You could have won a lot of dough in 2012 betting that both the Eagles and the Giants would be eliminated from not only the Division title race but also playoff contention by Week 17.
But here we are—two rival franchises falling from grace—and Black Monday looms. Heads will roll in New York and Philly after the final whistle blows on this one…
Finger-pointing has already begun. Mike Vick has fired a public shot against the Howard Mudd offensive line system which required him to do more pre-snap reads with less run options than he was used to.
We'll get to Vick in a minute…
The Giants (8-7) are pointing a lot of fingers at each other. The latest is defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, who just threw his players under the bus for the team's recent defensive collapses.
There is still a scenario for the Giants to get into the playoffs….and they need four specific results Sunday. But this team is not recovering from being outscored 67-13 over the last two weeks. They've morphed into a bad team, and they know it.
The Giants were cruising to a 7-2 record before a fourth-quarter comeback by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in Week 9 sent the season into a tailspin. Last-minute losses are one thing. Blowout defeats to the Cincinnati Bengals, Atlanta Falcons, and Baltimore Ravens showed huge cracks in the armor.
The team never put together an effective pass rush this season. Sacks can be overrated, but it's incredible that defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul leads the team with … 6.5. Defensive ends Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck are big-name stars that played like replacement-level guys. Top cornerback Corey Webster had an awful season. Safety Kenny Phillips couldn't stay healthy. The linebacker positions rotated and looked very slow.
Nagging injuries were an issue throughout the team. Wide receiver Hakeem Nicks and running back Ahmad Bradshaw rarely practiced. Eli Manning noted this made it difficult to get in synch as an offense. The offensive line gave up way too much pressure on Manning, who had his own dips in play, especially before the bye. Rookies like wide receiver Reuben Randle, running back David Wilson and cornerback Jayron Hosley weren't ready to be quality starters.
Umenyiora is right that "wholesale changes" probably are coming. Umenyiora and Tuck top the list of potential big names that could be let go. The team needs to upgrade from Chase Blackburn at linebacker. Tackle David Diehl has seemingly reached the end of the line with the team.
All of the Giants' problems sound very familiar to Eagles fans right now.
The Giants are coming off a lopsided 33-14 loss to the Ravens that saw Baltimore tally 533 yards of offense, the most allowed by the Giants since Week 12 of 2011 against the Saints. Meanwhile, the Eagles, who have lost 10 of their last 11 games, are coming off a 27-20 loss to the Redskins.
Back to Vick's recent statements to Zach Berman of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Gregg Rosenthal of ESPN.com —
Vick, preparing for Sunday's game against the Giants in what could be his final game with the Eagles, was asked if the OL personnel scheme change with Howard Mudd affected him negatively.
"Obviously, yeah. Just being honest and candid about the situation," Vick said Thursday. "Things changed dramatically. It is what it is. … We all kind of gradually worked our way into it until we got comfortable. I had to learn new protection schemes, verbiage. And we shuffled around a lot of players. So everybody had to start all over."
Vick traced some of his struggles back to the change of offensive line coach Juan Castillo to Howard Mudd.
"Howard and Juan are two totally different personalities and two totally different schemes, said Vick. "And they like their own caliber of players. It was different. But we lost Juan to the defense, so I had to go with what I had to go with."
Vick was asked to make protection calls in the system, which didn't work in 2011. The Eagles were going to have center Jason Kelce make the calls in 2012, but Kelce was lost to injury early in the season. Vick also had fewer run options.
"We mixed it as much as we could, and Marty got it called, and it was successful for us," Vick said, speaking about offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. "But we just stopped doing it. I don't know if that's what Coach Mudd wanted to do."
Vick said that "in hindsight" the old system worked out better for him.
Hindsight is what Black Monday is all about. So get that bus that says "Loser" on the side all cleaned up and parked in an easy-access zone off I-95. A lot of Eagles and Giants are about to be thrown under it.
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