Wrap Up
Following a disappointing and
dramatic loss to the Saints last week, the Eagles rolled into Tampa Bay
looking to rebound. The temperature was over 100 degrees on the field and the
Eagles started off looking very sluggish. Despite their defense playing well
early on, the offense looked dreadful. On the first series with the Eagles
driving, rookie Jason Avant fumbled the ball with Tampa Bay
recovering. After a scoreless first quarter that also saw a Donovan McNabb
interception, Tampa Bay got on the board after notorious Eagle killer Ronde Barber intercepted McNabb and ran it back for Tampa Bay.
With the score 7-0 at halftime, the Birds would once again need some late game
magic, and would eventually get it. After Barber intercepted McNabb again in
the 3rd quarter making the score 17-0; the Birds came back. Fullback
Thomas Tapeh was on the receiving end of a TD pass
making the score 17-7. Halfway through the 4th, McNabb again led the
Eagles down the field and found Reggie Brown in the endzone
to cut the Tampa Bay lead to 3 at 17-14. The Buccaneers
made it interesting though. Following two 15 yard penalties on Jerome McDougle, the Eagles were fortunate to hold the Bucs to a FG as Matt Bryant kicked a season high 44 yard FG
to increase the Buccaneer lead to 20-14. The Eagles would need a miracle and
need McNabb to step it up. They would eventually get this miracle after RB
Brian Westbrook, on a short pass ran 52 yards for a TD giving the Eagles a
21-20 lead in what seemed like an almost certain win…or so it would seem. With
the Tampa Bay out of timeouts with 4 seconds left,
Matt Bryant came out to attempt a seemingly improbable 61-yard FG. Key word
here is “seemingly”. Bryant made the kick with several yards to spare and the
Buccaneers stunned the Eagles 23-21 handing the Eagles their second straight
loss, dropping their record to 4-3, and knocking the Eagles out of first place.
A mostly frustrating day with almost certain redemption has ended in heartbreak
and sadness for the Eagles and their fans as they sit searching for answers.
Post Game Positives
Brian Westbrook
The past few weeks Brian
Westbrook has not done very much and it was very important for B-West to get
back on track. Westbrook did that today serving as the catalyst for the Eagles
offensive surge late in the 4th quarter. Brian Westbrook did it all
today. He ran the ball, the caught the ball. He had a few dropped passes, but
he more than made up for it. Westbrook rushed 13 times for 101 yards as well as
caught 7 passes for 113 yards. The play of Brian Westbrook today is certainly
something positive to be gained from a game so negative.
Jeremiah Trotter
Last week, The Eagle Report was not too kind to the
AxMan, MLB Jeremiah Trotter. Luckily for the Eagles,
Trotter was back and he certainly played well. Trotter was running downhill all
day and was able to make plays when the Eagles needed him to. Trotter lead the
Eagles with 11 tackles on the day and despite some good runs in the second
half, Tampa Bay RB Cadillac Williams never was able to get it going like he
really wanted to. When Jeremiah Trotter plays well, the Eagles defense usually
plays well too and they did today.
Toughness
The Eagles have not been
nearly as physical as they have been in recent years, but they have certainly
showed lots of mental toughness. After coming back against the Saints last
week, the Eagles did the same thing by coming back against the Buccaneers. McNabb
showed his poise in calling good plays to help the Eagles get that lead in the
4th quarter, Westbrook had a clutch play, and the defense was able
to make plays when they needed to. The Eagles are a mentally tough and
emotional team (sometimes too emotional in the case of Jerome McDougle) and they showed their resiliency and mentality today.
Andy Reid is a lot of things, but he is a coach that has his players in the
right mind set come gameday.
Post Game Negatives
Turnovers
If you want a reason why the
Eagles lost the game, this is it. Think of all the points the Eagles could have
gotten had McNabb not thrown those three interceptions or had Avant not fumbled. Credit should be given to the Tampa Bay
defense as well. CB Ronde Barber is a great defensive
back who has McNabb’s number and has had it for a long time. Barber’s 14 points
on two interceptions for TDs are what drove a nail
into the coffin of the Eagles and kept the crowd in the game. On the other side
of the coin, the Eagles defense was not able to do anything in the way of
turnovers. They were unable to get fumbles, pressure on QB Bruce Gradkowski, or get any interceptions. If your team has four turnovers
in a game, and is unable to get any of your own, your team deserves to lose.
The Eagles almost pulled one off anyway, but those turnovers more times than
not will comeback to haunt you.
Dumb Penalties/Jerome McDougle
For the third time this year,
the Eagles have been burned by a few of their defensive players committing
absolutely stupid penalties. In Week 2 it was Trent Cole’s unnecessary roughness,
last week it was Omar Gaither’s 12 men on the field penalty and this week it
was Jerome McDougle’s 30 yards of stupidity. After
finally getting his first sack since getting shot in 2005, McDougle
was called for a questionable (big emphasis on the word questionable) facemask
penalty for 15 yards. Following that, McDougle kicked
the flag thrown on him in what resulted in 15 more yards. This gave Tampa Bay
prime field position and led to the Matt Bryant FG that would ultimately keep
the Bucs from going for 6 instead of 3 in those
crucial final seconds. Dumb penalties will happen, but they shouldn’t
happen this frequently or with a guy like McDougle
who is not contributing much anyway.
Donovan McNabb’s Decisions
You hate to pick on a guy who
rallied his team around him and nearly won a game despite a 17 point deficit,
but Donovan McNabb made some really horrible choices in this one. McNabb was
picked off three times, all three times he either did not throw the ball far
enough or made a bad decision on who to throw it to. That in itself
led to 14 points by Tampa
Bay. Then there was the
end of the second quarter where McNabb made a colossal blunder with 9 seconds
left. Instead of throwing it to a person in the endzone
which would either lead to 6 points, an interception or an incompletion, McNabb
threw it to LJ Smith who was stopped on the 2 yard line as time expired. These
missed points, be it a David Akers chipshot or a TD
by someone else was what ultimately cost the Eagles the game. Donovan
McNabb is a first class QB, but he was the one who ultimately lost this game
for the Eagles.
Closing Remarks
Enough is enough already. What
is happening to the Eagles? They have lost two games in a row on FGs as time expired. Matt Bryant’s 62 yard FG was time
expired was simply incredible. If you thought losing in the last few seconds
after coming back for the second straight week felt bad, that is only the tip
of the iceberg. The Eagles’ record has now dropped to 4-3 with an extremely
difficult game next week coming up at home against the Jaguars. You better
believe the Jaguars will be hungry after being embarrassed by the Houston
Texans this week. Also, with the battle of the 3-2 teams on Monday Night with Dallas and New
York, one of those teams will take over the lead in
the NFC East. Even worse, following the
Jaguars game and the bye week, the Eagles have a really difficult schedule with
4 conference games including three straight away games. This game was the kind
of game that if you are a fan you just take a deep breath, put your hands on
your head, and sigh because of the improbability of what actually happened. A
positive to take from this game is that the Eagles played horribly and shot
themselves down multiple times and still almost came away with a W. Football is
not a game of almosts though. This game should have
never came down to a 62 yard field goal attempt but
thanks to turnovers, penalties and some luck, it did and Tampa Bay
prevailed. The Eagles should have left Tampa
Bay with a victory and instead will
arrive back in Philadelphia
with a lot of question marks and critics breathing down their neck about how
they managed to lose this one.
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