Philadelphia Eagles: Why They're a Bigger Disappointment Than the Miami Heat

Coming into the 2011 NFL season, the Philadelphia Eagles were anointed by some members of the media and even their own Vince Young as being a "Dream Team." The Eagles' offseason acquisitions and subsequent media love-fest paralleled the situation of the Miami Heat last season.

However, the Eagles' play thus far has shown that they would be lucky to finish the season with an inkling of the same success as the Heat.

In basketball, only five players are on the court at a time for a team. This made it possible for the Heat to hide their weaknesses at the point guard and center positions. The Heat had stars at three out of five positions, which made it difficult for opposing teams to defend them.

In football, 11 players are on the field at a time, and it makes it much easier for opponents to take advantage of weaknesses. The most glaring weakness of the Eagles is their linebackers. 

On any team, Brian Rolle, Jamar Chaney and Moise Fokou would be lucky to start at linebacker. For the Eagles, the three sub-par linebackers start for a supposed "Dream Team."

In an interview with PhillySportsDaily.com following the Eagles' loss against the Giants last week, Chaney said, "The season ain’t over yet. We’re 1-2 right now. The Miami Heat started out the season 8-8, and everybody was jumping on them like it was the end of the world, and they ended up making it all the way to the Finals. It’s not the end of the world."

Chaney's lack of urgency last week shows that the Eagles linebackers are not only playing poor, but thinking the wrong way as well. Hopefully Chaney has changed his mind after the Eagles' loss to the 49ers.

Furthermore, what Chaney fails to understand is that the NFL plays a 16-game season. Following the Miami's 8-8 start, they still had the rest of an 82-game season to make up for the poor start.

To illustrate how poorly the Eagles' linebackers have performed, the Eagles are 30th in the NFL in run defense, allowing 558 yards on the ground. They also allow 5.3 yards per carry, which is tied for last in the NFL. Any time Frank Gore reached the second level of the defense yesterday, the Eagles' linebackers struggled to bring him down.

While the linebackers have played terribly, the Eagles' poor play cannot solely be blamed on them. The defensive line has struggled against the run as well, and it will only get worse with the loss of Trent Cole to a calf strain. 

Another huge obstacle for the Eagles has been the huge learning curve for Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Learning a new defensive scheme is difficult in the NFL, and their lack of familiarity with Juan Castillo's defense has been evident in their collective performance.

Conversely, the Miami Heat simply had learn how to run an offense that would suit their strengths last season. Their team was full of solid individual defenders, which made it easy for them to perform well defensively. Learning how to play together in basketball is much easier than learning an entire playbook and new scheme in football. The new Eagles' players had it much harder too due to the shortened offseason.

The Eagles also have a huge problem on their offensive line. The offensive line has allowed Michael Vick to be hit too much and let too many opposing defensive linemen into the backfield. Several times, Kyle DeVan, who the Eagles signed off of waivers prior to the season, allowed his man to blow up plays and hit Vick.

The Eagles still have the most dangerous football player in the NFL in Michael Vick. Unfortunately, the listlessness Vick has shown in post-game press conferences mirrors the same lack of passion that the Eagles appear to be playing with. 

The Miami Heat made the NBA Finals in their first season as a "Dream Team," but failed to win the championship. Their failure to win the title caused many members of the media to call the Heat a huge disappointment. However, a number of experts seem to forget that they were still picking the Los Angeles Lakers to win the NBA title prior to last season.

For this reason, the Heat were actually quite successful when the result of their season is compared to the preseason predictions of the media.

On the flip side, the Eagles do not even look like a playoff team at the current moment. Some experts picked them to win the Super Bowl, but they will be lucky if they manage to scrape their way into the playoffs as a wild card.

The result of the Eagles' season will in no way match up to their preseason hype unless their linebackers magically become starting caliber NFL players and their offensive line improves.

The 1-3 start of the Eagles is far more disappointing than the Heat were at any point during the NBA season, and there's no doubt about it.