The dreaded Eagles pick

Yes, if it's once again Saturday, it's time for the dreaded weekly Eagles pick.

Take this for what it's worth. Plainly put, if I took this act to Vegas, I'd be wearing a barrel and sleeping on a park bench.

I stand 1-6. I pick them to win, the Birds promptly lose. I think they fall, Gang Green promptly puts one in the win column. Last week I picked the Birds to once again collapse, but the Vikings were even worse than I thought, allowing the Eagles to escape with another boring win.

That is the overriding emotion I am carrying about this season. I can never remember being as bored by an Eagles team as I am with this one. There's just no pizazz.

That should change Sunday night, with the arrival of the Cowboys, and, of course, a certain gentleman wearing No. 81.

You may remember that I happen to be of the opinion that one Terrell Owens is the best player -- period -- to ever wear an Eagles uniform. Yes, for that one Super Bowl season, I think Owens was that good. More importantly, he made the team --- including Donovan McNabb -- that good.

The Eagles no longer thought they would win. They knew they would. That, in essence, is the difference Owens made. And it's something the team has sorely lacked since the nasty breakup that saw T.O. banished.

Now it's prime time at the Linc. We turn the clocks back Saturday night. Too bad we can't turn the clocks back on this team. The Super Bowl is a distant memory.

This Eagles team just isn't that good.

The rest of the country, after watching the two best teams in the universe, the Pats and Colts, go at it for three hours, will then get a chance to see how dreadfully mediocre the Eagles are.

Yeah, I still bleed Eagles green. But Sunday night, the Eagles will just bleed, period.

Make it Cowboys 31, Eagles 13.

It might be time to start warming up Kevin Kolb.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The Eagles just don't get it, they don't--even now-- know what it takes to be a winner in Philadelphia. Much like the oft-associated-rarely-correct Rocky Balboa (to whom the national sports media is always trying to make synonymous with Philadelphia but to whom most Philadelphians could care less about) association, Philadelphia fans (have learned to) measure their team's successes by effort, not wins. If we see the effort on the field, the concern in the locker room, we'll be fans for life. Aaron Rowand is a perfect example of this principle: the moment he chased that fly ball into the wall and knocked himself out, he became an instant fan-favorite.

During the Comcast Post Game Show last night after the Eagles got drubbed by the Cowboys (oh, by the way, the fans could hardly muster a "boo" in light of the lack-luster effort that was given them by their team-- a fact that did not go unnotived in both locker rooms), Tra Thomas was joking around during the interview-- joking around... he was actually joking at the fact he did not play well. And McNabb and that idiotic smile? Hey, Donovan-- news flash: your losing! Stop smiling, for God's sake. We could care less about your sense of fair play and your good-sportsmanship-- this is the pros, pal, and you're a multi-millionaire gettin paid GOOD MONEY to PLAY A GAME.

But don't mistake that for thinking that the fans think it's a game. Oh, we know at certain levels that it's a game, all right, but to the Philadelphia fans it's much more than that: it's a reason to smile on a Monday morning, it's hope when there isn't a whole lot of other positives going on in the city, it's a light at the end of an otherwise asphalt-colored tunnel.

It's very clear the fans take this MUCH harder than the team does, and that's why these particular Eagles will never be good enough.