On the game's first play from scrimmage he caught a short pass from Donovan McNabb and picked up 17 yards. McNabb handed him the football four more times during the 80-yard drive, and Westbrook gobbled up 22 yards, the last 9 for a touchdown on a first-and-goal play.

Westbrook was back. All would be well with the Eagles' offense, which had scored a grand total of three TDs in the seven quarters since he injured his ankle in Week 3 against Pittsburgh.

At least it seemed like a reasonable assumption at the time.

Instead, Westbrook was hardly a factor the rest of the game, one the Eagles lost to the Redskins, 23-17, leaving them in a hole in the NFC East Division that couldn't be much deeper only five weeks into the season.

Following that first series, Westbrook ran the ball only eight more times and caught five more passes. He gained 33 yards on the ground for a 2.8 yards-per-carry average. One reason he had a light load was because the Eagles rarely had the ball. Another was his ankle simply wasn't at 100 percent. And it didn't help that he missed most of the Eagles' second possession because of a rib contusion that was tended to in the locker room before he returned to play early in the second quarter.

Typically, Westbrook was circumspect about his ankle, except to say it felt a lot better before he got tackled than it did afterward.

"I'm feeling better today," said Westbrook, who was listed as questionable on Friday. "The tough part about the ankle is that it feels good for a while, [but] you might get tackled and it doesn't feel good after that point. So, you just try to go out there and fight it off and do the best you can."

And the rib? "I got a little bruised, something like that, so I was just trying to make sure everything was straight," he said, conceding he'll likely get an MRI on the rib.

Whatever the case, Westbrook didn't seem like himself after that first Eagles possession.

"I try to fight through everything," he said when asked if he was limited because of the injuries. "Every pain that I had I tried to fight through. My ankle, my rib, things like that. Of course, when you're not 100 percent you're limited in some way, but I continue to try to fight through it and make the most of it."

Nonetheless, Westbrook had a chance to make an impact when the Eagles, trailing by 23-14, had second and 1 on the Washington 2-yard line midway through the fourth quarter. He was stopped for no gain.

On third down, things came apart. Thinking the play clock was running down, Donovan McNabb looked around for the referee to call a time-out. The ref motioned to him that the clock had been reset. Still, the Eagles' backfield looked confused. McNabb called an audible and, in a slow-developing play, handed the ball to Westbrook, who was dropped for a 3-yard loss. The Eagles had to settle for a field goal.

"I thought Don [McNabb] was trying to call a time-out at first, and different things went on during that play," Westbrook said. "I think when the play came in, it was a little miscommunication. We didn't execute the play very well. When you have those types of miscommunications, if you don't execute, you're not going to have success, and we didn't. I didn't see any opening there."