think at times we played well, but in the critical situations, we didn't step up and make a play, and that's it."

You saw the specifics of how the disaster unfolded, but just for posterity, let's run through the lowlights.

The Eagles got two cracks at a first possession, after their awkward, gimmicky three-and-out ended with Green Bay's Brandon Underwood accidentally touching a rolling Sav Rocca punt with his foot. Omar Gaither recovered and the Birds were in great shape to strike, at the Packers' 41. They didn't strike. In a portent of things to come, Akers pushed the 41-yard field goal attempt wide right.

The Packers drove for a touchdown, and then another. Rodgers was escaping pressure with ease. The crisp, confident air the Eagles assumed during their week of practice blew away in the stiff, northwesterly wind. A 29-yard Akers field goal with 1:11 left in the second quarter kept the NFL's No. 2 offense from going in at halftime looking at a goose egg.

Juqua Parker and Darryl Tapp sacked and stripped Rodgers just 59 seconds into the third quarter, and two plays later, Vick threw a frozen rope that Jason Avant caught for a TD that made it 14-10.

But of course, the Packers drove right back down and restored the 11-point edge.

The Eagles' offense started to find some traction, but Akers missed the 34-yarder, and a nice drive came to nothing. Then Vick took them 75 yards in 13 plays, sneaking over from the 1 on fourth down, missing on the two-point conversion, twice, first when Celek was penalized for a heel that touched the out-of-bounds line before he stepped forward and caught the conversion pass. Of course, Vick suffered an ankle injury on a total jailbreak of a play when the Birds tried the conversion again.

But when Green Bay got the ball, rookie Eagles linebacker Keenan Clayton came up with a huge sack, the first of his career, on third down, and the Pack had to punt it back at the 2-minute warning. When Vick hit Jackson, who was fighting off an early-game MCL sprain, for 28 yards, and then found Cooper on a slant for a first down at the Green Bay 27, it seemed maybe magic once again was in the air.

Williams killed it.

"It was a great season, but that's not enough," Vick said.

If this were a normal collective-bargaining situation, the team might have moved to sign him to a contract already. The assumption is that something like the franchise tag will survive in whatever eventually gets agreed upon, and that there is no way management will let Vick walk.

"As of right now, I'm not even thinking about a contract situation," Vick said after completing 20 of 36 passes for 292 yards, a touchdown and a pick, and a 79.9 passer rating. He also ran eight times for just 33 yards. "I'm thinking about what just happened 30 minutes ago. It's unfortunate, because you can't go out and correct it the next week. You just have to deal with it in your own way, keep believing in yourself, keep pushing. I guess the good thing about this is that there's always next year. You get another opportunity, but it's going to hurt for right now."

For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.

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