By BOB GROTZ
bgrotz@delcotimes.com

NEW ORLEANS — This Eagles loss was the size of a Buick, to borrow the showbiz line.

This 28-13 defeat to the awful New Orleans Saints Monday night at the Sudrperdome may be the last dagger in the Andy Reid-Michael Vick relationship, which entered another weird phase.

During the game @MVFive, the younger brother of Vick, tweeted that he wanted the Eagles to trade his sibling. Who could blame him? Mike Vick was sacked seven times. It wouldn’t be difficult finding critics to agree, assuming Vick is tradable at some point after the season.

The Eagles gave it a shot, Brent Celek fumbling the ball away at the seven-yard line of the Saints with 3:03 left. Celek had the first down but couldn’t hold on.

It would have erased three straight horrific snaps by Demetress Bell, who replaced the injured Todd Herremans at right tackle. Bell got back-to-back penalties and then allowed his man, Cameron Jordan, to sack Vick.

It was that kind of evening.


The setback saddles the Eagles with a four-game losing streak for the second straight season. It’s the fourth four-game skid in 14 years of Reid.

At the midway point of the season the NFC East breaks down like this: Giants 6-3, Cowboys 3-5 (via tiebreaker), Eagles 3-5, Redskins 3-6.

The Eagles are 0-1 since their players-only meeting.

Did we mention they lost for the first time in four regular season games referee Clete Blakeman officiated?

The final ignominy for the Eagles was tight end Jimmy Graham literally walking into the end zone for the touchdown giving the Saints a 28-13 bulge with 1:20 left in the third quarter. With a high ankle sprain, Graham jogged to the goal post where he dunked over the crossbar.

The Eagles thought they had an answer for that when Brandon Boykin, who fielded the ensuing kickoff, fired a homerun throwback pass across the field to Riley Cooper, who had been lying on the ground in the end playing hurt. Cooper went 94 yards for what appeared to be a touchdown chopping the lead to 28-20 with 1:05 left in the third quarter.

But Blakeman called it an illegal forward pass. End of excitement.

For the sixth straight game the Eagles failed to score in the first quarter. They managed a field goal in the second quarter and looked beaten jogging off in a 21-3 hole at the intermission.

But if the Eagles can do one thing right it’s score on the first possession of the second half. Vick, who had 78 passing yards, threw a 77-yard touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson, who found a gap in the secondary as wide as a levee. It was the seventh straight game the Birds got points on their first series of the third quarter.

When Brandon Hughes fell on Travaris Cadet’s fumbled kickoff, Chris Polk popping the ball loose, the Eagles had a first down at the 22.

Vick scrambled 14 yards to the 8 but after an incompletion was dropped for an 11-yard loss by unblocked defensive end Will Smith.

On third-and-19, Jeremy Maclin got a hand on a throw but couldn’t haul it in, bringing in Alex

Henery to boot a 37-yard field goal pulling the Birds within 21-13 with 7 minutes left in the third quarter.

Ugly is the word for the first series of both the Eagles and the Saints.

Vick fumbled the ball away for his 14th turnover after the Eagles advanced to the 30-yard line of the Saints.

The Saints then missed an ill-fated 52-yard field goal when their drive stalled.

Shortly thereafter the Eagles resurrected the ground game. It was a novel idea – control the ball, the clock and keep Drew Brees off the field. And the Saints, by the way, cannot tackle a lick.

Bryce Brown thundered 41 yards to give the Eagles first-and-goal at the five-yard line. If you know the Eagles, you know what they called after McCoy lost one yard on first down.

Vick’s pass ricocheted off a hand of Celek to Patrick Robinson, who rolled 99 yards with an escort to spot the Saints a 7-0 lead.

Adding insult to injury was Vick getting flagged for a low block trying to take out a blocker.

On this night the Eagles rediscovered the run, accumulating 105 yards in just the first quarter against a defense that gives up yardage in chunks.

Henery kicked a 22-yard field goal with 12:07 left in the first half after a first-and-goal at the four-yard line blew up with – what else – an incompletion.

At that point the Eagles had lost Herremans to an ankle-foot injury. All of the sudden the Eagles had a training camp-looking group of King Dunlap, Evan Mathis, Dallas Reynolds, Dennis Kelly and Bell.

The ground game kept Brees from getting into a rhythm until later in the first half when he marched the Saints 76 yards in seven plays to spot the home team a 14-3 lead.

The Saints gave the Eagles a taste of their own bad tackling medicine, Mark Ingram bouncing a run for 23 yards and running back Chris Ivory going the final 22 yards through a missed tackle by first-time starter David Sims, the safety replacing injured starter Nate Allen.

The Eagles exited at the intermission with that beaten look, the Saints putting together another long touchdown drive capped by Brees’ one-yard throw to Marques Colston.

To that point, the Eagles had done the unthinkable – prevented Brees from extending his NFL record for consecutive games with at least one TD pass. Instead the Eagles were victimized hiking the streak to 51 games.