The term “Dream Team.” It follows the Eagles around like a ghost, the ghost of Vince Young perhaps.
It is a term that signifies a team with great expectations that crumbled under the pressure, that underperformed and could not rise to the occasion.
The 2015 Eagles are one of those teams.
At 4-5, the Eagles season is still alive thanks to a weak division. But this is hardly a stamp of honor. It is an embarrassment.
Given the gamble that Chip Kelly made in the offseason, dismantling the team to make it his own, things are even worse.
This is Chip’s mess and we’re all stuck in it.
In weeks past, naiveté would have set in. The 5-5 Giants would be only a small look up and everything would be peaches and cream.
But the nature of Sunday’s loss doesn’t give off such a feeling. It was a true wake up call.
This team just isn’t good enough to win consistently. In a bad division, playing teams that are certainly less talented on paper, they can’t find ways to win and are rather finding more ways to lose.
It is no recipe for success.
In a city that is both hungering for a winner – you won’t find it in the other major sports – and waiting for the crowning moment in franchise history, this is the not the path to success that was envisioned under Chip Kelly.
This was a franchise so starving for a new voice and Chip Kelly was there, at the height of his college coaching career, ready to make the leap to the NFL. With the personnel already established, Kelly’s innovative style would put the Eagles over the top and complete the task Andy Reid couldn’t.
To this point, in two seasons, Chip Kelly’s Eagles have played in one playoff game. They lost. This team has been no closer to becoming a championship team than when Kelly got here. They won’t get any closer either, not at 4-5 on the season.
Thus is another chapter of Eagles football: a team with all too many expectations floundering in front of our eyes. Maybe next year, right?
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
