Eagles play terribly, fall to 1-4
Bills 31, Eagles 24
Eagles play terribly, fall to 1-4
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
BUFFALO -- It was a total team effort, and not in a good way. For three quarters Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium, the Eagles played an abysmal game on offense, an abysmal game on defense and an abysmal game by the coaching staff. Triple Abysmal, then -- and, no, it isn’t the name of an obscure IPA.
Then the Eagles made it interesting in the fourth quarter before losing to the Bills, 31-24. Only the future will tell us if that fourth quarter was meaningful, or just some camouflage for a team that is a lot more capable of playing wretched football than any of us ever suspected.
Trailing by 31-14 after three quarters, on merit, the combination of Mike Vick-to-DeSean Jackson woke them out of a slumber that featured four turnovers and some of the worst run defense, and worst tackling, any of us has seen by the Eagles since, well, since last week.
A 31-yard touchdown, a catch-and-run where Jackson tiptoed in along the sideline, brought the Eagles back to 31-21 with 14:51 left to play. A 26-yard catch by Jackson set up the 35-yard Alex Henery field goal that made it 31-24 with 9:29 left. That one could have been a touchdown, too -- Vick’s rushing score was called back because guard Danny Watkins was called for illegal hands to the face.
After the Eagles’ defense held -- not a misprint -- the Eagles had the ball on their own 20 and marched nicely down the field. With good blocking up front, Vick carved into the Bills’ defense with key completions to Jackson and Jason Avant. Faced with a third-and-3 at the Bills’ 25-yard line with 2 minutes remaining, a pass to Avant that was short of the first down line was intercepted kind of pried away from the Eagles’ receiver and intercepted by the Bills’ Nick Barnett. And that -- the Eagles’ fifth turnover of the day and Vick’s fourth interception -- was that.
Except for this final insult: with the Bills lined up to go for it on fourth-and-inches with 1:23 left, and with the Bills very obviously just calling signals in an attempt to get the Eagles to jump offsides -- a ploy that never works -- the Eagles’ Juqua Parker obliged.
Earlier, there were two memorable symbols of the Eagles’ futility. At the end of the first half, rather than kicking a field goal with 8 seconds remaining and (shockingly) no timeouts remaining, the Eagles decided to run a play instead, with Vick throwing an incompletion into the end zone. Despite their complaints that there should have been 1 second remaining, the officials ruled otherwise. It was a colossal error by Andy Reid.
Then, to open the second half, the Eagles tried a surprise onsides kick. Two things happened: 1) they didn’t recover and, 2) because they hadn’t waited for the referee’s whistle to put the ball in play, it wouldn’t have counted anyway.
What a mess.
@fman727,
Reid picked the o-line, and Vick was hit on almost every pick he threw. And the last pick was Avantes fault.
— r_u_kidding_me
Comment removed.- I feel sad.— Fritz and Alice
- Comment removed.
- Thank God I live in the South and don't have to suffer through watching the game. Just finished playing disney princess app with my daughter.— Fritz and Alice
- I get my comedy by watching this team now. Awful in every aspect of the game. They do things that only they can do they're that bad. The Parker Penalty to end the game was hysterical.— gordon7
- Good to see you back on the Birds as you nothing about baseball. Truth is Rich, you and your former co-employee Ray completely over-rated this group. They're not that good- plain & simple. Either you don't the game or your hyping your product- which is it??— Northcountry
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- With the talent on defense I say Jeff Fischer, he would know what to do with it.
— jim10350 - The Eagles are not a well coached team - all that talent and 1-4. Great plays by some and stupid mistakes that negate all the good things. Reminder - the Eagles broke a short Training Camp early because "they accomplished everything they needed to accomplish". That must have been a very short list which didn't include tackling. Get rid of Reid now so someone else can come in and be better prepared for next season before this team is totally ruined.— lanert
- such is the life of a philly sports fan— franknbeans
- Turned it off early as the tackling was abysmal, and the passing and catching was abysmal, as stated above. Watched a Tivo recording of a cop show, then napped a while. Turned it on as they scored the 21st point, only to watch Avant cough up his secod strip away of the game.
There oughta be a law against putting fans through this kind of play.— ngfs66 - Vick sucks...$100 million for this scum bag and is 1-6 in Eagles last seven games...LOL.— frank105
- Vick sucks...$100 million for this scum bag and is 1-6 in Eagles last seven games...LOL.— frank105
