Plenty of Blame to Go Around For the Eagles' Loss

It seems that many people love scapegoats, finding that one person to pin the blame on, whether it be in regard to a crime, a traffic accident or a sporting event. Over the past several years, veteran quarterback, Donovan McNabb, has played this role for the Philadelphia Eagles' franchise. While McNabb led the Eagles to many successful regular seasons, several runs to the NFC Championship Game and even one appearance in the Super Bowl, he was not able to lead the Eagles to a championship. Being the face of the franchise, which the quarterback often times is, McNabb was unfairly singled out by many fans as the one to blame for this.

This was the first year without McNabb under center for the Eagles and at the end of the season, a familiar tune made its way into Philly, with the Eagles falling to the Green Bay Packers 16-21 in the first-round of the playoffs on Sunday. Many fans are taking similar action with this failed playoff run as they did when McNabb was the head chief in town and that's pin the blame on one player. Some have singled out quarterback, Michael Vick, while others have pinned the blame on place kicker, David Akers. Having watched the game in its entirety, I can say with no hesitation that the blame can be shared by the offense, defense, special teams and coaching.

First off, let's get something straight here. The Philadelphia Eagles were lucky to just be in the game when they got the ball with under two minutes to go in the 4th quarter, down by 5. The Packers, already up 14-3 at the time, failed to convert a long pass play late in the first half. Wide Receiver, James Jones, dropped a ball that was laid in his hands perfectly by Aaron Rodgers and if Jones had caught the ball, he likely would have taken it to the house for a touchdown and a 21-3 lead going into the half. That would have all but sealed it for the Packers. The Eagles were very fortunate to have only trailed by 5 late in the game.

Okay, but the fact still remains that the Eagles were only down 5 late in the game, so someone has to take the blame, right? Pluralize the word "someone" and that would be correct. We'll start with the quarterback. For 59+ minutes, Michael Vick didn't turn the ball over. For the most part, he protected the ball while running better than he has in the past few games. He didn't throw many bad passes or dangerous passes that could have been intercepted. To that point in the game, he played very efficiently. His completion percentage wasn't the highest it's been all year (55.6%), but he made the most of the completion, as his 20 went for a combined 292 yards (14.6 p/) and his yards per attempt was even solid (8.1 p/). But, as we learn in psychology, the recency effect is rather strong, even stronger than the primacy effect. What people will remember about Vick's game is that last pass - the interception in the end zone. Some are questioning the decision not to spike the ball. Others are questioning the decision to throw the ball to Cooper in the end zone. Others are just questioning the quality of his throw. I think one of these three points is accurate. Vick could have spiked the ball, but with 33 seconds left in the game, at the opponent's 27-yard line, the last thing I'd want to do is waste a down. I'd also like to keep the defense on their heels. If Vick had spiked the ball, while this would have given Philly more time to regroup and run a play in a non-hurried manner, it also would have wasted first down and given the Packers' defense time to get settled and call a play to their liking. I also don't think the decision to throw the ball to Cooper in the end zone was a poor one. It was one-on-one coverage and Cooper had about a 5'' advantage on his defender. Vick's pass was a bad one, however. With Cooper's height advantage, Vick needed to, at worst, throw the ball out of the back of the end zone. If anything, overthrow Cooper. Do not underthrow him. But, for the game, that was Vick's lone mistake. But, of course, it'll be what many Eagles' fans remember.

Onto the next scapegoat, kicker David Akers. In the first half, Akers missed a 41-yard field goal into the wind which would have cut the Packers lead to four at 7-3. He then missed a 34-yard attempt with the wind at his back to start the 4th quarter, which would have trimmed the Packers' lead to 21-13. He did make one field goal toward the end of the first half, which got the Eagles to within eleven at 3-14. The fact is Akers should have made the 34-yard field goal with the wind at his back. His 41-yarder into the wind can be excused, but there's not much excuse for missing the 34-yard attempt. However, the loss can't be solely pinned on him. Even if he made the 34-yarder, the Eagles would still have needed to score a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie. They scored a touchdown, but failed on the two-point conversion, the score would have been 19-21. The Eagles would then have had a chance to win the game with a field goal at game's end, but that's all moot at this point.

Tight end, Brent Celek, also didn't help matters, when he carelessly stepped out of the back of the end zone, before stepping back in to make the catch on a two-point conversion. That would have trimmed the Packers lead to three at 18-21 and a field goal would have tied it and sent the game to overtime. But, again, this was one play and Celek can't take all the blame for the loss.

The defense only allowed 21 points, which is better than average for the Eagles, yet they didn't make the stops they had to. Rookie tailback, James Starks, whom had just over 100 rushing yards in the 16-game regular season, eclipsed that mark in just this one game against the Eagles. In combination with Starks' fine performance, the Packers couldn't be stopped on 3rd down. This extended drives, took time off the clock, kept the Eagles' offense off the field, which limited their opportunities to score and on top of that, wore down the defense. In the 3rd quarter, right after Michael Vick threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Jason Avant to cut the Green Bay lead to 10-14, the Eagles' defense allowed the Packers to drive the length of the field to score a touchdown, which put them ahead for good, at 21-10. But, once again, while the defense had a difficult time halting the Packers' long-scoring drives, they did only allow 21 points to Rodgers and company.

So, like the title of this blog suggests, the offense, defense and special teams have to share the blame for this loss. The same too goes for the coaching. The Eagles had a great opportunity early in the game to set a tone on offense. Michael Vick had been getting hit and sacked fairly regularly in recent games. The Eagles thought the Packers would blitz him heavily today. So, why not start the game by running the football with stand-out running back, LeSean McCoy, to go along with some screen passes? If successful, this would prevent the Packers from blitzing so much. It would then give Vick more time to throw the football and he'd be less apt to getting hit in the pocket. This didn't happen, though. On the first play from scrimmage at their own 14-yard line, Vick dropped back to pass and not even 3 seconds later, was hit in the back and sacked. This set up a 2nd and long from their own five, which allowed the Packers' defense to control the tone of the drive. The coaching neglected to utilize LeSean McCoy much in the game. There have been games this season when McCoy has gotten his share of touches, but other times when the coaches have forgotten he was a member of the team. For most of this game, it seemed as if the latter occurred. The play-calling on third and short was very questionable as well. It felt as if Philly's play-calling didn't have Green Bay guessing at all in the game, yet they tried to get cute or tricky on a few occasions and more times than not, this strategy backfired.

So, while it may make fans feel better to point to a single person and fault them for a loss, we can't do that in this game. Michael Vick made one awful pass. David Akers missed two very makeable field goals (one, in particular). Brent Celek was careless on a key play. The defense had issues on third down and in the red zone. Some coaching decisions were very questionable. The offensive line can even share in the blame, as they didn't protect Michael Vick as well as they should have, especially in the first half. This isn't bowling. It's a team game, where eleven players on one side match-up with eleven on the other. All twenty-two players have some responsibility on each given play and with each play, the entirety of the game. Unfortunately for the Eagles, many players and coaches didn't take responsibility for 60 minutes and in the end, it cost them the game.