tough one...

my initial thoughts on yesterday's game...A sign, for sure: 2 Cardinals, one male, one female, were sitting in a tree next to our driveway, when I pulled back in from taking the kids to school!...that was a terrific football game and what conference championship football games are all about; we got slightly beat by a slightly better football team; make no mistake: this game was TEAM LOSS for the Eagles, on both sides of the ball; everyone on the team wishes they could have a "do-over," or a play they made or didn't make, back. The Cardinals, on the other hand, WON as a TEAM; everyone made plays ....Jimmy Johnson was either out-coached by the Cards o-coord or he was thoroughly mistaken in his assessment that just one of his CB's could handle L. Fitz. And he was a day late and 3TD's short in fixing the problem....can't give up 32 points in a huge game like that and expect to win....Donovan played awesome, 90% of the the game (28 for 47, 375 yards, 3TD's and 1INT), including engineering 3 straight TD drives! He also improvised beautifully, keeping many plays alive when w/ other QB's, they would have died; 10% of the game, he made some atrociously horrible throws and bad decisions to even throw the ball (this, without question, has been his biggest weakness since he became an Eagle); if he had made just ONE of those throws he made poorly, outcome of the game may be different....some of the best throws Donovan made were dropped by his WR's. Holy mother of Jesus, did Greg Lewis drop a perfectly thrown 50-yarder that might have actually won the game for us; the receivers came up VERY small at times....the last play of the game WAS pass interference on Cardinals (no one will deny that) and the ref who saw it should be fired immediately for being a spineless loser and deciding not to make the appropriate call....look at Warner's numbers: 21 for 28, 279yds, 4TD's, 0INT's. SICK....look at Arizona's balanced attack: 28 pass attempts; 29 rushing attempts....there were lots of mistakes by the Eagles but if one is compelled to find a scapegoat for the loss, one need not look further than out defense and Jimmy Johnson. While they tightened it up in the second half (after spotting the Cards 24 points in the first), they gave up an 8-minute drive in the 4th quarter to the Cardinals, which gave them the go-ahead TD w/ just 3 minutes left...Quentin Demps had a nice first year I thought, but wow, did he look like a high school player out there yesterday. And I'm not even talking about the TD he gave up to LFitz in the first-half, where he literally spun around trying to defend LFitz and TRIPPED OVER HIMSELF (this was Coach Johnson's mistake ultimately, anyway: you can't put a rookie safety, who hasn't played that position all year on the best WR in football; it wasn't Q. Demp's fault he was the only one defending LFitz on that play!); the play I'm talking about is Cards final TD, where K. Warner made a little pass to Hightower, the RB, who ran hard the last couple yards to the goal line (it was third and goal): Q. Demps made the most half-hearted, weak-ass tackle attempt I might have ever seen in the NFL. He didn't open his arms to wrap him up at the two yard line: he just put a shoulder into him thinking it would knock him down, and he just bounced off him. He didn't even try. HE DIDN'T EVEN TRY! And instead of forcing Cards to kick a field goal there, they scored a TD. SOOooo incredibly weak....for the 19th game this season - all of them - the 21.5 rushing attempts per game stat has PERFECTLY dictated every win and every loss this season: when the Eagles call at least 22 rushing attempts per game, they've WON EVERY GAME. When 21 rushing attempts or less are called, they've LOST EVERY GAME.....my predicition (video, below a few posts) of an Eagles win, 26-24 was looking like Nostradmaus when the score was 25-24, Eagles, for a nice stretch in the 4th quarter. If our defense could have held (they got WAY outplayed on that last drive), That very likely would have been the final score!...one might say, 'there's always next year,' but not me. This team, under Reid (Coach and General Manager, all 10 years here), is not good enough to win the SuperBowl....Reid's legacy (besides not running nearly enough, and never really getting any playmakers at the WR or TE position on a disproportionate, pass-first offense), will be this: 1 win and 4 losses in conference championship games.