Taking The Bloom Off The Rose Of Opening Day

“It’s not as difficult as everyone makes it out to be. All you have to do is catch and run.” — Eagles WR Greg Lewis, on punt returning, in Metro last week

“Greg’s done a nice job for us. He’s solid catching the ball.” — Eagles special teams coach Rory Segrest last week

“I let our team down, and I can take it.” — Lewis, to Comcast SportsNet after a 16-13 loss to the Packers in the season opener

“Greg had never really done this before. And all I had to see, really, was the jets preseason game when greg fielded a punt at his own three-yard line. I mean, that told me everything I needed to know about his instincts to do that. I said… before the game, that’s the kind of thing that’s going to lose you a game in the regular season. Points are too precious, field position is too precious, possessions are too precious to put somebody out there in a special teams position that’s never done it before and that’s capable of making a game changing mistake.” — Ray Didinger, on Post Game Live after the game

“Right now, we’ve got some good options there. It’s just going to be a matter of who we feel the best with going into the game.” — Segrest last week

‘Right now, we’re just trying to get [J.R. Reed] as many reps as we can during the course of practice. Being that he hasn’t done them yet, it’s just one of those deals where we’d like get him a few more reps prior to the game just to kind of see where each of them are at.” — Segrest again

“I couldn’t believe he went for it.” — Packers cornerback Jarret Bush, on J.R. Reed’s fumbled fair catch attempt with just over a minute left in the game

“This might seem like a ridiculous question, but did they both understand you don’t have to field a punt?” — Daily News beat writer Les Bowen to Eagles coach Andy Reid postgame

“The Eagles special teams: The Phillies bullpen of football.” — Text message postgame from JGT

“Andy Reid is going to drive the entire city to alcohol and drug abuse, not just his sons.” — Text message from another friend

Packers 16, Eagles 13

Football fans like me spend an inordinate amount of time arguing over the most minute points of the game. I’m not sure how much time I spent this summer thinking about who would be the Eagles punter this year, but rest assured it was too much. I was involved in a 121-email chain about cutting Jeremiah Trotter and a half-hour phone call about whether the Eagles would cut Jevon Kearse. It would take all the computing power of Google to add up the time Eagles fans spent talking about Donovan McNabb’s injury — and, oddly enough, Andy Reid’s sons — this off-season.

Okay, so maybe the point is football fans like me are a bit obsessive. But, hey, we’re obsessive about everything from McNabb to the 53rd man on the roster. Plus, it keeps me from thinking about the latest journeyman added to the Phillies bullpen.

Absent this year, at least at first, from the preseason football debates was the Eagles’ return game. With the Eagles coming into camp with just one returner on the roster, there wasn’t much to talk about besides his abs. Jeremy Bloom was a project, sure, but he came into camp the Eagles returner.

While Bloom played at the University of Colorado as a wideout and returner in college, he was best known as an Olympic skier and as the man who unsuccessfully sued the NCAA, who barred him from competing in football after he took endorsement deals related to his skiing career. Although he hadn’t played football since 2003 when the Eagles drafted him in the fifth round of the 2006 NFL Draft, his speed and explosiveness gave him a tremendous upside, as they say endlessly on draft day.

Bloom got hurt while attempting to make the move to the NFL in his first season, and missed the entire season. After electing not to re-sign dependable-but-underwhelming returner Reno Mahe after the end of last season, the Eagles appeared to place a bet on Bloom. Sure, Bloom was a project, but, my god, those abs! Erhm, I mean, that speed. (Hopefully, that’s the last time a joke regarding Jeremy Bloom’s abs shows up here. I wouldn’t place any bets, though.)

The Eagles had another project at punter, former Australian Rules Football star Savio Rocca. A few other Aussies had made the transition to the NFL, but the Birds kept last year’s punter, Dirk Johnson, on the roster. The two competed for the job, but the Eagles eventually decided to let Johnson go and go with the 33-year-old rookie.

Bloom had no such competition. He fielded all but two punts and 13 of 17 kickoffs. Although he averaged only 20 yards on kickoffs and 8 yards on punts, the Eagles had nobody else. Although he’s only 5-foot-9 and under 200 pounds, Bloom was the only returner the Eagles had.

The Eagles cut Jeremy Bloom on the day the rosters had to be trimmed. This was okay, he wasn’t perfect, and nobody else signed him, so perhaps he wasn’t NFL caliber. Problem is, the Eagles didn’t have anybody who could return punts besides Brian Westbrook and Lito Sheppard — players Andy Reid clearly didn’t want to use at returner.

The point of this backstory: Today, punt returners cost the Eagles the game. Greg Lewis muffed a punt on the 20 yard line in the first quarter. It went back 28 yards into the back of the end zone, where the Packers recovered it for a touchdown — their only of the day. In the fourth quarter, with the score tied and just over a minute left, J.R. Reed muffed a punt of his own, leading to the game-winning field goal.

Lewis returned four punts for four yards. Reed, a former Eagles returner injured in a freak accident after the 2004 season, was re-signed after the Giants cut him before Week 1. He looked fine on punt returns, averaging 22 yards, but hadn’t returned a punt in an NFL game before. Nonetheless, he came in after Lewis’ ineffectiveness.

The Eagles had previously used Brian Westbrook back on punt returns in crucial situations, such as a tie game with just over a minute to play. Sheppard also has experience, but he was injured earlier in the game. (TV viewers might have missed this; the announcers spent more time talking about baby showers, Tony Siragusa’s, uh, hilarious antics and lasagna than Sheppard’s injury.)

But they didn’t, and it ended up in a loss. It was a game the Eagles could have won easily. The Packers’ only touchdown was a fluke, the Eagles defense held the Packers to 46 yards rushing (and only 3.6 yards a play total) and even came up with a big turnover that gave the Eagles the ball at the Packers’ 38 with just over four minutes to play. The Eagles’ offense wasn’t great, and was particularly ineffective in the second half: The Packers’ pass rush is solid, but the Eagles probably used too many shotgun plays. This cuts down on play-action attempts, an Eagles hallmark.

The season isn’t over. The Eagles could have won, the Eagles should have won, but now they’re 0-1. Jeremy Bloom apparently wasn’t the answer at returner, but “none” was also a bad answer for punt returners, too. In essence, Andy Reid came into the season without a punt returner, and that cost him the first game. The Birds have recovered from opening-game losses to have successful seasons before, but that doesn’t make this any easier for a fan. Come on, guys. Now that the Phillies blow any shot of the playoffs down the stretch every year, the Eagles have to play well at the start of the season, if only for the sanity of Philadelphians.