{"id":588182,"date":"2016-12-12T20:28:30","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T01:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/?p=588182"},"modified":"2016-12-12T20:28:30","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T01:28:30","slug":"eagles-competitive-season-ends-too-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/eagles-competitive-season-ends-too-early\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagles’ competitive season ends too early…"},"content":{"rendered":"
Up in smoke….<\/p>\n
Acceptance of the 2016 Eagles as an also-ran 14 weeks into the season comes with less anxiety and resistance than I anticipated. Despite the progress we saw in how this team came together in the post-Chip rebuild, the W’s just refused to stack up. To some degree we were out-gunned by the rest of the NFC East, especially in the trenches. But overall, we were overcome by a long laundry list of pesky in-game breakdowns—seemingly minor individual errors or mistakes committed with the best of intentions in the heat of battle. Little things, details, like Jordan Matthews barely failing to drag his toe inbounds on what would have been a great TD reception against Washington on Sunday.<\/p>\n
I simply cannot hate on a team that loses because of little things. There’s a bigger picture ahead for the core group of this team.<\/p>\n
It’s also difficult to hate on a team made up of genuinely good people who are more upset about their unpredictable errors than I am.<\/p>\n
My main lament today is the season seems to be ending before the Eagles really got started. It feels like I booked a Main Line train ticket to Penn Station, but they made me get off the train in Upper Darby.<\/p>\n
Our guys played hard and tough in Sunday’s loss to the Redskins. It showed that clearly even watching on my TV screen. Nobody quit—not even close.<\/p>\n
Several Eagles players went down hard for their effort. Reserve lineman Matt Tobin<\/a>\u00a0suffered an MCL sprain on the second-to-last play of the game. That was part of the reason the Irish Mafia (Ryan Kerrigan) blew by him for the game-ending strip-sack of Carson Wentz. There was no one left on the sideline to put in for Tobin anyway.<\/p>\n Darren Sproles<\/a>\u00a0is in the league\u2019s concussion protocol after taking a vicious hit form Deshazor Everett while trying to field a punt. Another Eagles back was also injured, as Wendell Smallwood<\/a>\u00a0suffered a knee injury that could ultimately land him on Injured Reserve.<\/p>\n On defense, safety Jaylen Watkins<\/a>\u00a0ruptured a tendon in his left hand and will get an MRI to provide further details.<\/p>\n As for Allen Barbre<\/a>\u00a0(hamstring strain) and Brent Celek<\/a>\u00a0(stinger), HC Doug Pederson explained that they should both be good for Sunday\u2019s game against Baltimore, but they will both be held out of practice on Wednesday as a precaution.<\/p>\n All-out effort does not guarantee a win in this league, however.<\/p>\n “Everybody wanted to get out there and make sure that we played hard and that we didn\u2019t lose the way we lost the week before against the Bengals,” said defensive end Brandon Graham<\/a>. “I think we went out there and we played hard but you know, obviously, you have to make more plays than they made to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n “It\u2019s obviously disappointing. It was a tough day. A lot of things kind of didn\u2019t swing in our direction, but we felt like we kind of gave ourselves a chance,\u201d said safety Malcolm Jenkins<\/a>. \u201cIt was a hard-fought game that just didn\u2019t swing in our direction.\u201d<\/p>\n