Eagles' 1st Quarter Report Card

With four games in the books, it's time to send the Eagles' report card home to their parents. And I don't think the Birds will be getting their allowance.

Quarterback: C
This was the big question mark coming into the season. Was Donovan McNabb healthy? I pronounced numerous times that he was, and this position was the least of the Eagles' worries. I was wrong. McNabb was simply off during the first two losses of the season to the Packers and Redskins. It's hard to pin the Green Bay loss on him, because of the special teams errors, but if he put forth a good performance the Birds could have won in spite of those miscues. However, the Redskins game can be put on five's shoulders. McNabb took off the knee brace for week three, and quite literally played perfectly in a 56-21 drubbing of the Lions. And week four was a 16-3 loss to the Giants, where McNabb's numbers are ugly, but it's hard to blame a QB when he gets sacked 12 times.

Running Back: A
The lone bright spot on the offense. Before missing game four due to injury, Brian Westbrook led the NFL in yards from scrimmage. He was arguably running better than any back in the league, and he accounted for about half of the team's offense. And even when he missed game four, Correll Buckhalter stepped in and ran very well. If only the Eagles would put the ball in these guys' hands more often; but we'll get to that more later.

Wide Receiver: D-
Kevin Curtis' big game against the Lions is all that is keeping this grade from being an F. Aside from that, the receiving corps has been dreadful. Through four games this season, the blueprint has been developed on how to defend this offense. It turns out it is pretty simple actually. It is press coverage. Three teams have done that to the Eagles receivers, and they have held the offense to 28 points, and just one touchdown. The one team that played a soft zone, the Lions, only yielded the endzone to the Eagles' offense eight times. Reggie Brown, who seemed poised to break out in this, his third, season, has been invisible. Jason Avant has actually been a nice number three guy though. Go figure, he is a big athletic guy who can beat press coverage.

Tight Ends: F
L.J. Smith has been hurt and missed two games, and might as well have missed the other two. The other two tight ends have done next to nothing as well. And they can't block either. It's been a wasted position for the Eagles.

Offensive Line: D
It's not so much that this unit has played bad, aside from the game against the Giants, where they gave up about four dozen sacks, but rather they've played well below expectations. This was supposed to be the Eagles' strength. They started every game together last season, and the first three games this season, and they paved the way for the number two ranked offense in the league last season. But this year, they haven't been nearly as good. Obviously the game against New York was horrible, but even when they haven't given up lots of sacks, they haven't been able to give McNabb a nice pocket. And they haven't been able to give the receivers enough time to shake the jam.

Defensive Line: B+
Another won of the few bright spots; especially after their poor showing for most of last year. The tackles have been very solid, if not very good, in stuffing the run and getting pressure up the middle. Broderick Bunkley worked very hard in the offseason to improve upon his forgettable rookie season, and it has paid off big time. The ends are getting relatively good pressure, but they are not getting quite enough pressure on third down passing situations leading to first downs.

Linebackers: B
A huge question mark going into the season, the linebacking corps has been perfectly adequate. Takeo Spikes appears to be fully recovered from the Achilles' injury he suffered in 2005. Omar Gaither appears to not be too small to stop the run at middle linebacker, and he provides much more range than the departed Jeremiah Trotter. And Chris Gocong, the second year player who never made a start at SAM before this season, doesn't appear lost. They need to do a better job on third an medium though.

Defensive Backs: B-
It's been hard to judge this group, with them missing two Pro Bowlers in Brian Dawkins and Lito Sheppard, for two and three games respectively. But, as a healthy unit, they held Brett Favre and the Packers to no touchdowns. And as a banged up unit, they did enough against a potent Lions attack, and held Eli Manning in check for the most part. They also need to do a better job on third down. It would nice if they created a few turnovers as well.

Special Teams: F-
They already lost the team a game, and that is good enough for a C- right there. They still don't really have a kick or punt returner that will scare anyone. And their kick coverage has been average at best. David Akers has been better than last year so far, but the punting situation is different. The Eagles took a risk on Australian Rules punter Sav Rocca because they loved the upside of his cannon of a leg. However, the big boomers have been few and far between. And it's not like he hasn't had plenty of opportunities either.

Coaching: F
It started in the first game, when the inability to have a backup plan to Jeremy Bloom came back to bite them. The coaching staff has refused to alter the game plan when McNabb was clearly struggling. And Andy Reid did nothing to help out Winston Justice, who was making his first start at left tackle, when the line was getting thrashed by the Giants pass rush. As a matter of fact, he didn't do anything to slow down the rush...like running. But most importantly, they lost three out of four games.

So, it's the Eagles' bye week. Maybe this report card means they should be grounded for their week off?