A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

5 = ZERO: As I said the last time I did one of these, "I don't mind losing to another good football team on the road, but I mind losing like this." This was a game in which the Eagles never seemed competitive, and as such The Stages of Eagles Grief must be processed in order:

Denial: Seven days ago this team was on the verge of a first-round bye; now, it's over and Mark Sanchez is still playing? Really? The Andy Reid Never Loses His Playoff Opener Streak was just a statistical improbability and not a guarantee of future results?

Bargaining: We missed starting middle linebacker Stewart Bradley all season. Brian Westbrook was never fully back after his concussions, and as such neither was the rushing game. Maybe we just needed an Andrews brother on the offensive line, while DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin just keep improving. With just a few tweaks, this team isn't that far away from where it needs to be. And we always knew this team wasn't quite as good as its potential playoff seeding suggested, that its grade was artificially inflated by having not played Dallas a second time yet.

Anger: And yet, it is so far away. Andy Reid still doesn't know how to do clock management, and couldn't figure out how to repeat last week's failure against Dallas this week. Once again, Donovan McNabb came up small in a playoff game, and it's infuriating. This team did nothing well against Dallas, in two straight weeks. Dallas. Ack. FAIL.

Despair: Having cast its lot with Andy Reid's contract extension through 2013, the big remaining question is whether Donovan McNabb returns at quarterback next year. There is no easy answer, and it may well be that McNabb is simultaneously the best answer among the viable alternatives and an insufficient one to lead this team to the championship we crave. This is a team that certainly may be good enough to go 10-6 next year (but, oy, that home out-of-division schedule), but not 12-4 or better, not en route to a championship team from where we sit now.

What follows is a cold winter for those Philadelphia sports fans like me who lack interest in ice hockey or the time to follow Villanova (or Temple) basketball, and a long thirty-nine days until Roy Halladay reports in uniform with his fellow pitchers and catchers in Clearwater.

Acceptance: Come again? Oh, yeah. The Phillies. The 2008 World Champion, 2009 National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies. That which leavens everything else sports-related which seems painful. This is no longer a city which lives and dies based on the green and white; it is on Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins and the rest that our hopes reside. And Roy Halladay. Tonight's loss doesn't hurt as much as it would have a few years ago, because we've known the most likely path to a parade starts on the other side of Pattison Avenue. Spring is coming, sooner than you think.