Cinnaman

Eagles' Hubris: Brian's Song and Dance

You may notice that the illustration accompanying this text has an oversized football head on top of a weak, little body. Is there a better artistic expression of what the Philadelphia Eagles have become?

When did this fan KNOW the Eagles were going to be flattened and have Hummer tracks all over their backs last night? That’s easy. It was sometime in the first quarter when the Birds had their backs to the goal, I think on first down, and Brian Dawkins made a tackle to stop the Seahawks runner.

Dawkins immediately stepped into a good camera angle, snapped to attention and showed the television world his bicep.

“What’s he pointing to, his brain?” I muttered to my Significant Wife. “Is he going to show us his muscles after they score?” He didn’t.

Maybe today the Eagles will get it. Maybe they will reach under their pads and pull out all of the old press clippings that have puffed them up since last January. Maybe they will look at the NFL standings and finally realize that reputations do not win football games.

On the other hand, if a 5-6 record didn’t wake them up, a 5-7 just might bring on the delusion that they’ve won the Heinz Trophy for Hot Dog Toppings.

Andy Reid led a mangy mutt into the Kennel Club Competition at the Linc last night, but the reality obviously didn’t register on Muscle Man Dawkins, who made one tackle and strutted around like Rin Tin Tin at the Canine Hall of Fame.

The fans were no better, cheering the most insignificant progress, then booing fill-in quarterback Mike McMahon for throwing interceptions, two of them caused when the receiver surrendered. The fans didn’t get it either, because they obviously harbored the illusion that the Eagles could 1/ win and 2/ count on other teams to fail so we can somehow make the playoffs. (Sound familiar, Phillies fans?)

Here is the real score, folks. The Eagles are a rebuilding team. But they won’t even do that, rebuild, until they strip down to the naked truth that last season means nothing. Nothing. And, as a matter of fact, THIS season means nothing. This is a time for learning how to play together and win.

That’s why it was nonsense to boo McMahon off the field and trot in Koy Detmer. McMahon has talent and it would have been better to keep him in so he could score a TD and build his confidence. Even John Madden threw a few compliments McMahon’s way.

Of course confidence, as Brian Dawkins has proven, can blow up out of control and turn into a cockiness that looks damned silly in light of a lopsided loss. By game’s end, Andy Reid and some of the players looked as if they had learned a grim lesson last night.

We’ll see.

posted by Lou Antosh @ 11:25 PM