Surely there's no way the Philadelphia Eagles will lose to one of the NFL's most dysfunctional franchises, even if the game is on the road.
Oh, wait. They just did that.
A week after laying a 13-9 egg against the Oakland Raiders, the Eagles (3-2) have another potential letdown game against the
Washington Redskins (2-4). The Monday nighter has prime-time slaughter written all over it, with the Redskins coming off a
distraction-filled week following the front office's decision to strip coach Jim Zorn of the play calling.
That is, unless the Eagles reproduce their lackadaisical, pass-too-much game plan from Oakland.
"I felt embarrassed,'' quarterback Donovan McNabb said. "When you get embarrassed, you don't want to get embarrassed again, so
you are going to do whatever it takes to erase that and make sure that you turn a negative into a positive.''
The Eagles should be naturally more fired up to face the Redskins, a familiar division rival. It's a short road trip, and thousands of Philadelphia fans always find ways to get tickets.
Plus, no one wants to look bad on Monday night, when the rest of the league is watching.
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"You can go against the worst team in the league,'' running back Brian Westbrook said. "But if you don't go out there and execute your game plan, and if you have errors and sacks and turnovers and things like that, you can lose a game.''
A focused Eagles team would not be good news for the Redskins.
Both teams spent the week dealing with play-calling issues. The Eagles abandoned the run against the Raiders, throwing 46 passes and allowing six sacks. Westbrook ran for 50 yards, but he had only six carries.
Philadelphia has always been pass-happy with coach Andy Reid and McNabb, but that ratio was a bit extreme, especially in a low-scoring game.
"I don't think there's really much new,'' Westbrook said. "I think when I first came in Duce (Staley) was complaining about touching the ball and not carrying the ball. Probably a few years ago I was complaining, too. That's just the way that we do it here. Then at some point during the season, the ratio kind of evens out a little bit more. Sometimes it takes games like this for that to happen.''
