Did you watch the first half of the Eagles and Steelers last night? You did! Oh, that was a mistake. For weeks, you've dreamed of the Eagles being an unstoppable MEGATEAM capable of winning titles and invading small city-states with its fearsome aerial attack. Then came last night and, well, UGHHHHHHH.
You are not alone in agonizing over this showing. Despite the fact that it was preseason and that it meant "nothing," last night's game showed you, without much doubt, that this Eagles team is still quite capable of sucking. Bit of a rude wakeup call.
Andy Reid wasn't very happy about it:
“We all stunk...The obvious is too many turnovers and our inability to get off the field against a good football team."
Those were the obvious problems. Reid didn't even get into some of the more alarming issues from last night, chief among them Michael Vick's accuracy. I have rarely seen Vick throw the ball so poorly. It was as if Donovan McNabb never left.
Then there was the defense, which allowed two touchdown drives in its first two series. The first one, an agonizing death march that kept America wondering if it would ever get a chance to see Vick take the field. Pity they finally got that chance.
Look, it's the preseason. It's foolish to jump to conclusions from one-plus quarters of bad football and throw away a lot of the goodwill this team built up from last season. As football fans, it's very easy to watch your team play one game and feel like THAT is how they'll always be. If they play great, they're gonna carry it over. If they suck, they won't. Your team, at times, feels as if it's stuck in amber before it gets to take the field again.
This Eagles team will be quite good this season (one of the positive takeaways from last night's horror show was the pass rush, which was excellent). You will see games from them that are the diametric opposite of what you saw last night -- big plays, good throws, winning football.
But last night served as a reminder that no football team is ever perfect. You can bring in anyone you like and you're still going to lay the occasional egg. You now know this team is capable of playing lousy football. Hope you won't have to get used to it.
