The Eagles used to frustrate us by waiting until the NFC Championship Game to blow their chance at a Lombardi Trophy. Ah, those were the days. Such clarity. Now, we're going to postmortem the season arguing about which was worse, blowing a 23-3 lead to the 49ers back on Oct. 2, or committing five turnovers at Buffalo on Oct. 9?
Andy Reid has been beating the drum for how young the Eagles are the past week or so, which is the kind of thing you say when you'd like to keep your job amid colossal failure. As others have pointed out, it's sort of true, sort of not true. Michael Vick turns 32 in June; Trent Cole is 30 next October; Jason Babin is 32 in May. Many of those young guys Reid talks about - Kurt Coleman, Jamar Chaney, Brandon Graham, Nate Allen - haven't proved they are starting-quality NFL players yet, which they will have to do to make their ages at all relevant.
Young, old, whatever. The chances are finite, for all of us, and the Eagles have tossed one away, as carelessly as Vince Young throws a pick-6. They have the overall talent to be in the playoffs, to be a factor in January, regardless of how flawed a mixture their talent has produced. Instead, they are going to be sitting at home wondering whether the whole coaching staff gets fired, or just Juan Castillo.
Vick, who spent a year-and-a-half in federal prison, knows a few things about lost chances.
