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The out of sync Eagles lose opener 14-10 to the Falcons.
by Jules Pilla Sept 13th, 2005

What the bleep was that? After waiting since Feb 7th for the Eagles to erase the bad taste of losing the Superbowl, we were treated to a not ready for prime time performance. My agata started about 8:40 when I was doing my pre-game food set up. I like to make sure I have everything ready for the game. Chips...check. Wings ...check. Pizza... check. Beer... check. And of course , as with any pre-game prep, I had to taste some of the food. A lot of thought goes into the pre-game. You have to really think about what you are doing. As I'm prepping , so were the Eagles. Only veteran LB Trotter wasn't thinking as much as I was at the time. Before my slice of pizza had a chance to even hit my stomach, our best LB got himself into a scuffle with a Falcon and was tossed out of the game. Our key to stopping the run would be watching the game from the locker room. And the Falcons have a very good running team with Dunn, Duckett and Vick. My agata started there and progressed into full blow Acid Reflux as the night went on.

The game itself was not exciting at all. Unless you call yelling at the TV exciting. And there was a lot of that. The Eagles just never got on track. Their drives were erratic. Often stopped by a fumble , an interception or a missed field goal. The team didn't seem to expect to be in a dog fight with the Falcons, who did come to play. The Falcons were ready. The Eagles were not.

Some game stats...

Donovan went 24-45 with 1 TD, 1 interception and 2 lost fumbles. Far from the type of game we have grown to expect.

TO put up decent numbers with 7 catches for 112 yds. No TD's. No small talk with Donovan.

Westbrook had the only TD reception and 47 yds rushing. Oh, did I mention that the Eagles had no running game. None , zip, nada.

And kicker David Akers , as reliable as kickers come, missed his first 2 field goals. What the bleep was that?

We waited 6 months for that opening day performance. We endured 4 weak pre-season games. We stayed up until after one o'clock and now we are paying for it. And worse of all, we lost the first tie-breaker for the playoffs. I know, that's a little extreme.

I just wanted to see my team play good football. Losing is one thing. But starting out like that was not enjoyable. And speaking of enjoyable, somehow, with all the pre-game food prepping I did, everything left a bad taste in my mouth. I wonder why.

 

Hello boys and girls,

Welcome back to another season of The Morning After .

Please join me in welcoming some friends to the family. For the first timers among you, the TMA is a recap of each week's Eagles game. It is not however your typical recap I put my own twist on things and share my irreverent take on what transpired.

You are of course always welcome to share your opinions with me.

I am also happy and proud to announce the TMA has found a new home at www.insidetheeagles.com with my good friend, Jules Pilla.

Be sure to check back to this site on a regular basis as Jules does a fantastic job.

Now, the last time we spoke was following the Birds disappointing loss to the Pats in the Super Bowl.

Much has transpired since then.

But there were 3 things we all knew would be true by the start of Week 1, didn't we? At least I did, anyway…

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