LANDOVER, Md. - One week after laying an egg in Oakland, the Eagles finally located the henhouse. It was right there off the Capital Beltway, a big, old burgundy-and-gold henhouse with lots of chickens ripe for the plucking.

It wasn't that the Eagles played all that well in beating the Redskins, 27-17, last night on Monday Night Football. Indeed, with the exception of an end around to begin the game, their scoring philosophy in the first half as they took a 17-point lead was predicated on the belief the Redskins would eventually make a mistake to help them out.

Washington usually didn't make them wait long. One touchdown was the result of an interception return by Will Witherspoon, who became the best Eagles linebacker this season after just one half of play. Two field goals came about after a Redskins fumble and a muffed punt. The last score of the opening half came on a short-field drive made possible by a shanked punt.

That's the right way to play football, of course, to take what the other team gives you, but it seemed like a radical concept after watching the Eagles pass the ball incessantly against the Raiders, who have the most pliable run defense in the league.

In case you missed it in the box scores from Sunday's games, the New York Jets ran the ball 54 times for 318 yards against Oakland on the way to a 38-0 win. Andy Reid wouldn't run the ball 54 times in a game regardless, but a little happy medium now and then wouldn't hurt.

Last night, despite a first-quarter concussion suffered by Brian Westbrook, the Eagles did try to run the ball a little more. They called 30 passes and 23 runs before Donovan McNabb took a knee four times to end the game, which is about as balanced as the Eagles are apt to get. The numbers they produced, except when the Redskins failed to either cover or catch DeSean Jackson weren't that impressive, but they were plenty good enough to raid this henhouse.

"We had our bright spots . . . but it was a hit-and-miss on offense, I thought," Reid said.

Not to mix the fowl metaphors, but on the other sideline last night Washington coach Jim Zorn was walking and quacking like the lame duck that he is. The front office stripped Zorn of his play-calling responsibilities after the Redskins scored just six points last week in a loss to the dreadful Kansas City Chiefs. Previously this season, Washington had also lost to the equally woeful Detroit Lions and managed only narrow, uninspiring victories over St. Louis and Tampa Bay.

Where the Redskins might go from here is anyone's guess, but they will go with a quarterback who appears to be regressing rather than improving and with an offense that can't move consistently. Their defense isn't terrible, but it will be by the end of the season after spending as much time on the field as it does every week.

The Eagles are in much better shape. Of course, in comparison to the Redskins, nearly every team is in great shape.

The offense didn't light up the night, but once the Eagles had a big lead they went into maintenance mode in the second half. They ran the ball with LeSean McCoy or tried low-risk passes that, taken in conjunction, made long drives unlikely. The game was given to the punters and the defenses - the Eagles by design, the Redskins because they weren't good enough to do much else - and there's nothing less exciting than watching two quarters of that.

"I'm trying to feel like we just won a game," said Reid, who didn't like the tenor of the postgame questions. "I'm trying to feel that. Twenty-seven points. I know one was [scored by the defense]. But that's not a bad night. Should we have scored a few more in the second half? Absolutely. Can we improve? Absolutely. But I'm going to enjoy this one. After last week, that wasn't a pretty picture. This one was better."

No kidding. But it was a win against the Washington Redskins, and you have to take it for what it's worth. The Redskins drove to a fourth and goal at the Eagles' 4 in the final five minutes of the game but lost the ball when their center managed to - there's really no other way to say this - snap the ball against his own rear end. That really happened.

Yes, the Eagles are frustrating at times, but they still have a chance to get things right. (And they rarely hit themselves in the butt with the ball.) There is no such optimism in Washington, where next week's bye might be celebrated like Mardi Gras.

In the burgundy-and-gold henhouse, the coach quacks, the fans boo and go home, and even struggling teams can leave feeling a little better about themselves.

Contact columnist Bob Ford at 215-854-5842 or bford@phillynews.com. Read his blog at http://philly.com/postpatterns.