If any team needed a bye week right this very instant, boy it's your Philadelphia Eagles. They need time to rest. They need the time to regroup and get healthy. They need the time to place Juan Castillo in a walk-in refrigerator and lock the door, TIGHTLY, so that he cannot escape. They need the time to give Andy Reid lessons on how to call a goal-line offense, run a two-minute drill, use timeouts wisely, and be a competent human beings in general.
But no! Not only do the reeling 1-4 Eagles have to play again on Sunday, they have to play the worst possible opponent -- the 3-1 Redskins, who still vividly remember the last time these two teams met.
From the Washington Times:
Coach Mike Shanahan was so “embarrassed” he won’t re-watch film of the game he described as a “bad taste.”
Defensive end Adam Carriker tried to put the game behind him. Every time he looked up, Carriker recalled, the Eagles seemed to be scoring.
“It’s gone,” he said, “but not completely forgotten.”
In case you'd like to refresh your memory (and why not? Memories are all your really have left at this point), the Redskins are referring to the 59-28 Monday Night face-stomping administered by Mike Vick and the Eagles. Remember? The one when Vick scored six total touchdowns and the Eagles had four scores of 40+ yards. No doubt you remember that game opened with an 88-yard TD strike from Vick to DeSean Jackson, and the Eagles didn't let up from there. It was a perfect game. It was the game where people fell in love with Vick all over again, willing to forgive him entirely because he was just so irresistible running around out there. That game, above all others, is why Vick got that $100 million contract.
But in many ways, that game also represents the fallacy of Vick. You see all those breathtaking plays and it's easy to believe that Vick will be able to do that EVERY game. The reality, of course, is different. Vick is fallible. He gets hurt --a lot. And Lord knows he tries to do too much back there and ends up turning the ball over as a result. The "Good Vick" is so good that you get seduced into looking past "Bad Vick's" faults, which is how we've ended up here -- at 1-4 and no one on the Eagles seemingly able to keep Vick in check.
Now the Skins are up and they're in a perfect position to kick the Eagles while they're down. Everything went so right that night. It makes you wonder how everything has gone so wrong since.
