Mercifully, the 2012 Season for the Philadelphia Eagles is over. At long last we can stop getting our hopes up for a desperate win to show some life in a team. Now, something I always took for granted about the Andy Reid led Eagles, we enter the first rebuilding phase since 1999. I was not really a fan until about 2000-2001. I know that's when they started their hot streak and I can be considered a bandwagoner, but alas I still go out of my way to see this team. I still make my financial sacrifices to see the games when I can live in person. I still will maybe leave my family for a few hours to watch my second favorite thing in the world. I believe myself to be a good fan. I am not one of those who will turn my back on them for making the same mistakes year after year as a way to "send a sign" to management that the team is not good enough. My last great Eagles moment came just a couple weeks ago when they came from behind and beat the Buccaneers with 0 seconds left on the clock. I knew their season was awful and the winning season hopes, or even a 0.500 season was over. Alas, I saw some actual heart from the team.
Yesterday I saw the heart start again but then quickly stop. The Eagles started the game with a bang by performing an onsides kick that brought them the ball to start the game. It was energizing. I saw the game on a delay, and unfortunately started watching it after I inadvertently saw the score on NFL Network. Oh well. I heard a brief touch of the game on the radio on my way to Brandon's. All I heard was Merril Reece say, "The Eagles will need Miracle at the Meadowlands number 3, 4, and 5 combined." I knew it would be bad. But how they started, the team seemed to be ready to kick some ass. Play all out with their futures on the line. The offense struggled, and the announcers said the only game Vick didn't have a turnover in was the first meeting with the Giants in Week 4, then suddenly threw an interception. I saw Rueben Randle catch a touchdown over Nnamdi Asomugha. Nnamdi made a jump with his form reminiscent of Super Mario jumping to break a brick over his head.
Unfortunately Nnamdi, like Mario above, he didn't have his mushroom yet to make him bigger than he needed to be. Or better. The dude has been a colossal bust and has yet to be on a team with a winning season. Ever. And he had been touted as a future hall of famer. Eli went on I think to have 4 touchdowns in the first half, I think? And 5 total. Two different rushing touchdowns. A David Wilson backflip. King Dunlap inadvertently hitting an official. Maclin getting rocked on almost every catch. Damaris Johnson showing that he is just not good enough. Colt Anderson showing the most heart on a team that he probably won't be starting for again next year. And ultimately being at the bottom of a division the Washington Redskins won for the first time in 14 years.
As soon as I got home from Brandon's I saw on NFL.com's mobile site that Andy Reid has already informally been fired, as early as this past Friday when Jeffrey Lurie told him personally what would happen after Sunday. And now, all we as fans are waiting for is the official word. It is merely hours away until the press conference comes. I know it would kill Jeffrey Lurie to fire Andy Reid. I heard somebody say that Lurie was a business man, and his partner (Reid) earned him a lot, A LOT of money. He bought the franchise for merely a few million and turned into an over $1 billion operation.
Andy Reid had a regular season record of 129-88-1 (from Wikipedia, though that doesn't add up to a full 14 seasons). Correcting this stat, he was eligible for 224 games in fourteen seasons, and this left him 6 games short. Therefore I believe the corrected record should be 130-93-1. That is a 0.580 winning percentage. Keep in mind his last 4 seasons his team has gone 33-31, 3 seasons 22-26, and last two seasons at 12-20. A decline for sure. Five full seasons ago, the Eagles were almost all but out of the playoffs, and some miracles happened and they EARNED their way to the NFC Title game in Arizona, only to lose the game they were favored in. The next year McNabb went OFF for some great numbers comparable if not even better than earlier in his career. 11-5 was not good enough to win the division as they suffered a regular season ending loss to the Cowboys, not only losing the division title but also the number 2 seed in the NFC, and followed up with another blowout to the Cowboys the following week. The lone highlight in that game was a Vick-Maclin wildcat touchdown. In 2010, McNabb was traded away, Kolb was the starter until he got hurt (in the first game) then Vick game in to almost have the team beat the eventual Super Bowl champs on opening day. Vick had that Miracle in the Meadowlands number 2 and it has all been downhill since. The Eagles made the playoffs, but ended the season how they started - losing to the Packers, at home, by one score yet again. The following year the Eagles signed every available B-level or better talent and went 8-8, but with a rallying cry 4 game winning streak making a lot of fans, me included, confident about this year. Then they started out 3-1, while looking sloppy, and many fans, me included, thought that perhaps if we could win ugly imagine how good the Eagles would be when it all came together. Unfortunately it did not come together until the aforementioned game in Tampa.
The argument is being made over the radios about what was so great about Andy Reid's time, be it Jim Johnson, the draft picks supplied by previous coaches, etc. I believe Andy Reid just had some kind of magic for most of his tenure, and the players were more blue chip players who made the franchise what it became rather than the current crop of players who think they are why the franchise is regarded so highly. I will never EVER forget the miraculous 2006 season. McNabb went down with his knee problem, one year after the Eagles had their first losing season (6-10) when he left the season to have his sports hernia corrected leading the way to Mike McMahon to stink up the joint. The Eagles learned the lesson of not having AJ Feeley on deck as a back up that year and got themselves Jeff Garcia. I remember the game vividly. The Eagles had been at 5-6 on a Monday Night Football game against the panthers. The Eagles were down at half time, by maybe just 13 points at the most, but the way they played leading up to halftime for the game and since McNabb went down, all seemed lost. However, Garcia took control of the team, and the defense stepped up and the Eagles won 5 straight, clinched the division, beat the Giants in an exciting game, and lost a heartbreaker to the 2 seed Saints. This, in my opinion, was purely the peak of Andy Reid as a coach. Taking his team out of the dumps, putting the ball in the hands of his players, and letting his defense know he trusted them to do their job. Those players played for each other, the coach, and to win.
Unfortunately, when McNabb left, so did all of Reid's available magic. There were some great spots in 2010. The Miracle at the New Meadowlands. The comeback victories over Houston and Indianapolis that I saw in person were inspiring. However, once they clinched their division by the Giants losing on a Sunday, the Eagles really had nothing to play for on the Tuesday Night Football debacle against the finally Brett Favre-less Vikings, only to lose to the Joe Webb led team and thus lose all their steam.
When Kolb was traded away and Vick was the official starter, the Eagles went for 12 wins to 20 losses. Vick did not play all those seasons, but as I heard one analyst say on the radio today that's what happens when you go from developing your foundation (the lines) to developing your new "toys" and "weapons." The fact remains the Eagles are staring at the 4th overall pick and the next 3-5 years of the team depends on this pick. I am certainly no draft expert, or amateur, but I will certainly try do better at my research than I had done earlier this year.
So what exactly do the Eagles need help with? They went heavy defensively in the draft and have some pretty decent young players, and some other players who are finally coming around. Some players should be on their way out. I think their priorities are the following: secondary, big body receiver, backup offensive line, bigger defensive lineman, kick returner, linebacker, quarterback, running back, place kicker, junk for special teams. It's a shame they missed opportunities with players like Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, or Mo Claiborne. Even Janoris Jenkins and that dude from Buffalo are decent. The secondary is mostly veterans who are playing under their value or younger players who just may never get it, or the Dog with the Biggest Fight inside, Colt Anderson, who just will get burned. He is like the defense's "Rudy." It would just be nice to know that a fourth quarter, Hell, a first quarter lead, won't be given up as quickly as it came about. The rest of the defense is full of young, still malleable (i.e., can be reshaped) players who should be able to adjust. It shouldn't have taken 3 years, but Brandon Graham seems like a potential future cog in the defensive wheel.
How nice would it have been, looking back now, to have somebody like Dez Bryant jumping up for catches, coming down with the ball and able to get a few extra yards out of a play after contact? I saw Maclin's head snap 5 times, back and forth and back and forth and back after one catch yesterday, and get rocked on another that was eventually ruled incomplete. I like Maclin way more than Desean Jackson, because at least Jeremy works for catches and doesn't rely on just speed (anymore). Took some time, but he could be one of the teams best weapons moving forward if the Jackson bombs were eliminated from the playbook.
So, moving forward...A lot of stupid people on the radio say the next coach has to be prepared to coach in Philadelphia. Didn't Dick Vermeil cry a lot? And he is revered. Who cares. I just need the next coach to be ready to coach. A whole shakeup isn't in order, but rather a gameplan for the year with the proper personnel needs to be established, not making the players forced to be what they aren't. If a player isn't good for your system, don't draft, sign, keep, or trade for them. All I know is for the second straight year, we are looking forward to next year.
All that aside, even though he will never read this, Andy Reid, you sir, have made me an Eagle's fan for life. There were more highs than lows in your tenure. Yes losing NFC championship game after NFC Championship felt like a low to a lot of players, but I was still not as football educated as I am today and therefore I was able to enjoy the ride. The "fly through the season" type of seasons earlier in your tenure were great, but I loved when the team struggled and pulled together. 2006 and 2008 will always stick out in my mind for how what the Eagles really meant to me - don't ever quit and work for each other. That made me fall in love with the entire game of football. I can watch the Eagles in a 1-15 or 15-1 season for the rest of my life, and rise and fall with the emotions of a win or loss. What you did for my local team, what you helped bring to my consciousness and awareness, and you have provided me for 243 Sundays, Mondays, and or Thursdays - I thank you. Watching the Eagles, my emotional investments, all came from what you as a head coach did with these players, no matter who the analysts or radio callers say really deserve the credit. In the most trying times in my life, I always had the joy of watching the Eagles, thinking this was their moment. And for that, Andy Reid, I thank you for your sacrifices and contributions to my enjoyment of the NFL and love of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Now, a parting picture...
And the comical side of you that I enjoyed in watching your mannerisms on the sidelines, swatting a moth, coughing - I will miss that, too. Get some rest.
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