Eagles win, but still lack a clear identity

USUALLY AFTER five games or so, an NFL team has formed an identity.

Five games into the Eagles' season, the identity is this:

Amorphous.

The Eagles, now 4-1 after a 34-28 win over the Rams (1-3), are a special sort of dangerous. They have an offense that can sting opponents, but they have developed a penchant for big plays on special teams and defense that overcome their stars' disappearance and untimely turnovers.

"It's big that we're 4-1," said left tackle Jason Peters, who, in his 11 NFL seasons, has seen sloppy play and injury issues doom other squads. "I was telling Trent Cole, I've been on teams [like this] that started 0-5."

Yesterday, the Birds overcame two turnovers by shaky quarterback Nick Foles and a fumble lost by star running back LeSean McCoy.

"As long as we get a win, it doesn't matter," said Cole, whose sack of Austin Davis forced a fumble that Cedric Thornton covered in the end zone for a third-quarter touchdown.

It has taken plays like that to bring the Eagles to a place like this.

It would be easy to point at the team's shortcomings and fret about its future. It would be simple to point at the caliber of opponent - the Rams stink, and so does Washington, and the Jaguars are worse - and contend that the Eagles' road to .800 football was paved with patsies.

It also would be unwise, and unfair. Good teams beat bad teams. It is the defining measure between the types.

How it gets done matters less than that it gets done.

Change always is hard to swallow.

Last season, an intact and talented offensive line allowed the Eagles' offensive weaponry to flourish. DeSean Jackson's speed and deep-ball capabilities loosened defenses, which limited their ability to key on big-play runner McCoy, freed stand-in starter Riley Cooper and made Foles comfortable and effective in his first run as a full-time starter.

Perhaps foolishly, the Eagles released Jackson, failed to fortify the offensive line and, while they reconstructed their receiving corps, they did not improve it.

They did, however, upgrade their special teams with veterans and rookies, acquired versatile veteran back Darren Sproles and snared heady free-agent safety Malcolm Jenkins. They also hoped Cole would grow accustomed to his position change, and expected their investments in young front-seven defenders Fletcher Cox, Mychal Kendricks, Vinny Curry and Brandon Graham would, with another year of seasoning, pay off.

All of that happened.

"On this team, they really care about special teams. They go hard," said Sproles, who last week returned a punt for a touchdown.

Indeed, for the second straight week big plays from the defense and special teams carried the day as far as it was carried. Last week, at San Francisco, those units accounted for all of the team's points in a close loss.

This week, the punt-block unit worked again; this time, third- and fourth-string tight ends Trey Burton and James Casey combined to collapse the punter's end-zone pocket. Casey deflected it and free-agent special-teamer Chris Maragos fell on the ball in the end zone.

Cox and Kendricks had been the team's best defenders until Kendricks was hurt in Game 2. Yesterday, Curry, drafted in the second round in 2012, sacked Austin Davis and forced a fumble that Cox recovered. Early in the third quarter, big-money end-turned-linebacker Cole felled St. Louis quarterback Austin Davis with a sack near the Rams' goal line. Davis fumbled and Thornton fell on the ball for a 27-7 lead early in the third quarter.

Later in that quarter, former first-round end-turned-linebacker Graham forced a fumble by Zac Stacy, which Thornton returned 40 yards and set up what turned out to be the winning score.

"It definitely feels like things are coming together," Curry said.

No one is coming like Cole. There was considerable question last year if Cole, at 31 and after nine seasons, could convert from defensive end in a 4-3 scheme to outside linebacker in a 3-4. He was largely ineffective the first half of the 2013 season, but he has 10 1/2 sacks in his last 13 games.

Cole never will be able to blanket a premier tight end, but he at least is earning the $8.75 million he will take home from 2013 and '14.

"I hear all the heat y'all come bringing on me, bad-mouthing me," Cole said to a group of reporters, smiling widely, still in a grass-stained uniform an hour after the game. "Then you have to back up. Hey, I'm not done. I've got some years left."

Those years probably aren't worth the more than $35 million owed Cole if he remains an Eagle through 2017, but he was worth his game check Sunday.

Foles is still playing on his rookie contract, so his value remains excellent - even if his play is not.

His touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin after Graham's forced fumble - a 24-yard toss on second down against busted coverage - was Foles' finest moment, one of the few throws on which he was both accurate and effective. The previous pass - underthrown to Jordan Matthews with no defender near passer or receiver - was the worst moment; at least, as a passer.

"I have to let that thing rip," said Foles, whose 6-6 frame simply does not generate the velocity one might think. "I always have to let the ball rip."

Foles threw one interception, an underthrow, and was saved from two others by his receivers and by luck.

His arm had nothing to do with his worst moment of the day: a fumble at the end of a fourth-quarter run that ended a drive that could have iced the game. He went down untouched, but not feet-first, and coughed up the ball at the Rams' 38.

"If you're going to go down [headfirst], all you've got to do is protect the ball," said Eagles coach Chip Kelly.

McCoy remains enigmatic. His 81 yards were a season high, but he generally avoided contact and he fumbled the ball away early in the second quarter.

"The ball was swinging" earlier in the run, Kelly said. "I thought it was coming out before that."

Kelly wasn't the only big Bird burned by the fumbles.

Peters was visibly disgusted on the field when Foles fumbled. Peters was just as piqued last week at San Francisco when tight end Zach Ertz and wide receiver Riley Cooper coughed up the ball after catches - fumbles that likely cost the Eagles a fifth win.

"We protect the ball, and we blow teams out," Peters griped. "[Fumbling] stalls the offense."

The line did McCoy and Foles few favors, but both have grown continually more gun-shy. That might change if the line is reconstituted in November, when injured guard Evan Mathis and center Jason Kelce are expected to return from injury.

Until then, the Eagles will depend on big plays from less likely places.

They have no choice.

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