Realistically, Saints were just worse than Eagles

"GOOD TEAMS beat bad teams."

You hear that adage all the time, in all sports.

Often, optimists subjectively consider all wins equal.

Usually, cynics consider wins over inferior opponents somehow less valid than wins over more solid competition.

Another name for those cynics:

Realists.

Any realist who watched the exquisitely bad football played at Lincoln Financial Field between the Beagles and Ain'ts yesterday cannot, realistically, consider the contest and its outcome anything but an indicator that the current iteration of either team deserves credit for much more than showing up on time.

The Eagles won, 39-17. In doing so, a new adage was born:

"Bad teams beat worse teams."

The Eagles won despite the fact that quarterback Sam Bradford threw two end-zone interceptions in the first 16 minutes of the game.

Those were not even the worst decisions made in the game's first 25 minutes.

Coach and dictator Chip Kelly, saddled with a balky kicker and desperate after a 1-3 start, ignored stats, logic and simple math and went for it on fourth-and-long near the Saints' 40 . . . again, twice. Early. In a very close game.

With Riley Cooper as Sam Bradford's target.

Was this the NFL or Sport and Social Club flag football?

It was hard to tell the difference.

Kelly's mad-scientist calls shocked his most veteran starter; at least, temporarily.

"The first time," said left tackle Jason Peters. "The second time, I wasn't. I just figured he was just going to go for it every time. You never know with coach."

Indeed.

"We needed momentum," Peters figured. "Chip was trying to get something going for us. We failed, but it built confidence in us."

Brilliant.

Actually, Kelly's faith in his defense outweighed his confidence in the offense, which had converted just 26.5 percent of its third downs, second-worst in the NFL.

"The risk/reward is, if I put our defense out in the field in that situation, I have confidence they're going to get a stop," Kelly said. "That's the way I feel about our defense and how they're playing right now."

Indeed, despite those four massive, first-half failures, the Eagles rolled the Saints, a marginally talented team that simply failed to show up. Despite giving the football away four times in the first 25 minutes, the Eagles improved to 2-3.

A combination of terrific Eagles defense and horrific Saints offense left the Saints with zero points after the foibles of the Eagles' quarterback and coach.

Also, to the Eagles' credit, the debilitated, patchwork offensive line got a great game from fill-in right guard Matt Tobin and protected Bradford remarkably well. Bradford persevered through the picks. Even running back DeMarco Murray managed to earn his considerable paycheck, though his understudy, Ryan Mathews, again played better than Murray.

If the win does not act as a springboard to playoff-level proficiency, it at least serves to salvage the season for another week.

But be sure: Almost any other week, against almost any other team, that self-destructive start would have spelled disaster.

Instead, the Saints' defense proved even lousier than its poor rankings suggest. The tackling was so bad they would have struggled if the Eagles were wearing flags around their waists.

Again, this is not the Eagles' fault. They can only accept gift-wrapped wins from the teams the league sends them. This one arrived with a big, gold-and-black bow on top.

Still, Kelly and Bradford tried to reject it.

Josh Huff opened the game with a 40-yard kickoff return, and the Birds managed a quick first down and pushed the ball to the Saints' 39, where they faced fourth-and-7.

Asking replacement kicker Caleb Sturgis to kick a 57-yard field goal was foolhardy, but only slightly more so than trying to convert the first down.

ESPN dug up this stat: Since the start of last season, when teams went for it on fourth down with at least seven yards to go before the third quarter (excluding fake punts), they were 2-for-10.

Make it 2-for-12.

Kelly tried it again with 6 minutes, 10 seconds to play in the second quarter with the score tied at 7. This time, it was fourth-and-9 from the 35.

Fourth. And. Nine.

To Riley Cooper.

Desperate times. Desperate measures.

Both times the Eagles sacrificed at least 15 yards in field position, likely more. Neither time did the Saints make them pay.

In between Kelly's bizarre fourth-down calls, Bradford did plenty to erode Kelly's confidence in him.

First, from the Saints' 12, Bradford underthrew Cooper in the end zone midway through the first quarter. Then, from the Saints' 14, Bradford underthrew Miles Austin in the end zone early in the second quarter.

Those were the second and third end-zone interceptions Bradford threw this season. The first contributed to the Game 2 loss to the Cowboys.

Red-zone interceptions generally mean the loss of at least three points, even with a balky backup kicker. Which means the Eagles spotted the Saints six points and still blew them out by 22.

The four big mistakes obscured the legion of lesser ones.

Eagles receivers continued to drop passes and Bradford continued to throw just a hair late. Lead-footed DeMarco Murray continued to miss holes. Kelly, unhinged, accosted an official and earned an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty - on a defensive play that gave the Eagles the ball.

But the Eagles won, still.

That's how well the defense played, led by Fletcher Cox. He strip-sacked Brees twice, two of the four turnovers the defense forced.

That's how Bradford rebounded from his picks.

"I was the one stopping us, throwing interceptions in the red zone," Bradford said. "I thought our guys did a great job, just continuing to battle. It would be easy to fold up and say, 'Oh, man, Sam's throwing interceptions, we can't do anything.' "

Sam did plenty: 32-for-45 for 333 yards and two touchdowns, hitting nine receivers.

That's also how well the line blocked. Bradford was never sacked, was seldom hit and the running backs combined for 183 rushing yards.

All of those components worked well enough to overcome four gaffes that would cost teams games against even the most mediocre of NFL teams. Right now, the Saints do not even approach mediocrity.

It might sound cynical, but that's reality.

On Twitter: @inkstainedretch

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