PHILADELPHIA -- The city of brotherly love wasn't so affectionate to its Buddy yesterday.
Philadelphia Eagles fans taunted their former coach, and teased his players with banners hung on the old Veteran Stadium walls. The Eagles mugged his running game, smacked around his quarterback and bombed his secondary before sending Buddy Ryan on the next plane out of town.
Tough town, this Philadelphia.
Final score: Eagles 17, Arizona Cardinals 7, before a crowd of 64,952.
"A good old butt-kicking for homecoming, wasn't it?" said Ryan. "It was very bittersweet."
Actually, the Eagles played "Buddy ball" yesterday, the same formula Ryan used for victories as Eagles coach from 1986 to 1990 while compiling a 43-35-1 record.
The Eagles ran their own version of Ryan's famed "46" defense, which they used to hold Arizona to 181 passing and 73 rushing yards. The constant pressure from the eight men around the line of scrimmage forced Cardinals quarterback Steve Beuerlein to hurry many of his 30 passes. Beuerlein was sacked five times and had four fumbles.
And remember who was Ryan's chief offensive weapon when he was with the Eagles?
Yes, Randall Cunningham is still the Eagles quarterback. He completed 15 of 24 passes for 201 yards, including third-quarter touchdown tosses of 47 and 50 yards to Fred Barnett. The latter was vintage Cunningham, ad libbing and moving to his right, then throwing a long pass to Barnett, who caught the deflection off safety Terry Hoage, a former Eagles teammate.
"He's still doing the same thing he did years ago," said Hoage, one of six former Eagles now with Arizona. "Running, scrambling, throwing 100 yards on a dime and making big plays. It was deja vu, this time Freddie and Randall were doing it to me."
Ryan said: "Oh, we got this team in two weeks at our place. I'm confident the outcome will be different."
Ryan's post-game talk was mild yesterday compared to the blustery, sometimes profane rhetoric that came during his tenure with the Eagles and eventually led to his firing by then-owner Norman Braman in January of 1991.
He took the loss and some of the fan abuse fairly well. Two of the more creative banners: "Ryan Song: Cardinals Sing the Blues" and "Richie-Ball has taken over."
Philadelphia fans also chanted "Buddy, Buddy, Buddy," throughout most of the second half, heightened after the two Eagles touchdowns.
"It sounded like I was in Washington. Or Dallas," said Ryan, smiling. "Really, it was no big deal. It would have been more emotional if I had returned here after one year, but it's been five or six. The game had no special meaning for me, and I think the players will tell you the same."
Not really.
When Ryan came out of tunnel for the pre-game warm-ups yesterday, he was surrounded by photographers and cameramen as he jogged out to the 50-yard line.
Ryan rolled up his sleeves and watched the Eagles practice as several of his former players like Barnett, center David Alexander, and linebackers Ken Rose and Britt Hager came over and hugged him.
"It's a terrible feeling to lose, especially to your former teammates," said Andre Waters, a former Eagles safety now with the Cardinals. "We wanted this game badly and so did they. I had called Fred [Barnett] earlier in the week and told him we were going to kick them all over the field."
It was Barnett, though, who did all the celebrating, twice high-stepping into the end zone.
Eagles defensive end Burt Grossman set up the first Barnett touchdown by sacking Beuerlein and forcing a fumble, which cornerback Mark McMillian recovered at the Cardinals' 47 with 11:25 left in the third quarter.
On the next play, Barnett split Hoage and cornerback Aeneas Williams on a fly pattern and Cunningham threw a perfect pass for a touchdown to put the Eagles ahead, 10-0.
Then with 5:12 left in the quarter, Cunningham underthrew Barnett on a long, high pass that Hoage should have intercepted. Instead, Barnett caught the deflection and ran the final 10 yards for a touchdown and a 17-0 Eagles lead.
"If he throws that pass 10 times, I catch it nine times," said Hoage. "Fred just happened to be in the right place the one time I didn't."
It was somewhat ironic that Barnett would come up with the two big catches. Ryan caught a lot of flak from the Philadelphia media and fans when he drafted both Barnett and wide receiver Calvin Williams (Dunbar High) in the third and fifth rounds, respectively, in the 1990 draft.
"This was the first time I dis-obeyed Buddy," said Barnett, who caught 11 passes for 173 yards. "When he was here as coach, I had to do everything he said. He was the coach when I was a rookie.
"Before the game, he said have a good season but not a good game tonight. So I had to disobey him. I always liked him, though. It's a shame he had to lose."
As soon as the game ended, Ryan bolted straight for the locker room. He never shakes hands with an opposing coach, even though Eagles coach Rich Kotite was his offensive coordinator in Philadelphia. He also had no contact with Cunningham before or after the game.
"I ain't got time to worry about my former players," said Ryan. "They're a good football team. On our team, nobody played good and nobody coached good. Our chances of making the playoffs aren't very bright right now."
Ryan then was asked what the Eagles would have been like if he had remained their coach.
"The team of the '90s," Ryan said with a wink, sliding out behind a back door.