Don't Lose Hope In Philly! (unless they lose to Kansas City)

It's not over yet, in fact it's only getting started.

With only two games in the bag for the 2009 season many teams, coaches, and especially fans have found themselves panicking. And besides the obvious ones (Detroit, St Louis, Seattle) some unexpected teams have found themselves lying awake at 2:30 AM; Tampa Bay, Washington, Dallas and yes, even New England. Recently some Philadelphia fans have been caught giving up hopes and dreams of a return to the NFC Championship game and heaven forbid, a Super bowl because of the Eagles poor performance in last weeks loss to New Orleans.

IT'S ONLY ONE LOSS PEOPLE!

Without question, it was a rough game. I watched the whole thing start to finish, and it was a wretched, painful loss. The Eagles backfield looked nonexistent, Mike Bell and Reggie Bush found yardage they never should have found (86 & 33 respectively with both finding the end zone), and the special teams made so many mistakes I was certain it was a compilation of blooper reels from previous games.

But as one other wise Eagle fan pointed out on the re-cap, "I'm glad they lost like this now instead of at Week 16, at least now they can hopefully learn from it and move on." 

Please Eagles defense, Learn from this, and Move on!!

I say that with as much love as I can muster. I say that with hope that this defense can re-align itself with the defense that played against Carolina in week one and forced 5 interceptions, 2 fumbles, and 5 sacks. It was the same defense that stood the Panthers offense up on 4th and goal from the 1 in the final minutes of the game. It was a proud defense, and it was a nightmare for Jake Delhomme and the entire Carolina team.

I believe we can repeat that performance and build on it. One major thing in the Eagles favor is their upcoming schedule. This week they play Kansas City at home. If you've been in a cave for awhile, Kansas City was beat soundly by Baltimore in week one, and then upset in the final minutes of week two's game against Oakland. Week 4 is a bye week, then another home game against Tampa Bay (who I mentioned has been the center of attention for their lack of answers to many, many questions) then on the road to Oakland who we all know has a pile of issues that nobody dares to really try and clean up until Al Davis dies, because he sure as heck ain't sellin! 

Please don't get me wrong I do not think for one second that these games are guaranteed wins, you have to respect your opponent if you want to win. Any of these teams could beat the Eagles, but the odds over the next few weeks are in the Eagles favor. That leads me to my next point of learning from the loss against the Saints; the Eagles had their pride knocked down a few pegs which should force them to train harder, and smarter for the next few weeks.

While the Eagles could easily look back and see a 4-1 win record to set them up for the tough winter schedule, it all starts this week against Kansas City. The game is in Philadelphia and the fans will be looking for a clean win. Kevin Kolb will be the starter in McNabb's absence, and we should see Micheal Vick taking snaps from time to time to keep the defense on their heels. While I know a lot of fans are unconvinced of Kolb's ability, he certainly didn't lose last weeks game. If Kolb starts this week I believe we will be in a better stance to judge his future based on his performance with multiple weeks at the starting position.

We're 1-1 now. One dominating win and one terrible loss. The rest of the season begins with this weeks game against the Chiefs. Let's hope we go into the bye with two dominating wins and get back on the road to another championship appearance.