Philadelphia Eagles Are Missing That 2004 Swagger

Remember the 2004 season? Sure, the Super Bowl was nice, but what I enjoyed most was the swagger that the team had. The team knew going into each and every game that they were going to win. There was no "any give Sunday" with the 2004 team. The team was confident, but not cocky, in their abilities. The team's confidence in turn carried over to the fans.

How great were Sundays back then. Every time you turned on the TV you knew a win was coming. Oh, the good old days.

Maybe it's just me, but I am not even 100 percent confident that the Eagles are going to beat the Bengals this weekend. That's right, the lowly 1-8 Bengals. My buddy came up to me yesterday and asked if he should start Cedric Benson on his fantasy team this week. Sadly, I wasn't able to confidently say that the Eagles' D would be able to shut him down.

When talking about the Eagles recent struggles, people continue to compare this team to the 2007 Giants. We hear, just look at the G-Men from last year, they had a slow start and then bang, Super Bowl Champs. Nice theory, but the Eagles aren't the G-Men of 2007.

The Giants were dominant in one of the most important areas, they had an unstoppable pass rush. A quick look at the current Eagles and I see no areas of the team that could be labeled as dominant. There may be some very good areas, but nothing great. Even the Eagles all-word secondary has shown cracks.

Back to the 2004 team. Remember how they would just let their play do their talking. Not this year's squad. Like last year we are again hearing players saying the team is better than their 5-4 record. Sorry guys, you are what your record says you are.

You win by playing the full 60 minutes. Not by starting slow or crumbling in the clutch. You win by being confident in each other and in the plays being called by the coaches. You don't go all Monday-morning QB on your coach the day or week after, saying that you want the ball in the clutch or that there needs to be more commitment to certain plays.

Again, all this rambling could be for naught if the Eagles close the season 5-2 or 6-1. But without that swagger of years past, such a feat is going to be difficult to accomplish.