Blame 'Em All

There is a tendency after games like this to focus on one or two key moments, figure out who screwed up those situations, then blame that guy for the loss.  That's happening in the open thread right now, with a lot of "this is 100 percent on Andy!" and "how could you blow all those challenges!!!" type stuff.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the same stuff starts coming down on McNabb.

But if you put this game entirely on one guy or a couple of plays, you're missing the bigger picture, which is that lots and lots of people had a piece in this loss:

• Sheldon Brown, for a ridiculously poor decision on his blown coverage against Miles Austin.  That just isn't a play a veteran should be making.  (Although I'm a little annoyed that Collinsworth came out of commercial and made the point about Mikell.  That was going to lead the rewind this week.)
• Donovan McNabb, for rolling out the wild highs and missing guys he shouldn't have been missing.
• Chris Gocong and Brian Westbrook, for being hurt and forcing lesser players to play big roles (not their fault, I know).
• Most of the defense, for not being able to make a stand against the Cowboys' repetitive draw-based rushing attack when the Eagles needed a single stop (that's basically the defense's version of not being able to mount a fourth-quarter comeback).
• The offensive line, for having free rushers coming around to McNabb all game.
• All the guys who dropped passes.
• The idiotic matching 15-yard penalties on that drive in the second half, followed by the half the distance low block after the INT.
• The playcallers for not figuring out how to force the ball into DeSean's hands.

And that's just off the top of my head.

The point, though, is that this wasn't a "blown challenge" loss or a "bad spot" loss.  This was an overall underwhelming performance by a team that is really hard to read from week to week.  One week they look great (although that big Giants win is looking less and less impressive every day) and then the next they look exceedingly average.

(The big question, of course, is how good the Cowboys are.  If they're really good, then maybe this loss wasn't so bad.  But after watching them for 60 minutes, I don't think they're really good.)

I'll have to go back and check the stats, but the Eagles really look like a basketball team that lives and dies by the three-ball.  They look great when their shots are falling, but if balls are clanging off the rim, suddenly everything's out of sync and they just don't look good.

Now we've got to get ready to face a dangerous San Diego team in our second venture out to the West Coast.  I don't feel overwhelmingly positive about that match-up right now. 

Allow me to be the first one to make the "joke":  Antonio Gates might have 300 yards receiving against this defense, especially if Akeem Jordan's injury is as bad as it looked.