A Very Depressing 5 Hour Drive

Drove to Arizona this weekend for the game. It started off great. A group of us arrived in Scottsdale at about 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night. We checked in, quickly got changed, and took a cab to an Eagles party at the Upper Deck Sports Bar in old town Scottsdale. It was insane. As you can imagine, everyone was in their Eagles gear, having Miller Lites ($2.50 special), people were singing Eagles chants, and just having a great time. Our group left about 12:00 a.m. and we headed to the local casino. Afer the casino, took a cab back to the hotel where we arrived about 2:30 a.m. (I think). Woke up at 7:00 a.m. and headed to Glendale. The Eagles tailgate party started at 10:00 a.m. I don't know what to say about the tailgate party other than we were pumped for this game and really felt like we were going to win. We walked to Phoenix Stadium and entered. Fast forwarding to halftime, I thought we were done. Fast forward to the beginnig of the 4th quarter and I think we are winning this one. We were up 25-24. Then, the Eagles defense falls apart again and allows a TD with 4 minutes left in the game. The Cardinals go for a 2 point conversion so now they are up by 8. Eagles get the ball with about 3 minutes on the clock. What happens next - receiver can't make the catch, another missed catch, then another missed catch on 4th down. The game is over.

I have never felt like this after a game. It was very hard to walk down those 20 rows to get to the concourse level, with Cardinal fans in my face, talking crap. I kept walking, and walking, and walking. It was the longest walk ever. The six of us got in our van, hopped on the 10, with such disappointment. I had 5 hours to think about what went wrong. Was it Akers missing an extra point, and a field goal, which forced the Birds to try a 2 point conversion? Was it all the dropped balls from the receivers? Was it McNabb? Was it Reid? Was it the defense?

One thing I'm sure about is that it was not McNabb's fault. I'm sick and tired of people putting the blame on McNabb. It's not his fault that his receivers can't catch. It's not his fault that the defense was sleeping during the first half. It's not his fault that Akers can't come through when we need him. A lot of changes are going to have to be made, because neither myself, nor Philadelphia, nor any other Eagles fan can deal with these ongoing inconsistencies and diappoinments.

Here are some pics from our trip.