Chip Kelly and the Eagles should get down on their knees and offer thanks for Steve Harvey this morning.
He's perhaps the only person who had a worse night than they did.
Harvey somehow managed to announce the wrong winner in the Miss Universe Pageant.
The Eagles can only wish their effort was that ugly.
It was worse.
The Eagles once again got exposed when matched up with a real opponent.
Bruce Arians and the Arizona Cardinals basically did whatever they wanted against the Birds' feckless defense.
Chip Kelly's overmatched Eagles tried to hang in there, at least for a half, but were done in at the end of the first half by another questionable coaching decision.
Facing a fourth and inches as they were driving on the Cards and looking for a TD to tie the game, Kelly eschewed the chip shot field goal and decided to go for the first down. But he kept DeMarco Murray, who has been perfect in converting 15 of 15 times on third down, on the bench. Ryan Mathews got stuffed and the Cards ran out the clock and the half.
Offense actually was the least of the Eagles' problems.
Defense, or lack of it, and lack of tackling, killed this team. You knew they were going to have their hands full with Carson Palmer and the Cardinals' high-flying offense. Losing both corners, Byron Maxwell and Curtis Rowe, to injury, didn't help. But the Eagles didn't appear to have much interest in playing defense, especially the tackling part. The Eagles allowed the Cardinals' third-string running back to roll for 187 yards, including a few eye-popping plays in which almost every member of the defense missed tackles.
I had a bad feeling from the opening kickoff, when for some reason Kelly won the toss and deferred, deciding to give the ball to the best offense in football. As has happened several times this year, the Cardinals promptly drove the ball right down the Eagles' throat. And that was after Joe Brown dropped a sure TD while sailing all alone on the first play of the game. The Cardinals simply regrouped and hammered the Birds' marshmallow defense.
Maybe the Birds were looking at a psychological impediment. After all, they knew going in that the game really did not mean anything. By that I meant that the outcome did not matter. The Giants lost that wild game to the Panthers, setting up a winner-take-almost-all Saturday night between the Eagles and the Redskins. The Eagles now need to beat the Redskins and then the Giants in that last week or hope the 'Skins lose two in a row.
It would the hallmark of this team if they beat Washington, only to get clobbered by the Giants. If there is one thing this team has shown, it is that they do not show up for big games.
The Eagles sure played like the game last night didn't mean anything. They looked like they wanted to be somewhere else.
Sure, I will watch Saturday night. I would like to see the Eagles win. I'd like to see them make the playoffs.
But it doesn't change the facts.
This is not a good team.
A good team does not offer that kind of performance.
It was just flat-out ugly.
Steve Harvey probably understands.
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