Philadelphia Eagles under Ray Rhoads

[LeonardRachiele]

During Ray Rhoads’ time in Philadelphia, the team surprised everyone in 1995 and got progressively worse thereafter. There was in 95 a big playoff win at home. 1998 was the last year and the Eagles were very bad.

1995-Ater a 1-3 start, the team went 9-3 thereafter. Coach Rhoads benched Randall Cunningham in favor of Rodney Peete after three games. The biggest game of the season was the 20 to 17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys at Veterans Stadium. Trailing 17 to 3 late in the second period, Gary Anderson kicked a field to narrow the score at halftime. They completely dominated Dallas in the second half giving up just 55 total yards. Late in the game, Dallas had the ball fourth and one at their own 37 yard line.

Coach Barry Switzer decided to go for the first down. With Emmit Smith as a running back, it seemed like a good decision. Switzer realized he could not afford to punt. In order for the Cowboys to win the game, they had to somehow crack Eagles’ defense. The Eagles stopped Emmit Smith well short of a first down. Unfortunately, the officials also stopped the clock for the two minute warning. On the next try Merrill Reese gave a good commentary. “They give it to Emmitt Smith and they stop him again.” Gary Anderson kicked a field goal giving the Eagles a 24 to 21 victory.

In the Wild Card Came the 10-6 Eagles defeated the Detroit Lions 58 to 37. The game was not as close as the score indicated. The Eagles led 51 to 7 early in the third quarter and went into a prevent defense thereafter. The Eagles intercepted six passes. Barry Wilburn and Willam Thomas returned their interceptions for touchdowns.

1996-This year came a turning point for the Philadelphia Eagles. With a 6-2 record they went to Dallas to play the Cowboys. With four minutes left in game, the Eagles had a 24 to 21 lead. The Cowboys were moving downfield and were at the Eagles five with less than a minute left. I just knew the Cowboys would score a touchdown and win 28 to 24. Then came a great surprise. Ben Willis intercepted a pass from Troy Aikman and ran to the 10 yard line; he lateraled to Troy Vincent who took it 80 yards to the house. It was fun hearing Merrill Rees hollering the “Eagles Win” about five times during the return. They ran their record to 7-2 and were really thinking about the Super Bowl.

After that game, the Eagles were 3-4 finishing 10-6, the same record as 1995. There was no playoff win; the San Francisco 49ers shut them out 14 to 0.

1997-The Eagles were 6-6-1 after 13 games but lost the final three for a 6-9-1 record. Three quarterbacks divided playing time-Ty Detmer, Bobby Hoying, and Rodney Peete. A 10 to 10 tie with Baltimore Ravens was their best effort on the road, losing all seven remaining games. At home, the Eagles were 6-2. They defeated the 13-3 Green Bay Packers who were on their way to their second straight Super Bowl. Final Eagles 10 Packers 9.

1998-This final season the Eagles went through three quarterbacks and were 3-13. They lost all eight road games. Over two season their record on the road was 0-15-1. They were punchless on offense with three teams shutting them out and three teams holding them without a touchdown. Ricky Waters leaving via free agency really hurt the team.

[Brian wolf]

Ty Detmer had helped the team in 1996 but never seemed to recover from a shutout playoff loss to SF. I thought he needed more time to adjust to starting but after a 2-5 starting record in 1997, Detmer went back to being a backup before joining a Browns team that was Not Ready For Primetime ...

[CSKreager]

That 1995 Eagles team may have been the worst 10-6 team ever.

Negative PD, passing game was anemic, lucky team that won a bunch of fluke games.

Outside of Rhodes/Watters, it felt like the team basically won in spite of itself. Peete had nothing to do with their hot streak.

They were so bad against Dallas that they would have been better off losing to Detroit instead of giving the Cowboys basically a bye.

How he won coach of the year I'll never know. Instead of Barry vs Emmitt, we got THAT fraud of a Philly team embarassing themselves vs a beatable DAL team

1996 team should have won the division and hosted a playoff game, but that was the year Arizona basically was a double agent for Dallas- going balls to the wall vs Philly/Washington, roll over and die at the site of the Cowboys.

[CSKreager]

Ty Detmer had helped the team in 1996 but never seemed to recover from a shutout playoff loss to SF. I thought he needed more time to adjust to starting but after a 2-5 starting record in 1997, Detmer went back to being a backup before joining a Browns team that was Not Ready For Primetime ...

I wonder how things would have gone for Detmer if that 1996 team had won the NFCE (same record as Dallas) and instead got to host a mediocre 9-7 Vikings team.

[Brian wolf]

Unfortunately for Detroit, high priced Scott Mitchell was a dud in that playoff game and the Eagles scored 58 points. I could not believe this game when I watched it. A good night to get drunk at the Vet.

[Brian wolf]

Another interesting thing about the 1996 year for Philly, was getting Irving Fryar in free agency after Miami let him go. Instead, the Dolphins obtain Fred Barnett, who gets hurt while Fryar has an excellent season and helps the Eagles make the playoffs. In Jimmy Johnson's first year with Miami he makes a major mistake in letting go of Fryar, while Barnett has a sub-par year. Johnson also gets an injury-plagued year from speedster Randal Hill as well and loses his #1 draft choice Yatil Green to injury in 1997. Though building his defense with great players in Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor, while turning Sam Madison and Terrell Buckley into very good players, his choices at wide receiver really hindered Marino's final four seasons. Had Fryar stayed, could the Dolphins had contended for a SB? Though truth be told, that offensive line was never going to create a good enough running game ...

[7DnBrnc53]

Not getting Mark Brunell in 1995 ended up dooming Ray Rhodes to failure in Philadelphia (also, they had Jimmy Smith the year before, but that idiot Kotite cut him for Jeff Sydner despite Smith out-performing him in camp).

Also, passing up Ray Lewis in 1996 in favor of making James Willis the MLB? Big mistake.

[Brian wolf]

The Eagles not only missed out on Brunell, they couldnt get Young from the 49ers either. Young was smart, knowing the Niners would pay him till Joe got hurt or retired. Young should have accepted the challenge of being a team's starter but he wanted to prove to the departed Bill Walsh that he could replace Montana, five years after being obtained(With Joe getting hurt in 1991)After failing with the Express and Bucs, Young was wary of leaving a quality team like SF for other teams like Philly, etc ...

[74_75_78_79_]

I don't know. No, not great, but '95 & '96 to me was a good two-year stint. For Rhodes - with OC Jon Gruden & DC Emmitt Thomas at his disposal (Callahan OL-coach) - to take over a team that, by the second-half of the previous season, was totally dismantled from 'Buddy Ball' (0-7 finish) and to make them an immediate playoff team, beating Dallas along the way, and then decimate a 7-0 finisher in their first playoff game...yes, a case of Birds playing their very best in front of their home-crowd whilst Detroit played their absolute worst game they could play, but pretty tough to critique.

Yes, they don't bring it to Dallas at all the next week. Eagles on such a 'high' after their big win, knowing they beat Dallas in their last meeting, and Dallas though yes "beatable" by now were still jacked-up with talent and could play like champs at a moment's notice. They were the more superior, revenge-minded team who clearly made sure not to lose to them again. Those are all reasonable explanations for the "no-show" with me. Again, not a great team. The passing game was far-and-away the weakest point. But the running game was solid and the D was ranked 4th. A COY-worthy campaign for Rhodes IMO. You're all going to laugh, but I really thought big of Philly (SB, perhaps) going into '96! I guess Ray's San Fran pedigree added to such.

And the following regular season was actually even better despite the, as mentioned, 3-4 skid to end things. The D was 5th and Jon boosts the O to #4! Definite improvement in the passing game. But, again, that 3-4 closing skid. That 37-10 Thursday Night blowout loss at Indy to drop them to 8-6, I remember thinking at the time, that the 'ceiling' of this Ray Rhodea era in Philly may have already been reached. And then barely beating Kotite's 1-13 Jets the following week, 21-20, had to serve as further harbinger.

But even late into the following campaign (beating defending-Champ Green Bay in Wk#2 as already mentioned), I thought Philly could forge another FWIW playoff berth. Hoying had his moments. He led his team to a win over 8-3 Pittsburgh to up their record to 5-6-1, and then the next week Bobby performed his tour de force over Boomer's Bengals, 44-42, to even things at 6-6-1. Looking at the remainder of their schedule, it all seemed doable. But not to be. They did, however, finish in the top-5 again in offense; 13th in D.

And then (Gruden now off to Oakland) the bottom fell out! Picking up from the 0-3 finish where they left off in '97, they lose their opener at home to Seattle, 38-0, and lose their next four as well with that fifth loss of the season being Week #5 at Denver, 41-16! Now that told everyone all was over. This despite Emmitt Thomas still on as DC, Sean Payton in his second year as a QB coach, and John Harbaugh joining them at special teams.

PS - wow, Leonard! What a knowledge-drop that never occured to me...0-15-1 on the road in '97/'98 - ouch!!

[Brian wolf]

Looking back, they may have given up on Randall Cunningham to soon but Randall's confidence didnt seem to be there. I still believe that the team had a difficult time handling Jerome Browns' death and some players like White, Cunningham, Joyner, Allen and others, needed a change of scenery. In defense of Ricky Watters, the Eagles got slighty better at the offensive line but never enough to take full advantage of his skills. Charlie Garner really was a great change of pace however, and with Gruden getting better as a coach, he would bring in Garner to help the Raiders later ...

An underrated player in those years was LB William Thomas, who had an excellent career despite only making two PBs. He was in on alot of tackles and had 27 interceptions with two returned for TDs, and another one in the playoffs as well.