Iggles Blog - Philadelphia Eagles Blog

You Had a Better View that I Did

Still on vacation, which means I "watched" today's game on a seriously low-rez slingbox feed.  As much as I enjoyed the result, trust me, you had a better view of the game today than I did.

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I think It's fitting that the final tackle of the season came from a defensive end (Juqua Thomas) chasing down a wide receiver 20 yards downfield, while the winning touchdown came on a fumble recovery in the end zone by a hustling Kevin Curtis.  Also, the deep pass call on the last clock-killing drive was vintage Andy Reid.  These guys never stopped trying, they never stopped hustling, and they never stopped playing aggressively. 

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I tivoed the last two games while I was gone and I do look forward to re-watching the games to really look hard at the young guys who finally got some snaps.  Not sure when that will come, what with everything winding down, but I'll get on it after I get back home.

After that, things are likely to slow down a fair amount around here.  Maybe not quite as much as last year, but with a new baby on the way and some other things I need to start spending some time on, the blog is going to head to the old back burner. 

As always, thanks to everyone who read, emailed or commented throughout the season.  I think we've got a good thing going here, and I look forward to continuing the conversation through the offseason and again next year. 

Thanks again.

--Derek

Down, Down Go the Cowboys

After last year's game against Tampa Bay, Ronde Barber let slip a little tidbit about Donovan McNabb.  It seems at some point during the offseason, McNabb had told a few of his friends on the Bucs' team that he thought their defense was kind of, well, predictable. 

McNabb won't ever say that again.

During today's broadcast, Buck and Aikman told us that Romo had said much the same during the run-up to this week's game.  Seems Jessica Simpson's new beau thought the Eagles were a bit predictable in their blitzes.  Maybe even easy to read. 

How you like that Eagles defense now, mister 13-of-36 with three INTs and two fumbles?

This is such a weird team.  Almost without fail, these guys play up or down to the level of their opponents.  I don't think there's a team in the league that they're not capable of beating on or losing to.  (Maybe the Steelers, since that's not a good match-up for us.)

But enough about that stuff.  None of it changes the fact that this was an under-achieving season and we're all really just waiting for 2008 to begin.  Let's wallow in some schadenfreude for awhile instead...

• The Cowboys are now only a (virtual) half game ahead of the Packers for home field advantage and so have to play out their starters for as long as Green Bay keeps winning.  No early rest for your boys, Phillips.
• At one point, Terrell Owens had been thrown to nine times with one catch to show for it.  His final numbers were two catches for 37 yards.  He slipped on the ball Dawk intercepted to set up the final non-scoring drive. And we can only hope his little first-half freakout was a sign of things to come.
• Owens is and always will be a front-runner, Dallas fans.  Never forget that.
• Tony Romo had had one game all season where his passer rating was below 91.0.  Today he tossed up a 22.2.  Bet you didn't predict that, dude.
• Dallas was 1-for-13 on third down.

I'm just rambling now, but I would also like to mention that the official gamebook has at least one error, when it lists Tony Hunt as a "did not appear" in the game.  Unfortunately, approximately 10 million people saw him run such an effective play action fake at one point that he forgot to block the blitzing linebacker coming right up the middle to nail McNabb. 

Man, that game felt good. 

New Ways to Lose

Who says the Eagles aren't creative?  They keep coming up with new ways to lose every week. 

C'mon, a terrible no-call by the refs, a three-and-out forced by the defense, a snappy(ish) drive down the field and then one of the most painful misses in Akers' career?  That's a new one. 

I mean, that kick would have been good from 65.  It just cut a little too far right at the last second.   

Of course, if he'd made it, who thinks the Eagles would have won in OT?  As bad as their coverage units were playing, they probably would have lost the toss, kicked to the Giants, and given up a 50-yard return that put the Giants in one-first-down-and-kick-a-field-goal range. 

There's just something off with this team.  After two weeks of the A.J. Feeley experience, it was nice having a quarterback who remembered which color jersey his team was wearing, but the results still weren't pretty.  They kept showing replays of the guys running their routes with Moose saying, "There's just nowhere to go with the ball."  Well, to me, there looked like there were lots of places to go with the ball.  Those guys were a lot more open today than they were against the Patriots.  McNabb just wouldn't pull the trigger.

Dawk played his butt off today, jawing at everyone from the first snap to the last, trying to get everyone else to play with some fire for a change.

Didn't work.

Westbrook put up 154 yards from scrimmage and made something out of nothing on play after play. 

Wasn't enough.

Reid and Mornhinweg even obliged all the folks (like yours truly) who have been arguing that the best gameplan for the Eagles was to run run run and only pass when the running game had opened things up downfield.

Nope, that didn't work either.  The Eagles couldn't get anything going downfield.  I think I can remember one play -- ONE -- before the last desperation drive where the receiver caught a ball when he wasn't coming back to the quarterback.  Everything was herky-jerky, there was no fluidity.

Honestly, I'm going to be a little disappointed if Reid doesn't bring up the whole playcalling balance issue in his press conference this week.  "Happy now, guys?  You wanted us to run and look what happened, we still can't score."

Damn.

Damn.  Damn.  Damn.

'Tis the season to start thinking about the draft.  Maybe this time we can draft at least one guy who can contribute next season.

Damn.

Well, that one hurt

I just ... I mean ... um.  Wow.  That kind of hurt. 

They kicked to Westbrook.  How can you kick to Westbrook? 

The only way the Eagles were going to be able to move down the field was if Westbrook ran the ball back.  And he did.  All the way to the 14-yard line.

Of course, the only way the Eagles were going to win is if he took it all the way in for a touchdown.  Or at least took it down to the one yard line and fell down, to allow the Eagles to score a touchdown while taking more time off the clock so that the Seahawks couldn't drive all the way down the field.

Although, given that the Eagles couldn't punch it in from the one at the end of the first half, that might not have worked either.

Now, the story everywhere else tomorrow morning is going to be the piss-poor performance of A.J. Feeley ... as it should be, since he played like a drunk blind man who owed Donovan McNabb $50,000 from a plane-ride poker game.  How can a guy who played his college ball in Oregon be that incapable of throwing a spiral in wet weather?

I'm pretty sure this is the worst loss for the Eagles since the infamous Cowboys game two years ago when Donovan McNabb threw the killer Roy Williams interception, followed by the attempted tackle and final rip of the groin.  I'm willing to hear arguments that this was the worst since Tampa Bay, but I don't think I'd go that far.

There's a lot -- a LOT -- to discuss about this game, but, well, the season just ended and I feel like crap. 

[string of unprintable obscenities]

What Game?

Would it bother anyone if we just pretended the Miami game never happened?  I guess the defense should be happy about the faux-shutout.  And Westbrook had a career day in the sense that he played exactly the same way he always does but Andy/Marty actually let him carry the ball as many times as he should.  But beyond that, anyone else?  Nabby?  LJ?  Kearse?  The fans?

We're all losers for being a part of that mess.

Believe me, I understand the value of a win, any win, in the NFL.  If we hadn't wasted two prime chances for easy victories earlier in the season, this team would be 7-3 and still in semi-contention for the division title.  That would all be a mirage, of course, since the Cowboys are a good team and the Eagles are not, but we wouldn't know that right now. 

Wisdom came early this year.

Beyond the victory, however, there was nothing redemptive about that cold, ugly, stuttering mess of a game.  I'd be happier never thinking about it again.

On the other hand, the Patriots are coming to town this week.  And despite the sudden optimism of everyone's favorite commenter -- probably due to McNabb's qustionable status for the game -- the rest of us are a lot more realistic.  There's about a 99 percent chance the Eagles are going to lose this weekend and an 80 percent chance that it's going to be really, really ugly.  Not sure what else there is to say beyond that.

The unfortunate reality of the game passed and the game upcoming is that there's nothing that we really want to talk about.  Both games suck in their own ways. 

Therefore, to prevent a conversational quagmire for the next seven days ("McNabb YES!!" / "McNabb NO!!"), your trusty blogger is here to help.  Here's a list of 10 fresh-off-the-shelf issues to discuss so we don't have to talk about the Dolphins, the Patriots, or why McNabb will never win a Super Bowl until he gets traded to Chicago.

1)  How bad does this draft look right now? 

2)  Did even the boo birds at the Linc seem kind of listless this afternoon?  Frankly, I expect more than that when there are so many bad plays. 

3)  Is Tony Romo far, far less likable than Brett Favre was back in the day simply because Romo plays for the Cowboys?  Or is it something else?

4)  Could Inquirer writer Ashley Fox be any more transparent in her efforts to make people forget she chaired the committee that left Brian Westbrook off the Eagles' 75th Anniversary Team?

5)  If you could pick only one, would you kneecap Tony Romo or Tom Brady?

6)  Can someone at Fox please show Troy Aikman the tape of all the Dallas games he's done this season where he's said things like, "I really think you just have to let the players play there," (for penalties on the Cowboys) or "To me, that's an obvious penalty," (for infractions committed -- or not -- by Dallas opponents)?

7)  Would it be strictly legal for the judge in the Reid kid's cases to set as a condition for early parole a 50-50 run-pass balance in their father's game-planning?

8)  Shouldn't the Eagles hire some patsy to wear a Patriots' cap and stand on their sideline this weekend with a video camera?  Who's the league going to believe?  Belichick?

9)  Not to have a bad attitude or anything, but if next week the Pats said, "Hey, we feel bad about that whole cheating in the Super Bowl thing -- here's a list of all the plays we're going to run tonight, in the order we plan to run them," would it make any difference?

10)  Shorts, spikes and a fast track, Rocca's running what -- maybe a 5.5-second 40?  For all the Aussies who stop by on a weekly basis to check on Sav, this is why Americans don't take it all that seriously when fans from other countries, who don't realize how good these athletes are, talk about how American football players are just overweight slobs:

Now obviously, the play itself wasn't Sav's fault.  He boomed a 46-yard punt with a hang time of of 5.1 seconds.  That's a fantastic kick that should be easy to cover.  He just didn't look that good when everything else broke down :-) 

Deserve's Got Nothing to Do With It

Tomorrow, the good folks in the greater Washington area are going to comfort themselves with the fact that even though their Redskins lost to the knuckle-dragging Philadelphians, their quarterback of the future Jason Campbell had another solid game against a division rival, completing 68 percent of his passes for 215 yards and three touchdowns.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia there will be an awful lot of fans who, though grateful for an out-of-nowhere win that (perhaps briefly) keeps the season alive, will be concerned/vindicated by the erratic performance of quarterback Donovan McNabb, who completed 71 percent of his passes for 251 yards and four touchdowns.

Wait for it...

Two things are exceptionally clear at this point.

1) McNabb isn't perfect.
2) These days, perfection is the only thing that will even momentarily silence the braying jackals.

As to the first point, that fourth-quarter fumble, after the Eagles had miraculously stopped the Redskins and given the offense a chance to win the game, was an awful play.  It would have been an awful play for a rookie, let alone a nine-year veteran like McNabb. 

Me of little faith, I thought that was the ballgame. 

McNabb also missed a wide open receiver in the end zone on the second two-point conversion attempt.  He threw behind Baskett on a slant into the end zone on the first conversion attempt and missed an open Brent Celek on a big thid-down play down the sideline. 

Unless I'm forgetting anything, that pretty much wraps up the "plays McNabb messed up" list today.  (Should McNabb have taken that big sack earlier, either?  No, but I'm not sure blaming a quarterback every time he gets sacked from quick pressure up the middle is really the most realistic way of parceling out blame.)

To counter-balance his four mistakes, you have four touchdown passes, 33 points from the offense and a 20-point explosion in the fourth-quarter after -- let's be honest -- pretty much everyone in the tri-state area had written them off for the day. 

Atta boy, Donovan.  Now how about a good old fashioned blowout next week against Miami?

(Oh, and just a second ago, as I typed this, Tony Romo held the ball too long and got stripped in the pocket.  Jerry Jones should see if he's signed that contract yet.)

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Having gotten the McNabb crap out of the way ... HOW 'BOUT THAT VICTORY!!

Damn.  Wow.  Amazing.

This was exactly the kind of game I wasn't sure these guys could win any more.  Sure, if they kept things close and ran the ball a lot, maybe they could make a couple of plays and hang on for a win.  But 20 points in the fourth quarter?  Three huge friggin' stands by the defense when it looked like this thing was going to slip away??  Another outstanding grab by Reggie Brown on a chuck-and-pray ball by McNabb???

The weirdest thing about this game was how for so long it looked like the same old story we'd seen all year.  The defense played pretty well, the offense scored some points, but in the end the sum total would be just enough to lose. 

Honestly, I think the Eagles were only three plays away from having that happen. 

1)  The illegal contact penalty on second-and-20 when the Eagles really had no chance of converting.  That penalty set up the 46-yard bomb to Reggie.

2)  The fourth-quarter how-do-you-not-have-six-guys-covering-him screen pass to Westbrook.

3)  The ball to Randle El on the sideline when the Redskins were trying to drive in the fourth quarter.  To me, it looked like he secured the ball with his feet inbounds, despite the initial bobble.  The Redskins were out of timeouts (doing their best Eagles' clock management impression) and couldn't challenge the play.  If that play happens one minute later it's a booth review and who knows what happens. 

That's it.  That's the difference between winning and losing.  And yeah, I don't want to take anything away from Westbrook or McNabb or Reggie Brown or the defense for that great fourth-quarter stand, but none of that would have mattered if not for one huge screen pass and two fluky plays.

Which doesn't make me even one percent less happy about this win.   

As for the Redskins, I'm not sure what was up with their fourth quarter playcalling.  All game Campbell had looked perfectly comfortable picking the Eagles' formerly-vaunted secondary apart.  Then it looked like Washington got too conservative, trying to run the clock out rather than trying to score.  I don't think that defensive stand happens if the 'skins aren't so predictable with the play-calling down by the goal line late.

Hopefully the whole Campbell looks like a world-beater against the Eagles thing doesn't continue for the rest of his career. 

Man, what else?  So much happened in that game.  On the other hand, I'd really like to focus on the day's other big NFC match-up, so for now I'll just mention one last thing.  James Thrash. 

Three points:

1)  Getting blitzed by former Eagle Terrell Owens is one thing.  Getting blitzed by former Eagle James Thrash is another.

2)  Why do career backups always seem to have career days against the Eagles?

3)  When you can't cover James Thrash by yourself, maybe it's time for you to join Jevon Kearse on the bench.  Unfortunately, since one of Lito or William James pretty much has to play, we'll go ahead and flip a coin next week.

Ok, crap, two three four more things.  How critically important is LJ Smith to this offense?  If the Eagles don't sign him next year, I'm going to be twice as pissed as I was about the Stallworth thing and even slightly more annoyed that I was by the Paul Posluszny thing.  (Gaither looks great out there, doesn't he?  How does a guy go from "undersized, but great instincts and playmaking ability" to "couldn't tackle his mom in the open field"?  Is it just a confidence thing?  Like he's on his heels and rather than just driving through guys he's being too tentative?)

Two, Tony Hunt had one carry and played the bare minimum the Eagles could use him.  Speaking of confidence, the coaches clearly don't have it in him just yet.

Three, Victor Abiamiri started in place of Jevon Kearse.  No one saw that coming.  VA responded by completly avoiding the stat sheet.  Did the Eagles even bother putting a left defensive end on the field today?  You wouldn't know it from their numbers.  Against the third-string right tackle.

Four, I just noticed 12 tackles from Spikes.  Nice game. 

Pathetic Effort

Let's get this out of the way right up front: the refs fucked the Eagles today.  There's no other word for it.  From the first play to the last -- when Juqua Thomas was held -- the refs absolutely sucked today.  Complete bailout job.

With

   that

      said

This was a pathetic effort by the Eagles today.  The Bears are not a good team.  At all.  The Eagles dominated them in the first half and ended up with nine points.  Three field goals.  No touchdowns.

And when the offense finally stepped up and scored to put the Eagles ahead, the defense allowed the Bears to march easily down the field, 97 yards, for the game-winning touchdown.

This team is not making plays.  That's the difference between the good teams and the mediocre teams in the NFL.  The good teams have guys who make plays, the mediocre teams don't.  (The great teams and the shitty teams are another matter.) 

Right now, there are 1.21 guys on the Eagles who make plays.  The 1.0 would be Westbrook.  The 0.2 would be McNabb.  The 0.01 would be everyone else. 

There's a real and serious problem with this team, one that has nothing to do with playcalling, red zone efficiency or rolling over like ------- ------- when all you need is a three-and-out to win the game. 

The problem is that these guys are losers.

Week in, week out, they play just well enough to lose.  In fact, they often play better than their opponents, but they still end up finding a way to lose. 

L

O

S

E

R

S

And that's a humongous problem, because while it may not be easy to establish a culture of winning in the NFL, it's 10 times harder to reestablish it once it goes away. 

That was a pathetic loss today, and for once, there really aren't any excuses.  Yeah, they're still missing LJ and Dawk, but every team has injury issues right now.  This team is healthy enough and they've been together long enough that there's no defense for an effort like that. 

With this loss, the road to the postseason just got insanely difficult.  Even the most optimistic fan would find it hard to argue that the Eagles can beat the Pats and do better than a split with the Cowboys, so that's your six losses right there.  No other margin for error.

Something has to change this week.  Whether it comes from the players or the coaches, something needs to be done.  A .500 record and waittilnextyear isn't what we signed up for this season.

What a waste.  And now this week is going to suck. 

Fucking Eagles.

This Was a Good Win

It's always an interesting experience coming late to the post-game commentary party.  When the Eagles lost to the Saints last year in the playoffs, I was in Vegas for the annual buddy trip, so after the game ended it was back to the tables.  I didn't read anything about the game until many hours later, so I was surprised to see people boiling the game down to one call (Reid's punt decision) when the problems with that team ran much deeper. 

Not to mention I still think Reid made the right call.

I had a similar moment last night.  I studiously avoided any mention of football yesterday, although I couldn't avoid sneaking a peak at Cowboys/Patriots in the airport.  By the time I'd gotten through the game recording last night (this morning), the prevailing general opinion of the game -- that it was a lousy win against a lousy team -- was already set.

Once again, I don't agree.  The Eagles dominated this game in a way not indicated by the final score.  They had big advantages in yards and time of possession.  The offensive line manhandled the Jets at the point of attack, with the running backs averaging 5.7 yards per carry.  McNabb looked sharp, making quick decisions and demonstrating that he recognizes he needs to change his game a bit until he fully regains his mobility (although why he tried to scramble out of bounds rather than throwing the ball away at the end of the first half is still a mystery).  The wide receivers demonstrated that they could get open against press coverage (on this day at least).  And the defense was very solid after they locked down the cutback problems in the first quarter (which on first viewing looked to me to be very DE-related).

The one big problem in this game was not getting into the end zone.  And yes, that's a big problem.  But you can't sit here and argue that you want the Eagles to play a bruising, smash-mouth brand of football that focuses on controlling the clock, sustaining drives and winning even when everything doesn't go their way and then complain after they do exactly that and win a game. 

Look, Terrell Owens isn't walking through that door.  The 2004 McNabb isn't walking through that door (any time soon).  This is not an explosive offense right now.  And I for one would rather see the coaches recognize that fact and do what they have to do to win ballgames rather than just going out there, flinging the ball all over the place and hoping one of these days everything works out. 

And make no mistake, yesterday's game plan was all about recognizing reality:

• Did you see that kickass three tight end formation they rolled out yesterday?  If you have the game on TiVo, go back and look for that personnel package.  Check out the blast left, counter right and dive right (?) they used out of it.  Awesome stuff.
• Did you notice how much help they gave the offensive line in protecting McNabb?  The running backs were constantly chipping on their way into their pass routes.  They used bunch formations and multiple tight ends to force the defensive ends to take a more circuitous route to the quarterback.  They got away from it a little in the third quarter, I think, but this demonstrated the coaches are well aware of what they need to do to keep the franchise upright.  (Although the Jets linemen started to counter by just grabbing Westbrook so he couldn't get into his route.  That's something that needs to be watched.)
• Late in the first half, the Eagles sent the field goal unit out with eight seconds still on the clock, rather than risking another one of those "throw it into the middle of the field and then lose a chance at points" situations that have so often occurred in the past.  Akers missed the kick, but it was still a good move.

Bottom line, this was a tough, physical, grind-it-out win that will give no one an excuse to believe the Eagles are any better than they really are.  I'm not sure we could ask for more right now.

Next Day Thoughts -- Lions

"Like I've said before, you're never as good as you think and never as bad as you think in the NFL."
-- Andy Reid

Eagles fans who refused to believe the second half of that statement last week should pay special attention to the first part this week.  There's still a long way to go.

As enjoyable as today's game was -- especially given the annoying buzzing all week of never-been-there Detroit fans -- it was just one win against one not very good team.  A really big, huge, how-ya-like-the-Eagles-now win, but still, just one win.

Ok, enjoy it for one more minute.  Swirl it around a little.  Savor the aroma.  Mmmmm, tasty.

All right, that's done.  Time to put that aside and get to the game review.

McNabb is back.  I'm not even gonna say it, but you know who you are.  How'd the first game of the Kevin Kolb experience (six plays, two sacks, one fumble) treat you?

Here's an early video for you.  Lots of people say -- and it often seems to be true -- that McNabb's not a fiery, rah-rah kind of guy.  But check out how amped up he seems on the second play of this series (keep the sound off if you're at work):

Seriously though, he looked to be pretty fired up in there.  I'd love to see one of the Philly beat writers follow up on this one.  (Here's the original on that audio, that guy is awesome.)

Who needs Dawk?  Um, actually, we do.  McNabb had perhaps the finest statistical day of his career and still Kitna managed to throw for more yards than he did -- 446(!).  If the team can just make it through the Giants next week, hopefully we can get Dawk and Lito full-speed after the bye week.  Not sure how we're stopping Burress in the meantime though.

The sack attack is back.  Because you read this blog, you weren't suprised while watching the Eagles take turns stomping on Jon Kitna's head:

Mike Martz wants to air it out and get the ball down the field.  His guys need time to run those routes, which means Kitna's going to have to sit there and wait awhile for them to get open.  Maybe the Eagles' banged-up secondary struggles in coverage all day, but this week there should be plenty of time to get to the quarterback.

(I'd take credit for pointing out that Detroit's pass defense sucks as well, but that might be moving into Chad Johnson / Terrell Owens territory.)

Curtis' big day.  I think one thing that's been left out of a lot of discussions about what happened in the first two games was recognition that the Eagles have faced some pretty good secondaries so far.  You had Al Harris and Charles Woodson in the first game, two guys who are among the best in the business at playing man coverage.  The following week it was Washington, with it's much-noted four first-round pick secondary.  It's not always going to be easy to throw against guys like that.

There did seem to be some changes in how the Eagles attacked in this game, however.  I'll have to go back and re-watch the game to be sure, but on first viewing it appeared there weren't as many times that we just called those fades down the sideline for the outside receivers. 

In particular, on one of Curtis' TD receptions he actually ran a triple move, breaking outside, inside and then outside again before McNabb hit him with a beautiful ball down the sideline.  The pass protection has to be pretty good to run that kind of route.   

Westbrook needs more protection.  I understand you do what you have to do to win.  But the Eagles are absolutely going to run Westbrook into the ground this year if they're not careful.  The whole point of having backup running backs on the roster isn't just to have a guy you can plug in after Westbrook gets hurt.

The split was actually much better today.  Westbrook had 14 carries, while Buckhalter and Hunt combined for 11 (with three more for Tapeh).  But for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why we were still riding our most indispensable player that late down the stretch. 

Credit where it's due, though.  On a day when everything worked, Reid/Mornhinweg called 29 pass plays and 28 runs, not counting the kneeldowns at the end.  Ahhhh, the sweet smell of offensive balance. 

Rocca improving.  He's not there yet, but there's definitely a progression:

	Punts	Avg	Net Avg
Green Bay	7	40.4	35.7
Washington	5	43.2	39.8
Detroit	3	43.7	41.7

(I also like the progression in the Eagles' offense, based on number of times they have to punt.)

I guess Andrews is eventually going to move to tackle after all.  Max Jean-Gilles got into the game today after Shawn Andrews had to leave with an eye injury (and maybe he should get a face shield).  With the way the depth is shaping up with Justice and Jean-Gilles rising to the top, it seems pretty clear at this point that Andrews will some day be this team's starting right tackle.  With Andrews and MJG, that's gonna be one seriously scary combination over there blocking for Kevin Kolb and Tony Hunt.

Around the League. 

• So Pos might be done for the season.  Perfect capper to a crappy weekend for Penn State football. 
• I guess Ken Whisenhut isn't screwing around down in Arizona.  Rex Grossman might have to shoot someone to lose his job in Chicago, but the first-year Cardinals head coach had no problem going to Kurt Warner when Matt Leinart wasn't getting it done against Baltimore.  Wonder what kind of repercussions that move will have.
• How does Minnesota, with the best run defense in the game, lose to a team that can't do anything but run the football?  Just when I think Childress has that thing turned around, too.
• I have a feeling we might end up looking back at those first two losses and feeling a little better about them when it's all said and done.  Green Bay actually looks pretty good this year.
• It's hard not to root for Jeff Garcia.
• I don't understand how LaDainian Tomlinson can have fewer yards rushing that Najeh Davenport. 
• The Bears are still going to win games with that defense, but it's difficult to see them taking the next step with Anthony Morelli at quarterback.  I guess Tommie Harris was right...
• The Cowboys look like this year's version of the crown-'em-in-September team.  Not that you want to take them lightly, but hot starts often lead to fizzle finishes in the NFL.
• I still think Jason Campbell is going to be a good quarterback for a long time in this league.
• I still hate the #%@#$% Giants.  I despise having to pull for them for positional purposes.

Finally, New Orleans is due, but I just have a funny feeling about Vince Young on Monday Night Football...

A Work in Progress

No one ever said this was going to be easy.

I spent most of the game with one eye on the Wingheads in-game chatroom.  I won't name names, but the natives were restless.  McNabb had some staunch defenders in there, but let's just say those folks had to do a lot of staunch defending...

Look, we knew this season was going to be a work in progress.  Too many young guys.  Too many questions about Donovan's knee.  A rebuilt defense.  While it's surprising how bad they've looked at times this year, the fact that there have been struggles isn't at all surprising. 

The season isn't over.

Let's repeat that.  The season isn't over. 

Right now, the defense is far better than it was a year ago.  While the offense didn't light up the scoreboard tonight, it looked like it had a much better rhythm than last week in Green Bay.  Yeah, 0-2 is 0-2, but I'm telling you, this thing is already starting to turn around.

Which isn't to say there aren't some questions.  Ron Jarowski spent most of the night harping on the inability of the Eagles wide receivers to get open against the Redskins secondary.  Right now, if you're just going by production, Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis shouldn't be the starting wide receivers.  Reggie deserves the benefit of the doubt, given his past performance, but Curtis isn't making plays, he isn't hanging on to the football and he's proving us both right and wrong for writing:

"I actually expect Curtis to start strong, slow down in the middle of the season as a larger role takes a toll on his smallish frame, and then close fast once Andy and Marty start getting more creative with some of his packages so he's not constantly fighting off jams at the line all the time."

Right, of course, because he is having trouble just lining up on the outside and fighting off cornerbacks all day.  Wrong because it didn't take long for other teams to figure that out.  We'll see about that last bit.

That leaves Jason Avant, who seems to be emerging as the guy McNabb most wants to see on the field when he needs a receiver to come through for him.  He's doing it this year.  Baskett did it last year.  Might be time to give those guys a bit more of a chance.

Of course, all anyone's going to want to talk about this week is the performance of McNabb.  First of all, he wasn't great, but he wasn't that bad (28-46, 240 yards).  He's just rusty.  This is a timing-based offense.  He needs some more work to get things back together. 

He definitely looked a whole lot better this week than he did last week.  His progress was encouraging.  Heck, he even managed to run around a bit out there just to show he still could.

This is where the Andy Reid approach really pays dividends.  You might be freaking out right now, but Big Red isn't.  He's going to stay calm, just like he always does.  He's going to go back and tweak the game plan to "do a bit better job at putting his guys in a position to make plays," like he always does.  And he's going to get this thing turned around.

Just like he always does.