Eagles crushed by Giants, 42-7… but Redskins eliminate Cowboys…

I had to wait until the Redskins-Cowboys game ended to post this, as I needed to get some kind of closure upon the horrific 4-12 season that was finalized for the Eagles on Sunday.

First, let me say I am very happy for London Fletcher, the ILB for the Redskins who has started 240 consecutive games for Washington, and finally gets back to the playoffs after a 13-year drought.

The 28-18 win by the 'Skins over the Cowboys Sunday night puts things into better perspective for me as an Iggles fan. It makes me appreciate better what we had in the Andy Reid era, which is now kaput. The Redskins haven't been to the playoffs since 1999, and it's mostly because of the Eagles' dominance in the division from 2000 to 2010.

With those good feelings now out of the way, lets get out the hatchet.

The Eagles defense was abysmal.

The Eagles had hoped to send Andy Reid out on a positive note, but they played poorly. "We came, we stunk it up and we lost," defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins said. "It was terrible. No heart."

The Eagles surprised the Giants on a cold and windy day with an onside kick to open the game. However, turnovers have hurt the Eagles all season, and it happened again when Stevie Brown came up with his eighth interception of an off-target Mike Vick pass.

Eli Manning needed only four plays after the INT, finding Rueben Randle over the middle for his second touchdown of his rookie season. His third came on the following series when New York went 74 yards in five plays.

The third Manning aerial touchdown was another pass to a rookie, with David Wilson catching a 15-yarder, then doing his usual back-flip to celebrate.

In all, Manning woke up the Giants offense with touchdown passes of 3 and 38 yards to rookie Randle, the 15-yarder to Wilson and a 24-yarder to Victor Cruz just before halftime for a 35-7 lead. He's the first Giant to throw five TD passes in a game since Phil Simms in 1980. His fifth score was a 1-yard pass to fullback Henry Hynoski in the fourth quarter.

The Eagles defense had no answer for Manning's air show and apparently no burning desire to find one.

Ahmad Bradshaw, who rushed for 107 yards and passed the 1,000-yard mark for the second time in his career, also scored on a 1-yard run.

Starting for the first time since a concussion against Dallas in early November, Michael Vick threw a 7-yard touchdown to Jeremy Maclin. Vick finished 19 of 35 for 197 yards and one interception before being replaced by Trent Edwards.

The Giants saw their playoff hopes end Sunday only minutes after the 42-7 win when Chicago beat Detroit 26-24.

"We are certainly disappointed we are not in the playoffs," coach Tom Coughlin said after New York missed the postseason for the third time in four years. "Our goal was certainly to be there. Our goal was to win the division. We didn't do that either. We won nine games and there is no way anyone can talk us out of that. We do have the nine wins, but it's not good enough."

The Eagles would love to be talking about nine wins right now. But that number never really came close to happening in 2012.  Instead, Coach Reid is on the fast lane to his next job, wherever it may be.

Moments after finishing his worst season with the Eagles (4-12), Reid said he would like to return for the final year of a contract that will pay him $6 million next year. Reid expects to meet with owner Jeffrey Lurie on Monday.

"I've been doing it a long time. I have respect for Jeff Lurie. I go in with eyes wide open," Reid said. "Either way, I understand."

Speaking only as a fan, I can truly say this was perhaps the most disheartening effort I have ever witnessed from an Eagles defense. Our guys played incoherently at times. I do give props to DT Antonio Dixon, who recently re-joined the team and seemed to be giving max effort out there and ate up a lot of space. I simply have no explanation for what DRC was doing at times. On one coverage of Cruz he was right there step for step—on another, he inexplicably broke away and ran the opposite direction into a decoy zone. DeMeco Ryans was also eaten alive by mediocre blocking. I'll have to watch the game tape again to be fair. I had to switch to radio coverage after Fox was so embarassed by the Eagles' noncompetitive effort they switched TV coverage over to the Bears-Lions game.

But even on radio, I could hear the whiffing of our guys on tackles that needed to be made. Something was seriously missing in this team on Sunday. It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.