Once a unified backfield of shared concensus and smart opinion, the Four Horsemen of Eagles Fan Posters in the modern age of the Lurie/Reid era are now tragically fragmented.
Left to right: GK Brizer, J. Wood, JB99 (Jared Nixon), and Triple-D…the original Four Horsemen who laid the foundation for the talk-show format we enjoy today at both PE.com and The Eye… but now they are scattered like the Four Winds, much like the direction of the current administration of the Philadelphia Eagles.
They say winning is contagious— but so is losing.
And losing tends to send teammates and coaches in opposite directions.
Hence it is no surprise that the 2-year decline of the Eagles dating back to the Birds' 2010 loss to the Packers in the playoffs has also coincided with the break-up of the band with regard to the original Hall of Fame group of prototype posters that defined pro football on the internet.
The great GK Brizer has been temporarily silenced by the moderator robots at PE.com…. Why? Did his spot-on challenges to conventional knee-jerk commentators strike a nerve? Let's hope so… Most of us need to be "perked up" at one time or another in order to realize our best effort. Brizer will rise again.
J. Wood, aka "Woody", after floundering awhile in an insecure format, has re-discovered his niche at PE.com… With the necessity of the pistol formation with option read brought in to protect the unschooled rookie Nick Foles at QB, Woody is in his glory. Finally Woody has the run-pass ratio within designed limits of error that he has always wanted. At least for now, he is no longer the "Charlie Casserly" curmudgeon segment which they bury deep in the program on CBS or NFL.com.
JB99, for all his originality of expression and descriptive accuracy of football technique, has essentially disappeared during the swan dive of the Eagles. He may have abandoned both the Spadaro Show and The Eye for good. Maybe the controversy of constant losing finally got to JB, who was one of the biggest defenders of the Eagles' Gold Standard on record. Sometimes a guy used to winning his whole life has got to take a step back from the losing…
And finally, 3D, the Philly native who played a terrific Ed McMahon to Brizer's Carson for so many years at PE.com before launching his solo career in the wake of the "Big Bang" makeover of the Spadaro site…
3D has swapped his Horse for a Pony. He is no longer the edgy sidekick with the reinforcing laugh or the reassuring stat to support a Brizer monologue. Now he is the MC of a revamped show that has lost its original firepower. 3D had more cache as a second banana to Brizer than he has now as a solo Pat Sajak-wanna-be, but the lure of the spotlight at PE.com has seduced 3D into staying with the new act. So far it doesn't seem to bother 3D that he is preaching to a dumbed-down choir, but veteran posters know he is playing out of position.
Meanwhile, we are left to examine the curious development of Nick "Shaggy" Foles…
Foles completed 22 of 34 passes for 251 yards and a touchdown, finishing with a passer rating of 96.6 in the game the Eagles just lost to the Cowboys. True, he did unleash at least one throw that probably should have been intercepted…but it was muffed by a Cowboys defender. But that's why DB's are not wide receivers, so give Foles the benefit of the doubt.
"I felt comfortable," Foles said. "I feel more comfortable every time I take reps. I was really proud of the guys. The guys up front did a great job blocking all night. … I missed a few throws that I'm going to keep working on, that we have to hit. It just shows you have to be solid throughout the game and eliminate mistakes."
Truth be told, Foles was telling a little white lie. Although the blocking certainly was better than it had been, maybe better than it has been all season, he took just one sack in a game where Vick might have absorbed half a dozen. There still was all kind of defensive pressure. Foles was just quicker with his decisions inside the pocket and out, and he didn't do anything foolish to extend plays that often end in disaster, especially for this team this year. And of course, the current offensive game plan and formation alignment of the Eagles is asking a whole lot less of Foles than it did of Vick.
Foles also is quicker with his feet than probably anyone thought he would be, and he showed that again in this game, deftly sidestepping defenders to buy extra time or just plain getting rid of the football when he should.
In the third quarter, on a play in which Vick would have been buried nine times out of 10, Foles shoveled a little outlet dump to Bryce Brown at the last possible second. Had the Cowboy defender who was closing in unblocked leveled Foles on the play, he could hardly have been blamed. But to his credit, he held up and Foles remained upright.
Just another example of how less mobility can be more. Foles never once tried to force anything in this contest.
"I felt like we took some shots a few times down the field," he said. "We tried to stretch them out. They were playing pretty soft coverage, so they gave us a lot of stuff underneath. I was just trying to be smart with the football, just keeping drives alive, being efficient.
"That is stuff I will look at. I thought receivers did great jobs with the routes and great job catching the ball and moving after."
Foles might not be the long-term answer for the Eagles. That call can't be made until the end of this season at the earliest. The sample size is too small yet to judge. Plus, Reid won't be around much longer, so it will be up to the next guy to determine Foles' future in Philadelphia.
But Monday's move was a huge next step, following the giant steps a little more than 12 hours earlier.
The Nick Foles era, though perhaps temporary, has begun, and everybody is on board with it, including Vick, according to Andy Reid.
"I thought he did a very good job," tight end Brent Celek said after the game. "I was just talking to him about it. He did a god job reading down the field, taking what they were giving him, commanding the huddle. He did a good job."
Added running back Bryce Brown: "Nick did a great job. He controlled the game, played well, did everything he was supposed to do."
At the very least, Reid has turned these last four weeks into something worth watching. But like the Four Horsemen have experienced, there's a price of unity and popularity to be paid for having different views of what you think you're watching.
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