Eagles know who to blame - themselves

SOMETIMES THERE is shock and sadness, when boxes and bags come out for packing up lockers. Not so much yesterday at NovaCare. This was not the day after a playoff loss, as packing-up time has been the past 3 years, and nine times during Andy Reid's 13-year reign. The 2011 season was mortally wounded back in September and October, several Eagles acknowledged. The Eagles were just about dead when they were 1-4, and all but officially dead when they were 4-8, and of course, they were finally eliminated from the playoff race on Christmas Eve.

No, they didn't enjoy watching Sunday night as the New York Giants claimed the NFC East title, the same Giants team they handled at MetLife Stadium, 17-10, back on Nov. 20, the Eagles playing then without Michael Vick. But they knew who was to blame for their frustration.

Wideout Jason Avant said missing the playoffs "is even harder to swallow when when you go out and do a lot of things and shoot yourself in the foot . . . the division winner is 9-7, and you look at the beginning of the season, you think like 9-7, with the schedule that we played, would be easy, but when you do the wrong things, it always bites you in the end."

Asked if it felt wrong to be packing up yesterday, Avant said: "When you play the way we played early, it will get you out of here."

"Guys are happy the way we finished [the four-game winning streak], even though there's still that little disappointment, watching the Giants and Cowboys on TV, knowing we're not going to be in the playoffs," tight end Clay Harbor said.

Harbor was speaking in front of his locker stall, which was completely covered with a life-sized banner photo of Harbor at Missouri State. Harbor said he'd had the banner rolled up in a closet when he lived with safety Kurt Coleman a year ago, when both were rookies; he figured Coleman must have found it and decided to play a going-away prank.