… or is it? After weeks of despair and dissension, the 4-7 Philadelphia Eagles rallied to stun the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, 35-28. Chip Kelly outsmarted coaching legend Bill Belichick in their first head-to-head battle. Sam Bradford returned from injury and outdueled uber-QB Tom Brady, playing efficient, error-free football. Best of all, on Monday night the discarded DeSean …
Last week, after two straight home losses to bad teams in the easiest part of the Eagles schedule, I wrote that Thursday’s game against Detroit would tell us a lot about how much fight Chip Kelly has left in him. Apparently, not much. The Eagles lost 45-14, and after the game Chip had no attitude. He spoke in the hushed, …
Last week the Eagles lost a tight game to a bad Miami squad, 20-19. And Eagles fans and reporters went crazy with despair. This Sunday, the team was blown out by a bad Tampa Bay team featuring a rookie quarterback (Jameis Winston) who the Oregon Ducks destroyed just 11 months ago. If you thought the infamous Philadelphian negativity would expand …
The Philadelphia Eagles raced out to a 16-3 lead against Miami Sunday in what looked like the easy, hilarious victory that it should have been. Tight end Brent Celek, who usually just blocks these days, caught passes for 14, 20, 40 and 60 yards as he ran rampant across the middle of the Dolphins’ defense. Miami has committed a series …
All of the NFC East rivalries are bitter, but Philadelphia vs Dallas is probably the worst. These games bring out the best or worst in the Eagles. No game last year was as fun for Eagles fans as the 33-10 demolition of Dallas in front of 20 million viewers on Thanksgiving Day, not even the 27-0 shutout of the disrespectful …
The Philadelphia Eagles climbed in the NFC East standings this week, gaining half a game on the New York Giants and moving further ahead of the Dallas Cowboys. (Both teams lost.) That’s a bit surprising since the Eagles didn’t play, enjoying their bye week. Apparently, the NFC East is worth less than zero; taking a week off is all you …
Philadelphia lost on the road to the Carolina Panthers Sunday. That shouldn’t be such a huge shock. Carolina is undefeated after seven games, with an excellent defense featuring two of the league’s best linebackers (Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis) and the NFL’s hottest young cornerback (Josh Norman). On offense, they have a creative running game, featuring two stars that Chip …
Wow, was that some bad football. Let’s not get too negative, however. The Eagles won their second straight game, and amazingly, at 3-3, lead the NFC East division. It’s not even a tie, given the head-to-head tiebreaker with New York, though they’ve lost to two of their three division rivals. Philadelphia’s defense was outstanding after allowing an 80-yard touchdown drive in …
To be canonized as an official Roman Catholic Saint, you need to have produced at least two verified miracles. The New Orleans Saints got their first on Sunday, miraculously healing the crippled Eagles offense and blessing them with 39 points. It would have been 53 except for two inexcusably bad passes by QB Sam Bradford that were intercepted in the …
The Eagles lost again Sunday, this time to division rival Washington. The Skins are not a good team, though their defense has improved a lot, ranking second in fewest rushing yards allowed (at 78 per game). On the other hand, they had ten penalties, mostly earned, and key players were out injured (including WR DeSean Jackson and CB DeAngelo Hall). …
The city of Philadelphia was basically on suicide watch after the loss to Dallas, with the only energy wielded by people forming lynch mobs for Chip Kelly. Much of the pessimism was realistic, too. The Eagles’ offense was easily the worst in the NFL, as their three running backs combined for negative yardage against the Cowboys’ decimated defense. Kelly was running …
With the early season struggles of the Philadelphia Eagles, suddenly everyone is breaking their legs jumping off of the Chip Kelly bandwagon — proclaiming that they saw it coming. Everyone has their magic fix for the offense: “If LeSean McCoy were still here they’d be winning,” one will say, or “Jeremy Maclin is the magical missing piece.” I’d even bet …