This year's Philadelphia Eagles were the equivalent of that really hot girl you met that one time. She's obviously hot at first glance; everybody can see that. You start dating her and notice subtle flaws. Maybe she makes a poor sandwich. Whatever, everyone has subtle flaws. Then suddenly you realize she can't cook at all. What a disaster!
Every football fan was infatuated with the Eagles. And they had reason to be. The Eagles had incredibly youthful, energetic, fast skill position players with Desean Jackson, LeSean Mccoy, and Jeremy Maclin. Even their quarterback was one of the fastest players in the league. They had a blitzing, gambling defense. With Asante Samuel at the cornerback position, anything can happen. If an NFL franchise ever opens in Las Vegas, I expect Asante Samuel to be on the first flight out to play for the Las Vegas Highrollers. Dude loves to gamble in coverage. The Eagles have been a blitzing team through Jim Johnson's era as defensive coordinator, and they kept that identity this year.
My mentality on blitzing has always been if you are playing a good quarterback, be more hesitant to blitz. Aaron Rodgers always seemed to have the right play called on third downs, when the Eagles brought their pressure. Donald Driver would run 4 yards, turn around, catch the ball, and fall down. It's as simple and quick as that-- First down Packers. Aaron Rodgers got the ball out fast when the Eagles blitz because he could see it coming. The Packers converted 8-13 first downs, allowing them to possess the ball for 4 minutes longer than the Eagles. The Packers dealt with the Eagles aggressive mentality well, and in the end, it was that mentality that hurt the Eagles.
On offense, we ignored the Eagles problems all year. Vick would run for his life, get away, and turn plays that would normally be sacks with regular statue-esque, stand-and-throw quarterbacks into positive plays. Then all the fans would ooo and ahhh over how great Vick is when really we should've seen the problem with the offensive line. The line just was not good enough to protect Vick. It helps to have a quarterback that can make great plays with his feet when he sees the pressure coming, but what happens when he does not see it coming? We saw this on the first possession of the game when Vick got taken down from his blind side.
The Eagles were a unique team, and people have a tendency to crown (their asses) unique teams because people tend to believe that uniqueness translates to success. Usually, it does initially translate into success until teams start to adjust (See: Wildcat formation 2008). That's what happened to the Eagles. Defensive coordinators watched what Vick and the Eagles offense were capable of doing all year when they were successful, and then the playoffs came and Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers knew how to stop them. The Packers threw delayed blitzes at the Eagles and confused Vick so he didn't know from which direction the pressure was coming. Vick’s a great quarterback but there are only a few quarterbacks that can run an entire offense through audibles and their own reads, and Vick does not do that. Their demise was even foreshadowed by late season losses to the Cowboys and Vikings that were blown off as meaningless games.
In this way, the Eagles were a mirage. They looked good all year, because of their unique offensive ingenuity and weapons along with their fun to watch aggressive defense. However, all it took was one defensive coordinator to find a way to scheme against their offense and a smart opposing quarterback to find the holes in their aggressive defense and the Eagles were exposed for what they were-- a mirage of unsustainable success.
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