SCORES TWICE AFTER A PUCK TO THE FACE
After the early trick plays and the punt return touchdown, the Eagles had nothing for the Washington Redskins, who dominated both lines of scrimmage in a 23-17 upset at the Linc.
Andy Reid added one little thing to his usual postgame refusal to engage in any sort of meaningful discussion of what went wrong: In the midst of repeating his mantra about needing to put players in better positions to make plays, Reid added: "and when (the players) are in those positions, we have to make sure that plays get made."
After starting out 1 for 4 on third down conversions, the Redskins converted 11 of their final 15. They took apart what had been the league's top rushing defense, running for 203 yards (to the Eagles' 58). They ended up with 75 offensive snaps, to the Birds' 47, 22 first downs to the Eagles' 14.
The Eagles' offense lost its ryhthm on the first drive of the second quarter and never really got it back. The Birds didn't throw the ball downfield and didn't run much -- instead, they found ways to screw ups screens and other short-yardage passes. Their defense got good pressure early, then was blasted back on its heels by the Redskins' offensive line.
The season isn't over at 2-3, but most fans' patience with ongoing confusion and inconsistency might be.
Les
Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News
since 2002.
Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les
only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no
penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite
what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News
from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much
lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their
two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with the paper covering the
Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a
selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre
and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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