The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

Taylor: Cowboys' stagnant, mistake-filled opener shouldn't surprise anyone

VERNON BRYANT / DMN

11:25 PM CDT on Sunday, September 12, 2010
COLUMN By By JEAN-JACQUES TAYLOR / The Dallas Morning News
jjtaylor@dallasnews.com

LANDOVER, Md. – Really, you couldn't’t have been shocked by the way the Cowboys lost their first game of the season.

It seemed so fitting.

Why wouldn’t an offense that made so many dumb mistakes and mental blunders against Washington, make one more error that ensured it would lose instead of win?

Alex Barron, acquired for first-round bust Bobby Carpenter in the off-season, showed the world why the St. Louis Rams willingly traded their starting left tackle.

On the game’s final play, Barron put a chokehold on Brian Orakpo that would’ve made wrestling superstar John Cena proud, negating Tony Romo’s apparent 13-yard touchdown pass to Roy Williams with no time remaining.

While Marion Barber took a flying leap on Williams’ back, knocking him to the ground, and Miles Austin joined the celebration, Washington quarterback Donovan McNabb took a look at the yellow hanky on the ground and thrust both arms in the air.

When the offense commits a penalty on the game’s final play, they don’t get a mulligan.

Game over.

Washington 13. Dallas 7.

Guess we better pump the brakes on all that Super Bowl talk. We’d probably be better served trying to figure out who lied to us about the Cowboys’ offense.

Maybe it was offensive coordinator Jason Garrett or Wade Phillips. It could’ve been Tony Romo. Perhaps, Jerry Jones did it.

For now, all we know is the Cowboys promised us a better, more efficient offense once the regular season started.

The players and coaches swore the stagnant unit we saw throughout the preseason was the result of vanilla game plans and poor execution because they thought it was more important to look at individual players than the totality of the offense.

More than one member of the offense became indignant at any suggestion that the offense would find a rhythm once the season began.

Well, we’re still waiting.

The Cowboys better figure out their offensive issues quickly because after next week’s game against Chicago, the Cowboys spend six of the next seven weeks playing against quality teams that will be in the playoff hunt.

The Cowboys’ offense, so inept the starters managed just one eight-yard touchdown drive during the preseason, looked like the same old raggedy unit we saw throughout the summer.

Now, those of who you wave pom-poms when you watch the game, can blame the loss of left guard Kyle Kosier (knee) and right tackle Marc Colombo (knee) on their offensive struggles.

You might even say losing Dez Bryant for much of the preseason affected the offensive chemistry.

There may be some truth to those theories. The reality, however, is this unit makes way too many mistakes, whether we’re talking assignment busts, penalties or poor execution.

All of that was on display Sunday night, including one the dumbest play calls you’ll ever see that resulted in a fumble return for the Redskins on the final play of the first half.

Did I mention it was the only touchdown the Redskins scored?

The stats don’t tell the whole story. They rarely do. But the Cowboys piled up enough numbers to make the fantasy football addicts happy.

Romo passed for 282 yards and a touchdown, and Miles Austin had a 146 yards and a touchdown.

So what.

We figured out last season that yards usually don’t equate to points with this team. The Cowboys finished second in the NFL in yards last season, but 14th in points.

The Cowboys only touchdown drive was the result of a gift.

After a three-and-out, Washington punter Josh Bidwell hit a 27-yard punt that gave Dallas the ball at the Redskins 34. Six plays later, Romo hit Austin for a four-yard touchdown pass.

That was it.

The Cowboys had the ball three times in the fourth quarter with an opportunity to take the lead.

Each time, they failed.

Cowlishaw: 'Really dumb' decision at end of half dooms Cowboys

02:04 AM CDT on Monday, September 13, 2010
COLUMN By TIM COWLISHAW / The Dallas Morning News
wtcowlishaw@dallasnews.com

LANDOVER, Md. – Sometimes 60 minutes of football comes down to one terrible decision by the offensive coordinator. Sometimes one chorus of "Hail to the Redskins" after a touchdown is all that it takes.

The Cowboys gave the Washington Redskins seven points on the last play of the first half, and in a game in which both offenses were supremely challenged, that was the difference.

Dallas was a 13-7 loser at FedEx Field on a night when, well, you can't say the Cowboys deserved to win, but they certainly weren't destined to lose.

Not until one ridiculous call, anyway.

In a situation where the only reasonable thing for the Cowboys to do was to have Tony Romo take a knee, Garrett called a pass play. This was 64 yards from the Redskins' goal line and with four seconds to go in the first half.

And instead of heaving a deep ball, Romo threw short to Tashard Choice. Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall stripped Choice of the ball, recovered the fumble and ran 37 yards for Washington's only touchdown of the night.

The game would end with Garrett and the offense getting a chance at redemption – one final shot at the Washington end zone from the 13-yard line. But a holding call on tackle Alex Barron kept Romo's final pass to Roy Williams from meaning anything.

There was some measure of justice in that. You simply don't deserve a shot to win when you make a call as brutally bad as the one the Cowboys called at the end of the half.

Garrett had called a strange game already, focusing on lots of screens and quick passes to receivers at the line of scrimmage. He seemed to lack faith in the Cowboys' retooled offensive line being able to hold off the Redskins' pass rush for more than two seconds.

And in some cases, it looked like that was a safe assumption.

But given that, there's no reason to try to throw a short pass and hope that Choice goes 64 yards with it. Down 3-0, the Cowboys would have looked like a team just waiting to get started in the second half.

Down 10-0, they looked like a team in trouble. And they were

Coach Wade Phillips said the team had had a "Hail Mary" type pass called from the 46 and that when a penalty moved the ball back to the 36, they should have just called it off.

"That's my fault," he said. "We should have taken a knee."

No one argued with him, although Phillips is much more responsible for defensive lapses than for offensive meltdowns in the Cowboys' coaching structure.

"They've got to take a knee," ex-coach Tony Dungy said on NBC at halftime. "Not smart football."

Former safety Rodney Harrison was even stronger in his condemnation of Garrett's call.

"What are they thinking? There's absolutely no chance of scoring," Harrison said. "This has to be one of the dumbest plays I've ever seen."

In football, there are times to gamble and times to play it safe. A high-risk, no-reward play at the end of the first half can be deadly.

Does anyone recall last year's BCS national championship?

Texas was struggling with freshman quarterback Garrett Gilbert in for the injured Colt McCoy. At their 37, Texas called timeout 15 seconds before halftime so that Gilbert could attempt a shovel pass. Alabama's Marcell Dareus intercepted the pass and ran for a touchdown – one the Crimson Tide would sorely need when the Longhorns would cut the lead to three points in the second half.

Maybe Phillips should have saved Garrett from repeating the Texas' mistake. On most NFL teams, you would probably look at it that way.

But the Cowboys are different. (Garrett being hired before Phillips back in 2007 pretty much illustrates that.)

And we know that Garrett is paid about $3 million a year to be one of the smartest coordinators in football, not someone who needs to be told the difference between a good idea and a really dumb, game-losing idea.

Justice Hog wrote:Reading these is the best. It's just the best.

Bob 0119 wrote:

Justice Hog wrote:Reading these is the best. It's just the best.

Wow, long time no see JH, welcome back!

Todd Archer: Tony Romo feels like Cowboys' win was taken away from them


12:51 PM CDT on Monday, September 13, 2010


Column by TODD ARCHER / The Dallas Morning News | tarcher@dallasnews.com


LANDOVER, Md. – Tony Romo had his bag slung over one shoulder as he held a box of Popeye’s chicken in one hand early Monday morning. His steps to the team bus were slow as his mind raced with what he had just happened.

“Can you believe that?” Romo asked.

He was so close to being the hero – again – for the Cowboys.

Instead, he left leaving FedEx Field with a 13-7 loss attached to his resume.

With three seconds left, he stepped up, dipped, moved to his right and saw out of the corner of his eye an uncovered Roy Williams . It was all very similar to how he beat the Redskins last year at Cowboys Stadium and how he turned nothing into something against Atlanta, too.

Oh, the grief he could have given LeBron James, noted Cowboys fan, for leaving the stadium before the Cowboys took over for their final drive.

But as he started to celebrate, he noticed nobody running on the field. Then he saw the Redskins celebrating and heard the crowd.

“It’s a tough one to take,” Romo said. “Leaves a bad taste in your mouth for sure.”

Romo’s emotional ride was felt by every player. Marion Barber jumped on Williams’ back, thinking the Cowboys had won. Miles Austin, whose 31-yard catch helped set up the game winner not-to-be, did the same.

Defensive players thought the offense came through.

“We were ready to celebrate and run into the locker room,” safety Gerald Sensabaugh.

Wade Phillips did not have that exhilarating feeling.

“I saw the flag,” Phillips said.

Alex Barron corralled Brian Orakpo for an obvious holding penalty that referee Tony Corrente could not ignore, even on the last play of the game. It was the 12th accepted penalty of the game for the Cowboys, and it cost them the victory.

Just like a facemask penalty in 2006 cost Romo and the Cowboys a chance to win at FedEx Field in another bizarre ending. That game was Romo’s second start. He took the Cowboys from their 39 with 31 seconds remaining to the Washington 17 with six seconds to go, but Mike Vanderjagt’s 35-yard field goal try was blocked by Troy Vincent.

Sean Taylor returned the kick 30 yards. Add a 15-yard face mask penalty on Kyle Kosier, and Nick Novak was able to kick a 47-yarder to win it on an untimed play.

Instead of talking about Romo directing an 81-yard drive Sunday against Washington, Dez Bryant’s two catches to start the drive, Miles Austin’s incredible 146-yard game three days after signing a six-year, $45 million extension, and Williams’ game-winning catch, we’re talking about penalties.

You’re left talking about Barron’s holding penalty, wondering how things would have been had Marc Colombo been able to return quicker from knee surgery, and an offense that put up a lot of yards, like last year, without scoring points, like last year.

“We didn’t get nearly as much out of it as we should have,” Romo said. “Give them credit. That’s a really, really good defense and football team. There’s a lot of stuff you can’t paper for in the first game, but I thought our guys handled stuff pretty well. We made far too many mistakes, and we weren’t able to overcome it.”

After that crazy loss in 2006 to the Redskins, the Cowboys won their next four games to make the playoffs. These Cowboys have to have the same short memory.

“It’s a difficult feeling because you thought you won, and it’s kind of taken away from you,” Romo said. “That was in some ways a first, I guess you could say. But we’re going to have to get back and be ready to go to beat Chicago.”

Bob 0119 wrote:Damn, Popeye's chicken does sound good right about now. Keep the articles comin' I don't think I'll ever get tired of them!

Deadskins wrote:I can certainly understand how Tony Schlomo feels. After getting beaten for 59:57 minutes, the Cowpies were robbed of their victory by a ticky-tacky call. They deserved to win that game.

Actually, I'm surprised we got that call. Until that Monday night game at the toilet bowl, that was exactly the kind of call that seemingly happened in every Dallas game, only with us on the other end of the outcome. That night changed the dynamic of this rivalry forever.

Hold everything: Cowboys flagged down for openers

By Clarence E. Hill Jr.
chill@star-telegram.com

LANDOVER, Md. — Super Bowl? Busted?

The 2010 season is already a nightmare for the Dallas Cowboys one game into what was supposed to be the ultimate dream season ending with Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium.

Their 13-7 loss to the Washington Redskins before a record opening-day crowd of 90,670 at Fed Ex Field on Sunday night was downright ugly in all areas.

The Cowboys made blunder after blunder — from the coaches on the sidelines to the players on the field — as they looked more like a team needing a few more weeks of training camp rather than one ready to embark on a trip to the Super Bowl.

Making matters worse was an apparent neck injury to Pro Bowl linebacker DeMarcus Ware with 4:31 remaining in the game, conjuring up images of him being carted off the field with a neck injury during a game against the San Diego Chargers last season.

After this game, Ware said he was “OK.”

A bizarre ending to Sunday’s game was fitting for a team hoping to snatch a shocking and certainly undeserving victory in the final moments.

A 13-yard prayer of a touchdown pass from quarterback Tony Romo to receiver Roy Williams with 3 seconds left resulted in a brief dog pile in the corner of the end zone.

However, a yellow flag was on the ground in the Cowboys backfield as right tackle Alex Barron was called for holding against Redskins linebacker Brian Orakpo.

“I had been seeing flags all night long but it was their shoes (which had yellow in them),” Williams said. “Then when I saw that one, that was the real flag. Marion jumped on me and I was like, ‘uh, uh.’ I was happy for the moment, saw the flag and it was kind of deflated. Deflated is the word.”

Said Romo: "I thought we won, and then 10 or 15 yards after running away, I noticed people weren’t coming out on the field. It’s hard to swallow. It’s a tough one to take. We made far too many mistakes and weren’t able to overcome them."

It was the third holding penalty of the game on the maligned Barron, who was starting in place of the injured Marc Colombo.

It was another critical mistake in a game of miscues by the Cowboys _ who lost the season opener for the first time in four seasons under coach Wade Phillips and ended a three-game winning streak against the Redskins. The Cowboys had 12 penalties for 91 yards in the game.

"Disappointing loss obviously,” Phillips said. “The last play of the game, I’ve never seen that happen when you score a touchdown and get a penalty and the game is over. We fought back hard and we had a chance to win it and it didn’t happen. We made too many mistakes. It ended up costing us. It cost us the game.” The back-breaking play of the game came in right before the half when the running back Tashard Choice was stripped of the ball by cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who also returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.

It was first and 20 at their own 36 yard line with 4 seconds left in the half. But instead of kneeling with the ball and running out the clock, trailing only 3-0 at halftime, Tony Romo threw a pass to Choice. He was stripped while fighting for extra yards, putting the Cowboys behind 10-0.

A baffling Cowboys loss raises questions

By Charean Williams
cjwilliams@star-telegram.com

IRVING -- Tony Romo was asked how he was doing as he walked by the media on the way to his locker.

"I've had better Mondays," the quarterback responded.

His Dallas Cowboys have had better Sundays, too.

In their 13-7 season-opening loss to the Washington Redskins, the Cowboys gave Monday Morning Quarterbacks plenty to discuss around the water cooler: The inexplicable decision to throw from their own 36-yard line with four seconds remaining in the first half; the 12 penalties for 91 yards, including Alex Barron's third holding call that negated a winning touchdown pass on the final play; a missed 34-yard field goal; the questionable decision to target rookie receiver Dez Bryant the most of any receiver on the team.

"When you lose a game, it's a tough pill to swallow," linebacker Keith Brooking said Monday. "I can't answer what other guys are feeling, but it's extremely important to be accountable in the organization in everything that you do. I feel very confident that within this organization we're doing that. Players and coaches both win games, so we've got to keep that accountability going throughout this organization, coaches and players."

There were apologies all around Valley Ranch.

Barron declined comment to the media after the game and didn't show up in the locker room during media availability Monday. But he sat in his assigned seat next to Roy Williams on the team charter home, taking the blame all the way.

Williams caught a 13-yard pass from Romo in the end zone on the game's final play for what would have tied the score, with an extra point to win it. But Barron was called for holding Redskins linebacker Brian Orakpo. Cowboys coach Wade Phillips acknowledged Barron, who was playing for injured right tackle Marc Colombo, was supposed to have help on the play, but Phillips wouldn't call out the guilty party.

There is little doubt Orakpo would have sacked Romo if Barron hadn't held him. It was Barron's eighth holding penalty since the start of the 2009 season.

"I told him, 'Don't worry about it,'" Williams said. "He was like, 'Sorry for taking a TD away.' I was like, 'Hey, it happens.' It's going to be magnified just because it's the last play of the game, yada, yada, yada, but offensive linemen hold every game. Receivers drop the ball every game. It's part of football. You don't want it to happen in that situation, but it happens."

Phillips admitted the play-call before intermission never should have happened.

The Cowboys had a Hail Mary called from their own 46 on the final play of the first half. Their intent was to have Romo throw the ball into the end zone and take their chances with a jump ball.

But Barron was called for his first holding penalty, which the Redskins initially declined. Phillips said he was talking to his defensive coaches on the headset when the Redskins decided to take the 10-yard penalty, backing up the Cowboys to their 36 with four seconds left.

At that point, Phillips said, the Cowboys should have kneeled on the ball. Though offensive coordinator Jason Garrett didn't call off the Hail Mary, Phillips took the blame.

"We needed to kneel on the football in that situation," Phillips said Monday. "...Yeah, [overruling Garrett is] what I should have done. That's what I should have done, yeah. I don't know what I assumed, but it didn't happen. We ran the play that we originally had called in a different situation, and that's what happened."

What happened was Romo, under pressure, flipped the ball to Tashard Choice. Fighting for extra yardage as time expired, Choice had the ball ripped from his arms by DeAngelo Hall as Andre Carter and Lorenzo Alexander gang-tackled Choice. Hall picked up the loose ball and ran 32 yards for a touchdown. It was the Redskins' only touchdown of the game.

"That's game strategy, and that goes to the head coach," Phillips said. "That put us behind the 8-ball. Sure, we shouldn't have dinked it off to a back with no time left, and he should have held onto the ball. But those things don't come into factor at all if we do the right thing there.

"The blame goes to the head coach. They can blame it all on me, which is fine."

Garrett joins Switzer for all-time dumbest play-calling decision

By RANDY GALLOWAY
rgalloway@star-telegram.com

LANDOVER, Md. — Take the last individual plays of each half here Sunday night.

One was a gift touchdown for the Redskins as the clock ran out for intermission.

The other was a possible game-winning touchdown that wasn’t for the Cowboys as the clock ran out in the fourth quarter.

And that just about sums up as disastrous a season opener as the Cowboys have experienced in awhile.

But in digging through the left over trash of the Redskins finally surviving it,13-7, one moment stands above--or below--all other acts of incompetence.

Move over Barry Switzer. If “Load Left” from 1995 was the dumbest offensive play calling decision in Cowboys history, then at the very least, Jason Garrett now shares the low moment for all-time brain lock.

If stupidity was a football felony, Garrett would be doing life without parole as early as this morning.

One other thing. Also finger Tony Romo as a willing participant in this crime against common sense.

In an embarrassing offensive disaster, which resulted in a head-shaking, head-rattling loss, the Cowboys opened a new season with a free fall from any possible speculation about far-away post-season prominence.

But at the very end, on the final-play game winning touchdown pass from Romo that wasn’t, we know what backup right tackle Alex Barron did.

He used his arm to lasso the neck of a rushing defender. The flag fell.

It was the right call. It nullified Romo’s dramatic throw to Roy Williams in the corner of the end zone, crushing a brief celebration on the Cowboys sideline.

But go back a half. Go back to the end of the first half. What the heck could Garrett, the offensive coordinator, have been thinking?

This made no sense.

Down 3-0, and struggling with missed opportunities, the Cowboys needed a quick re-booting session at intermission. With four second left on the clock, the ball was at the Dallas 36.

Take a snap and then take a knee.

Instead, Romo took a shotgun snap, looked downfield, scrambled right, and instead of tossing the ball out of bounds, halfway flipped it sidearm to running back Tashard Choice, who was in the short right flat.

Choice was well covered. But when he was tackled, he also fumbled. The loose ball was picked up by cornerback DeAngelo Hall, and he skated into the end zone untouched.

Hello, 10-0 deficit, and also a sudden case of Cowboy shell shock.

Why did Garrett call that play, or any play there?

Why didn’t Romo simply terminate the call once he saw no one open downfield? Wow.

Wade Phillips attempted to take the fall, saying the “we should have taken the knee and gone in down three points. That one was on me.”

But no. The deep bruise, of course, goes on Garrett most of all.

(Under deadline conditions, I didn’t have a chance to wait out Garrett’s late appearance in the locker room. Sorry. But there is no good answer anyway, outside of “I really screwed up.”)

On why the play--or any play--was called at that point, Romo ducked the question with “I will let the coaches’ tell you.”

RANDY GALLOWAY wrote:One other thing. Also finger Tony Romo as a willing participant...

After Eagles' Vick goes down, McNabb ends up on top
By Jonathan Tamari
Inquirer Staff Writer

Redskins QB Donovan McNabb completed 8 of 19 passes for 125 yards and one TD.

Donovan McNabb shined with his arm early and legs late, Michael Vick sustained a bruising injury, and Kevin Kolb got back on the field Sunday in a 17-12 Eagles loss that - after a long week of talk - left plenty more to discuss.

For the Eagles, the immediate concern - again - is what happens at quarterback. Vick suffered a chest injury when he was sandwiched between two Washington Redskins while diving toward the end zone in the first quarter.

He was in evident pain after the game, moving slowly through the locker room and struggling to raise his arms and put on a shirt. He declined to speak to reporters.

Vick will have an MRI exam Monday, Eagles coach Andy Reid said. Vick went in to the locker room for X-rays, but an Eagles source said the team did not know the extent of the injury. Comcast SportsNet reported that Vick could be out three to six weeks, leaving the team facing another quarterback switch.

"I told him right before he got hurt, too, 'Man, don't take no hits like that,' " wide receiver DeSean Jackson said. "It's our quarterback. We don't need him taking no extra hits."

Kolb, who had been expected to succeed McNabb, got a second chance show what he could do in front of his home crowd and had a far more steady performance than in his Week 1 nightmare. But he could not rally the team for a final score and win. After the game, he said he wanted to play.

"It's vital for our season and for our team right now to go out and win next week, and I hope I get the opportunity. But we'll see what happens with Mike's injury and what the situation is, and we'll go from there," Kolb said.

The Eagles fell to 2-2 and into a first-place tie in the NFC East with Washington and the New York Giants, winners Sunday night over Chicago.

McNabb, jettisoned to make way for Kolb and then Vick, was warmly received by Philadelphia fans and played great in the first half, going 6 for 8 while passing for 115 yards and a touchdown. He added a fantastic 57-yard deep throw to set up a field goal.

The Eagles stifled the Redskins in the second half, but McNabb had one final dagger for his old team. On third and 3 from his own 22-yard line with 3 minutes, 53 seconds left in the game and the Eagles needing the ball, McNabb ran for 18 yards and a first down. The Eagles had man-to-man coverage on the play, so the secondary was not in position to help once McNabb got loose.

"Donovan made a play when he needed to make a play," Reid said - this time with regret.

The Eagles didn't get the ball back until 1:07 was left on the clock, and they were at their own 26.

McNabb finished 8 for 19 passing for 125 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. His 60.2 passing rating was the lowest of the three quarterbacks who played, but he made the biggest throws and the key run when his team needed it.

On the game's final play, Jason Avant got two hands on Kolb's desperation heave from the Washington 32-yard line, but could not hold on to the ball.

"I'm going to be dreaming about it for a while," said Avant, one of the surest-handed receivers on the team, adding that he "gave full effort. . . . I don't know how it jumped out of my hands."

With the Redskins playing a careful cover-2 defense, the Eagles could not make the explosive plays that had sparked them throughout the season. Their longest play was a 31-yard pass to LeSean McCoy, and even that came on a short throw that the back turned into a big gain.

The lack of offensive pop was a change, but several other problems were familiar.

The Eagles continued racking up penalties. Most troubling, a delay of game at the end of the first half forced the Eagles to kick a field goal rather than try for a touchdown that could have cut the lead to 17-10.

Following another early-season trend, the Eagles got off to a slow start and fell into an early hole for the third time this year. By the time Kolb led his first full drive, early in the second quarter, his team was down by 17-3.

Kolb said he had been ready to play despite some "difficult times" since being yanked after suffering a concussion and playing badly in Week 1.

"I've been a backup long enough to know that you're really just one play away, and that's the way you have to approach it," Kolb said.

His game consisted largely of careful underneath passes to his running backs, particularly to the productive McCoy, who had 12 receptions for 110 yards. Reid said the Redskins had been set on preventing big plays, leaving the Eagles to chip away.

"I didn't want to try to be overly aggressive," Kolb said, "and to learn from my mistakes that I made last time and take what the defense gave me."

Jackson, Avant, Jeremy Maclin, and tight end Brent Celek combined for just 11 catches.

On the one play when Kolb had a deep opening, he overthrew Jackson.

Kolb finished the day 22 for 35 for 201 yards and one touchdown, on a 5-yard pass to Celek, plus an interception.

The Eagles finished the day with one week of hype behind them, and another week of quarterback questions to come.

John Smallwood: Hey Andy, does calling a play take that long?
By John Smallwood
Philadelphia Daily News


THE GREAT MYSTERY of South Philadelphia has been solved.
The decade-long debate over whether Andy Reid or Donovan McNabb was more responsible for the consistent string of clock-management gaffes that highlighted their tenure together with the Eagles has been settled.

With Reid and McNabb on opposite sides for yesterday's Eagles game against the Washington Redskins, we were going to find out whether the coach or his former quarterback was more responsible for clocks always running a bit faster than the Eagles were thinking.
It was Andy. It was always Andy.

McNabb did burn two timeouts less than 2 minutes into the third quarter, but the most damning time-management miscue in the Eagles' 17-12 loss belonged to Reid.

It was definitive.

How could Reid let happen what happened at the end of the first half yesterday?

How does a coach get so disjointed that his team ends up getting a delay-of-game penalty coming out of a timeout because he can't decide on a play?

Reid's blunder turned a fourth-and-goal from inside the 1-yard line into a fourth-and-6. It was a change that might have cost the Eagles the game.

Nothing McNabb did could have trumped Reid not being able to come up with a play and get his team prepared to run it in what essentially amounted to 6 minutes of dead time.

If the Eagles score a touchdown, they are down by seven at the half. Instead, they settled for a field goal and trailed, 17-6.

"I take full responsibility, in particular, for what happened at the end of the first half," Reid conceded, as if anyone else could have been at fault. "I thought the play initially started out as [fourth-and] inches, but after the review, the play we had for inches ended up being a yard.

"The clock was well into it when we were aware of that."

You've got to be kidding me.

The spot had been marked for nearly 5 minutes during the review. Then the Eagles had another full 30 seconds after calling the timeout before the play clock started.

They didn't realize where the ball was spotted until it started running?

Just to refresh memories, LeSean McCoy had been stopped just short of the goal line with 23 seconds left in the half. The replay official called for a review to confirm McCoy had not crossed the goal line.

After nearly 5 minutes of review, the call on the field was ruled correct.

Presumably, it was during these 5 minutes that the Eagles decided to go for it on fourth down and determine what play they wanted to run.

They then saw where the ball actually was and called a timeout.

Obviously, you can't run the same play on fourth-and-10-inches that you would run on fourth-and-maybe-2-feet.

Somehow, an additional 55 seconds was still not enough for the Eagles to get a play off.

"Six minutes. Six minutes. Six minutes, Andy Fresh you're on!"

This definitely was not "The Show."

The Birds' offense hadn't gotten set at the line of scrimmage when the yellow flag for delay-of-game came out.

Reid has made some serious time-management gaffes in his 11-plus seasons, but nothing compares to this.

You got so flustered by a difference of 20 inches that you couldn't come up with an alternate plan and get your team set to run it in nearly a minute?

"That's on me, no excuses for it all," Reid said. "I wasn't surprised that the clock was moving, but I was surprised that it was moving as quick with the spot of the ball."

For me, all those times we saw McNabb putting his hands to his helmet as the play clock ran down before calling a timeout is now explained.

"We had a play-call with that spot," said Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb, who had replaced an injured Michael Vick. "They moved the ball back and we went to get our next play-call in and by the time I got the play and was coming back in . . . I want to say when I was running out there, there were 8 seconds left, somewhere around there.

"Obviously, I didn't have time to call it and execute it before the play clock went off."

Reid didn't say what play he wanted to run, but considering Kolb was in for Vick, I doubt it was a quarterback sneak.

So would it really have mattered if they tried that delayed shuttle pass to the running back from 10 inches out or 32 inches out?

"I just know from where it originally was and where it ended up being were two different spots," Reid said. "That's my responsibility.

"I'm not here to complain about the officials. I'm not here to complain about anybody else other than I goofed."

It was Andy. It always was Andy.

Rich Hofmann: Let's give Kolb a little credit
By Rich Hofmann
Philadelphia Daily News


IT IS OFFICIALLY a circus now and, yesterday at Lincoln Financial Field, the calliope crashed to the ground.

Everybody played their accustomed part in the melodrama. Donovan McNabb won the big homecoming game on a day when he completed eight passes. Andy Reid took a bewildering romp through time-management hell. Michael Vick, running recklessly, trying to make a play near the goal line, had his chest caved in by a pair of Washington defenders. Kevin Kolb, child of scorn, got his job back, at least until they take it away again.

Other than that, nothing much happened.

We are past the point of scriptability. You cannot make this stuff up, not after Redskins 17, Eagles 12. There are few things about the Eagles that could surprise you any more this season - OK, other than maybe an in-season trade for Terrell Owens. Or McNabb. Other than that, though, not so much.

Now we wait on the MRI on Vick's chest, to see where Kolb stands.

"You want to be up there as much as possible and I'm a competitor and I want to play," Kolb said. "I want to win. It's vital for our season and for our team right now to go out and win next week and I hope I get the opportunity. But we'll see what happens with Mike's injury and what the situation is and then we'll go from there."

It goes without saying that this was a game the Eagles could have won. The time-management follies at the end of the first half potentially cost them four points. A Shady McCoy fumble at the Redskins' 21-yard line in the third quarter likely cost them at least three more. In the NFL, it is the loser's lament.

Kolb played a decent game, by the way - not a winning game, but a competent, professional, we-can-build-with-this-guy kind of game. (Which, way back when - you remember, last month - was what this season was supposed to be all about.) He played a Checkdown Charlie kind of style against a defense that dictated as much - which is what he was supposed to do.

Checkdown Charlie is a Brett Favre-ism, by the way. He famously derided quarterbacks who played that way on a conference call with Philadelphia reporters a couple of years ago - which people, including McNabb, took as a backhanded slap at McNabb's prudent style. Ah, memories.

Anyway, Kolb completed 63 percent of his passes, put almost all of the short ones where they needed to be put, and cut down a bit on the recklessness that marked his preconcussion play in the first half of the season opener against Green Bay.

But there were two shots down the field against Washington that Kolb needed to hit, and he hit on neither. One was a deep strike to DeSean Jackson with about 13 minutes left to play that he simply overthrew. The other was on the final play of the game, a Hail Mary to Jason Avant that rattled off Avant's normally sure hands and was intercepted on the rebound by Washington's DeAngelo Hall.

To repeat: a loser's lament.

"You always want to play," Kolb said. "Mike has been playing outstanding. The thing that I did today was, I didn't want to force anything. I didn't want to try to be overly aggressive and to learn from my mistakes that I made last time and take what the defense gave me. I feel like we did that as an offense.

"Again, I just feel like when a team is playing that style of defense, you can't make mistakes and the mistakes early costs us. I didn't feel like it was anything they did, I think we killed ourselves and the game would have been a lot different if we had done something earlier."

To be fair, let's make it a truthful assessment, please. If you want to say that Vick is a better player today - OK, yesterday, before he had his chest caved in - than Kolb is, that's fair. But can we please not pretend that the Eagles' offense crashed and burned against the Redskins simply because of the change in quarterback?

Fair is fair. And in the first quarter, when Vick was still in one piece, he completed five passes for 49 yards. One was a 31-yarder to McCoy that was all yards after the catch. The other completions were for 0, 7, 5 and 6 yards. Vick made no throws down the field because nobody was open down the field.

Same as Kolb.

Wideout Jeremy Maclin said the Redskins started in soft coverage with the two really deep safeties and they stuck with it. He said, "They wouldn't let anybody get behind them. [The safeties] were out of it - way out of it. You have to take what they give you."

Which is what Vick did.

Which is what Kolb did.

It was that kind of game both ways, to be honest. The Redskins had only two plays longer than 20 yards, and the Eagles had only one. The Eagles played it that way because of the Redskins' defense. The Redskins played it that way because of a decision to sit on their 14-point halftime lead, or because Washington coach Mike Shanahan didn't trust McNabb to throw it around. McNabb threw only 19 passes and completed only eight. The last time he played 60 minutes, completed only eight passes and still won the game was his first professional start, against the Redskins, in 1999.

A lot has changed since then. A lot has changed since September, for that matter. Kolb, though, has done a good job of keeping his head in his business.

"There have been some difficult times," he said. "I think if you know you're strong and you understand the situation, then you've got to just keep pressing on. That's what I've tried to do. I've been a backup long enough to know that you're really just one play away and that's the way you have to approach it."

Until the next quarterback decision by the head coach; that is, when Vick is again healthy and Reid takes the job away from Kolb for a second time. He should do that, by the way, given that he has proclaimed this a win-or-else year by elevating Vick in the first place. You can't go away from that now, can you?

Man, it is hard to believe this season is only 4 weeks old.

SkinsJock wrote:thanks JSPB - these are a lot of fun - talk about biased stuff - great reading

Our next game against an NFC East opponent is the Eagles at home after our bye week - can't wait

Bob 0119 wrote:I'm just glad we don't have to hear about Vick anymore, or how the Eagles were genius to trade McNabb.

Not that I have anything against Vick, but man we heard more about him than anything else this past week.