Eagles need gut check, as well as an ego check

Former head coach Ray Rhodes called it the "Pro Bowl glide," interspersing the phrase in several places with his favorite adjectival emphasis. Rhodes wasn't right about very much as the Eagles came apart under his guidance, but he could sniff out a team that thought more of its abilities than the evidence on the scoreboard would support.

After three straight losses in which the Eagles played well enough to build a lead, then poorly enough to lose it each time, this suddenly looks like that kind of team. It looks like a team that loses its sense of urgency and takes its foot from the gas pedal, content to coast to the finish like a sprinter that has rated the field perfectly and doesn't need to expend extra energy.

There is more to this losing streak, of course. The schemes could be ill-fitted to the personnel; or the small breaks of these close games just haven't evened out yet; and, yes, there is the rookie kicker who missed two fourth-quarter field goals on Sunday, either one of which could have won the game.

Sometimes, though, it just comes down to playing hard and playing focused until the final whistle, and the Eagles aren't doing that. The majority of the blame will be put on the defense, which has given up 50 unanswered points in the three losses, and has been outscored, 36-0, in the fourth quarters of those games. Save some tar for the offense, though. When it's 50-0, the 50 is certainly bad, but the zero isn't very good, either.

In the losses to Atlanta and New York, the offense got an asterisk because Michael Vick was unable to finish those games. That wasn't the case on Sunday, however, although Vick did suffer an injury for the third straight week. The dislocated finger he suffered on his throwing hand didn't keep him from making good throws. It was the San Francisco pressure and some conservative play-calling that slowed down the offense.

The Eagles are 1-3 now, and if they thought they could glide toward individual honors and a championship, that thought should be long gone. They somehow managed to give up 442 yards of total offense to a team that went into the game averaging a scant 214, which ranked the 49ers last in the league. Now, they are facing two difficult road games that will decide if their season can be saved. The Eagles are convinced they are better than this, but that might be part of the problem.

"Maybe it's this label thing that we've got to get past, where guys came into this thinking we had such good players it's going to happen automatically. I didn't like it when we started with that label," said defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins. "Guys have to realize that if we don't win, we're just a bunch of talented players that haven't done anything. There are a lot of talented teams in this league that never win because they never learn how to play together as a team."

Andy Reid offered no answers aside from the usual ones. The coaches and players have to figure it out. He has to do a better job putting people in position to make plays. They have to keep working to get this thing right.

"We'll continue to improve," Reid said.

Continue? You mean the improvement has already started? Oh, well, that's comforting.

Vick, whose demeanor of upbeat blandness is being replaced by a few pointed observations here and there, said the players need to recognize and respond to the "gut check" moments of a game.

"You have to be willing to give everything you got and . . . [stay] fundamentally sound, be mentally sharp, and let your physical abilities show. That's gut check," Vick said. "Some people have it and some people don't, but we're going to find out who's got it."

More to the point, they will find out who doesn't. What the coaching staff can do with that information is open to debate. If the team is talented enough across the roster, that's one thing. If there are simply too many holes, too many places in which the front office left the shelf understocked - as appears to be the case at linebacker and the offensive line - that's not going to be fixed, no matter how players can answer a "gut check."

"We've been in this situation before, and we've turned it around," defensive coordinator Juan Castillo said.

That's true. The 2008 team started 2-3 and went all the way to the conference championship. There is history to support the possibility of a turnaround.

There is also history to suggest some teams think they are too good for their own britches. Those teams don't win because there is no way to glide coolly through a football game, at least not successfully. The Eagles have to play every down as if they are losing by 10 points. It might not be cool, but it might work.

"We're 1-3, and it's real," said defensive end Jason Babin.

Yes, and surprising, and disappointing, and confounding. But mostly real. Very, very real.