Donovan McNabb

McNabb deserves some of the blame but not nearly all of it.

After orchestrating a good opening drive for a touchdown, the Eagles settled for a 50-yard field-goal attempt on their second drive, which stalled when a third-and-8 pass sailed through the hands of Greg Lewis. The pass was high, but Lewis has to catch it.

The Eagles ran a total of 16 offensive plays for 49 yards and one first down on their next five possessions.

After a 22-yard completion to Lewis to start the Eagles' third series, things stalled when McNabb's only true deep pass of the day, on a third-and-7 play, was caught out of bounds by Lorenzo Booker.

Center Jamaal Jackson and a bad play call on second down were to blame for the Eagles' next failed series. Jackson's illegal snap on first down put the Eagles in a first-and-15 situation to start the series. A first-down pass intended for Jason Avant was knocked down on a nice play by defensive end Andre Carter, and a second-down run by Brian Westbrook went nowhere, leaving the offense in a difficult third-and-15 situation that was not converted.

The first series of the second half was McNabb's worst of the game. He missed a wide-open Lewis on first down, and on third and 8, tried to force a throw to Avant when DeSean Jackson was wide open underneath. If Jackson got the ball in stride, he might have scored a touchdown.

Another three-and-out series followed, but again it was more about play-calling than the quarterback. After McNabb and Westbrook connected for an 8-yard screen on first down, the Eagles eventually were in a third-and-2 situation. Coach Andy Reid called another screen, putting all his eggs in one basket, and the play was stopped for no gain.

The Eagles' seventh offensive series started with a drop by Reggie Brown and ended when Westbrook was stopped by linebacker London Fletcher 3 yards shy of a first down. In between, McNabb and Westbrook couldn't hook up on a sideline pattern that could have drawn an illegal-contact flag on Fletcher.

McNabb was 5 for 5 for 71 yards on the Eagles' final offensive series, which infamously stalled again when the Eagles couldn't pick up a first down on consecutive running plays. The quarterback did audible to a running play that didn't work on third and 1 from the 2-yard line, but there was chaos and confusion even before that. Blame the quarterback some, the coach even more.

Mike Patterson

Running back Clinton Portis did most of his damage going to the left side, which was occupied by defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley, who did not have a good day. Patterson finished with 10 tackles and, with a few exceptions, did a decent job controlling his side of the line of scrimmage.

Patterson, in fact, had more tackles on the left side of the line of scrimmage than Bunkley.

Neither Patterson nor Bunkley gets to stay on the field much in passing situations because defensive coordinator Jim Johnson prefers to use Darren Howard and Dan Klecko in those situations.

Chris Gocong

Gocong was on the field for roughly 25 of the 78 defensive snaps, made just one tackle, and had one successful defense against a pass. The pass came late in the first quarter, when he did a good job of covering tight end Chris Cooley to force a short incompletion. It was one of the few times the Eagles covered Cooley well.

The linebacker also stopped Portis for no gain late in the third quarter, but the running back broke free for a 27-yard run a few plays later and scored a touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

Gocong was driven 8 yards downfield on a third-and-1 play to Portis that went for a first down in the second quarter, and later in the quarter, lost track of Cooley on a 26-yard completion.

Even though Johnson used Gocong as a defensive end on some passing downs a year ago, we have not seen that 3-4 formation much this season. The Eagles didn't show it at all Sunday.

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