As Birds are eliminated Sunday, Jeffery Lurie is the focal point of it all

McLeod/Bradham trying to bring down "Fat Rob" Kelley on his TD run against Eagles.  Image Courtesy: Insidetheiggles.com

Real quick I am going to break down the Philadelphia Eagles Week 14 27-22 loss at home against the Washington Redskins.  I have decided that since the Eagles are mathematically eliminated from Playoff contention (technically have 5 Million to 1 odds of making it), a game recap is unnecessary.  Instead I will continue my Eagles post in this short game recap format and use the rest of my efforts in evaluating this team going forward by roster, coaching and front office structure.

• Eagles QB Carson Wentz played one of his best games all season throwing for over 300 yards but he did unfortunately drop back 46 times to do so.
• The Eagles won the time of possession battle yet they still lost the game.
• TE Zach Ertz caught 10 balls for 112 yards and WR Jordan Matthews caught 8 for 79 yards both helping Wentz throw for over 300 yards.
• The defense wasn't terrible per say but this defense, like last season, is vulnerable to giving up the big play, as Redskins WR caught an 80 yard bomb,  RB Rob Kelley ran for a long TD, and RB Chris Thompson took a screen pass 25 yards at the end of the game to seal the win for Washington.

Let's Start At The Top... 

• Eagles current owner Jeffery Lurie bought this franchise back in May 1994 for $195 Million and now the franchise is worth about $1.5 Billion.  That is all well and good...it's a nice story for a failed movie and television producer from Boston who happened to come from money.  On paper such a financial turn around should be applauded and revered, if this were any other organization outside of sports Lurie would be considered a roaring success, but in sports its easy to see results without looking at a spreadsheet.  And how would one do that?  Championships.
• Let me preface how I continue forward by saying Lurie has not been a terrible owner.  He hasn't "Cleveland Browned" up the joint by continuing to put out a terrible product year after year.  Lurie has even had some contending teams in his regime with 12 playoff appearances, including a Super Bowl appearance in 2004 where the Eagles lost a close one to the New England Patriots.  Also, Lurie has also done a superb job at keeping the Eagles relevant year-in and year-out.  Lurie in his time here has opened a new stadium, taken a strong green initiative with such additions to the stadium being solar panels and wind mills, and has made big splashes in coaching and Free Agency. 
• Now I will explain where my problem with Jeffery Lurie as the owner resides.  I can understand for a new owner it is not easy to step right in and build a winning franchise so with the history of Philadelphia sports he gets a pass for his first 5 seasons of average to below average success, even though they made the playoffs twice in that time(95 and 96).  Then Lurie struck gold with the hiring of Head Coach Andy Reid and the drafting QB Donovan McNabb back in 1999.  Reid came from Green Bay where he was the QB coach to one of the best Quarterbacks to ever play the game (Brett Favre), but Reid was not an overly recognizable figure to the general public, so Lurie had the leverage on Reid and to me held that over him during his time here.  In doing so Lurie didn't meddle too often throughout Reid's tenure and Reid eventually became GM because Lurie knew that Reid could be trusted and would not rock the boat.  With Lurie not being a football guy he wasn't able to see what Andy was doing wrong on the field and in the off season because he quite frankly didn't know better.  For example Lurie could've stepped in and realized that in most of the Reid playoff glory days the team was missing a wide receive, then came Terrell Owens for a year and then they let him leave over a little bit of money and they didn't address the position again for another couple of years.  Eventually Reid's time would run out in Philadelphia as his act got old and he wasn't relevant anymore but a big problem in my eyes was that Lurie held onto Reid a couple of years too long delaying the process of rebuilding this team.  In the mean time a not so well known accountant worked his way up the ranks assisting Lurie throughout the years and that was now current GM Howie Roseman.  Don't get me wrong I am a fan of what Howie has done this past off season but my problem is that Roseman and Lurie together are non-football guys who believe too much in analytics and can't decipher legitimate talent on the grid-iron from experience.  Together Lurie and Roseman have a tight bond and if anybody tries to get in the way of that they will eventually have them removed, such as former Head Coach Chip Kelly, who deserved to be fired for being a fraud but if the Lurie/Roseman brain trust could've seen eye to eye with Chip MAYBE things could've been different.  Also, another talent who was dismissed due to not getting along with Roseman specifically was ESPN's Louis Riddick who is a bright football mind in my opinion.    Back to Chip Kelly, only 3 years into a 5 year contract with Kelly, Lurie dropped the hammer on Chip last year before the final week of the season firing him because of public opinion essentially in an emotional decision.  Kelly was short with people/media, stubborn, rude, and unwilling to adjust which eventually got him fired which in the end was the right move but where the Eagles and Lurie went wrong was hiring current Head Coach Doug Pederson who is the anti-chip filled with emotional intelligence.  Before I continue with the Pederson hiring I have to say Lurie has said some pretty interesting things in his time here, when he actually decides that he wants to show his face because he loves to just pick and choose.  He has called this organization "The Gold Standard" when they have nothing to show for it.  He believes a coach needs to have "Emotional Intelligence" and that they should "Open Up Their Heart" to the team and the city.  These quotes are damning to me at least because he has turned this organization soft and with that being said I continue with Pederson.  Lurie hired Pederson in my opinion because he knew Doug would be the lap dog-yes man that wouldn't rock the boat for him and Howie while trying to bring back the Andy Reid days.  I'm sorry but that is not how the NFL works.  The coach needs to have a say in the moves that are made and the coach also needs to be able to know how to coach a game in the NFL, how to run plays in certain situations and I believe Pederson is and will not be the guy for it, but I don't blame Pederson, I blame the man at the top for that, Jeffery Lurie.
• Final Statement on Lurie: In MY Opinion (everyone is entitled to thiers) Lurie is a businessman who claims he wants to win but does not bring in the people who can help make that happen.  His ownership of this team is still a failure in my eyes as he has not brought a championship to this city and I believe as long as he is the owner a Lombardi trophy will never be paraded down Broad Street.  I hope I'm wrong but my faith and confidence in this organization as a whole has been shaken.