EAGLES NEWS

Fresh off an easy win over the Tampa Bay Bucs, the Birds traveled to Oakland this afternoon for a date with the lowly Raiders, who came in with just 1 win on the season. Thus, it was going to be another easy Eagle's win. There was no way the Raiders would be able to challenge them. Unfortunately left tackle Jason Peters went down with a knee injury in the 1st quarter and that spelled the Eagles' doom. With no Peters, King Dunlap was forced into his first regular season game and he spent the day watching Richard Seymour run circles around him as Donovan Mcnabb was sacked 6 times, hit about 30 times, and under pressure and running for his life on just about every snap. It's hard for any quarterback to be successful under that kind of pressure, and Mcnabb was not on this afternoon. Nor was the rest of the Eagles' offense which gained just 283 yards, most of them passing yards, while failing to score any TDs on the day. Inspired by their defense, the Raiders were able to score a TD, by taking advantage of an apparently still rusty Jeremiah Trotter, who misdiagnosed a play action and left TE Zach Miller wide open to rumble for an 86 yd TD pass. In the end that TD was the difference, as the teams traded field goals the rest of the way in a 13-9 Raider victory. The Eagles actually could have won even without scoring any TDs, but David Akers missed 2 field goals on the day. In reality though, for offense with as many weapons as the Eagles, it should not have come down to Akers hitting field goals and I don't know too many kickers who could have hit 5 field goals of over 40 yards, as Akers kicks all were today. The only bright spot for the Birds on the day then was the defense, which intercepted Jamarcus Russell twice and sacked him twice, while holding Oakland out of the end zone other than that one TD pass. It wasn't enough though and now the Eagles must go back to the drawing board as they prepare to play their first divisional games against the Redskins and the Giants in the next 2 weeks. At 3-2 overall and with plenty of season left the Birds are still in position to have a sucessful season, but they can't lose anymore games like this.