SCOTT JACOBS

Here’s the thing about being a heavy underdog:  no one expects anything of you.  When you shock the world, you’re the coolest cats in town, but when you lose, you’re almost deprived of the traditional pressures of losing and expectations, because well, no one really expected you to win anyways. It’s kind of a cool thing, being in the underdog role.  You can play the ‘No one believed in us, but ourselves’ card and it takes a while before it becomes old.  When you do something unexpected, especially when it’s great, it just adds to the notion that your story is all the more fun.  Everyone loves a good underdog story.

Here’s the thing about being a bloated, super-hyped up favorite with absurd pressures and expectations because a backup quarterback you signed in the offseason labeled you a ‘Dream Team’ before you ever played a game: the expectation of victory and immediate success is so assumed, that anything remotely off the mark is immediately deemed a massive failure.  A scrape into the world of mediocrity, and forget it, you’re buttered bread.

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The Miami Heat and their Tri-nasty, were able to overcome a 9-8 start, unprecedented media attention, and hatred stemming from coast to coast (some of which was obviously jealousy).  “Not one, not two, not three…” and “I’m taking my talents to South Beach” emerged as rhetoric of ridicule and endless satire.  Even after the Heat pulled within 2 wins of an NBA title, before folding like a lawn chair, many people chided their ‘failure’ to win it all, and some even deemed their coming together as a bust.  That was a team that finished second in the East, won the conference, and had the Mavs right where they wanted them, despite their all world 2-time MVP being M.I.A. for much of the series.  That team, some believed was a major disappointment.

So imagine what the City of Brotherly Love is thinking right now.  Their beloved Eagles, media darlings of the off-season after they signed a slew of big names and well known players, trapped in the NFC East basement after a stunning 3-5 start. Unlike the NBA, you don’t get a boatload of games to work through your problems.  In the NFL, a slow start is usually a crushing blow to your playoff hopes.  Anything worse, is usually the death knell to title dreams.  We’re now roughly halfway home to the end of the 2011 NFL season, and they’re smack dab in the center of disappointment and disbelief.

The team that tried to create their own formidable collection, the product of too much media hype, is quicking learning that this off-season gave them too little time to assimilate each others strengths and weaknesses into chemistry.  Too many new faces, the burden of insane expectations, and a coach whose been on the hot seat on and off for the better part of a decade all add up to a team almost designed to fail.

Sounds crazy right?  That the star-powered Eagles could fall on their faces the way they have.  But maybe we should have seen this coming.

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It’s much easier to be the underdog, then to take on the role of the villain.  When you win a title you become the hunted.  But as Green Bay can attest, going through that championship ride hardens your team into a collective unit, and getting through to the end strengthens a team’s resolve.  Going into a season with an avalanche of expectations for a team that has yet to accomplish anything in the bigger scheme of things, is a tall task.  Asking a qaurterback who has still yet to prove he can win the ‘big games’ to be the leader in a house of killer cards and then giving him nearly $100 million in confidence bucks rachets up the pressure nozzle up another notch.  Failing in a city that has booed Santa Claus, pelted refs, and booed their own teams off the field is not something that makes any of this any easier.

The Eagles are, as we can see them now, a product of 21st century hype.  A creation of our instant information society.  They are a fantasy team with no substance.  They score points, they play with flash, their running back is tough as nails, yet they can’t hold a 4th quarter lead.  Their QB is electric, dynamic, throws the ball like a whip, and yet, he still doesn’t look like a guy you can fully trust a team to.

Mike Vick is still a fun player to watch. No one discounts that.  But he’s way too inconsistent.  In wins he has 5 TDs, 1 pick.  In 5 losses he has 6 TDs, 7 picks.  This isn’t his fault entirely.  That would be going too far. Others are to blame. But he’s the face.  He delivered the throw to Jeremy Maclin way too high on 4th down yesterday.  When Maclin went to regain his footing, he fell, and was unable to give up. One yard short, one disheartening way to lose.

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As fans began to exit from their seats into the turnstiles, they had to be wondering if this was the last meaningful game the Eagles would play this year.  While there’s still time to turn it around, the clock is ticking faster than ever.  The pressure is overflowing, and the Eagles are running out of games.  When greatness is expected of you, before you prove that you are truly great, it can be a blessing, but more-so a curse.

The Eagles weren’t ready for this. That much is crystal clear.

Photo: AP

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