Can Eagles come back for Pack?

So much for the Eagles “bye” week.

Andy Reid likely did the smart thing Sunday by resting many of his regulars. Here’s the downside.

The backups, including Kevin Kolb, were not especially good. It’s hard to put any blame for this on Kolb, who spent much of the day running for his life and trying to keep one eye in the back of his head for Demarcus Ware, who spent most of the afernoon running amok in the Eagles’ backfield.

But yesterday’s putrid dispaly now means the Eagles have put together 12 quarters of lousy football, interrupted only by seven minutes of Michael Vick magic against the Giants.

Now the Packers come to town for a first-round playoff game Sunday at 4:30.

The task for the Eagles is to return to the way they were playing a month ago, Vick leading an offense hitting on all cylinders.

Since then, Vick has looked a lot like the guy who wore No. 7 in Atlanta – skittish in the pocket, looking to run too quickly, making poor decisions, and making a lot of inaccurate throws.

Vick actually will get a chance to back up his words from back on opening day. You might remember that was when Packer’s linebacker Clay Matthews bounced Kolb’s head off the Lincoln Financial Field turf. Kolb suffered a concussion on the play, Vick entered the game and almost puled off an Eagles comeback.

After the game, Vick sounded like a guy who believed the Eagles would have won that game if he had been at the command for all four quarters.

There are two big problems for the Eagles in this game. They have to keep the Packers’ voracious rush off Vick, and they have to defend Aaron Rodgers and the Packers’ prolific passing game.

But I think this young team's biggest challenge might be between their ears. Do they think they can take a week off, flip the switch and be ready for the Packers? Of do they have the same doubts that have surfaced in recent weeks.

I’m not sure this team can reverse its recent fortunes and do either one.

What do you think? Post a comment and join the conversation. I’ll run some of them with the blog through the week.

After all, it’s not like we’re going to be talking about anything else all week.

Comments