I Am Not Convinced

I worry.

I am not saying I was not heartened, not made joyous- watching Donovan McNabb extract a terrible and righteous justice on his foul enemies. The Linc was in a ribald mood- as scurrilous and ferocious as I have seen it for a regular season game. And certainly, whipping Dallas, particularly in what had to be gut-wrenching fashion, never gets old.

But I dunno. I picked the Eagles to win nine games- but that was with them getting to 6-2 at the turn. They are off to a good start- but not an unexpected one. I suppose you can move home games like Washington and Tennessee, and a road game like Tampa Bay to the “probably win column” from “toss up”- and move @ Washington from loss to the aforementioned “toss up” category.

Lost in the all the hoopla is that Dallas took a lot of big momentum hits- and still played a pretty tight, albeit far from perfect, road game. The Cowboys forced a pair of early turnovers- and turned one into a big “free score”. They ran the ball effectively for long stretches and committed no stupid or selfish penalties. They scored touchdowns in the red zone. Their defense came on the field, already down 7-0 five minutes, deep in their own end and made a huge stop. They made their kicks, played very solid special teams and punted marvelously.

In the second half, outside of two huge plays by McNabb, the Eagles could do nothing on offense. The fourteen points the Eagles scored were not part and parcel of a coherent offensive approach they can anticipate duplicating with some regularity. “McNabb, be amazing a few times” is not a “win a hard game on the road against a wild card caliber team” strategy.

Consequently, Dallas gave themselves a chance. They played long segments of the second half needing just one break, forcing the Eagles to make near zero mistakes to win. That is the proverbial tight road game, right? And, in the end, they almost got it. People are banging Bledsoe, rightfully so, for his turnovers. But you know what? He took a bad beating: seven sacks, another dozen or so hits. And each time, he rolled over on all fours, caught his breath, heaved himself to his feet and kept trying, kept firing. You want a quarterback to lead? That is what he did- and the whole Dallas outfit kept trying. And with thirty seconds left, he made a huge throw, on the money, in a big spot. He almost got it done. He almost stole it.

Accordingly, I was pretty impressed with Dallas. It is a team that, with a little better luck, could win a road play-off game in a wild, emotional environment.

As to Philadelphia… the Eagles offense is sort of better. I guess. Stipulated: McNabb is amazing. And their old bugaboo- the interior offensive line- is much, much better with Hank Fraley gone (anyone would be younger & more athletic) and Andrews continuing to emerge as a real great player.

But Philadelphia can't run it, their wide out situation is far from a week after week strength, and Westbrook is hurt and declining every week. Buckhalter is not a solution; he's a problem. He's always hurt and bad and fumbles- its not a good combination.

The defensive line has been a revelation- the three draft picks and the free agent from the Saints have added four guys in one fell swoop who can play. But the corners are banged up and Lewis has really, really declined. This injured and depleted secondary means he needs to contribute in a pass defender role- and Lewis is frankly not doing a good job.

The schedule will toughen up soon- and there are still at least four, maybe five more losses out there. For instance, @ Indianapolis is one. You just can’t pencil the Eagles in to win two out of three divisional road games- against what ought to be motivated opposition with something to play for. Atlanta, Carolina, Jacksonville- even at home they are going to slip up once. That is four “L’s” even if they play pretty well. That is- win the games they should win and play .500 against good teams- which, if you are honest, is all that they have shown so far.