Eagles' training camp: An up-and-down journey to No. 10

by Les Bowen

Highs

First big decision: Drafting Donovan McNabb second overall on April 17, 1999, as fans who preferred Ricky Williams booed the pick.

First victory: 13-10 over the Cowboys on Oct. 10, 1999, after an 0-4 start.

Win that showed good times were coming: 41-14 season-opening stomping of host Dallas, on Sept. 3, 2000.

First playoff appearance: 21-13 wild card win over the Buccaneers on Dec. 31, 2000.

First NFC Championship Game: A 29-24 loss, on Jan. 27, 2002, at St. Louis, maybe the last Eagles loss that left fans with hope for the future.

Best win: 27-10 NFC Championship victory over Atlanta on Jan. 23, 2005.

Most unexpected win streak: Six in a row in 2006, including a first-round playoff victory over the Giants, all of it with Donovan McNabb down after spraining his ACL.

Game that belongs in both columns: Reid and the Eagles lost only 24-21 to the favored Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX, but the scoring drive to cut the deficit to three took too long and became a draining offseason controversy, ruining the franchise's second all-time Super Bowl appearance.

Personnel decision that belongs in both columns: Terrell Owens.

Lows

First really bad first-round draft decision: Freddie Mitchell, 25th overall in 2001. Drafting the wrong wideouts has been a hallmark of the Reid era.

Best shot blown: Jan. 19, 2003, the shocking 27-10 NFC title game loss to Tampa Bay that closed the Vet. Birds had beaten Tampa during the regular season running the ball, then got away from the run after building an early lead in this game. The Buccaneers then beat an extremely overmatched Oakland team in the Super Bowl -- an AFC representative nothing like the Pats team the Birds faced 2 years later.

Worst draft-day decision: The Eagles burned a second-round pick to move up from 30th to 15th in the first round and and draft Miami defensive end Jerome McDougle in April 2003. McDougle has appeared in just 33 of a possible 80 regular-season games and has three career sacks.

Nadir of hopelessness: Jan. 18, 2004, a 14-3 home loss to Carolina that was the Eagles' stunning third NFC title game loss in a row, the night of the Todd Pinkston meltdown.

Biggest step backward: The 6-10 season in 2005 that followed the Eagles' Super Bowl loss, complete with a running feud between management and wideout Terrell Owens that should never have dragged on through the season.

Biggest offseason challenge: In 2007, while Reid and his wife Tammy were away during Super Bowl week, oldest sons Garrett and Britt were arrested in separate incidents the same day. More legal problems were to follow for both young men, who were convicted of drug-related charges and treated for drug abuse. Reid took a 5-week leave of absence.

Dumbest loss: The Birds dropped their 2007 season opener in Green Bay, 16-13, largely because they fumbled away two punts that led to Packers scores. The team released punt returner Jeremy Bloom late in the preseason and decided to wing it with Greg Lewis and J.R. Reed, neither of whom had ever returned punts previously.