L-O-S-E-R-S - LOSERS!

Okay, sorry, couldn't resist making fun of the Eagles chant there.

On the "right-to-the-point" tip ... (more stuff to come in later posts, but right now, need to get this on the record).

NFL's NFC Wild Card Playoffs - Sunday, Jan. 9th, 2010 at Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Pa.

Green Bay Packers 21, Phialdelphia Eagles 16

Unfortunately, my prediction was right. In this instance, I would rather have been wrong. And it played out almost exactly like I thought it would. The defense actually exceeded my expectations in terms of how many points were given up, but they were on the field way too long, they let Green Bay sustain their drives and take too much time off the clock, and perhaps most importantly, they were awful at stopping the Packers on third down. Simply put, they couldn't come up with a key stop when they needed it most. As expected, Michael Vick was poorly protected for most of the game. I heard some bozos on The FAN (660 AM, New York radio) blaming all of this on Vick, how he didn't 'show up' and failed to get it done in a big moment. Not one word from these 'experts' though on how much the offensive line blew chunks yesterday, and has for most of the year due to inexperience and untimely injuries to key guys (i.e. Winston Justice). Vick wasn't at his best yesterday, but he certainly wasn't at his worst. And if you blame this loss on him primarily that only tells me you weren't really watching the game that closely. If you want to blame any individual (which is usually stupid in a team sport anyway), blame David Akers for missing two field goals that are usually chip shots by his standards. Those six points would surely have made a difference in a five-point loss.

And for how badly the Birds played, they still had a chance to win on that last-second desperation pass from Vick to Riley Cooper in the back of the end zone, before it was unceremoniously picked off by Green Bay's Tramon Williams. It's unbelievable that they weren't put away much earlier in this game when considering how mediocre the defense was, how inefficent the offense was, the bad-luck re-injury to DeSean Jackson's ankle (he's been gimpy for awhile now), the multitude of stupid penalties, and the failed two-point conversion that would have pulled Philly within 3 (making it 21-18), even though Philly got a mulligan on it because of one of said stupid penalties. A three-point deficit changes the complexion completely, especially psychologically. "Come on guys, a field goal and we're tied, going to OT!" But considering how Akers performed yesterday, a potentially game-tying, last-second field goal would have, no doubt, sailed wide left/right.

I guess now would be a decent time to point out that had the Eagles somehow won, they would have been feasted on by the Bears next weekend at Soldier Field. I mean, the Eagles' D allowed 123 rushing yards by James Starks, a no-name who didn't even have that many yards for the entire season coming into yesterday's game. Can you imagine what Matt Forte would do to them next weekend?

Hey, what can you say. The 2010 season actually exceeded the projected ceiling of this team for most Eagles fans (or at least the realistic ones). It's a young team, lots of injuries this year, a brand new dynamic at the quarterback position, and regardless of how you feel individually about Michael Vick, his play carried the team and was a lightning-rod talking point for the NFL in the 20-oh-10. Oh and Andy Reid continues to appear as though he has no impact on anything that happens out there.

If I was an artist and some big-shot commissioned me to do a work of art entitled "Blank Stare," I would literally paint a snap-shot of Andy Reid's face on the sidelines during any game. I don't understand why so many people continue to defend him. Does he inspire any sort of tangible emotion associated with a winning football team? Passion? Inspiration? Hard work? Dedication? Excitement? Do you think of any of these things when you think of Andy Reid? I think of a guy who never gets pissed off (it's okay to get peeved sometimes Andy, really. It means you actually CARE), a guy who often mis-manages his timeouts during crucial moments (especially toward the end of a half), and a guy whose success is primarily due to having been fortunate enough to be surrounded by a decent staff and talented players. Put Andy Reid in St. Louis, or Denver, or Cleveland, or any other currently undesireable destination in the league right now, and he'd be fired within 2-3 years. We'll never get the chance to see that happen though, because no matter how many frustrating endings to Eagles seasons we experience, it's like he has permanent immunity. A change in the coaching department wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

Oh and I can hear the defenders right now. "They had a lot of injuries, young team, can't blame the coach for that!" True, it can't be entirely blamed on him this year. But his inability to generate anything positive out of something negative isn't helping at ALL. Look at what Belichick had to work with this year, and look at New England's record (my God, am I really doing this? Building up the Pats??). He took a bunch of guys who were no-names back in September of 2010 and made them household names by January of 2011. We all know who BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Danny Woodhead and Rob Gronkowski are by now. When did Andy Reid ever turn nothing into something? I'm really thinking hard on this one. I got nothin.'

So what's to do in the offseason? It seems fairly obvious that the organization will try to sign Vick to some sort of long-term deal (perhaps slap the franchise tag on him), and I'm fine with that. But put a better offensive line in front of him. It's a nice collection of skill players wearing Eagles unis right now, but please, improve the offensive line and the defense. The secondary is actually not bad. A few more stalwart, big-name linebackers and/or pass rushers would be nice additions though. Special teams seems serviceable enough, shouldn't need to tinker with anything there all that much. And the kicking game is okay (Sav Rocca is a consistent punter, Akers is USUALLY a consistent kicker).

Will be interesting to see what happens on Draft Day 2011 for the Birds. And of course, let's pray to (insert deity here) that there's no lockout for the 2011-12 season.