David Ragan Knows What It Feels Like

Musing on the Eagles one cannot help but think of David Ragan. David, like the Eagles, had a rough day in some tight spots. At the Subway 500 yesterday, Ragan was involved in four separate incidents that brought out the yellow flag, and his inexperience drew the ire of many NASCASR veterans- including Tony Stewart, who described young Ragan after the race as being "a dart with no feathers."

I like that: a dart with no feathers. Accordingly: Sometimes they kick a record field goal to beat you. It happens. The other team is allowed to make plays. McNabb was terrible for 47 minutes- wonderful for 12 and sick for 1. That, and a miracle FG, is why they lost.

That is two losses in two weeks on game ending field goals. Those are hard- but the NFL is the ultimate example of “good teams find a way to win”- and the Eagles are re-learning those lessons in a particularly hard fashion right now. They clearly aren’t bad- like last year. But right now, they are not a team that can win the division either.

I stick my original prognostication. Philadelphia is nine win good. For one thing, they are not good enough to win on offense unless McNabb is amazing- which is a difficult game plan to count on and then execute every week. The quarterback can’t have two balls returned for TDs, run a boneheaded two minute drill that costs them sure points (why does he do that twice every single year? why?), fumble on a key 3rd and one.

Another thing- does anyone remember when the complimentary players around here- Chad Lewis, Freddie Mitchell- could be counted on to give them something in secondary roles other than drops and horrid turnovers? Last week I wondered on here how Dexter Wynn got to be so important to our winning and losing. Now, how did we get to the points where guys like Baskett, Avant, Tapeh, Schobel, Buckhalter and Smith get 20 touches on 63 snaps- not counting the drops and incompletions in their direction?

This cast of characters commits too many turnovers and drops to justify their workload around here. But they sort of have to- the number one wideout is out again and Westbrook is too soft to handle the ball 20 times every week. That is a problem- and forces those missing 15-20 plays into the hands of, oh, Buckhalter. Westbrook had a great game- but his roster presence has to be counted against the other, increasingly real bad stresses it puts on the rest of the roster. 20 touches this week, including 13 rushes, from the franchise back- and that is the most he’ll ever be able to do- even in a game, where they are struggling, on the road.

Makes you wonder how dumb or careless Ryan Moats must be that he can’t get on the field ahead of these characters.

Play-offs? Well, again, at heart Philadelphia is a nine win team- so it was always more likely the Eagles wouldn’t make it than they would. To their credit, their good start gave them a chance. But now that is gone. So it is hard. They have three losses, all conference, less than half way through the season. Since the Eagles probably can only afford to lose six total- and with three road dates out there with division teams, plus at Indianapolis- and Carolina, Jacksonville and Atlanta visiting the Linc still out there… no, I don’t think so.

It isn’t set in stone- still closer to 50-50 than definitely in or out. But these next two- Jacksonville and Washington at home- realistically are must wins.