Look, nobody can sit here and say that the Eagles looked particularly good after yesterday’s 17-16 season opening win over the Cleveland Browns. But Christ, you’d think the team plane crashed on the way into Ohio or some shit. “But if feels like a loss.” What the fuck does that even mean? I don’t care what it “feels like,” you know, because they won. And it was a win in which the Eagles’ much-maligned defense came up huge, forcing four Brandon Weeden interceptions and limiting the rookie quarterback to a 5.1 passer rating. That rating, by the way, is the lowest they’ve allowed to an opposing quarterback since 1976. Yeah, Weeden is more likely to be Ryan Leaf than Peyton Manning, but so what? That’s the thing with the fans in this city–myself included–we can’t enjoy anything. We can’t just be like, “You know, they were fucking bad today, but they won, there’s another game next week, they can go 2-0, and also–suck my dick.”
There was a ton not to like about this game. Michael Vick threw for over 300 yards, but too often looked lost. He consistently made terrible decisions with the football, often rolling to his left and then throwing back across his body into traffic. His four interceptions could have easily been seven or eight. So nobody will argue that the offense wasn’t out of sync, sloppy, and will certainly need to be better as the season progresses. But here’s the thing, winning sloppy allows you to progress and get better while having the opportunity to play for something. And it’s not like the whole thing was a shit show. DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin were explosive. LeSean McCoy recorded his tenth career 100-yard game. And even Vick, despite being the first Eagles quarterback to throw four interceptions in a game and still win since 1969, came down the field and handled shit when it mattered most.
How many times did the Eagles blow late leads last season? How many times did we all wonder how things could have been different if they would have pulled out a few more ugly wins? Win just one game like that last season and Victor Cruz isn’t doing the salsa on your fucking big screen last February as you kick your dog in the stomach. It wasn’t impressive. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t the emphatic exclamation point that 2012 will be their year like we were looking for. But it was still an important win. And it buys the Eagles an opportunity to improve heading into next week, perhaps, cough, balance the offense, and put together a better performance at home against what promises to be a good Baltimore team.
So while we dissect the shortcomings this week–as we well should–let’s keep in mind the Eagles won a game they should have lost on Sunday. That’s something that didn’t happen a year ago. Nobody has to pretend like they are some fucking machine out there right now, but it doesn’t mean they can’t be. So let’s relax a bit and try to enjoy this shit a little more.
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