Rich Hofmann | A team in decline, a coach in denial: Recipe for disaster
HISTORY HAS shown us that the Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys are rarely good at the same time. Usually, the two franchises are like runaway trains speeding headlong in opposite directions.
It happens on nights like last night, with one side or the other imposing its will in a significant way. You feel the whoosh, and you look behind you at the disappearing image, and you recognize what has happened and mark the spot for future reference.
It happens on nights like last night, with one side or the other imposing its will in a significant way. You feel the whoosh, and you look behind you at the disappearing image, and you recognize what has happened and mark the spot for future reference.
DAVID MAIALETTI/Daily News
Andy Reid: 'When we get the thing changed around and get a little momentum going, we'll be fine.'
Last night was like that.
Wave goodbye, everybody.
There is almost nothing left to say about the Eagles at this point, after watching the Cowboys completely outclass them at Lincoln Financial Field. The final score was 38-17. This was not about a play or two here or there, as many NFL games are. This was about a dozen plays, maybe two dozen. The beating was quite thorough.
We are left with little. There is a half-season to play yet, but there seems little purpose for this team other than pride, and survival. Excellence seems out of the question. Greatness is a faded memory.
The coach, though, is in denial. The Eagles' record is 3-5, but Andy Reid insists they are better than a 3-5 team, even though they really have played substandard football for almost the whole season.
"I think we are [better than 3-5]," Reid said. "I know we are. When we get the thing changed around and get a little momentum going, we'll be fine. We've got to back-to-back some games here and get some momentum going here."
They are three games out of an NFC wild-card playoff spot with eight to play. The length of the odds is obvious. It is a ridiculous league anymore and it is dangerous to write off anybody until the last bead of the abacus has clicked over, but still . . .
Besides, there are the questions that won't go away, the questions that do not have a satisfactory answer right now. They have nothing to do with Reid and his two sons being in jail and the tumult of his personal life. To grab onto that would be for this organization to make a serious mistake. The questions are more fundamental:
What can this Eagles team lean on in the second half of the season? What is the rock upon which they can build their comeback?
If the answers are there, somewhere, they are buried deep beneath the rubble. The Eagles have not played well very often this year. They might look good for a drive, or a quarter, but then they become engulfed again in their malaise. This is not about bad bounces. This is about bad.
On offense, the quarterback is a lot of it. Donovan McNabb has been hit-or-miss all season as he comes back from knee surgery - last night: miss - and that does not seem likely to change. Reid's standard answer to the how-was-McNabb question is, "I'm not going to get into all that." Last night, he added, "He made a couple of throws he'd like to have back there." The two interceptions, for starters.
McNabb has left the Eagles in an awful quandary, if this season indeed continues in its current fashion. Because they all suspect he will be better next season, given more healing time for the knee. But how much better? And can they really continue on if an organizational page is about to turn?
But that is less than half of it because on both defense and on special teams, they simply lack consistent playmakers. They do not have enough good players. You cannot win consistently in the NFL if you cannot turn over the other team and create field position for your offense. Right now, the Eagles can do neither.
All of this has been on display all season, in bits and frustrating pieces. But the whole mess came together last night.
The thing really unraveled at the end of the first half. The defense finally made a stop on the Cowboys, finally blitzed quarterback Tony Romo and forced a mistake that Eagles cornerback Lito Sheppard happily vacuumed into his arms. It appeared as if the Eagles would keep the halftime deficit to 14-7, at worst.
But then McNabb threw the killer interception, and the Cowboys converted it into another touchdown, and a slow leak became steady. The second half was just an ugly denouement, seemingly inevitable. There was no emotion. Reid said, "I thought the guys came out and played hard and aggressive early. Things just snowballed on us."
And now, well, what? Eight weeks is a long time. This is a good coaching staff and it has schemed its ways out of messes in the past - but that seems unlikely now.
There seems little to do but recognize what just happened and mark down the date. *
Send e-mail to hofmanr@phillynews.com.
For recent columns, go to http://go.philly.com/hofmann.
