The Philadelphia Eagles have had a lot of milestones in their slide down to the NFL’s basement. One big turning point for the Eagles came on Dec. 28, 2010, when a rookie Minnesota Vikings quarterback triggered the beginning of the end of the 2010 season and so much more. However, Joe Webb couldn’t replicate that same magic for the Vikings in the 2012 playoffs.
On Jan. 5, Webb got his first major action since beating the Eagles two years ago, as he had to sub for Christian Ponder in a wild card game against the Green Bay Packers. But he and the Vikings never got going, as the Packers rolled to a 24-10 victory while Webb could only go 11-for-30 for the night.
With Adrian Peterson largely contained, the Packers left it up to Webb to pick up the slack, and he didn’t deliver. As such, Eagles faithful have to wonder why their 2010 team couldn’t do the same two years ago. If they had, maybe all the misery of late 2010, 2011 and 2012 could have been avoided.
Before Dec. 28, 2010, the Eagles were riding high after their legendary comeback over the New York Giants the previous week. Even after a blizzard controversially moved back their next game with the Vikings to a Tuesday night, all signs looked good for a major Super Bowl run.
In any case, since the Vikings were limping through a pathetic season and were reduced to starting Webb over the injured, soon-to-finally retire Brett Favre, it appeared they wouldn’t put up a fight. Instead, Webb had a mistake-free night, ran for a touchdown and was helped by Peterson’s 118 rushing yards.
Whether the Tuesday night setting or the euphoria of the Giants victory was to blame, the Eagles came out flat and they’ve stayed that way ever since. After that loss to Minnesota, Philadelphia dropped its next two home games, including a wild card defeat to Green Bay. Then the disasters of 2011 and 2012 happened, leading to the end of the Andy Reid/Michael Vick era.
It looked like that era could have finally brought a Super Bowl to Philadelphia, right up until it hit a wall against Webb, of all people. But while Webb destroyed the Eagles for years to come, he couldn’t destroy the Packers last night, which is a very small consolation for Philadelphia right now.
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