In the middle of the fourth quarter of yesterday’s game against the Redskins, the Philadelphia Eagles were down by nine points and had second and goal from the 2-yard line. As usual, they turned to RB Brian Westbrook to get into the endzone. Uncharacteristically, Westbrook was stuffed on two straight attempts and Philly had to kick a field goal. The failure to get a touchdown killed any momentum the Eagles had in the game. They never got the ball back.
On FOX, Troy Aikman questioned whether those two runs were the right calls given the Eagles sub-par goal line rushing offense and the ankle injury to Brian Westbrook. Now that it’s been revealed that Westbrook was also playing with two broken ribs (suffered early in yesterday’s game), Andy Reid’s decision becomes even more curious.
Why give the ball twice to a player suffering from two injuries? I mean, Pavarotti was the go-to guy in the Three Tenors, but I’m sure when he got laryngitis they let the other guy sing the solo to Nessun Dorma. The Eagles have a talented backup in Correll Buckhalter and weapons in McNabb and DeSean Jackson. They also have L.J. Smith, who is alright when he’s not dropping the ball. A hobbled Westbrook is better than most anything else, but with the two rib breaks, the Eagles should have been looking elsewhere on one, or both, of those plays.
(In fairness to Reid, Donovan McNabb changed the third down play at the line of scrimmage. It went for -3 yards. So maybe Eagles fans should have saved some post-game eggs for their QB.)
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