The loss to the Minnesota Vikings was a major letdown, highlighted by poor play from the offensive line, but don’t jump ship yet because this loss does have a silver lining…historically.
It has already been discussed on GCobb.com about how the Eagles can now use their Week 17 matchup against the Dallas Cowboys as a bye-week, but after looking back on past seasons, the Eagles loss translates well with past Super Bowl champions.
Since 2002, four teams that went on to be eventual Super Bowl champs suffered defeat in Week 16 (Saints in 2009, Steelers in 2008, Colts in 2006, Buccaneers 2002). This instance has occurred in the past two seasons, as well.
The Saints went on to lose their final three games of the season, but got hot when it mattered. The Giants, who won the Super Bowl in 2007, lost in Week 15 to Washington and Week 17 to New England, but wound up winning four playoff games to capture the Lombardi trophy. In 2004, the Patriots lost to the Dolphins in Week 15, but bounced back and won their second consecutive Super Bowl.
Losing late in the season can actually benefit teams because it brings them back down to reality. It forces them to address their weaknesses from both a player personnel perspective as well as a strategic perspective.
In this case, the Eagles felt they were untouchable after that historical comeback against the Giants two weeks back, and took Joe Webb and the Vikings as a joke. Now, seeing that they can be beaten after going 8-2 prior to last night’s matchup, the Eagles must revert back to the way they played during that 8-2 stretch.
With Michael Vick banged up and DeSean Jackson not at 100%, the Birds need to rest them up and use Week 17 as their bye-week before the playoffs begin.
Of course, Philadelphia has a lot to figure out in terms of their offensive line and on their medical front, but don’t let the loss discourage you, this has happened to many eventual champs in recent memory.
Good point G…way too talk people off the cliff.
How many posts do i have too read today about it’s over,we’re not super/playoff caliber and every other doomsday talk?
Now all the sudden Mike’s average and reverting back too his old self? It’s hard not too look too run when you know o-lineman arent effectivly picking up the blitz. And every other qb in the league gets sacked 10 times in that game. So props too him for doin what was needed. And guys werent uncovering all night.He missed two td passes too Maclin and Jax. Off night…he needs a week off. Get the legs back and be ready for the homer.
Couldn’t have said it better myself Kyle. Great article. If this would have happened a couple of weeks ago against the Cowboys, I would be distraught. But because we just came out sloppy and got out played, I’m just annoyed.
Chris Collingsworth made that point last night. But will Andy listen? We got blown out by Dallas last year. I just knew it could not happen 2 weeks in a row. I knew Andrew would make adjustments to Dallas’s game plan and the Eagles would sail threw the playoffs!
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
No adjustments. Andy may now have the quickess (not fastest) running back in Eagles history. Shady must touch the ball more!!!!!!!!!! Make teams account for the run and the screens and the pitchouts. Quick trying to passify “Soulja boy”. Running will open things up for him, with a real play action fake. Silly me. I forgot. It’s BYU alumni as our head coach. Chad Hall??? You wasted a roster spot for Chad Hall? All the athletes and speedsters from Texas, Oklahoma, Florida state, USC, Cal and LSU and Chad Hall is our back up kick returner???
O.K. Andrew. I believe. This year will be different. You will run the ball more and take the heat off of Vick. You will game plan all of the weapons on this team not just vick and desean. You will mix up the plays and keep the opponent off balance…..sorry got carried away with another fantasy.
Sounds good Kyle,
I wonder how many of those teams lost at home as a 14 Pt Favorite and facing a QB making his NFL Start.. This was bad anyway you look at it..
If there is 1 think I ever learned playing and watching Football at any leve..When you have a young inexperienced QB playing in a Hostile environment, you come after hime with both guns a blazing and right from the get go.. You do not allow a nervous youngster to get his feet wet and feel comfortable and then get into a rthym… Coach S McDermott made it way too easy for QB Webb
PS – that head ref last night hates the Eagles. I cringe everytime him or muscle guy (hokalee) are reffing the Eagles. Somebody needs to find out what his problem is. He always times his penaltys to kill momentum. The 12 penalties last night was acctually one of the better games we have had with him.
Good call Kyle and great read. Like most eagles fas I was concerned and disappointed with their performance last night, particulary with the O-line. My hope is that during their after their next film session they come out embarassed and motivated. They know Minnesota did nothing different last night than what the Giants and Bears did. I’m not buying that Leslie Frazier knows our offence better than most coaches because of his tenure with the organization. That was 8 years ago and we’re different. I do agree that his defense looked a hell of lot like a JJ D than ours and ultimately we paid for it.
I’m was relieved to hear the sense of urgency in Andy and Mike and will cautiously trust that they will transfer some of that to the rest of the team. Not to knock McNabb but, thats a trust I’ve never been able to express. With that said I’m optimisticaly but cautiously putting this behind us and am looking forward to playoff time.
Ok lots to dig in here.
No doubt in my mind we need to draft a corner in the 1st round. This is not a OL friendly draft coming up and we draft OL better in the later rounds anyway. Sean McDermott needs to be fired. Wade Phillips needs to be hired. Wade all though a bad head coach is an outstanding X’s and O’s guy and knows how to use players to succeed.
Vick needs to spend sometime with Djax and make sure they are on the right page with the calls.
Andy Reid. He needs to stop being an ass and RUN the ball. Where were the draw plays? were is J harrison?
Safeties. K coleman needs to be cut today. Which brings me to last years draft. We had Earl Thomas but we took Graham who is to me a bust. Potential dont mean Jack to me its what you do on the field and he has done squat.
right now there needs to be only 2 ppl on our OL next year. Jason Peters and Winston Justice. Everyone else needs to be cut.
Package Kevin Kolb and Stewart Bradley.
Vricchini — Coleman was the MVP on the defensive side of the ball for last nights game. He may have been the lone bright spot of the night. Learn football.
Herremans has been our most consistent and best O-lineman — please STFU.
Yeah, I wouldn’t say Coleman “needs to be cut today”. He did finish 2nd on the team with 7 tackles and a tackle for loss. Being a backup, Coleman looks like a steal as a seventh rounder. To me, he’s one of our better tacklers.
Second, I do agree with vricchini on the fact that the Eagles need to run the ball. Using draws is one of the best ways to counter a blitz. McCoy is a Pro-Bowl caliber runner, and we need to utilize more often in the running game, as well as continue to check down to him on short, quick passes.
As for Earl Thomas, he looks real good. 74 tackles and five interceptions would have been a nice addition on the Eagles D. But I’m not jumping ship yet on Brandon Graham.
wow BirdoBeamen you all up on my balls geez take em out your mouth.
you got something to say say it to my face other wise I dont hear your dumb ass.
Really there was a MVP last night for our Defense? ha good one.
I guess Chaney played poorly too?
Herremans has had his ups and downs as well as everyone on the OL.
If you can admit we have issues on our OL then you are suggesting we keep
Herremans, peters, and Justice? cause the eagles arent letting either go.
I agree with vricchini, we had Earl Thomas right in our hands and we went Graham. I was shocked. Thomas is having a fantastic year as a rookie. I’m not jumping ship on Graham yet either but still…. I’m not so sure you can call for McDermott’s head given the laundry list of injuries to our defense but I’d be all for having Wade Phillips here as our d-coordinator.
The only jobs that should be safe on that o-line are Peters and Herremans. Every other spot can use a major upgrade.
Coleman saved countless big runs by Peterson last night. AP would have had 200 yds and 3 tds if it wasn’t for Coleman’s tackles.
All of you shouting for replacements and asking for Wade Phillips — if the Eagles win the Bowl this year, please don’t show up.
Maybe its just me. Maybe im just so use to watching B dawk play that I expect too much from our Safeties. I didnt see coleman play well in coverage last night. I also saw him get tricked on a few plays by Adrian Peterson. To look at what we could have had and looking at what we do have just pisses me off.
Birdo, even if the Eagles win the superbowl this year, which I think we can all say is fairly unlikely (I haven’t though this was a Superbowl winning team all year), it certainly won’t be because of McDermott. I’d love to come back on the site and eat crow though.
think about what me missed in that draft. Jason Pierre-Paul, Earl Thomas Devin Mccourty, Maurkice Pouncey! all of which we could have used at the time but we passed on them? this just makes my blood boil
Agree again vricchini. I was surprised we went DE. I’m not saying it wasn’t a need but it was more of a “nice to have.” This defense needs a ton of work for next year.
McDermott or Wade Phillips? this is a no brainer.
lots of work indeed BTC. Good news is that We have Kolb for bait and perhaps and I say again PERHAPS Bradley that could be packaged for another 1st. Im not sold on Chaney 100% but so far so good. I doubt they will let him go.
Couple of Items from Paulman’s persepctive
Last nights game Defensive stars were Safety Coleman, Mikell and MLB J Cheney
DE’s T Cole, J Parker and CB Samuel all looked slow,disinterested and missed many tackles
(anyone notice where AP was getting most of his yard.. either by running around the left end
(since T Cole rushes up field first too often and thereby creating a nice running lane) and around the Right side since A Samuel isn’t going to come up and bring him down.
As far as LB Bradley, He will be moved to the OLB position (replacing E Sims) who will move on as a free-agent..
Coleman and Allen will be the Safety Starting Tandem moving forward by mid 2011 and for sure by 2012
DE B Graham had a so-so Rookie year and now with injury, will have a major re-hab and a big step-back in his develpment possibly. Teo and R Sapp were both reaches and will most likely make no impact for the Eagles and were misses from this past Draft.. (Eagles should have stayed at #24 and chosen the best CB on the Board which was D McCourtey from Rutgers who I think made the Pro-Bowl as a Rookie playing for the Patriots or even Kyle Wilson who the Jets grabbed at the end of the 1st Round)
Areas of need — by priority
Defense – CB,DE,OLB,S,DT
Offense – Interior O/L, TE, RB and WR
2011 Draft is very deep in QB,CB,DT,WR,Interior O/Lineman,OLB
Not so deep at OT,TE,RB, DE, & S
We went DE because
1) We were beaten by a lot of teams that got pressure from the front 4, which we were poor at last season.
2) Our DE’s skills decline towards the end of the season. Parker and Cole have a history of disappearing in December, and I think the school of thought on Cole is that he would maintain his level if there was a strong left side rush to pull coverage off him.
Looking at last night, we got enough pressure from the front 4, but Parker needed help with contain on Webb. That’s partially Webb’s speed, but is a freakin’ LB or Safety blitz from that side too much to ask? Webb seemed surprised each time Parker was there, and barely got away. A little more speed and POW.
Chaney I like, but can he actually finish a tackle before posing? Look at the first play from scrimmage for the D again, he taps the runner on the head (was it Peterson or Harvin, I don’t remember), then starts his pose. The runner then moves on for another 3 or 4 yards gained.
Coleman I like (he was around the ball every play), at least last night.
I think that a lot was simplified for the D because of the rookies in key positions. We had a speed advantage overall (we’re definitely not a size team), so you would think that it would be used effectively to blanket receivers or contain. Instead it was used to over persue and get pushed out of position. McDermott, I think, is a definite liability, and should be gone at the end of the season barring a real performance improvement in the playoffs. Also, we need a new D-Line coach: Seagrest out!
I think that there may be a silver lining, as many have mentioned before in previous posts, and would like to see it come January 8th. The rest is definitely needed for our starters, and hopefully the experience next week will be good for the rookies.
what i don’t get about a lot of you clowns is that you are now bailing on this team, but as little as a week ago it was talk about super bowl, paulie had birds near the top, i believe sal pal had birds 2 in nfc, the same personnel played last night, did you expect this team to always play at the level of last 7 minutes last week, isn’t it reasonable to expect a let down following that unbelievable win, how about a little hung over birds following xmas partying, having game postponed, until tuesday, a light opponent, did you guys ever play competitive sports at a high level, do you know what it is like to play at that intensity every week, give them a break, to me, more than anything, this team was just flat, very flat, no intensity, but that can be epected, look for big win in first round, then take it from there
jake, good points but as ecstatic as I was after the Giants win, the logical part of me still was able to realize that the Eagles got dominated for 3.5 quarters that game. Then we go out and lose at home to Joe Webb and the Vikings. My biggest concern now is that we have to play Green Bay who looked like a Superbowl team last weekend. Granted the game is in Philly, but I just don’t see this defense being able to contain Aaron Rodgers. I hope I’m wrong.
@jakedog
we bump heads at times…but I totally agree with you there…respect! I will no longer call you a middle of the fencer lol
Jake, what you don’t realize is that people aren’t bailing on the team. People are venting the day after a loss, especially because the team played like the game didn’t matter?
How about the people who paid hundreds of dollars to fly to Philly and see their favorite team, only to have them not show up for the game? Well, at least we beat the Giants!
Can you honestly say that after a big playoff win it’ll be ok to expect a let down loss the next week because the team had to work hard the week before? Is this the time of year our team should lay off the gas pedal and just see what happens? Should we lose the right to be upset or complain about poor coaching and poor play because we were rooting for the team last night?
For whatever it’s worth,
The Vikings have petiitioned the NFL to play all their home games next Season at the Linc on Tuesday nights until they fix their roof or build them a new Staduim… Details at 11…
Real I miss the old real days w u and diz keeping it real haha
Do you know that: Mcoy ran the ball 13 and 10 times last 2 games and 10 against the Beas(a loss)
Patriots ran the ball 38 times last Sunday and 35 against Bears and won 36-3.
Paulman’s NFC Rankings after Week 16
#1) Saints
#2) Bears
#3) Falcons
#4) Packers
#5) Eagles
#6) Tampa Bay
#7) Giants
#8) SL Rams
Paulmans AFC Rankings
#1) Patriots
#2) Steelers
#3) Ravens
#4) Colts
#5) Cheifs
#6) Jets
#7) Jaguars
#8) Chargers
NFL MVP
#1) QB T Brady in a unamious vote
(others receiving votes but are a distant 2nd are M Vick/A Rodgers/M Cassell/P Manning/M Ryan)