Jan 19 2009
Thoughts on the NFC Championship
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three more times, shame on me. That pretty much sums up what many Eagles fans are thinking the day after yet another disappointing loss in the NFC Championship to a team that had never been to the Super Bowl. The Iggles have been to five NFC title games in the past eight years. Four times, including yesterday, they were kicked in the teeth. The other time, a 2004 win over the Atlanta Falcons that sent Philly to its second Super Bowl appearance, led to a crushing defeat at the hands of the New England Patriots. However, this year was supposed to be different. The Eagles looked like a team of destiny. The Cards were just another speed bump on the road to a Super Bowl title. The Phillies supposedly had broken the curse on Philly sports. It was supposed to be OK for Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid to win big games. Apparently, they didn’t get the memo. The Cards partied in the desert after their 32-25 win.
Arizona completely molested Philadelphia for the first 30 minutes of the game. Despite the fact that the Eagles saw Larry Fitzgerald completely destroy the Carolina Panthers last week, they still allowed him to run buck wild and Fitz torched them for THREE TOUCHDOWNS! IN THE FIRST HALF! How could they let him get open that often? It also didn’t help that McNabb was absolutely terrible. At halftime, the Cards led 24-6. To their credit, the Iggles fought back and led 25-24 late into the fourth quarter. As everyone should have expected, this is the Eagles. They always seem to rope you in just so they can get close enough to rip your heart out with their hands. They certainly didn’t disappoint in terms of disappointing the city of Philadelphia yet again. Kurt Warner and Co. orchestrated a 14-play, 72-yard drive over the course of 7:46 to put Arizona back in front. As has been the case throughout his entire career, McNabb came up short. 47 yards short to be exact. Hey, he got five yards closer to the winning TD yesterday than when he lost to Kurt Warner and the Rams.
Another star of the game for the Birds was David Akers. A missed field goal, a missed extra point, and a kickoff out of bounds. Could a kicker have a better game than that? While Akers was not the reason they lost, he certainly played a pretty big part in it.
Now where does the team go from here? Who knows? There are a lot of veteran players that are free agents. McNabb and Reid will certainly be back after a late-season push that saved both of their jobs. However, it seems fairly evident now that these two have hit their ceiling, and that ceiling is losing in the NFC title game again and again and again and again. On paper, the Eagles have a lot of talent and young pieces in place that should keep them competitive. Hopefully Philly will sign an impact player in free agency with their tons of cap room and make some good draft picks like they always seem to do. They need to rebuild their aging offensive line, get some more play-makers for McNabb, maybe get some linebacking help and just general depth all over the defense.
Will this team ever get back to the Super Bowl with McNabb and Reid. Personally, I think their window of opportunity is now officially closed barring the addition of some more impact players on both sides of the ball. It’s going to be another long off-season in Philadelphia and the mantra of “There’s always next year” is definitely getting very stale. If they can’t beat the Cardinals in an NFC title game, who exactly are they going to beat in the NFC title game? As always seems to be the case with the Philadelphia Eagles, there are way more questions than answers. Oh well, there are only 25 days until Spring Training.
