Eagles Week Seven Report Card

Another week in the NFL season, and we are further from knowing who these Eagles really are than ever before. Or maybe, this is who the Eagles really are.

Passing Offense:
Another average day for McNabb and the receivers. They moved the ball between the twenties, and bogged down in the red zone; that area inside the twenty that has been called a number of names in Philly, none of which have the slightest positive connotation. McNabb made a nice pass on his lone TD pass, but also missed badly on an earlier red zone possession. Reggie Brown also dropped a TD pass on their first red zone possession, right after making two great catches to get them in position.
Grade: C

Rushing Offense:
When they ran, they ran fairly well. But you would expect a playmaker like Westbrook to run wild one week after the Bears let Adrian Peterson do everything but throw for a TD. The running game helped keep the Eagles in 3rd and short situations, but it disappeared late in the game with the Eagles nursing a lead. Some semblance of a running game would help the red zone woes too.
Grade: C+

Passing Defense:
Well, it was an A for 58 minutes. Then they gave up the winning touchdown, making Brian Griese look like John Elway in the process. Giving up a 97 yard TD drive with less than two minutes and no timeouts left is completely inexcusable, even if there are two holding penalties and a push off on the TD pass. They've held the team in every game while they got their act together, but when the chips were down, they folded.
Grade: C-

Rushing Defense:
Well, it was an A for 58 minutes too. And thankfully for them, teams don't run the ball when down by 4 with 97 yards to go and no timeouts left. So, technically they were good all game.
Grade: A

Special Teams:
Devin Hester touched the ball exactly zero times in the return game, and he was still the most effective player on the field on Sunday. The Eagles chose to kick to the short man on kickoffs, and out of bounds in the punting game, and as a result the Bears seemed to start every drive on their 40 yard line. And in a game full of field goals, this was huge for a team that couldn't move the ball. Hester basically won this game for the Bears.
Grade: F

Overall:
There was no getting around it; both teams needed to win this game. Only one did, and neither probably deserved to. There were a few good plays and a lot of bad ones. Their were poor penalties, poor non-calls, poor rules (that crazy fumbled snap that was technically a false start), and through it all the Eagles were still in a position to win. But they didn't. They moved the ball well, but they couldn't score. They held the Bears off the board, except when it counted. So is this what the Eagles really are this year? A 2-4 team that finds ways to lose instead of ways to win? For the time being, I think that has to be excepted as a very real possibility. There is still time to turn their season around, but with a game against New England, two against Dallas, and rematches with the Giants and Redskins still to come, the margin for error is now down to zero. And that doesn't seem like a very good thing for a team that has been anything but perfect.
Grade: D