The headline is only from the last 3:48 of this game. The Philly Daily News used it and I thought, I cannot top that. That’s exactly how I felt. In the grand scheme of things, however it was a very cold offense throughout the first 56 minutes that lost this game. And a few missed opportunities too. Too many dropped passes and two no more important than those dropped by rookie DeSean Jackson and Jason Avant. First with about 1:05 left in the game, McNabb found the rookie wide receiver open deep on a 40-yard pass. The ball event right through Jackson’s hands, incomplete. Missed second missed opportunity number 2 had Avant dropping a sure 29-yard TD with 39 seconds left. The final and last missed chance to tie the game was the inability of Reggie Brown catching a last second pass in the end zone and the receiver was tackled just a foot short by Redskins defenders Fred Smoot and LaRon Landry. So it really was a foot instead of inches. But, “The Inch That Stole Christmas”, sounded so much better and darker. But perhaps the biggest missed opportunity came with 11:35 left in the game when the newest high-priced Eagle, Asante Samuel had an easy pick, but the ball went right through his hands. Result of that play was a first and ten for the Eagles at their own 3-yard line, instead of possession at mid-field. Who knows, if Samuel would of caught that ball, perhaps he would of returned it ball into field goal range and that last drive would have been for a FG too and a win.

It was a long afternoon for the offense as they battled for good field position and the bad starting points would hamper the Eagles all game long. All seven possessions in the second half started at the eagles 20-yard line or worse. Four of the last 5 and all in the 4th quarter were at the 10-yard line or worse. Only the opening kickoff at the start of the game at their own 35-yard line and the their third possession of the game at the 47-yd line did they start somewhere other than inside the 25-yd line. And that third possession was only set up by a missed 54-yd FG and a great FG miss return by Quintin Demps, who ran it from 8 yards deep in the end zone for 55 yards. After a quick 11-yard pass to Buckhalter, LJ Smith dropped a pass; Westbrook was then stopped for just 4 yards. On third down, Dan Klecko was tackled short of the first down. Sav Rocca’s punt went just 22 yards and that led to the Redskins longest drive of the game. A 16-play, 67 yard drive that ended with just a FG and a Redskins 3-0 lead. Otherwise, it was more often than not, 3-plays and out for both teams. Both defenses played well in the very cold-windy conditions at Fed-Ex Field. In Fact, the Eagles actually won the battle of yardage in the end, 275-249, mainly due to that last drive, a 16-play 90-yard drive that fell just a foot short of sending the game into overtime.

Philadelphia had everything to win and lose as Dallas, Tampa bay and Minnesota all lost and if the eagles could win their last 2 games, they are in next week and don’t need any help from anybody else. In fact, then if Atlanta were to lose their last game, the Eagles would own the #5 seed. The offense in this game was nowhere to be seen and the running game became a forgotten entity in the second half. Donovan McNabb finished the game 26-of-46 for 230 passing yards, no INT’s and no TD’s. The Redskins Jason Campbell was worse as he completed 18-of-33 passes for 149 yards and again, no INT’s and no TD’s. The ‘Skins only TD came after McNabb was sacked by Jason Taylor and London Fletcher recovered the fumble resulting from that play. From the Eagles 18, Washington finally scored the game’s only TD on a 1-yard run by Clinton Portis on 3rd-and-goal. A valiant defensive effort was not enough to stop Portis on this series of downs. Washington had a 10-0 almost insurmountable lead in the game of defensive stands or shall I say, a woeful offensive showing on behalf of both teams. Portis only managed 70 total yards, rushing 22 times. Westbrook had just 45 yards, but only on 13 carries. In the third quarter, the Eagles ran the ball 3 times on their first possession and just once the rest of the game. None in the fourth quarter. In fact to close out the game, McNabb passed the ball on 32 fricken straight plays. 32!!! In the 4th quarter alone, 28 plays, 28 passing plays. Hey Andy, what happened to the running game?

This game was lost on offense and perhaps because of poor play calling and too many drops. In the fourth quarter, 12 of those last 28 passes were incompletions (though 2 were spiked balls to kill the clock). Time management was also key in the end result. The Eagles last drive took way too much time and they needed about another 20 seconds or so to complete the comeback that was not to be. Maybe another timeout too would of helped. One lousy foot short and 2 too many dropped passes and no rushing game in the second half all culminated in this terrible disaster on offense and now the Eagles can start planning their off-season plans now. There probably won’t be any playoffs in the Eagles’ near future as they plan for the Cowboys next week. That game could become meaningless for the Eagles as Tampa, Chicago and Minnesota all will fight it out for the last playoff spots and all play at 1pm before the 4:15 scheduled kickoff at Lincoln Financial Field.