Eagles-Bengals Wrap-Up: Kissing Andy Reid's Sister

The first tie in the NFL in six years, and nearly four hours of breathtakingly blah football. On some level, it's exactly what both teams deserved, since neither of them looked anything like a winner today, and the perfect ending to my weekend, which started with a disappointing turnout for poker, had the middle ground of the wife and kids getting explosively ill, and finished with that mess of a game. Some notes for the post-mortem...

> If you own Brian Westbrook in your fantasy league, I'm sorry. And if you're an Eagle fan, I'm even more sorry. Correll Buckhalter was the better back in every aspect of the game today, and since Andy Reid values loyalty over performance, it's not like we're going to see him get more touches. Add it up, and you have a team that has to put everything on its quarterback, and when he turns it over four times in a game... well, you're not going to win.

> Today's game, and the near certain playoff elimination that should follow just after Thanksgiving, will up the drumbeat for Kevin Kolb, especially since McNabb had time to throw for most of the day. I can't defend him very well after those many giveaways, but it hard to see how the back-up wins this game, either. When every short yardage play is a nightmare of uncertainty, that's not really something a quarterback change fixes. But I can see how some people just want to blow this team up and start from scratch.

> The Eagles defense did everything you could ask today, short of scoring itself. It sacked the quarterback 8 times, got a fumble recovery, held the opponent to 56 rushing yards, and only gave up a field goal on a first and goal at the one series after a fumble. They gave their offense 17 possessions today to score points, and held the opponent to 4 for 20 on third down. It's not on them.

> Of the four McNabb turnovers, three were legitimate; the fourth was a ball that bounced off Kevin Curtis's pads and stayed up for the pick. Scoring-wise, I kind of hate that all picks are charged to the quarterback, but independent of that is the fact that Curtis was awful today, despite the 7 for 64 numbers. He dropped a certain first down in the second half, just a ball that owned him on the numbers. They need him, especially in this era where there is no running game, to be a hell of a lot better than that.

> Sav Rocca was terrible in the fourth quarter and overtime today, with 36.2 yards on the day for an average. I'm not sure if it was the wind or overwork or an injury or simple incompetence, but what had been a strength all year stopped being one.

> In regards to the tie being better than a loss... well, I suppose, but the simple fact is that there's no way this team goes to the playoffs unless they are second in the NFC East, since the South has more than enough teams to take that position. Basically, if they want to make the playoffs, they can't lose again this year. And considering that they can't run the ball, can't stop the run against a good team, can't win at night, can't convert in short yardage...

Well, let's just say we're all going to have a lot of free time this winter. And a very strong need to draft a running back with a higher than expected pick...