Yesterday, the Philadelphia Eagles capped off their season finale with an inglorious 17-9 victory over the Buffalo Bills, leaving them at 8-8 and out of the playoffs for the 2007 season. However, there are high notes and hope for this team for the next couple seasons — something that had seemingly been lost about Week 10 — and it’d be surprising if the Iggles weren’t back into the mix of the NFC’s elite in 2008.

This year, even though there was nary a cantankerous, franchise-killing receiver in sight, there was still the inevitable mix of controversy and intrigue that follows any unsuccessful Eagles season. Let’s look back at the season that began with so much hope, but imploded early on and never fully recovered.

September: The march to mediocrity begins

Although the Eagles have sputtered out of the gate in many seasons under Andy Reid, there were never any games where he seemingly single-handedly lost them for the team. However, the decision to stick Greg Lewis on special teams seemed to be a curious choice in the preseason and proves to be a costly one during the opening game against the Packers. Green Bay, not yet anywhere near the second-best team in the NFC that they are today, sneaks away with a 16-13 victory that day in an offensively impotent showdown whose most notable outcome is the inevitable return of punchless Hawaiian kick returner Reno Mahe.

The following week, the Eagles offense is even more inept, losing 20-12 on Monday Night Football to the Washington Redskins, which succeeds only in showing the world that Donovan McNabb, although starting, is not 100 percent.

But! The Eagles come out in Week 3 dressed like the Swedish volleyball team and put up 56 points against the Detroit Lions; suddenly everyone sees hope and promise once again. Brian Westbrook begins his march toward a record-breaking season and Kevin Curtis explodes for three touchdowns.

The party doesn’t last long, as the next week on national television the Eagles offense is stalled, they give up 12 sacks and fall to the Giants. However, the sting of the loss is soothed by the surging Phillies, who somehow manage to win the National League East. However, the Eagles look completely cooked.

October: Rumor, rinse, repeat

The week after the Giants loss, we report a rumor that Andy Reid is considering an early exit during the bye week and introduce the word blog to his vocabulary. He introduces blog-efficient to the rest of the world.

The week after all the Reid-is-leaving chaos, the Eagles return and manage to score a victory against the New York Jets, even though they look terrible in the process. Westbrook continues to be the only human being on offense unable to suck, and the defense gets better. Yet, just as soon as there is praise for the defense, the Chicago Bears come to town and stage a late-game comeback with their backup quarterback. Most Eagles fans are officially prepared for the worst. They show some signs of life next game, as they dismantle the Minnesota Vikings and heralded rookie Purple Jesus, and head into a showdown with the Dallas Cowboys. A victory there could change everybody’s mind about the season.

November: Hopes dashed, smashed, then revitalized

However, the Eagles come out lifeless once again, and the eventual NFC East champions completely beat the crap out of the Birds in front of a shell-shocked, despondent crowd, most of whom are now fully convinced the Birds are in their twilight. Yet, they go down to Washington and take care of business with the Redskins, and McNabb has another good game (courtesy of Westbrook) that gives the team some stable footing in the NFC East.

Just as soon as everything was looking up for McNabb, he twists his ankle against the Miami Dolphins, and A.J. Feeley is once again called upon to secure the victory. The ankle sprain is pretty bad, and now the Eagles have the daunting task of entering Foxboro Stadium against the undefeated Patriots without their starting quarterback, with little confidence, and against the largest point spread in league history.

However, Feeley comes out and slices up the Patriots defense and the Eagles come within a pubic hair of ending the New England juggernaut. What was a true moral victory based on the circumstances also turns into an inevitable quarterback controversy. The calls to keep McNabb shelved for the rest of the year are growing louder and louder.

December: Yet, somehow there is still hope for the future

The Feeley love fest ends quickly, as he comes out and completes almost as many passes to the Seahawks defense as he does to the Eagles offense. The team’s playoff hopes are effectively dashed, and now there are concerns about how to proceed the rest of the way: Is it time to move on without McNabb?

The following week, David Akers misses a crucial game-tying field goal with time running out and the Eagles drop their second game against the Giants this year. This one is the gut punch, and the offense disappears once again with McNabb behind center.

Yet, next week, the Eagles beat the Cowboys in Dallas and there’s a spring in their step once again. Playoffs are a long shot, but the Eagles salvage some pride by defeating the star-helmeted bastards on their home turf. Then, the Eagles travel down to New Orleans where they effectively eliminate the New Orleans Saints from playoff contention. This is officially McNabb’s team again.

Yesterday, the Eagles spent their last home game pushing around the Buffalo Bills and rejuvenating hope for next season. Talk to any NFL analyst and they’ll tell you: The Eagles are playing great football right now and would probably give everybody in the NFC trouble. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality.

However, next year is only a few months away, and at this point there’s no reason at all to not be excited for it. That is, of course, unless they lose on opening day …

This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 11:39 am and is filed under Philadelphia Eagles, Eagles Examiner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by A.J. Daulerio on 12/31/07 in Philadelphia Eagles, Eagles Examiner