The Philadelphia Eagles played their best football too late.

Michael Vick threw for 335 yards and three touchdown passes, ncluding a 62-yarder to DeSean Jackson, and the Eagles beat the ashington Redskins 34-10 Sunday for their fourth straight win.

But the Eagles (8-8) are going home despite the strong finish after ailing to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2007 and just he fourth time in coach Andy Reid’s 13 seasons. They can’t be atisfied after entering the year with Super Bowl aspirations

“That’s the unfortunate part,” Vick said. “Everybody’s jelling together, ur team is getting closer as a unit, everybody’s understanding their oaches and what they’re trying to do and their philosophy. We know hat needs to be done. We’ll fly under the radar and try to shock eople next year. Next year will be totally different. I promise you.”

Reid refused to discuss anything about the future, including whether e wants to return or if defensive coordinator Juan Castillo will be ack. Reid took plenty of criticism this season, and heard “Fire Andy!” hants during a loss to New England in November. Castillo was ntensely scrutinized in his first season after serving as an offensive ine coach for 13 years.

“We’ve got to get better all the way around, starting with me,” Reid aid. “This wasn’t good enough.”

The Redskins (5-11) finished last in the NFC East for a franchise orst fourth straight year. It was Mike Shanahan’s worst full season in 8 years as a coach.

“I think the last five, six games we’ve done some good things, run the football against some good teams, not as good as we need, though,” Shanahan said. “We talked about adding a few pieces on offense, we need a few pieces on defense, a good draft, but we made some strides. Our football team is a lot different than a year ago, and that’s a positive.”

One of four NFL games on the final day that had no playoff ramifications, this had the feel of a preseason game. There were thousands of empty seats at the always sold-out Linc, and there was far more interest in the Mummer’s Parade on Broad Street.

The Winter Classic alumni game between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers across the street at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday generated more excitement.

Playing without NFC leading rusher LeSean McCoy, the Eagles relied mainly on their passing attack. Vick delivered, becoming the second player to have consecutive seasons with 3,000 yards passing and 500 yards rushing.

Rex Grossman had 256 yards passing, one TD and one interception, and Evan Royster had 113 yards rushing for Washington.

“I really enjoy it here,” said Grossman, who will be a free agent. “I really enjoy this offensive system and what they’re building here. I’d love for this to be the place where I end up.”

The Redskins were 3-1 and leading the NFC East when the teams met on Oct. 16. A 20-13 loss to Philadelphia started their six-game losing streak and knocked them out of the playoff picture.

The Eagles weren’t eliminated from playoff contention until last week, and finished with the best record in the division at 5-1. But they’re starting an early vacation while the winner of the New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys game on Sunday night advances.

“You have to analyze everything that happened and figure out how not to let it happen again,” Vick said. “We’ve got a lot of soul-searching to do, a lot of thinking to do. I think our opportunities will arise.”

Vick’s 7-yard TD pass to Chad Hall in the second quarter gave Philadelphia a 10-0 lead after Derek Landri blocked Graham Gano’s 36-yard field-goal attempt.

Vick connected with Jackson to make it 20-10 in the fourth quarter. It could’ve been Jackson’s last game with the Eagles. The two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver played the final year of his rookie contract and never got the extension he wanted after holding out in training camp.

A 4-yard TD toss from Vick to Brent Celek made it 27-10.

Roy Helu turned a screen pass into a 47-yard TD to get Washington within 10-7 on the opening drive of the second half.

The Redskins turned the ball over on downs at the Eagles 35 in the final minute of the second quarter. They got the ball back when Brian Orakpo sacked Vick and forced a fumble. Perry Riley recovered at the 17, but the Redskins wasted the field position.

An unsportsmanlike penalty on Santana Moss for taking off his helmet and arguing a non-call for pass interference pushed the ball back, and the clock expired before Gano could attempt a field goal after Jabar Gaffney was tackled at the Eagles 7. Long snapper Nick Sundberg wasn’t on the field as players scurried to the line of scrimmage.

“A little mix-up there relative to communication, coupled with not getting the play,” Shanahan said, explaining that the headsets weren’t working at the time.

Notes: The Eagles set a franchise record for total yards with 6,386. … Eagles WR Jeremy Maclin had eight catches for 105 yards. … Eagles rookie K Alex Henery finished the season 24 of 27 on field goals for the best percentage (88.9) in team history. … Jackson became the fifth player in NFL history to have 900 yards receiving in each of his first four seasons. … Grossman finished with 20 interceptions despite not starting three games. … Shanahan’s previous worst season was 6-10 last year and with Denver in 1999. … Vick threw a career-high 14 interceptions. … Orakpo left with a left shoulder injury. He’ll have an MRI on Monday.

 

PHILADELPHIA (AP)

The Philadelphia Eagles played their best football too late.

Michael Vick threw for 335 yards and three touchdown passes, including a 62-yarder to DeSean Jackson, and the Eagles beat the Washington Redskins 34-10 Sunday for their fourth straight win.

But the Eagles (8-8) are going home despite the strong finish after failing to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2007 and just the fourth time in coach Andy Reid’s 13 seasons. They can’t be satisfied after entering the year with Super Bowl aspirations

”That’s the unfortunate part,” Vick said. ”Everybody’s jelling together, our team is getting closer as a unit, everybody’s understanding their coaches and what they’re trying to do and their philosophy. We know what needs to be done. We’ll fly under the radar and try to shock people next year. Next year will be totally different. I promise you.”

Reid refused to discuss anything about the future, including whether he wants to return or if defensive coordinator Juan Castillo will be back. Reid took plenty of criticism this season, and heard ”Fire Andy!” chants during a loss to New England in November. Castillo was intensely scrutinized in his first season after serving as an offensive line coach for 13 years.

”We’ve got to get better all the way around, starting with me,” Reid said. ”This wasn’t good enough.”

The Redskins (5-11) finished last in the NFC East for a franchise-worst fourth straight year. It was Mike Shanahan’s worst full season in 18 years as a coach.

”I think the last five, six games we’ve done some good things, run the football against some good teams, not as good as we need, though,” Shanahan said. ”We talked about adding a few pieces on offense, we need a few pieces on defense, a good draft, but we made some strides. Our football team is a lot different than a year ago, and that’s a positive.”

One of four NFL games on the final day that had no playoff ramifications, this had the feel of a preseason game. There were thousands of empty seats at the always sold-out Linc, and there was far more interest in the Mummer’s Parade on Broad Street.

The Winter Classic alumni game between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers across the street at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday generated more excitement.

Playing without NFC leading rusher LeSean McCoy, the Eagles relied mainly on their passing attack. Vick delivered, becoming the second player to have consecutive seasons with 3,000 yards passing and 500 yards rushing.

Rex Grossman had 256 yards passing, one TD and one interception, and Evan Royster had 113 yards rushing for Washington.

”I really enjoy it here,” said Grossman, who will be a free agent. ”I really enjoy this offensive system and what they’re building here. I’d love for this to be the place where I end up.”

The Redskins were 3-1 and leading the NFC East when the teams met on Oct. 16. A 20-13 loss to Philadelphia started their six-game losing streak and knocked them out of the playoff picture.

The Eagles weren’t eliminated from playoff contention until last week, and finished with the best record in the division at 5-1. But they’re starting an early vacation while the winner of the New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys game on Sunday night advances.

”You have to analyze everything that happened and figure out how not to let it happen again,” Vick said. ”We’ve got a lot of soul-searching to do, a lot of thinking to do. I think our opportunities will arise.”

Vick’s 7-yard TD pass to Chad Hall in the second quarter gave Philadelphia a 10-0 lead after Derek Landri blocked Graham Gano’s 36-yard field-goal attempt.

Vick connected with Jackson to make it 20-10 in the fourth quarter. It could’ve been Jackson’s last game with the Eagles. The two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver played the final year of his rookie contract and never got the extension he wanted after holding out in training camp.

A 4-yard TD toss from Vick to Brent Celek made it 27-10.

Roy Helu turned a screen pass into a 47-yard TD to get Washington within 10-7 on the opening drive of the second half.

The Redskins turned the ball over on downs at the Eagles 35 in the final minute of the second quarter. They got the ball back when Brian Orakpo sacked Vick and forced a fumble. Perry Riley recovered at the 17, but the Redskins wasted the field position.

An unsportsmanlike penalty on Santana Moss for taking off his helmet and arguing a non-call for pass interference pushed the ball back, and the clock expired before Gano could attempt a field goal after Jabar Gaffney was tackled at the Eagles 7. Long snapper Nick Sundberg wasn’t on the field as players scurried to the line of scrimmage.

”A little mix-up there relative to communication, coupled with not getting the play,” Shanahan said, explaining that the headsets weren’t working at the time.

Notes: The Eagles set a franchise record for total yards with 6,386. … Eagles WR Jeremy Maclin had eight catches for 105 yards. … Eagles rookie K Alex Henery finished the season 24 of 27 on field goals for the best percentage (88.9) in team history. … Jackson became the fifth player in NFL history to have 900 yards receiving in each of his first four seasons. … Grossman finished with 20 interceptions despite not starting three games. … Shanahan’s previous worst season was 6-10 last year and with Denver in 1999. … Vick threw a career-high 14 interceptions. … Orakpo left with a left shoulder injury. He’ll have an MRI on Monday.

The Philadelphia Eagles have plenty of reasons to be bitter at the New York Jets. First the Eagles destroyed the Jets on Dec. 18 to get their hopes up for a miracle playoff run, and then the Jets ruined that by losing to the New York Giants on Dec. 24. But while Philadelphia fans are stewing in disappointment, they can take solace in how New York fans – also like myself – are equally disappointed in their team.

The Jets have gone from potential Super Bowl contenders to playoff long shots in the span of just a few weeks. What’s more, New York has lived through this situation before – which pretty much triggered the Rex Ryan/Mark Sanchez era to begin with.

Before Ryan and Sanchez arrived in 2009, New York was just coming off the end of its stint in the Brett Favre soap opera. In 2008, the Jets had Super Bowl hype around them when Favre came to town, but they started slowly with a 3-3 record. Likewise in 2011, the team stumbled out of the gate to a 2-3 start. Yet in midseason, the 2008 and 2011 squads got on a roll and looked ready to make a big run.

The 2008 team was a bit hotter, as it won five straight games to go to 8-3. And since the defending champion Giants only had one loss at the time, hype for an all-New York Super Bowl was building up. However, once the Jets got their eighth win everything started to fall apart – like it has for the 2011 edition.

The outcomes aren’t completely similar, since Favre’s Jets did at least get a ninth win while Sanchez’s team is still stuck at 8-7. But in both cases, they had chances to lock up playoff berths and utterly collapsed in the month of December. Favre ran out of gas and was more hobbled up than usual, three years before Sanchez completely crumbled against the Eagles and Giants.

The 2008 Jets got so bad in their final two losses that it triggered a full scale makeover, as Favre “retired” again, Eric Mangini was fired and the Ryan era was ready to begin. New York seemed to get the better end of that deal with two straight AFC title game appearances, yet Ryan and Sanchez have now reached the low point of their tenure.

If the 2011 Jets complete their collapse and miss the playoffs as well, it might not get Ryan and Sanchez out of town like the 2008 downfall did to Mangini and Favre. However, after three years of talk and bluster and no Super Bowls for Ryan, and after another season of regression from Sanchez, their time is starting to run out. After this, New York might not forgive another year or two with this kind of ending – or any other ending before the first week of February.

In 2009 and 2010, the Jets proved to be experts at ending a season on a hot streak. But in between , there have been a pair of pretty ugly Decembers that have kept New York from January. The consequences for the horrible ending of 2011 may not be as severe as the ones from 2008. Yet Ryan and Sanchez’s window of opportunity is getting smaller, and that might be severe enough before long.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.

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The Philadelphia Eagles are putting a lot of things together when it is way too late. While this only makes Eagles fans like myself more furious about how 2011 ended up, Philadelphia will still try to hope that the groundwork for a bigger 2012 has been laid out. Of course, since the Birds’ three-game winning streak means that Andy Reid will be back and Juan Castillo has a shot to return, it’s hard to say how good 2012 will turn out.

It would be a better sign if the DeSean Jackson of the last month returns for 2012 as well. The Eagles certainly can’t afford for the September-November Jackson to show up again. But ever since his bad behavior and the terrible Eagles peaked in the Dec. 1 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, they have both somehow been on their best behavior.

Jackson’s stats haven’t been mind blowing during the winning streak, as he has combined for 11 catches, 177 yards and one touchdown. However, the fact that he is catching the ball and getting more yards – and has stayed pretty quiet in the meantime – has been a relief after how the previous few weeks went. It still doesn’t erase the accusations of how he gave up before then – which loom even larger now when more effort and at least one more win would have made Week 17 very meaningful.

At this point, however, Jackson and Philadelphia fell so far during the first 13 weeks that anything other than another meltdown looks better. And now that the team is winning and there hasn’t been any new Jackson controversy lately, the hope is that both sides are cooling down before they get back to contract negotiations. Yet that leaves the question of whether too much damage has been done already.

Too much has been done to save the 2011 season, although it likely hasn’t been enough to fire Reid after all. However, if too much has been done to salvage negotiations with Jackson and to not just franchise tag him or trade him, 2012 will look more ominous. The Eagles already learned the consequences of keeping Jackson without paying him, and they cannot waste 2012 re-learning that lesson. Since 2012 stands to be Reid’s very last chance in Philadelphia, he certainly won’t want to waste that year figuring it out as well.

Going from 4-8 to a potential 8-8 record will be touted as a step forward, even though it really isn’t. If they want to make this last month of wins mean something, the Eagles will take this cooling off period to reassess Jackson and act accordingly. Whether that means resigning him or trading him is yet to be decided, but it has to be settled before training camp this time.

Philadelphia fans are skeptical that the good Eagles in December will show up for 2012, so maybe that should be the case with the good Jackson as well. However, if that good Jackson justifies a resigning at last – just as it somehow justifies keeping Reid around – then perhaps this big finish is worth something. If it’s too late, then at least his last month in town hasn’t been tarnished as much as his next-to-last month was.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.

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The Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys are on a collision course again in December. Eagles fans like myself remember that two late showdowns against the Cowboys in 2009 destroyed that season and ended the Donovan McNabb era. But other than that, Philadelphia has had its way with Dallas at this time of year lately.

Despite two straight defeats in Dallas to end 2009 and a Week 17 loss to the Cowboys at home in 2010, the Eagles have a history of breaking the Cowboys’ hearts in December. If they do it again by winning in Dallas on Dec. 24, it will officially send the Cowboys into another late season tailspin – even if it can’t help the Birds win the NFC East instead.

Philadelphia is trying to make its most improbable rally into the playoffs since 2008, which ended with a huge blowout of Dallas. The Eagles’44-6 blowout of the Cowboys to end the 2008 regular season got them into the playoffs and knocked Dallas out of the picture.

A year earlier, a victory over Dallas came too late for Philadelphia to make a postseason run. Yet when the 5-8 Eagles upset the 12-1 Cowboys in December 2007, it was the beginning of the end for Dallas’s Super Bowl dreams. It propelled Philadelphia to an 8-8 finish and laid the blueprint for the New York Giants to upset the Cowboys themselves in the divisional playoffs.

The Eagles didn’t even need Donovan McNabb to knock the Cowboys down in 2006. Jeff Garcia continued his shocking late winning streak in Week 16 that year, handling Dallas by 23-7 to get Philadelphia closer to an NFC East crown. Thanks to that loss, the Cowboys would have to go to Seattle and be eliminated on a fumbled hold by Tony Romo two weeks later.

Dallas loses to a bunch of teams in December year after year, so doing it so often against Philadelphia might not be special. And since the Cowboys have done much better against the Eagles in the last two Decembers, the Birds might be the ones haunted at the moment. In any case, the Philadelphia teams that broke Dallas’s hearts were led by Garcia, McNabb and Brian Westbrook, while the current crop of leaders like Michael Vick, DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy haven’t been so lucky.

Yet it is true that the Eagles historically perform well in December while the Cowboys historically collapse – which is usually reflected in their late season battles. If it happens once more in 2011, it will be a pretty ugly rerun for Dallas as its playoff hopes take another big hit. But if the Cowboys can destroy the Eagles’ playoff dreams this time around, it will be another sign that Andy Reid and the Birds aren’t what they used to be.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.

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