"In the game's final minutes, David Akers just kept kicking.

Over and over, the Eagles kicker would line up and boot another ball into the practice net along the sideline, one after the other. It was all he could do.

The Eagles trailed by five points, making his role in the remainder of the game a moot point. The two field goals he had missed earlier in the game, however -- those meant everything.

"We can all count," Eagles coach Andy Reid said after his team's 21-16 loss to Green Bay in the wild-card round of the playoffs. "Those points would have helped."

Akers will be the NFC's kicker in the Pro Bowl this year, and he missed only two kicks in his last nine games. But Sunday, in what might have been the final game of his 12-year career with the Eagles, he looked lost.

After Philadelphia picked up a muffed punt in the first quarter, the drive stalled at the Green Bay 23. Reid called on Akers, who pushed a 41-yard kick wide right.

With 13:09 to play, the Eagles faced a fourth-and-1 at the Packers' 16. Again, Reid went to his veteran kicker for what should have been a chip-shot 34-yard attempt. Again, Akers booted it wide right.

"For a player, it's the worst thing that can happen," Akers said. "I misplayed the first one trying to drive it into the wind, and I just kind of pulled the second one. That's the way it goes."

The swirling winds at Lincoln Financial Field -- with gusts upwards of 30 mph -- certainly didn't help Akers' cause. In pregame warm-ups, the wind gusts perplexed the Eagles' kickers, and punter Sav Rocca predicted tough conditions during the game."