EAGLES NEWS

A tough season just got a whole lot tougher for the Eagles. Last week they seemingly righted their sinking ship, defeating the Jets, to improve to 2-3. Today against the struggling Bears, it seemed a safe bet to stay upright. Someone forgot to tell that Bears QB Brian Griese. The Eagles went ahead 3-0 early in the 1st quarter, and carried that lead all the way into the 2nd half. However, despite dominating Chicago on both sides of the ball in the 1st half, the Birds went 0 for 3 in red zone, and had to settle for 3 field goals and a meek 9-3 lead at the half. Chicago woke up in the 3rd quarter and began moving the ball, but they too could not get in the end zone and had to settle for 3 field goals of their own and a 12-9 lead in the middle of the 4th quarter. Then Donovan Mcnabb and the Eagles finally started hitting their marks and with just under 5 minutes to play, Mcnabb hit Matt Schobel with a 13 yard touchdown pass, to put the Birds ahead 16-12. After the Eagles defense held, Mcnabb and the offense got the ball back with 4 minutes to play, and after converting on a couple key 3rd downs, a holding penalty forced them to punt it back to Chicago with just under 2 minutes to play. Sav Rocca beautifully pinned the bears at their own 3 yard line and an Eagles victory seemed assured, especially after the clock ticked down under a minute and Chicago was still at their own 30 yard line. Then suddenly Griese just started firing. He hit Bernard Berrian for 25 yards, Devin Hester for 21, and then Mushin Muhammad for a 15 yard TD pass with 9 seconds left. Just like that the Eagles had fallen 19-16. The Eagles defense was good all day long, but they simply ran out of gas in this last drive. Also the injured Brian Dawkins was standing on the side lines for the entire drive. Remember, he's the guy who usually covers those deep routes. Do you really think they would have been open, if he'd been in the game. At any rate it's the Eagles offense that is really to blame for this. If even one of their 1st three scoring drives had gone for a touchdown, victory would have been theirs. Instead they did not capitalize and at 2-4, are now in a big hole, as they get ready to face old offensive coordinator, Brad Childress and the Vikings next week.