When the Saints Lost, It Made Me Happy. (originally posted on January 30, 2007)

For those of you who don't know, I have a bit of the vengefulness in me. So when the Saints won against the Eagles two weeks ago, I did not join the rest of my countrymen in jumping on to the New Orleans bandwagon. Instead, I summoned up all of the ill-will that my 5'7 frame could muster, and directed it squarely against "America's Team." And lo and behold, in a hostile environment, without the aid of their beloved referees, and without the help of that awful blonde woman and her obscenity laden shirt, the Saints were blown out, plain and simple; exposed as frauds by a team that didn't even have the common decency to bring a real quarterback to the game.

Let's face it, the Saints going to the Super Bowl would have been unjust. They won several games because that simply not officiated fairly. This is a competitive sport above all else, and who wins or loses must depend solely on what happens on the field, and not on the circumstances surrounding a particular team. Otherwise, the entire sport is placed in jeopardy, and even serious fans like me are forced to question the emotional investment that we place in these teams, and this league. The NFL walked a very dangerous line this season, allowing the media and popular sentiment to put the credibility of the outcome of some of its games into question, and it should have done a better job of ensuring that there was NO room for anyone to question the events on the field. If the casual fan needs to suspend their disbelief to watch one of its games, then the league leaves the realm of professional sports, and becomes akin to the make believe world of professional wrestling.

And before this sounds like too much like sour grapes, I will give the Bears all the credit in the world. They were able to overcome still more questionable officiating to beat the Saints, which is something the Eagles simply were not talented or well coached enough to do. Had the Eagles somehow beaten the Saints to play in the NFC Championship, the Bears would have run roughshod over them. Congratulations to the Bears for fighting the good fight.

Without further ado, my final good / bad of the season. The good:

Donte Stallworth - he ignited the moribund Eagles offense with his 75 yard touchdown reception in the second quarter, turning the tide in a game that had been dominated by the Saints to that point.

Brian Westbrook the running back - his 62 yard TD run in the third quarter was the Eagles other big play of the night, and gave the Eagles some breathing room, which they promptly squandered. Overall, he finished with 13 carries for 116 yards. I wonder how well he would have done with more carries….

The bad:

Andy Reid - Andy Reid usually reserves his worst coaching for the NFC Championship game, so it was a surprise to see him choke a week earlier than usual. Let's see if I can tally everything up? There was the decision to punt the ball with less than 2 minutes remaining. There was the fact that Brian Westbrook only had 13 carries, even though the defense desperately needed a running attack to take some time off the clock in the second half. There was his decision to throw a pass on third and less than 1 on the New Orleans 6 that ended up LOSING 2 yards. There was the decision to throw that pass to Thomas Tapeh, the Eagles fullback, who is on his very best day the EIGHTH best receiver on the team. Why is he such an enigma? How can he do such masterful coaching jobs to put his teams into this position year after year after year, only to fare so badly in the final stanza?

Brian Westbrook the receiver - if Westbrook catches 1 or 2 of those passes that he dropped, the Eagles win the game.

Scott Young - He's lucky that Andy Reid coached such a bad game, or he would be remembered as the goat for committing that false start penalty that negated an Eagles first down on their final drive. Fortunately, there are people like me around, who will remember stupid plays like that for the rest of our lives.

Dick Stockton & Daryl Johnston - How is it that Fox is so desperate for announcers that these two morons are considered to be the number two announcing team? They missed several calls, and seemed oblivious to the action on the field. It was a horrible all-around television production, highlighted by such inept announcing.. Just think, it wasn't so long ago that we had Madden and Summerall announcing the NFC Playoff games for us. Now look how far we've sunk.

The referees - see above.

Thank you for indulging me one final Eagles rant. I promise to return to topics that are actually relevant next time. Heck, I might even talk about the teams that are actually playing in the Super Bowl!! Or I might talk about how the Eagles drafts in the mid seventies affected their team in the late seventies. Or I might discuss the relationship between objectivism and capitalism as shown by the works of Ayn Rand. It's really kind of a crapshoot at this point.