…sometimes you’re the bug.

Stud of the week: I was going to say Ellis Hobbes for returning the opening kick off the second half for a TD, only it was negated by a holding call that none of our crew nor Al and Cris could see, even with replaying on our nice big HD TV multiple times. And then I was thinking maybe Sheldon Brown for the pick and great 54 yard run back, but that was negated by a low block penalty on Moise Fokou. And he got burned by Miles Austin for what turned out to be the winning TD. Then I was going to pick David Akers, but that’s way too easy, even though he did make a pointless 52 yarder when Andy should have gone for it, because it was clear, at least to me, that with only about 4 minutes left in the game and no timeouts, this was our last offensive possession. Or I was going to choose McNabb for the plow ahead QB sneak on 4th-and-1 to keep our critical first drive of the fourth quarter going just after Dallas had tied it up, but the zebras inexplicably spotted the ball about 2 yards short of where it should’ve been and refused to fix it, even after Andy burned our final timeout and his final challenge trying to get them to correct an obvious mistake. So I picked safety Sean Jones, who in just his second start with the Eagles had 4 solo tackles, 1 assist, and a pick. Good game, man! Sorry it didn’t work out better for us all.

I feel like I’ve pretty much already recapped the game. We weren’t terrible, we weren’t great. But it’s damn hard to overcome two picks, although one was clearly Maclin’s fault and one was about 50/50 Maclin and McNabb. But on that second pick, Maclin draws a 15 yard face mask to add insult to injury.

Another weird one? Asante Samuel draws a taunting penalty WHILE HE’S GIVING A MARION BARBER HAND UP. Explain that to me, please?

And speaking of weird, what about some of those coaching decisions? We put Mike Vick in for a play, presumably so that McNabb and Reid can chat some things over without taking a time out. Then McNabb goes back in and we have to call a time out. Then we go to McCoy on 3-2, he doesn’t get it because he has to come back for the ball and his field awareness is not great. Andy challenges and loses, then we decide to go for it on 4-1 to try to draw the Cowboys offsides, we DO draw them offsides, but Jamal Jackson doesn’t snap the ball, and we get called for a false start.

I do understand the challenge on the McNabb sneak, because that was the WORST spot ever, but the officiating crew was calling so much inexplicable shit that Big Red should’ve realized that God himself (aka Vince Lombardi) could’ve come down from heaven and told them they had it wrong and they wouldn’t have moved it. And the officiating was bad both ways, but the zebras seemed to have a particular propensity for making bad calls that killed any momentum we started getting any time we got it.

And I really don’t get that last field goal, either. And why are we starting games so pass-happy? We either score in 3 plays or we go 3-and-out. How about a nice slow first offensive drive for once?

In the end, it just felt like one of those nights where nothing was going to go right. McNabb had some off passes, but Brent Celek, Mr. Clutch, and Jason Avant, Mr. Third Down, both dropped more than one pass that was right to them, AND when our young receiving corps had problems, it felt like EVERY SINGLE deflection went right to a Cowboy defender. We had plenty of “almost got there” on D.

But we couldn’t win a close divisional game at home for the lead in the division. That does not bode well for the rest of the season, including the playoffs that I’m still confident we’ll reach. Wilbon had it in 1 in Sunday’s WaPo: the Eagles are the hardest good team to figure out. Which is, as per usual, giving us all fits. But I do totally agree with these guys: let’s not panic. We’re still #2 in the division and we’re only 1 game back with half the season still to go. Were the season to end today, we’d take one of the wildcard spots. And Reid and McNabb are still the winningest coach/QB we’ve ever had (and even with his two picks last night, McNabb still has the best TD to INT ratio in the HISTORY OF THE NFL).

Just to refresh your memory:

Win Percentage:

Andy Reid – 61.8%
Wade Phillips – 58.8%
Tom Coughlin – 55.3%
Jim Zorn – 43.5%

Career QB rating

Donovan McNabb – 86.2
Tony Romo – 94.9
Eli Manning – 77.6
Jason Campbell – 81.4

Ah well – on to the Chargers.

Get the rest of the recaps at Snarkin’ the NFL.