Last night’s thrilling loss - you heard me - to the Patriots seemed to follow the script for Philadelphia fans: the Eagles, for all intents and purposes a footnote to the Patriots’ attempt at perfection going into last night’s game, trotted out a backup quarterback and gave the best team in decades a run for their money. Once again, though, a late-game interception wiped out a game’s worth of scrappy play by inferior players and conventions-be-damned coaching by Andy Reid. The fact that all this happened on the arm of A.J. Feeley instead of Donovan McNabb adds in the familiar seed of doubt in the franchise quarterback, who has never been fully embraced by his hometown fans. For weeks, no matter who starts, we will hear how foolish the decision is, and for weeks, we will hope to be proven wrong. And once again, even if the Eagles improbably fight their way to the playoffs, defeat will be snatched from the jaws of victory, and the offseason will begin prematurely, and the cycle will start anew.

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