OT: Philadelphia Eagles (NFL): When You're Up, It's Never As Good As It Seems, And When You're Down, You Never Think You'll Be Up Again

[BigToe]

This loss doesn't come close to the 05 one for me. That's the only time I cried over a sport.

 

[swami24]

Yeah, this absolutely isn’t a fun exercise but I see a lot of people saying that this is the toughest lost in Eagles/Philadelphia sports history. That seems heavily influenced by age and recency bias at first glance and then I started thinking about it more and, well, i'm going to have to think about it more.

Where do you put it in both of those categories?

It isn't even the worst loss in the last 6 months!

64 phillies
77 Sixers
80 Flyers (F*** Leon Stickle)
93 Phillies

A bad loss is when you are expected to win, and collapse, or fail to finish.

It is not a bad loss to lose when you are the underdog, or evenly matched, like this SB.

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

It isn't even the worst loss in the last 6 months!

64 phillies
77 Sixers
80 Flyers (F*** Leon Stickle)
93 Phillies

A bad loss is when you are expected to win, and collapse, or fail to finish.

It is not a bad loss to lose when you are the underdog, or evenly matched, like this SB.

 

[trostol]

that is pretty damn wholesome...

 

[DancingPanther]

A bad loss is when you are expected to win, and collapse, or fail to finish.

Bro what they were up 2 scores at the half

 

[DancingPanther]

This loss doesn't come close to the 05 one for me. That's the only time I cried over a sport.

I cried too but that's because I was 12

 

[achdumeingute]

Yeah, this absolutely isn’t a fun exercise but I see a lot of people saying that this is the toughest lost in Eagles/Philadelphia sports history. That seems heavily influenced by age and recency bias at first glance and then I started thinking about it more and, well, i'm going to have to think about it more.

Where do you put it in both of those categories?

No where close. It's just heightened because of where this happened. (As Jojo said, a normal loss to a good team.)

2002 NFCCG vs TB at home, 2004 Season SB were so much worse Eagle moments.

 

[JojoTheWhale]

The 'hardest part' part will be looking at the game on paper and being reminded that there's no way the Eagles should have lost this game, with even some of the mistakes they made. Hurts throws for 300, you have 2 receivers over 100 yards, and dominate time of possession. There was never a scenario where all three happen and the Eagles lose.

There was never a scenario where they simply got shredded by Mahomes so badly that TOP was lopsided? That doesn't feel plausible. Hell, that might have been the most likely scenario.

The Eagles were near the top of the league in Plays/Game, while the Chiefs were solidly in the middle of the pack. Same goes for time of possession.

*Edit* I said TOI instead of TOP because I am a moron.

 

[ponder719]

Yeah, this absolutely isn’t a fun exercise but I see a lot of people saying that this is the toughest lost in Eagles/Philadelphia sports history. That seems heavily influenced by age and recency bias at first glance and then I started thinking about it more and, well, i'm going to have to think about it more.

Where do you put it in both of those categories?

Individually, as a team loss, this isn't as upsetting as 04.

However, this represents Philadelphia losing its third major championship (yeah, I've heard the MLS arguments before, they're still the top professional league in the country's fifth-largest team sport) in a span of 3 months. I don't believe any city has ever had this kind of run of failure at the cusp of victory across so many sports before.

 

[achdumeingute]

Eagles fans are hilarious. Like a week ago people praised Gannon, now a bunch see him as a plague.

I'm not in this list...I have not been praising him. We have too much change though, that isn't good. Hopefully we get a good coach. I hate losing Steichen.

 

[achdumeingute]

I think it's because of how badly he was exposed. The corn dog play thing is something he'll never live down.

Shrug, you can't scheme that, IMO it's all on the CB to not blindly run into the change. The Cheifs deliberately both times ran the motion jet sweep on second down to run "corn dog" on the 3rd down. Both times, CBs just turned and ran to switch off the saftey to cover the motion.

It's such a timing play too...they snapped it right out of the WR reversal so he has a running head of steam.

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

Imagine this loss if they didn’t win 52. That’s a fun thought exercise.

 

[achdumeingute]

I guess yeah. Slay botched one of those pretty bad himself, but I feel ya

Maddox was actually worse. At least slay turned around. Naaaaaaasty play.

 

[Rebels57]

Individually, as a team loss, this isn't as upsetting as 04.

However, this represents Philadelphia losing its third major championship (yeah, I've heard the MLS arguments before, they're still the top professional league in the country's fifth-largest team sport) in a span of 3 months. I don't believe any city has ever had this kind of run of failure at the cusp of victory across so many sports before.

Technically it happened to Philadelphia before in 1980 lol.

At least the Phillies won inbetween the 3 losses by the Flyers, Sixers, and Eagles.

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

Shrug, you can't scheme that, IMO it's all on the CB to not blindly run into the change. The Cheifs deliberately both times ran the motion jet sweep on second down to run "corn dog" on the 3rd down. Both times, CBs just turned and ran to switch off the saftey to cover the motion.

It's such a timing play too...they snapped it right out of the WR reversal so he has a running head of steam.

That’s falls on coaching and self scouting also.

It can’t just fall 100% on the feet of the players.

 

[achdumeingute]

Behind losing Giroux and Dawkins

Losing Dawkins for sure. But the Flyers ceased operations a few years back...Giroux was still a Flyer then...I don't know what you are talking about.

 

[achdumeingute]

I didn't vote, but I was the 13%. WTF were people looking at lol. "Trust" is the key word. Can they get a stop...sure...

 

[achdumeingute]

It's cool to see people that care about each other.

 

[philly_28]

Imagine this loss if they didn’t win 52. That’s a fun thought exercise.

That's why 39 is way above 57 in the awful ranking for me.

52 helped heal some old wounds while also adding a layer of protection against future wounds.

You can't cut me as deep anymore. I watched them win one.

 

[achdumeingute]

That’s falls on coaching and self scouting also.

It can’t just fall 100% on the feet of the players.

I mean, I guess...I don't see how you really "coach" that if the offense executes it perfectly. It's all a guess on what they are executing. If you sit on the reverse, your out of position on the sweep/coverage if they don't run the sweep.

 

[Halladay]

Imagine this loss if they didn’t win 52. That’s a fun thought exercise.

That's why I'm pretty much over it.

 

[GKJ]

The Super Bowl in Jacksonville was very much a kick in the nuts for the Eagles. Neither of those teams were at their best, and you add in that McNabb was physically ill, I don't know if it's the water or something there, McNabb was sick more than once playing in that stadium.

But the last game at the Vet was worse. That was very much devastating. That game was a formality for all intents and purposes. Tampa Bay had no chance to win that game, I mean zero. They had owned Tampa Bay. The Bucs had not travelled well, it was documented all the time. The way the game started, and then Joe Jurevicius breaks one, and the Eagles just had nothing for the whole game. And then the way the Bucs beat the Raiders, it was the Eagles year to win it. That game is the equivalent of the Phillies 1964 (which I wasn't alive for). Beating the Brady Patriots obviously would've been a great accomplishment, but for what the Eagles endured, I think it would've been a lot like the 1989 Calgary Flames, or the 90's Braves, where they finally got one but the feeling on it is that they should've had more (especially now that the Eagles *do* have one).

 

[achdumeingute]

There was never a scenario where they simply got shredded by Mahomes so badly that TOP was lopsided? That doesn't feel plausible. Hell, that might have been the most likely scenario.

The Eagles were near the top of the league in Plays/Game, while the Chiefs were solidly in the middle of the pack. Same goes for time of possession.

*Edit* I said TOI instead of TOP because I am a moron.

IMO, we had the right results on offense with our plan, passes instead of runs ended up working out, but limit Cheifs offensive possessions worked (TOP). Inability to stop the run and put the Cheifs in 3rd and longs was the overall failure. Maybe because of the field, but their OLine trucked our defensive line.

 

[Magua]

I'm going to try and put down into words about what my thoughts where I rank this loss both before and after I watch the actual broadcast and try to explain the intricacies and how I decided it.

I was born in '92. I didn't really start having any grasp of what sports actually were really until I was 7 and at that point I really only liked the Rams because they were good but, hey, the Rams are still with me in a capacity 20+ years later. So the '97 Flyers and the '93 Phillies, I didn't experience.

Like I mentioned, my initial thought was that it was outrageous to have this loss at the top of the list of worst losses in Philadelphia sports history but it did get me thinking...

The number one worst loss in city history for me will forever be Game Five against the Cardinals in 2011. We could have the absolutely most absurd way to lose happen sometime in the future and that one will still be #1 for me. It's unbeatable.

I wrote about this one at length in the Quackverse as it was my Crushing Sports Moment. We didn't want to admit it at the time but deep down when Furcal hit that triple and got knocked in we knew it was over. That Phillies team was the best team that I have ever seen in this city and probably will ever see so to see them go down in such a way will haunt me forever. It was a "what could have been?" type of thing that is a stain that will never go away. The Halladay situation that we have since learned that was spawned from that game put it into a tier that it'll never be approached to me.

Now to the hard part where thinking actually had to be done. At his very moment I honestly have to have this Eagles loss at #2 but it's not in such a way that a lot of you probably answered this question. I also have yet to see the broadcast so I very likely missed 99% of the things that happened.

The Eagles lost to an unbelievably great team. They put up a valiant effort and lost. There is absolutely no shame in that. I am not upset about that even in the slightest. This one, similar to my #1, is going to fall under the "What could have been?" category. This Eagles team was the greatest that the organization has ever put together and yet it still wasn't enough. That's sports though. The best team doesn't always win.

The thing that I am going to take away from this game and it's what is going to make it the second toughest is that we'll never know. We'll never know what would have happened if the flag was never thrown. Jalen Hurts very well may have fumbled the ball again or thrown a pick and this loss would have been rather bearable all things considered, IMO. It would fall in line with all of the other championship losses that were hard fought but the end of the day it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe for others that outcome would have made it worse.

We had the chance to see one of the all-time great Super Bowl performances go onto the pantheon of THE greatest Super Bowl performance if he and the offense were able to drive the ball down and either get a field goal to tie the game and likely send it to OT or even win it in regulation. Do they lose the game anyway? Maybe but at the end of the day we'll never know and that is so unbelievably hard to swallow.

Now I want to be clear that I am not saying that that flag cost the Eagles the game. It didn't. They had their opportunities to win the game or to put it away and they didn't because they were facing an equally great team.

I turned to my brother when the Chiefs got the ball with 5:15 left and said "they're not getting the ball back." Yes, these type of nothings are said all of the time but similar to 2011, we all likely felt that way a little bit. We were going to sit there and have our heart ripped out in slow agonizing fashion with no power to stop it.

So to see that ball fall into the end zone uncaught on third down knowing that it would provide the Eagles at least a chance to win the game and my premonition was incorrect, it was elation for only a millisecond because at the same time the flag flew across my line of vision as everyone around me was celebrating I fell down into my seat as it really was over then.

This isn't #2 because of a blown coverage (or two, Sup Corn Dog?), a fumble returned for a touchdown, a dropped pass, or an actual heart breaking single moment of finality ala a Joe Carter homer. It's because i'll never know. This game won't ever have closure for me. Yes, I know the penalty was called and the game ended so factually closure should be achievable but fandom doesn't work that way. I recognize that this isn't the first time that this has happened to the Eagles. We saw it in 2005 against the Pats but that was their own doing by running clock themselves. We saw it in 2009 but at least the Eagles still had a chance on the field to tie the game after Warner's eight minute drive.

I don't want to put it at #2 but that's where it's at the moment. As time passes on it'll likely fade and it's also probably heavily influenced by me being in the stadium for it along with it being tied to the financials of it but that's like 0.01% of the reason.

I know this is already entirely too long of a post so i'll be short here with the rest:

3: Quadruple Doink (Sixers Vs. Raptors, Game 7)
4: 2004 NFC Championship Game (Eagles Vs. Bucs)
5: ECF 2000 Blowing 3-1 Lead In Series (Flyers Vs. Devils, Game 7) (This is a personal pick)

After that my rankings would probably change on a day to day basis of where i'd put them but...

2010 NLCS Game Six - Uribe's Homer (Phillies Vs. Giants)
2010 SCF Game Six - Kane's Goal (Flyers Vs. Blackhawks)
2009 WS Game Six - Pedro/Matsui (Flyers Vs. Yankees)
2009 NFC Championship Game (Eagles Vs. Cardinals)
2004 ECF Game Seven (Flyers Vs. Lightning)



Obviously my losses are heavily skewed to the 2000's because that was my prime area of being a sports fan. As time has gone on and as priorities have changed with growing up sports don't hit the same.

TL;DR after writing all of that out, maybe this isn't actually #2 and you probably shouldn't bother reading any of that.

You didn’t list the Bubble Playoffs.

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

You didn’t list the Bubble Playoffs.

If I had to watch them for another round, I’d no longer have eyeballs so for that I’m thankful.