Well, think of me as Charlie Brown, and the Eagles as Lucy, holding the ball. Here I go again. With full knowledge that Andy has lost six of his last seven, the week before the bye.

Am I confident the Eagles can go to San Francisco and win, almost certainly playing without Westbrook and his fractured ribs? Of course not. After the last 2 weeks, it's hard to be confident in anything about this team, except in the knowledge that short-yardage offense at crunch time is going to be a mess.

This game is the season, I think, even though the Eagles will tell you it isn't, should they lose. Two-and-four with all the losses within the conference, this year, when everybody else in the NFC East looks like a doubledigit winner - to get from there to a playoff berth would take a miraculous postbye turnaround, something like nine wins in the last 10 games, really, really improbable. And I think the Eagles understand that, even if they don't dare say it, so early in the year.

Even without Westbrook, the Birds should be able to score points on this defense. I'm expecting to see the best of whatever Donovan McNabb has left for us this Sunday; I wouldn't be shocked if he even took off on a scamper or two.

Maybe I just don't want to give up on the season, with 10 more weeks of listening to Andy and roughly 90 stories yet to write.

Prediction: