Eagles Drop to 1-4

          The Eagles capped off a week in Philadelphia sports that might be remembered as the official end of one of the best eras this town has seen since the early ‘80s. Sadly, it qualifies with just one championship – and we all know it wasn’t a Super Bowl.

          The Phillies season ended late Friday night. The Eagles season may as well have ended yesterday afternoon, and essentially did.

          There’s very little if anything new to say about the Eagles 31-24 loss in Buffalo. Two interceptions from Michael Vick in the first two possessions set the tone early. The defense actually stopped the Bills after the second pick, which I guess is noteworthy at this point. Of course, the first turnover was caused by a bad decision by Vick followed by another embarrassing display of tackling by the defense that lead to a touchdown for the Bills.

          The Eagles responded to the defense actually showing up for a while with a touchdown drive that was kept alive by a roughing penalty on a 3^rd-and-3. Jeremy Maclin scored on a short pass set up by a nice LeSean McCoy run.

          But the defense we know and hate quickly returned as Buffalo drove 77 yards for another touchdown.

          On the very next play from scrimmage they scored another one when Vick threw his third interception of the game for a Bills pick 6. For all intent and purposes, the game was over.

          The next defensive series brought out absolute shock in the voice of the play-by-play announcer when Nnamdi Asomugha made all 3 tackles. That was nothing compared to the shock the city of Philadelphia felt on the next defensive series.

          Jamar Chaney picked off Ryan Fitzpatrick. That’s right, ladies and gentleman, an Eagles linebacker has now made a play this season. I wouldn’t get used to it.

          A case in point took place just a handful of plays earlier when Fitzpatrick took a quarterback sneak 10 yards on a 3^rd-and-3. The Eagles had just called timeout to conserve time as the Bills were on their own 25 with the 2-minute warning approaching. The replay showed the angle from behind Fitzpatrick, and it looked like an offensive practice drill. There were literally no Eagles in the picture.

          The half ended with the Eagles running out of time without even a field goal attempt.

          Shocking? Not so much.

          The Eagles did their usual halftime adjustments, which is to say they apparently did nothing but get some water, and the Bills marched down the field to open the third quarter with a TD to make it 28-7.

          As Les Bowen of the Daily News tweeted during the game, “Idiot fan just made amazing run through security guards, down field. Had he been matched against #Eagles defense, he would have scored.”

          The Eagles actually looked like a football team for most of the second half, but it merely set-up another failed comeback capped with Vick’s fourth interception of the game as the Eagles drove with a chance to tie the score late in the fourth quarter. An off-sides penalty on the next defensive series on a play in which everyone in the stadium knew that drawing the Eagles off-sides was the only intent of Buffalo lining up helped seal the loss.

          It is passed the time for change. The Eagles Dream Team is 1-4. The next relevant Andy Reid press conference is the one he doesn’t show up to and Jeff Lurie announces his firing. It needs to happen now.