A Lost Season?

Two wins, four losses. A horrible start by any team's standards (except maybe Detroit). A disastrous start by Philadelphia Eagles' standards. That's where our beloved birds sit today. Bleeding Green Nation ran a sort of informal opinion poll of its readers, the question, are the Eagles just a bad team? I chimed in over there, but my somewhat positive point-of-view was absolutely in the minority.

Am I delusional? That's quite possible, I've seen far too much losing over the past month to be completely rational, plus I'm averaging about 2 hours of sleep per night. Still, insomnia and shell-shock aside, I just don't see it. The Eagles have yet to be blown out. In fact, pretty much every win can be boiled down to one thing (Green Bay, can't field a punt. Redskins, dropped passes. Giants, no Brian Westbrook. Bears, one bad defensive drive). God, I hate making excuses. Anyway, to me this Eagles team is not fatally flawed. Teams that are just plain bad aren't in games, they get blown out. The Eagles should be 5-1 right now, 4-2 at worst. Those wins are gone, and they aren't coming back. 2-4 is bad, but it isn't an abyss so deep there's no hope to come back from it. I'm giving this team some more time to gel, to put 60 minutes of quality football together. More time, but not much more.

Here's the rub, as I see it. The Eagles absolutely must be .500 when they head to Foxboro to face the Patriots on Nov. 25th. They need to be 5-5. If math isn't your strong suit, that means they need to go 3-1 in these four games

• @ Minnesota (2-4)
• vs. Dallas (6-1)
• @ Washington (4-2)
• vs. Miami (0-7)

If the Eagles can get to that point at 5-5 they have a shot. If they can't, well I guess I'll be right out there on the ledge with the rest of the Philly faithful.