A-Game

I came back from Rome to important news. The Eagles played their A-game on the road this weekend- and put an impressive win over the New York Giants into the books. This does serve to extend the season another week- and guarantees this old warrior will dig out the cold weather gear for next week’s Monday Night Linc adventure.

Past that, I’m not so sure. Obviously, the team has put themselves in position to exceed my 9-7ish projection. But only if they win out: chancy at best. Still, with a productive Westbrook, the Eagles are fairly rated as a weak divisional winner, wild card-ish team- certainly capable of a good win here and there against a Giants' team that probably didn’t bring the same similar emotional intensity to the tilt.

It is just Westbrook, due to health and general durability issues- isn’t a franchise back week-to-week. You simply can’t give him those thirty-plus touches to generate that marvelous game day experience every week. When Brian is good, they’re a play-off team. When he’s ineffective or limited, Philadelphia is usually bad. Put it all together with up and down quarterback play and a good defense, and you get something like 8-8.

So if we were not going to mark’em down from the average bucket after the horrendous tie with the Bengals, we’re not moving Philadelphia out of it due to this good win.

Still, while folks like to rail on Reid, this is why he is not going anywhere. His teams, even when everything doesn’t go according to plan, are north of decent. Certainly the Eagles caught the Giants at the right time- after a good long break late in the season. The match-up was favorable- the Giants are obviously trying to figure out their "new" offense without Burress. It was unfortuante for Manning this educational process came against an Eagles’ defense that can do one thing for certain the last decade- cover wide receivers.

All Eagles fans know the difficulty of recasting your offense in the absence of a dynamite, true number one, perimeter threat. Plus, the Eagles were prepared to put forth effort and play a professional game. Frankly, they always do. These guys play for Andy (see the last five-ish games last year in a total bust of a season). Those braying for his job may not remember Ray Rhodes and the associated routinely disheartening spectacle. They might also turn a blind eye to the seemingly never ending discombobulation in Washington and Dallas. But not a day goes by that Banner and Lurie don’t recall and observe these past and ongoing circuses. Andy might be wedded to some crazy ideas- but they are always, always playing hard and almost always in the hunt for relevance. And he can’t coach? Just dumb.

Nevertheless, this gamble of foregoing Kolb is working now- but I stand by my assertation. If they don’t make the play-offs, this approach is a mistake. You can play McNabb, but that means you’re playing for now. And theEagles still need three straight wins to make playing for now the correct choice.