As it turns out, Vince Young was almost right. He just chose the wrong word. He called the Eagles a Dream Team. What they are, really, is a Fantasy Team.
In some contexts, a dream and a fantasy can mean the same thing. But not in football.
Fantasy football is all about numbers and, oh boy, do the Eagles have numbers. Mike Vick put up another 400 yards in Buffalo. Jason Avant had a huge fantasy game with nine catches and 139 yards. DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin each had a touchdown.
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But in real football, Vicks four interceptions ultimately mattered more than his yardage and Avants fumble outweighed a career high in receptions. And in fantasy football, Juqua Parker doesnt jump offsides and the head coach doesnt let the clock run out at the half and touchdowns arent nullified by rookie linemen committing penalties.
One of the reasons Ive never liked fantasy football is because it takes away the human element and the human element is one of the best things about football. All sports, really. The term team chemistry has been overused to the point where it is now a clich, but it is a real thing. It helps some teams overachieve and the lack of it is one reason why other teams underachieve.
On Sunday, we saw examples of both. The Bills improved to 4-1, clearly overachieving, and their resilience and well-fight-to-the-end tenacity masks a lot of deficiencies. It is what allows them to rally for wins against superior teams like New England and hang on when a team like the Eagles makes a fourth quarter run.
The Bills, a team led by a recycled coach (Chan Gailey), a journeyman quarterback (Ryan Fitzpatrick), a bunch of free agents (Fred Jackson) and bottom-of-the-barrel draft picks (Stevie Johnson), are winning in large part because they believe in one another. They play hard for one another. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
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With the Eagles, it is the exact opposite. Yes, they have talent, which means they can be spectacularVick breaks away on a 53-yard run, Jackson takes a screen pass 31 yards to the end zonebut the pieces dont fit together well enough for them to function as a cohesive team. At 1-4, they are less than the sum of their parts, much less.
Team chemistry is hard thing to define. Im not sure you can put it into words, but it is like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewarts memorable definition of pornography. Stewart said, I know it when I see it. Thats how it is with team chemistry. You know it when you see it. And you know it when you dont.
Were not seeing it with the Eagles, and thats perhaps the most alarming thing about their current predicament.
Even at 1-4, they arent out of the running. The NFC East is proving to be every bit as mediocre as we thought it would be. The New York Giants lost at home to a lousy Seattle team Sunday. A 9-7, maybe even 8-8, record could win the division. But the Eagles dont even appear capable of that.
The Eagles have teetered on the brink before under Andy Reid. That certainly was true in 2008 when the team was 5-5-1 coming off a humiliating 36-7 loss in Baltimore and it was widely speculated that Reid was on the way out. But the team rallied with a 48-20 rout of Arizona, then won five of the next six games to advance to the conference final.
The difference was that team had a veteran core that was together for a long time. Players like Brian Dawkins, Tra Thomas, Jon Runyan, Brian Westbrook and Donovan McNabb had fought a lot of battles together. There was enough pride and enough of a bond there that when someone said, Were not going to let this happen to US, it resonated and everyone, even the young players, responded.
With this team, there is no us.
There are names on the backs of jerseysin many cases, big namesand there are cool highlight plays and statsagain, were back to fantasy footballbut there is no us. You have a bunch of guys who hardly know each other, guys who dont really identify themselves as Eagles or feel invested in this team.
Just because you come to the same building and hang your clothes in the same locker room doesnt make you a team. I dont mean to get all Brians Song on you here but that is the truth. Dawkins, Westbrook, Runyan, Thomas, etc., fought to save the team in those years because it was something they helped build. Players knew they could trust the guy next to them because they had been in the foxhole together before and had each others back.
It is one of those intangible qualities thats impossible to measure and does not show up on the stat sheet, but it can make the difference in winning and losing. This Eagles team is like a bunch of strangers. I mean, can you see Nnamdi Asomugha turning to Jarrad Page and saying, Cmon, man, lets go. More likely he will say, Your name again?
Leadership can be overrated, but there are times when it is necessary. It is necessary for the Eagles now but the way this team is constructed with so many new faces and no one having a strong voice it is a void that is becoming more obvious every week.
And Im tired of the excuse that with so many new players and no OTAs, the Eagles are having problems putting things together. Well, San Francisco hired a new head coach and really turned things over, but how did that work out when the 49ers played the Eagles last week? Didnt seem to be a big problem, did it?
The last two weeks the Eagles played teams that believed in what they were doing, believed in the direction they were going and believed in each other. I dont know how much that counts in fantasy football, but in the NFL it counts for two wins.
E-mail Ray Didinger at viewfromthehall@comcast.net