Watching the Giants win the Super Bowl couldn’t have been easy for an Eagles team that would have taken their spot in the playoffs with a little help from the Jets in Week 16 of the season.
But, then, they wouldn’t have been in that position if they had done a better job of taking care of business before winning their last four games to finish with an 8-8 record. Defensive end Trent Cole spent a little time Tuesday thinking about what might have been and what might be next season.
“We had a bad year. We just couldn’t pull it off at the last minute,” Cole said, via Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News. “We were right there, inches away from being great, being a dominant team. I think some teams are going to be worried about playing us.”
The Eagles’ issues with finishing off games that they lead late should haunt Cole and his teammates because that was the difference between 8-8 and a division title. But when the same problems keep popping up, including the team’s penchant for back-breaking turnovers, it adds up to a bit more than inches away from being dominant. If the Eagles can stop those problems from popping up next season, they probably will have some people worried about playing them but the proof will have to come on the field.