The Day After...

The day after a loss is always the toughest. The day after a loss like this is even tougher.

In a game that exploited the Eagles' ineptitude on defense and offense, the Jacksonville Jaguars knocked out the Eagles 13-6 at Lincoln Financial Field yesterday. From the quarterbacking to the linebacking, nothing worked yesterday for Andy Reid's bunch. As a result, the team has been given the week off by Reid to collect their thoughts during the bye week.

On a day where the Jaguars gained just 87 yards through the air, it would be hard to believe that the Eagles, who had a strong run defense through the first 7 games, would have any trouble with Jacksonville. Yet the defense had not yet met a two-headed monster like Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew, who darted, dashed, and scampered all over the Philadelphia defense for 180 yards combined. Taylor got the Jaguars on the board first with his 15 yard run up the gut of the Eagles defense for a touchdown.

After a scoreless second quarter that featured drops, incompletions, and near misses from both sides, the Jags trotted into the locker room with a 7-0 lead. A chorus of boos cascaded down upon the Eagles, and more specifically, Andy Reid. Reid's playcalling left much to be desired, and Donovan McNabb was ineffective as well.

So the Eagles, who had just 3 points in the first half combined in their last 3 games, had seen this story before. There was still plenty of time to turn things around despite posting just 70 yards of offense in the half. Too bad nobody told Reid this.

If this was possible, the Eagles came out in the second half and played worse than they did in the first. Yes, they did put six points on the board, but could not get into the endzone when the game was on the line. Brian Westbrook dropped two passes late, and the Eagles' offense wilted.

Meanwhile, all Jack Del Rio asked David Garrard to do was manage the game and not make any mistakes. It was hard to do this when only 17 balls were put through the air and 46 plays went through the running game. Every single first down play in the second half from Jacksonville was a designed run. That's right, all 13 of them. And guess what? The Eagles defense could do nothing to stop them. Taylor finished with 103 yards on the day, and when he left after being nicked up, the Jags running game didn't miss a beat. Jones-Drew ran for a total of 77 yards and the Jaguars added two Josh Scobee field goals to essentially ice the game.

So after being 4-1, this Eagles squad is 4-4. Hard to believe, Harry. So in this bye week, just hope the Eagles clear their minds from the failures of the past three football weeks, and look ahead. But please, for the sake of us all, just one game at a time. Just one game at a time.