It is the time of the NFL season for that kind of question, when you really don't know exactly how good your team might or might not be.

The same question, or some variation, is being asked this week in Green Bay, where the Packers followed a nice opening win over Chicago with a home loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Eww.

And it is being asked in Arizona, where the Cardinals stunk up the place in the opener against the 49ers, then went on the road to win easily at Jacksonville.

And it is also being asked in Houston, where the Texans lost the first game at home to the Jets (badly), then went on the road against a well-regarded Tennessee Titans team and grinded out a tough win.

The glass-half-full folks in Philadelphia would point out, rightfully so, that you can't take too much from the result of a game in which your quarterback is making his first NFL start. Kevin Kolb was OK, nothing special, for the Eagles, but he threw a third-quarter interception that pretty much killed them. Eventually, Donovan McNabb will return and the offense will operate more efficiently.

At the half-empty end of the table, there is the leaky play of the defense, particularly the linebackers, and the dreadful showing of the special teams and the coaching staff. All of that is undeniable, too.

The problem is that the true nature of the Eagles might not be revealed for a while. Even if McNabb returns this week, the Eagles are playing the god-awful Kansas City Chiefs and won't need much of an effort to bounce back and look good again. Then there is the bye week, followed by two more games against so-so competition -- Tampa Bay and Oakland.

By that time, McNabb will surely have returned and whatever craziness Andy Reid has in store for the use of Michael Vick will have been revealed. The offense will be a work in progress for a while, particularly if Brian Westbrook is gimping around on a bad ankle. Where the Eagles have really show a turnaround is on defense and special teams.

I would expect that if the linebackers can't cover any better than they did on Sunday, you will see a much higher percentage of nickel and dime packages in the defensive backfield. That will make it harder to stop the opponents' running games, but otherwise those opponents will take the Saints' game film and pick them apart with the tight end and backs out of the backfield.

As for the special teams, if the guys on the roster aren't smart enough to keep from blocking in the back and holding, they need to get some other guys. Or they need better coaching. Overall, they certainly need better punting from Sav Rocca, or he can be replaced, too.

(Inquirer photo by Yong Kim)

Or, more to the point, will Andy Reid and the Eagles stick with the kid regardless of what's happening Sunday, just to make the point that they stuck with the kid?

If Kevin Kolb manages the game well enough and the defense plays as it did against Carolina, it's a moot question. The Eagles take a win over New Orleans, Donovan gets another week to heal, and Kolb gets the start again the following game against Kansas City.

But what if that's not how it goes? What would it take for Jeff Garcia to get on the field this Sunday. It could be a game in which the offense is flat, the outcome is still in doubt and the game is headed into the fourth quarter. Andy Reid doesn't like to be wrong, but he also doesn't like to lose games, particularly conference games when you never know how many wins are necessary to secure home-field advantage in the playoffs.

When Garcia was here the first time around, he was amazed that the backup never got to take snaps with the first-team offense during the week. The starter got all the reps with the starting unit -- unlike many other places -- and that's still the case. Kolb, according to Reid, will take all the snaps with the No. 1's, while Garcia and Michael Vick split snaps on the scout team. What good that will do Garcia as he runs the other team's offense and hands the ball to Eldra Buckley is difficult to determine.

Perhaps the point is that Reid has zero intention of putting Garcia on the field unless Kolb is injured and can't continue. He intends to give the kid every snap of this game, live and die with the results, and learn more about Kolb than he knew before.

 At Reid's press conference Wednesday, he was asked about where he thought Kolb was in the development process. He said:

Hank Baskett, who is married to his very own reality show, got a whole bunch of reality on Tuesday when the Eagles couldn't trade him for even a fifth-round pick and had to cut him loose to make room for the addition of either Jeff Garcia or Michael Vick to the roster, however you choose to look at it.

Whichever spot Baskett cleared, Shawn Andrews took care of the other one when he was placed on the injured reserve list for the remainder of the season.

The Eagles have had a few strange days in the last few years, but this one might have been the strangest in which no player gave a press conference on his lawn while doing sit-ups.

How often can you add Jeff Garcia and Michael Vick to the active roster on the same day? How often would you want to?

The assumption is that Garcia is a short rental, like one of those carpet cleaners from the supermarket, but maybe not.

If the Eagles just want to get Donovan McNabb back on the field, still have confidence in Kevin Kolb's ability to become a good NFL quarterback and think Vick can run the team if necessary, then Garcia will be looking for work again in a month at the most.

But should McNabb be unavailable, who really gives the Eagles the best chance to win, which is supposed to be the point?

Garcia is 39, yes. But let's look at what he did last season with Tampa Bay. He completed 244 of 376 passes (64.9 percent), for 2,712 yards, an average gain of 7.2 yards. His passer rating of 90.2 was ninth-best in the league, better than Eli Manning, better than Jay Cutler, better than Donovan McNabb.

Garcia can still play and he can manage an offense. He can't throw downfield all that well, but we've yet to see Kevin Kolb do so, either. We're seeing an Eagles' front office attitude that has a short fuse at the moment. Andrews could have been given another chance to get healthy, but they had seen enough. How much rope will Kolb get this Sunday? Here's a guess. Not much. If the Eagles are losing and the offense isn't moving, Kolb's audition might not last more than a half. Reid wouldn't hesitate to go to Garcia. And, guess what, they might be better for it?

Now it gets really interesting. As Post Patterns said earlier in the day, there were a lot of reasons why A.J. Feeley might not be returning to the Eagles (they did get him a job indirectly with the Panthers, though), but the addition of Jeff Garcia leads to whole new set of conclusions.

Garcia has always been a starter. Even though he's 39 years old now, he thinks of himself this way. It might be he has to adjust his expectations a bit -- being out of work will do that -- but it still makes no sense that he would come here as the fourth quarterback (when McNabb is able to play and Michael Vick is eligible).

That makes you wonder if Garcia was added not because of what the front office and coaching staff saw happen to McNabb on Sunday but because of how ineffectual and disappointing Kevin Kolb was... again.

The Eagles have a very good team, maybe good enough to finally win a Super Bowl. If the performance put in by the defense wasn't a mirage on Sunday, that's about half a ticket right there.

Would the Eagles bet the promise this team holds on either Kolb or Vick as the quarterback if McNabb's injury keeps him out a long while or if he sustains another? Don't think so.

This move could be far more about what the football film says about Kevin Kolb than about what the X-ray film says about Donovan McNabb.

***   ***   ***

Here's the earlier Post Patterns on A.J. Feeley's decision -- and, of course, that picture of Heather.

Sitting in the Charlotte airport trying to figure out exactly what these grits things are, and wondering what the week will bring for the Eagles' quarterback situation. All of this could be moot by the time the plane lands and Andy Reid announces a new player has been added to the roster, but here's why the assumption that A.J. Feeley will return might not be the case. It could happen, but it's not the sure thing one would suppose.

Feeley, although a serviceable veteran backup, was untradeable because he was scheduled to make $1.3 million this season under the contract he had with the Eagles. Once he was released, he became an unrestricted free agent, but as a vested veteran any team that signed him and had him on the roster for the first game of the season would have to guarantee whatever deal he got for the entire season.

So it figured that Feeley would not be signed until Week 2. Well, here we are in week 2. It also figured the Eagles wouldn't be interested because they already had three quarterbacks. That figuring changed when Donovan McNabb fractured his rib on Sunday. If he's going to miss the coming week, the Eagles cannot go into their upcoming game with only one healthy and eligible quarterback on the roster -- particularly since it's unproven Kevin Kolb.

But are the Eagles a better option for Feeley than, say, New England, or some other team? Not necessarily. McNabb has a broken rib, but that's not a broken leg. It's not an ACL tear. McNabb will be back this season and, when he returns, also after Michael Vick is activated from his suspension, Feeley would again be the fourth quarterback here and would probably be released again. If he has other offers, he'd be better placed somewhere it appears he could last the season. If not, he'll be back here. But that's not at all a certainty, and it might not be in Feeley's best interest.

You could factor in a couple of other things. Maybe he's not happy with how things worked out here before. Maybe the fact that his girlfriend, Heather Mitts, will likely be playing soccer in Boston again next season could be a factor. Your guess. And by the time the plane lands, this could all be moot. As Andy likes to say, we'll see.

On the other hand, updating with the news that Shawn Andrews didn't practice on Thursday, it could be that Julius Peppers could choose either side of the line and be quite happy.

Earlier post on the Uh-O Line is here.

Here's a nice piece of trivia for you this weekend. Who are the only two men to have played in both the NCAA Final Four and the NFL's Super Bowl?

That would be Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers.

Peppers would like the two guys to have something else in common on Sunday afternoon in Charlotte. He'd like them both to spend a lot of time on the ground together in the Eagles backfield. Donovan -- not so much.

Julius (who was named after Dr. J) is the right defensive end for the Panthers, but he likes to move around, shifiting to the left side sometimes, standing up and jokering his way along the defensive line looking for an opening sometimes.

At least to start the game, he should be lined up against left tackle Jason Peters, but Julius can read a scouting report. Expect him to test Shawn Andrews on the other side fairly quickly.

Here's a prediction that wouldn't surprise me at all if it comes true. Shawn Andrews will be just fine in this game. He's a beast when he's right and, although that hasn't been the case for more than a year, he appears to be OK now. That's what he says. That's how he looks. That's what the coaches say. So, until further notice, he's OK.

Where the problem may arise Sunday is with Peters. He has looked extremely ordinary since arriving in Philadelphia. As weird as things have been with Shawn Andrews, my greatest concern for the offensive line -- and that covers a bunch of problems -- is with Peters.

Peppers will tell you where the weak link is. By the second quarter, he'll have it figured out and that's where he'll be lining up.

If nothing else, Peppers is a motivated man. He asked to be traded to a 3-4 defense during the offseason because he thinks outside linebacker is the place for him to extend his career. The Panthers didn't accomodate him. In fact, they put the franchise tag on him, which didn't please Peppers all that much. But he will be an unrestricted free agent after this season and the NFL appears to be headed into an uncapped year in 2010. That means Julius Peppers isn't just playing for contract. He's playing for CONTRACT!

Motivation is a wonderful thing in sports, but it might not be so good to be lined up opposite Peppers this season. Peters and Andrews have the first chance to enjoy that experience, with Peters having the job of protecting McNabb's blind side. Watch your back, Don. 

There is no denying that sticking with Brad Lidge as the closer is not the popular thing for Charlie Manuel to do, and neither is it an absolutely sure path to where the team wants to get.

I made the case in a column today that it is still the right way to go, at least until a better option is identified and until Lidge has every single chance to right himself.

Not everyone agrees, obviously, and that point of view may prove correct in the end.  But the part of the argument that is dead wrong is that Manuel is sticking with Lidge out of some sort of sentimentality regarding what happened in 2008.

The notion that Manuel, who has been in this game his whole life, is a dewy-eyed softie is dead wrong. He's not sticking with Lidge out of a misplaced, or overactive, loyalty, but because he also thinks Lidge is the best logical option. When that changes, Charlie will make the change, too. But he's not going to give away a chance at a repeat title because he doesn't want to hurt Brad Lidge's feelings. That is ludicrous.

Having noted all that, however, this article, from the fertile minds at phillygameday.com is really funny.

If someone had told you the Buffalo Bills would fire their offensive coordinator one week before the start of the regular season, I know you would have thought old friend Terrell Owens would have something to do with it.

That's wasn't the case when the Bills cut loose Turk Schonert (if the Turk cuts the players, who cuts the Turk?) over the weekend.

Now, admittedly, the Bills did fail to score a touchdown in five preseason games, and that's difficult to do, but the word is that the offensive woes didn't worry head coach Dick Jauron as much as they worried owner Ralph Wilson Jr., who ordered the firing.

All of this has taken place with Terrell on the sidelines with a bad toe. Owens told his Twitter public he expects to be ready for the season opener and dished out a reminder from Proverbs that from the Lord's mouth comes knowledge and understanding, which puts the Lord at least two ahead of T.O.

This is a reminder that with all the uncertainty surrounding the Eagles as they head toward the regular season, there are some real train wrecks out there in the NFL. Be glad your team isn't one of them.

Schonert, who didn't apparently take the firing well, told a Buffalo television station that he was let go because the offense "wasn't simple enough" for Jauron. Schonert liked to go no-huddle and liked to throw in a lot of misdirection and stuff, but nothing all that radical.

It was like Emperor Joseph telling Mozart that the new composition he ordered was very nice but had "too many notes. Just take out a few and it will be perfect."

Well, maybe not exactly like that, but you get the idea.

Alex Van Pelt, the quarterbacks coach elevated to the coordinator's role was reported to be "nervous" about the promotion (no kidding), but does have the support of quarterback Trent Edwards. Of course, it would be a lot better to have the support of, say, Peyton Manning or Drew Brees or someone. But Edwards is what they have and the next crisis will arrive -- set your watches -- when he can't get the ball to Owens.

Can't wait. The problems of other teams are always more entertaining than the problems of your own.