Blue Monday

On Sunday, after a week of leading us to believe that this time would be different, the Birds showed their true colors again.

by E. James Beale

Back in 2005 a psychologist named Cliff Arnall developed a half-serious formula intended to calculate the most depressing day of the year. After considering various factors such as weather, expected debt and broken New Year's resolutions, Arnall determined that the single most miserable day is a Monday in late January — in 2009, this week. He dubbed the day "Blue Monday" and, if you pay attention, you'll hear a word or two about it each year. Arnall is British, but his finding probably isn't going to strike Philadelphians as odd. Of course Mondays in late January are depressing. They're often the day after the Eagles have been eliminated from the playoffs.

On Sunday, after a week of leading us to believe that this time would be different, the Birds showed their true colors again. Andy Reid gave up three points at the half because he didn't manage the clock well, an opposing team moved the ball on Jim Johnson's defense in a big game, and the team called 48 passes to just 17 runs. On the final meaningful offensive play of the year, a mediocre receiver literally fell down on the job. The Birds played one fantastic half and one miserable one, and that dramatic inconsistency provided a fitting end to a season that saw the Eagles look great, then awful, then great, then awful. And with the team losing in the NFC Championship game for the fourth time in this regime's tenure, it's become clear: This team isn't unlucky. The hot/cold streaks, the faulty receivers and the skewed run/pass ratio are who these Eagles are.

It was hardly just the Birds who showed their true colors, though. We fans forgot everything we know and got suckered in again, too. This loss shouldn't come as a surprise, but after a week of hype and Super Bowl dreams, it does. The Cincinnati tie and the Kevin Kolb games had become distant memories, as had the three points the Birds put up against the Redskins and the help they needed to get into the playoffs. We only remembered last week's win against the defending champs. Somewhere on Craigslist, an Eagles fan is desperately trying to sell a plane ticket to Tampa.

Now, as we leave this most depressing week of January, we're all realizing that this is not a could-have-been situation. These Eagles were always this. They were rarely simply overmatched by their opponents, losing, instead, because of their own mistakes, and that tricked us into thinking that they could put it together at some point: It's one thing to lack size or speed; another to just mess up. Mistakes seem like something that can be fixed. Seeing McNabb follow two unforced errors with a gorgeous touchdown makes us think that every throw could be as pretty.

But it is a trick. McNabb isn't just being inaccurate; he's a streaky quarterback, and the fact that he mixes good throws with bad isn't something he'll work out at this point in his career. It's a character trait, as is Andy Reid's skewed play-calling and the lack of dominant run-game personnel.

On one hand, the Eagles were never as good as they looked against Dallas or as bad as they played against the Skins. But on the other hand, they were always both. They're good enough to come within a bad half of the Super Bowl and flawed enough to have to stay home to watch it with the rest of us. What's more, this is the team's DNA, and we probably shouldn't expect Reid to change it now. In his farewell-to-the-season press conference, the coach did hint that maybe there are other ways to go about running the team. "Next year will be a new year with new roads to travel as we put together a football team," he said. "It's a shame we weren't able to take it further." So the possibility exists that the Birds will add a big tailback, a true fullback, a blocking tight end. But most likely they won't. After all, the NFC Championship game is pretty good — there are plenty of teams that wouldn't have minded ending their season there. But it's not a championship, and it's going to take more than better luck or a hotter streak for that to change.

Oh, well. At least it's another year until Blue Monday.

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