Well, it’s now been one full week since the Eagles laid an egg against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX, and I think I’ve recouped enough strength to finally write out my thoughts on this huge disappointment.

I think I would feel better about the result if the Eagles had played up to their capabilities. If they had played their best and still been beaten by a better team, I could live with it. (Who am I kidding? I’m a Philly fan – I have no choice but to live with it.) But that’s not what happened.

Don’t get me wrong. They were beaten by the better team – the better team on that particular Sunday. But the Birds gave the ball away three times (twice in the first quarter, once in the third) when they were in David Akers’ field goal range. That’s at least nine points they left on the field. The Eagles lost 24-21. You do the math.

And we haven’t even gotten into the issue of the Eagles’ so-called “clock management.”

Putting aside the debate over whether or not McNabb was dry-heaving during that four-minute “hurry-up” drive, have the Eagles ever been a good two-minute-drill team under Andy Reid? The answer would be no. The man has done a spectacular job turning this franchise into a perennial winner, but clock management and hurry-up offense have not been one his strong suits.

Part of the problem is that the Eagles are usually well ahead at the end of games; they’re trying to slow it down and kill the clock, not keep it alive. So the only time they run their two-minute offense is in practice, not in game-time situations. Another opportunity squandered. Of course, they never should have been trailing in the first place.

Oh well. At least it was better than Super Bowl XV. I don’t remember a lot of the specifics of that game (I was eight years old), but I do remember my father saying, “This one’s over,” about five minutes in.

Because I’d like to end this latest Eagles campaign to fall just short on a somewhat positive note, I’d like to give props (or whatever the kids are calling it these days – dap, Michael Wilbon?) to one Eagle who clearly came to play – the one Eagle everyone thought shouldn’t.

Terrell Owens is a special kind of player, and it’s high time everyone gets off his back. True, Owens may be an egoistic show-off, and he clearly doesn’t have that filter most of us do between our brains and our mouths; but the guy stays out of trouble where it counts, he’s a team player (despite what everyone says about him), and he never fails to back up on the field whatever he says off it.

Owens was clearly a step slow on Sunday, and the Patriots still couldn’t cover him. Freddie Mitchell complained that Owens took away his playing time in the Super Bowl; frankly, I hope T.O. and Greg Lewis take away all of it next year (start packing your bags, FredEx). Well done, Mr. Owens. Well done.

Thanks for a memorable season, Eagles. Now I guess it’s up to the Phillies to deliver that elusive championship.

What a sad state of affairs.

Addendum: Now that football season is over and pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in only a matter of days, PhogLights will soon be attending Phillies games at RFK Stadium and returning to its baseball-centric format. Check back soon for the return of Phillies red, white, and blue.

A Very Long Engagement

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Starring Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Dominique Pinon, Jodie Foster

Synopsis

A few years after World War I, a French woman continues to search for her fiancée who was reportedly killed on the front. She refuses to give up hope, and the eyewitness accounts of his demise leave many unanswered questions.

Review

A Very Long Engagement reunites the charming Audrey Tautou with her Amélie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet; the result is a film very similar in style, yet very different in substance. Tautou’s Mathilde is a colder fish than Amélie for sure, but that’s what war (and polio) does to people. But her insistence that her fiancée is still alive, despite all evidence to the contrary, drives the film’s underlying moral that nothing – even the most horrible of wars – can destroy love and hope. World War I was indeed the most horrible of wars, something every film about it, including this one, has failed to completely capture (why is it always raining in WWI movies?). But perhaps the strongest attribute of A Very Long Engagement is how the film manages to hold true to its romantic ideal without succumbing to sentimentality. Also, look for Jodie Foster showing off her fluent French in a small role.

Grade: B+

Million Dollar Baby

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Starring Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman

Synopsis

A run-down boxing manager reluctantly agrees to train a persistent woman and turn her into a champion.

Review

There aren’t many directors who can rightly claim more than one masterpiece on their CV (Hitchcock, Lean, Spielberg, Welles – to name a few). Who would’ve ever thought Clint Eastwood would join that group one day? Twelve years after finally establishing his place in the pantheon of great filmmakers with Unforgiven, Eastwood has delivered a very different kind of film wrought with the most authentic human drama to come out of American cinema in quite some time. He also gives the performance of his career while producing, directing, and writing the music for the film. All in a days’ work. The other performances are extraordinary as well, from Swank’s steely resolve to Freeman’s uncomplaining empathy. Million Dollar Baby is a love story about a man harboring a lifetime of past sins and regrets for which he is unable to forgive himself, and a woman whose unyielding determination to overcome her station in life offers him a misleading shot at redemption. Misleading because Eastwood takes the film in a bold, unexpected direction that leads to his character’s true redemption, one that could come at the price of his own soul. Films this good are a rare treat – savor it.

Grade: A+