I've had a really hard time watching the Eagles this year. Part of it is due to the Phillies success, but part is also to what I see as an incomplete, fading team. It's like you say, some aspects of the team are good yet others are blah. The big thing is that there are problem areas that the Eagles ( Reid ) continually fail to address. Watching Westbrook get stuffed on 4th and 1 drove me crazy. For years I've wanted to see a big back in to compliment #35. LenDale White would have been ideal and we could have drafted him. We could have had a Frank Gore. The WR's are awful. I went to the Opener vs the Rams and wasnt fooled by Baskett ( hot fiancé) , Greg Lewis, Avent or any other so-so WR we have. Again, for years this has been a weak spot and we've never addressed it. Didnt we learn anything from having T.O.? That McNabb with a bona fide #1 WR is outright dangerous ! Well now an older #5 who cant run, has an OK rushing attack and poor WR's can only do so much to get us 9 wins. This from a team that at one point went to the NFC Championship game four years in a row.
I hope the Eagles watched the Phillies parade. They should be motivated to know what awaits them if they win it all. The City would go insane !
I think the mere presence of McNabb is a problem at this point. It isn't that he's bad exactly- but rather his simple existance, and ticking clock, means the Eagles have to load up and go for it each campaign.
Part of the reason the key core of players is on the downside is that can't ever take a chance of a young guy- the veteran that can produce something now always gets the call because the Eagles are, as long as McNabb is the qb, about now.
It is like playing Thome over Howard- those Phillies were about win now too despite limited upside- and until Thome got hurt we never saw Howard.
If the Eagles were 3-6 we could see Kolb and Justice and so forth. Of course, there is no Super Bowl in 2008 or 2009. But, no offense, there is no Super Bowl with the current group either- so why not blow it up? A wild card bid is the goal of the organization now- and that is pretty sad, or as Frank alludes to, boring.
Incomplete I'll buy.
Fading? Obviously the the OTs are aging (albeit maybe more gracefully than we have the right to expect)- and the QB has been around the block (but again, he's probably still a marginal plus). Dawkins- definitely.
I dunno. They don't strike me as an old team- I'd say half of the starters are on their first contract?
They're not bad- at 9-7 they are a mere two regular season games "away" from being a player. But I just think they've failed to get enough good players to make that flip in status.
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