Tuesday Eagles Hangover: A Most Suspicious Eagles Win

Are we right to be so suspicious of last night's Eagles win over the Redskins?  The Birds beat a divisional opponent on the road by 10 points.  So why did Andy Reid feel compelled to defend his win in the postgame presser by saying that he was "trying to feel like we just won a game"?  Aren't plenty of NFL wins of the ugly variety?  Do you get extra credit for winning with style?  What gives?

I think the reason for the angst is that the shine is off the 2009 Eagles. Sad, delusional hard cases that we are, I think we were willing to write off last week's clunker as a one-time aberration on the long march to the Super Bowl.  This week's performance -- though victorious -- confirms that the Eagles aren't really a consistent enough team to be considered elite.  They aren't the Saints or the Colts.  We hope they're in that next band of teams, and we'll know a lot more after the next two weeks.  While it's a slightly different team than 2008 -- lousier offensive line, better wideouts, more inconsistent defense -- a lot of the same familiar themes are in play.  Essentially, they're still the Eagles. 

Some day-after talking points and observations:

This wasn't actually the Raiders game but with three big plays?  Imagine if one of those tipped balls had been caught and picked off a week ago in the fourth quarter?  Or the Eagles had recovered a fumble deep in Oakland territory?  Or if McNabb had hit just one of the deep balls where he had Maclin and others open?  Sure, the big moments and the big plays matter, but if we're trying to assess the quality of the team, it's safe to postulate (pending closer examination, of course) that last week looked a lot like this week.  I don't think that makes me crazy. 

So now we're making concussion jokes?  Andy Reid's quip regarding Brian Westbrook's injury and subsequent absence from the postgame pressers (this is all with a smirk): "[Westbrook] told me he couldn't remember anything, so he didn't want to talk to you guys."  This either means everything's cool with B-West (unlikely), or that concussions are now funny?   Am I being too uptight here based on that creepy Malcolm Gladwell piece from a couple weeks back?  Or just too uptight because I like Brian Westbrook a lot and don't like to hear people making light of his recent brain trauma?

The Redskins are a disaster.  I mean, sure, I'd read the articles and had gotten the furious text messages and e-mails from my Skins-fan friends, but to see it live was just painful.  The Redskins are a mess.  They do not remotely look like they're happy to be out there, at all.  Sometimes you can win in the NFL just because the other team is significantly less organized than you are.  While it was poor form for Clinton Portis to be chucking his helmet around, I get where he's coming from.  Yikes.  That said, their defense is pretty decent.  We can give them that. 

Why are 300-pound dudes diving at other people's knees?  I hope Juan Castillo gives his offensive line a nice talking-to about the lame attempts to upend the Redskins defensive linemen.  For Jason Peters to do that (and surrender a vicious sack) is pretty unacceptable.  For Herremans to do it against Haynesworth was really just an act of desperation, but still.  This doesn't look like an Eagles offensive line right now.  Not the brand to which we've become accustomed.

Stats I'd like to see.  What does the Eagles offense look like when you remove DeSean Jackson's big plays?  Someone will run that stat this week I'm sure.   

In other news, the Giants didn't look so hot the other night either.  Should be a mean-spirited affair this Sunday.