Eagles beat Cowboys, but are out
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Eagles
Eagles beat Cowboys, but are out
Jonathan Tamari
ARLINGTON, Texas - The Eagles had the lead, but they were out of the playoffs.
Michael Vick found Brent Celek for a touchdown on the game's opening drive Saturday, giving the Eagles a 7-0 advantage, but in New Jersey their faint playoff hopes flickered and were ultimately extinguished. As the Eagles and Cowboys played their first quarter, the Giants beat the Jets, eliminating Andy Reid's team from playoff contention.
The Cowboys and Giants will now play next Sunday night with the NFC East title on the line. The Eagles, who won the division a year ago and hoped for even better results this season after a summer influx of talent, can now do no better than an 8-8 record after winning, 20-7, on Saturday. They had opened the year with championship aspirations.
"You can sit up there and try to make all the excuses in the world, but they don't mean anything. At the end of the season, when you look at our final record, when it goes down in the books, it's not going to be asterisked," said defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins. "We've got to own up to it. Own up to that we let a lot of opportunities slip and get away from us early. The only thing we can do now is control what we do in the future."
The defense has turned in three strong games - all against suspect quarterbacks - but defensive coordinator Juan Castillo admitted that it provides little solace.
"Warriors get the job done no matter what, and the job was to get to the playoffs," he said.
Many Eagles, though, were surprisingly upbeat for having just been eliminated from postseason contention. They pointed to their win and opportunity to go .500, and to the team's strong division record. They talked about things coming together late in the year and perhaps building for next season. They said they would have been dangerous in the playoffs.
But they were far too inconsistent and slow out of the gate to reach that goal.
Saturday's win gave the Eagles their first three-game winning streak of the season. The victory came with Dallas resting key players. The Cowboys pulled quarterback Tony Romo after he suffered an early hand injury and sat down running back Felix Jones, who is nursing a hamstring problem, after the Giants finished their win, erasing most of the game's playoff implications for Dallas. Win or lose Saturday, the Cowboys would need to beat the Giants on New Year's Day to clinch the division.
So the game took on a preseason feel. The Eagles defense stymied backup quarterback Stephen McGee. The offense scored early but managed just 102 yards and two field goals in the second half.
At kickoff, the Eagles still had hope. The Giants led by 20-7, but the Jets got a touchdown and pulled within one score. But then the Giants took over, and the Eagles were finished. Some players saw the final score on the massive screens at Cowboys Stadium. Others assumed the Giants had won when Romo came out of the game.
"I will admit it was a bit of a letdown," Vick said.
While the Eagles were officially eliminated by the Giants win, the reality is that a season full of missed opportunities and bad judgments led to the disappointing result. The Eagles blew five fourth-quarter leads. They started with linebackers and a defensive coordinator who were learning on the job. They have a league-high 36 turnovers that canceled out their offensive potency.
"We're coming together as a team right now. We're healthy, and obviously guys are playing good, aggressive football," said coach Andy Reid. "As a head coach, I've got to make sure we get that part sooner than later. Things needed to happen sooner than the last [few] games from my standpoint."
"We had a lot of new guys, new system, new coach on defense, new players," Vick said. ". . . I know what it takes to win football games, and I know what type of team and what type of personality and character that you have to have. And we just lacked that early. That's the truth."
Team president Joe Banner likely won't speak to reporters until after the Eagles' season wraps up next Sunday in Philadelphia against the Redskins. Following that game, the Eagles' front office and coaching staff will have significant decisions to make, beginning with the fates of Reid - whose odds of returning seem to be strong with three straight wins - and Castillo. The team will have to decide how to handle wide receiver DeSean Jackson, whose contract is set to expire, and will probably work to clear their logjam at cornerback.
Several Eagles said they wanted to get another NFC East win to finish at 8-8.
"We want to go out there and win, finish 5-1 in the division, let everyone know that we were the dominant team in this division," said wide receiver Jeremy Maclin. "That's something that's still out there to play for."
A 5-1 mark in the NFC East would normally assure the Eagles of a playoff berth. But nothing this season has gone to plan, most significantly the way it will end.
- Yeah ok, maybe some people are realistic, unlike you who are the reason this moron head coach is still here, cuz no matter what you will always open your wallet. You bought into their competitive garbage talk even though there is no rings to show for it!! I always thought the fans wanted to celebrate championships with other fans,players,etc but apparently goofs like you think its ok to just maybe have a shot even though deep down you know it will never happen with reid in control!! Never!! And yes im a fan big deal, reid stinks as a coach, 13 years, same garbage and stupid nonsense you seen 10 years ago, duh!!! "We'll learn from this" bull#$it, you never learn nothin reid, your an idiot!!
— richg88 - Wow,I didn't know I had that much power to keep AR in his position as HC. Just because I don't spit venom after every loss by this team doesn't mean I'm not disappointed about how the season went. Looking at it in a realistic manner you should have known they would struggle. Regardless of what your expectations were this is a fairly new team with new pieces that had to jell together and you can't do that with the kind of shortened season we had with no practice time. What I see on the horizon it promising. EAGLES Baby!!! — realtruth
- BEMiller, give me a break, Cowboys had nothing to play for; this is an empty win for the Eagles for a few reasons. Playing like pansies when the pressure is on, then playing inspired when the game is meaningless, well, that's not a good sign. It shows me this team is a bunch of losers. I am watching the post-game interviews, and it makes me SICK, the Eagles players are laughing and joking. Are you serious? The team should be ashamed.— chocolatethunder
- Na,you and the rest of these negadelphians should be ashamed. Whats funny is all of you will be singing this teams praises next season. Like JRoll called you out to be, a bunch of frontrunners. Go Eagles. — realtruth
- No, really. I join with the other thousands of Eagles fans in truly believing that this season was a stunning success!! Disappointed?? Us?? Why, with the genius selections in the draft and the choice of Castillo as defensive coordinator, we expected - and are ecstatic about - a .500 season. We can't wait until 2012 - maybe we can go .400 and, rather than be disappointed, we can rejoice!!!!!— billtfla
- How do those 5 4th quarter losses look like now? Defense still cant close out a game. Juan more thing to do...........— NC Eagle Fan
- Marty should be the head coach.
— Showtime226 - I enjoyed the game, actually. It is what it is. After all these years it comes down to the game, not the consequence. Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah.— retzlaff
- The Eagles motto..."Wait til nexr year!"— greenguy
- This is going to be hilarious. Coach Reid and the team are going to sell this four game win streak as something unbelievably great and too many of the Birds fans will fall in line and buy another load of the brown stuff. This streak means absolutely, positively nothing. We are about to hear the, if we only started playing like this earlier we would be playing in the Super Bowl this year and lots of Birds fans will fall for that load of brown stuff also. I always said Abe Lincoln was wrong, you can fool most of the people most of the time, especially when it comes to Bird fans. This four game streak will keep everyone their jobs and talks of the Dream Team for 2012 can start right after the end of their awesome 8-8 season. How easy we are.— golson@florida
- Wait... we haven't won the fourth game yet! They're probably loose to the Redskins!. Since there's nothing to play for, Reid will probably rest his starters to get ready for the playoffs...oh..wait..there are no playoffs..Reid " cough..cough..clear his throat 5 times..we wanted to rest them for next year and get some of the other kids some playing time"
fing pitiful year! and the bad news is Reid will be back because Lurie has no balls! His wife carries them in her purse!— kchaz - Bring back Tom Modrek or some one who will bring in a decent LINE BRACKER. Carlos Edmmons where are you.— younger21
- Too Little, Too Late. Won't be suckered by this team again. Go Pats— eaglesman1
- We have an official bandwagon jumper here. — realtruth
- Andy Reid sucks, Eagles SUCK!! don't be fooled— Old German
