I've got plenty of experience of supporting a losing team and defeat doesn't hit me hard anymore, but it's the hope that kills you, and heading into this season I had plenty of hope. I even wrote an article about it for the British Eagles website, I was optimistic that our big name players would step up and win us the big games. Maybe it was my lack of battle scars, but I genuinely thought my first season as an Eagles fan was going to be a triumphant one. Well, I certainly won't be making that mistake next year. Pessimism will be the order of the day before the 2013 season.
This game was like the season in microcosm. A promising start, followed by a ridiculously poor turnover, a period of awfulness, a hint at improvement, but ultimately a dreadful performance. If you want a specific example of how the season has gone then look no further than the first quarter drive to the Saints Red Zone that ended with a 98 yard interception return for a touchdown. That doesn't happen to the best teams, and if it does they respond to it. The Eagles looked resigned to their fate from a very early stage.
I'd spent a lot of the off season reading about the great play makers the Eagles had on Defence - Cole, Babin, DRC, Asomugha, Ryans, plus 2 high end Draft picks. Well, after a reasonable start to the season the Defence have turned in a couple of dreadful displays. New Co-ordinator Todd Bowles is proving to be about as much use as Todd Carty and teams are marching down the field on us pretty easily.
It's not all bad.......(paragraph scrapped due to lack of content)
I'm well used to losing and bad runs. A couple of season's ago, Gillingham went a whopping 18 months without winning away. A run that included a relegation and some truly abysmal defeats. A 5-4 at Bury, a 4-0 walloping to local rivals Millwall and a scarcely believable 7-4 loss at Accrington bloody Stanley!
This difference between Gillingham being rubbish and the Eagles being rubbish is that I've not grown to expect it from the Eagles. The NFL is built to give everyone a chance, parity is the order of the day, it's all about coaches and players performing. And quite simply, this hasn't happened enough this year in Philadelphia. What's more, the organization has made some strange decisions concerning staff - firing Castillo, continuing to hire Reid etc.
Is it denting my faith in the Eagles? Not at all, I wouldn't be a sports fan if I couldn't cope with defeat. It makes the victories all the sweeter. In many ways, this season has been a perfect introduction to the Eagles and the failings that I'd previously read about have. Maybe I'd have felt a fraud if I'd experienced the glory at my first attempt.
Apologies for the negative nature of this week's post, but if you'd have got up at 6am to watch that debacle before work, you'd be struggling to come up with another positive. At least, we're playing Dallas this week - one of the few franchises that having an equally shambolic season.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other news, I've got a rough idea for a series of longer articles on the history of the NFL, in terms of it's connections with the UK - starting from the way American Football evolved, going through the early Brits to play in the NFL, Channel 4 and the 80's boom, the London Monarchs etc, right up to the International Series and the ongoing second boom. Doing some research at present, so the current plan is to use the next off season to write it all out.
Watch this Space!
This game was like the season in microcosm. A promising start, followed by a ridiculously poor turnover, a period of awfulness, a hint at improvement, but ultimately a dreadful performance. If you want a specific example of how the season has gone then look no further than the first quarter drive to the Saints Red Zone that ended with a 98 yard interception return for a touchdown. That doesn't happen to the best teams, and if it does they respond to it. The Eagles looked resigned to their fate from a very early stage.I'd spent a lot of the off season reading about the great play makers the Eagles had on Defence - Cole, Babin, DRC, Asomugha, Ryans, plus 2 high end Draft picks. Well, after a reasonable start to the season the Defence have turned in a couple of dreadful displays. New Co-ordinator Todd Bowles is proving to be about as much use as Todd Carty and teams are marching down the field on us pretty easily.
It's not all bad.......(paragraph scrapped due to lack of content)
I'm well used to losing and bad runs. A couple of season's ago, Gillingham went a whopping 18 months without winning away. A run that included a relegation and some truly abysmal defeats. A 5-4 at Bury, a 4-0 walloping to local rivals Millwall and a scarcely believable 7-4 loss at Accrington bloody Stanley!
This difference between Gillingham being rubbish and the Eagles being rubbish is that I've not grown to expect it from the Eagles. The NFL is built to give everyone a chance, parity is the order of the day, it's all about coaches and players performing. And quite simply, this hasn't happened enough this year in Philadelphia. What's more, the organization has made some strange decisions concerning staff - firing Castillo, continuing to hire Reid etc.
Is it denting my faith in the Eagles? Not at all, I wouldn't be a sports fan if I couldn't cope with defeat. It makes the victories all the sweeter. In many ways, this season has been a perfect introduction to the Eagles and the failings that I'd previously read about have. Maybe I'd have felt a fraud if I'd experienced the glory at my first attempt.
Apologies for the negative nature of this week's post, but if you'd have got up at 6am to watch that debacle before work, you'd be struggling to come up with another positive. At least, we're playing Dallas this week - one of the few franchises that having an equally shambolic season.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other news, I've got a rough idea for a series of longer articles on the history of the NFL, in terms of it's connections with the UK - starting from the way American Football evolved, going through the early Brits to play in the NFL, Channel 4 and the 80's boom, the London Monarchs etc, right up to the International Series and the ongoing second boom. Doing some research at present, so the current plan is to use the next off season to write it all out.
Watch this Space!
No comments:
Post a Comment