There are several questions that will rattle around in our heads for a while, tormenting us while seeing highlights of the remainder of the playoffs, particularly while at whatever dispirited Super Bowl party we attend, telling ourselves it's about being with friends instead of "the game." The 2.5 million dollar commercials will be funny at times, there’ll be lots of beer, some disgusting nacho dip that defies ocular sense by tasting good, and maybe it’ll actually be a good game, though we think a rematch of Super Bowl XX would only see a boring landslide victory in favor of the Pats. Yes, Brady versus Manning - with the Colts revamped D - will be the real Super Bowl.

But as Eagles fans, we’ll be asking ourselves, "How the hell can you punt it with less than two minutes left, especially when New Orleans was unstoppable most of the game?" In the preceding play, fate cruelly robbed us of an excellent chance to go ahead. A first down catch deep in New Orleans’ territory was brought back when Shawn Andrews’ replacement was called for a false start penalty (the bulky offensive lineman was out with a neck injury). We’ll wonder why the offense, which seemed to start clicking somewhat, suddenly went flat halfway through the third quarter. Though our last scoring drive went 64yds on 9 plays, we could have won the game if we had managed a touchdown instead of a field goal (keeping in mind that New Orleans was playing it safe with the lead towards the end instead of trying to score again).

"Why didn’t we throw the ball deep more often?" will be another question as the deep threat seemed to work for us nearly every time it was tried. For our first score, Donte' Stallworth hooked up with Garcia on a 75yd TD catch and both Reggie Brown and Hank Baskett combined for several deep catches as well. The Saints we’re playing a tight box defense, which shut down our running game with the exception of Westbrook’s 62yd TD run early in the 3rd quarter (other than that outburst, he only ran for 54yds). With the Saints seemingly overplaying the line of scrimmage, extending the field as much as possible seemed the logical course of action. Additionally devastating to the Eagles' offense was that Westbrook dropped several play action passes that came his way. Normally #36 is money in those instances, certain as he is to bring the ball in and gain big yards on each play.

We're still wondering what happened to Brian Dawkins in that game. Given the loss of Lito Sheppard in the secondary, we guess it was a bit harder for him to have another Super-human game. Given all the times we’ve seen the Eagles D run back the ball after a key fumble recovery or interception, it's painful to think that they weren’t able to do just that when Reggie Bush fumbled late in the game. The big question for the D, though, will be whether the run defense can be improved in the off-season. Kearse is there more for the pass rush, so having him back isn’t going to change it much (we were awful against the run with him in the lineup going back the last few seasons).

Yes, we could’ve won. Though we should be thankful for all we had to enjoy this season - rallying back from the McNabb injury and a devastating prime time loss to win five in a row, including a big win against Dallas on Christmas Day, before beating division rival New York in a tense playoff battle - we could be poised to expose the Chicago Bears as the frauds that they are. But, that task will be left to the Saints, or perhaps even the winner of the Brady/Manning Bowl.

Image by Flickr user Nat Lockwood - Grand Prix Pix Ltd's photos