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from my local newspaper this morning
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Friday, January 12, 2007
By GEOFF MOSHER
Gannett News Service
PHILADELPHIA
First, they had some impressive early wins but also suffered some crushing, narrow defeats.
When they won, they played hawkish defense and controlled the ball. When they lost, they played spotty in both areas and confounded their head coach.
Rock bottom came against Indianapolis, when the Colts crushed them and cast doubt about their legitimacy as playoff contenders.
Sound like the 2006 Philadelphia Eagles?
How about the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers? You know, the world champion Steelers. See any resemblance?
"Yeah, you can see that a little bit," Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter admitted. "The Steelers got hot at the right time and every game they won, they won on the road and they were the underdogs.
"So when a team is hot and they have some talent and they are playing together at the end, they are tough to beat."
Whether the Eagles can complete the expedition in the footsteps of their intrastate rivals from the AFC remains to be seen. The journey continues at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, where the Eagles and Saints meet in an NFC divisional playoff game.
When asked if the Eagles could take a page from the Steelers' book, tight end L.J. Smith took a skeptic's viewpoint.
"Every team stands on its own merit," Smith said. "We're not the Steelers, and the Steelers aren't us."
Fair enough, but the closer you examine the Steelers' improbable climb to their fifth Super Bowl title in team history, the harder to deny the commonalities to the Eagles' pursuit of their first.
Last year, the Steelers toppled Tennessee and Houston before losing to New England on -- gulp -- a last-second Adam Vinatieri field goal.
Hot starts?
How about the Eagles' season-opening 24-10 victory, or their 38-24 romp of San Francisco, or their 31-9 trouncing of Green Bay. And take your pick of heart-breaking, last-second field goals -- John Carney's 31-yarder against New Orleans or Matt Bryant's improbable 62-yard dagger at Tampa Bay.
The Steelers bottomed out on Nov. 26, 2005, after the Colts beat them 26-7 at the RCA Dome, dropping them to 7-5 and creating an early playoff picture painted without the colors Black and Gold.
And here's where it gets weird.
Less than two months ago, on Nov. 26, exactly a year to the day Indy manhandled Pittsburgh in their home dome, the Colts butchered the Eagles 45-21, seemingly hammering the nail in the Eagles' coffin.
Losing to Indianapolis would mark the low point of each team's season. Although Pittsburgh suffered one more -- a 38-31 setback to Cincinnati -- the Steelers soon returned to their bread-and-butter tradition of power running and smash-mouth football.
With a snowstorm pounding the Heinz Field grass, the Steelers turned to Willie Parker and Jerome Bettis, and their defense got nasty again, to power past Chicago 21-9.
They went to Minnesota the next weekend and stonewalled the Vikings 18-3, clobbered rival Cleveland 41-0 and finished the 2005 regular-season by spanking Detroit 35-21. Improbably, they had won their last four games to steal the No. 6 seed in the AFC playoffs.
For the Eagles?
When the dust settled at the RCA Dome on that sobering Indianapolis night, the Eagles, having just handed the offense to Jeff Garcia, left humbled and seemed powerless to turn around their season.
At 5-6, with three of their final five games remaining on the road, against NFC East division foes no less, a second straight losing season awaited.
"Before the Carolina game, I was just kind of looking at the paper, people were just completely writing us off," Eagles tight end Matt Schobel said. "I remember thinking if we win tonight, I think we were mathematically in the playoffs, and we haven't lost since then. Hopefully we'll kind of follow the Pittsburgh blueprint.
"The similarity that I see with us and Pittsburgh, both of us at some point in the season everybody kind of wrote us off."
Schobel played on the Bengals squad that lost in the wild-card game last season to Pittsburgh 31-17.
The Eagles? Time will tell.
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The whole area is going bonkers. Somebody put a Jeff Garcia t-shirt on the Rocky statue at the Art Museum.
I too wrote the Eagles off after McNabb went down and the blowout by the Colts with Jeff Garcia in there. But what a comeback this team has made. Whatever happens the rest of the way, it's been a helluva ride this year as an Eagles fan. The Saints won the game in New Orleans early in the season on a late filed goal. All I can say is Fly Eagles Fly!
E A G L E S Eagles
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Friday, January 12, 2007
By GEOFF MOSHER
Gannett News Service
PHILADELPHIA
First, they had some impressive early wins but also suffered some crushing, narrow defeats.
When they won, they played hawkish defense and controlled the ball. When they lost, they played spotty in both areas and confounded their head coach.
Rock bottom came against Indianapolis, when the Colts crushed them and cast doubt about their legitimacy as playoff contenders.
Sound like the 2006 Philadelphia Eagles?
How about the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers? You know, the world champion Steelers. See any resemblance?
"Yeah, you can see that a little bit," Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter admitted. "The Steelers got hot at the right time and every game they won, they won on the road and they were the underdogs.
"So when a team is hot and they have some talent and they are playing together at the end, they are tough to beat."
Whether the Eagles can complete the expedition in the footsteps of their intrastate rivals from the AFC remains to be seen. The journey continues at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, where the Eagles and Saints meet in an NFC divisional playoff game.
When asked if the Eagles could take a page from the Steelers' book, tight end L.J. Smith took a skeptic's viewpoint.
"Every team stands on its own merit," Smith said. "We're not the Steelers, and the Steelers aren't us."
Fair enough, but the closer you examine the Steelers' improbable climb to their fifth Super Bowl title in team history, the harder to deny the commonalities to the Eagles' pursuit of their first.
Last year, the Steelers toppled Tennessee and Houston before losing to New England on -- gulp -- a last-second Adam Vinatieri field goal.
Hot starts?
How about the Eagles' season-opening 24-10 victory, or their 38-24 romp of San Francisco, or their 31-9 trouncing of Green Bay. And take your pick of heart-breaking, last-second field goals -- John Carney's 31-yarder against New Orleans or Matt Bryant's improbable 62-yard dagger at Tampa Bay.
The Steelers bottomed out on Nov. 26, 2005, after the Colts beat them 26-7 at the RCA Dome, dropping them to 7-5 and creating an early playoff picture painted without the colors Black and Gold.
And here's where it gets weird.
Less than two months ago, on Nov. 26, exactly a year to the day Indy manhandled Pittsburgh in their home dome, the Colts butchered the Eagles 45-21, seemingly hammering the nail in the Eagles' coffin.
Losing to Indianapolis would mark the low point of each team's season. Although Pittsburgh suffered one more -- a 38-31 setback to Cincinnati -- the Steelers soon returned to their bread-and-butter tradition of power running and smash-mouth football.
With a snowstorm pounding the Heinz Field grass, the Steelers turned to Willie Parker and Jerome Bettis, and their defense got nasty again, to power past Chicago 21-9.
They went to Minnesota the next weekend and stonewalled the Vikings 18-3, clobbered rival Cleveland 41-0 and finished the 2005 regular-season by spanking Detroit 35-21. Improbably, they had won their last four games to steal the No. 6 seed in the AFC playoffs.
For the Eagles?
When the dust settled at the RCA Dome on that sobering Indianapolis night, the Eagles, having just handed the offense to Jeff Garcia, left humbled and seemed powerless to turn around their season.
At 5-6, with three of their final five games remaining on the road, against NFC East division foes no less, a second straight losing season awaited.
"Before the Carolina game, I was just kind of looking at the paper, people were just completely writing us off," Eagles tight end Matt Schobel said. "I remember thinking if we win tonight, I think we were mathematically in the playoffs, and we haven't lost since then. Hopefully we'll kind of follow the Pittsburgh blueprint.
"The similarity that I see with us and Pittsburgh, both of us at some point in the season everybody kind of wrote us off."
Schobel played on the Bengals squad that lost in the wild-card game last season to Pittsburgh 31-17.
The Eagles? Time will tell.
******************************
The whole area is going bonkers. Somebody put a Jeff Garcia t-shirt on the Rocky statue at the Art Museum.
I too wrote the Eagles off after McNabb went down and the blowout by the Colts with Jeff Garcia in there. But what a comeback this team has made. Whatever happens the rest of the way, it's been a helluva ride this year as an Eagles fan. The Saints won the game in New Orleans early in the season on a late filed goal. All I can say is Fly Eagles Fly!
E A G L E S Eagles
Time of possession and first downs by the Saints tells it all. We had our chances but just couldn't get it done.
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