Rich Hofmann: Eagles need to convert red-zone trips into touchdowns

YOU KNOW what the good teams in the NFL do? They win games while they're still figuring things out. It is what the Eagles are doing so far in 2012.

We all know there are examples of teams that start slow and still make the playoffs. But the odds grow pretty long, pretty fast. In the last five seasons, the typical NFL playoff team was 3-1 or better after the first four games, and only one-third of playoff teams in that time period were 2-2 or worse. You cannot win a playoff berth in September, but you can turn yourself into a longshot almost overnight if you aren't careful.

The Eagles, because their defense has been so improved and because quarterback Michael Vick has been so good at the end of games, are 3-1 and leading the NFC East. But anyone who has watched the games can attest to the still-figuring-things-out part of the predicate. Especially along the offensive line, there seems to be a shakedown cruise in the first half of every game. It is a fairly typical phenomenon around the NFL, and also fairly typical with this bunch both this season and last season. They get better during games, and in 2011, they got better as the season progressed. So that bears watching.

Overall, though, the next thing the Eagles have to figure out is the red zone.

"Both execution and playwise, we can do some things," Eagles coach Andy Reid said, helpfully.

The numbers are somewhere between pedestrian and brutal through four games. The Eagles have made 13 trips into the red zone and scored only five touchdowns. Your scoreboard totals: five touchdowns, five field goals, three turnovers and a touchdown rate of 38.5 percent, which is 27th in the NFL, which is reasonably lousy.

They converted two of two against Cleveland in the opener and two of five against Baltimore, but then the bottom fell out almost completely: 0-for-2 against Arizona and 1-for-4 against the Giants. The issue in Arizona was turnovers, mostly. The issue against the Giants was caution as they settled for three field goals.

"Well, we started out fast with it and did well with it," Reid said. "Then, the past couple of games, we haven't done so well with it. We've got to go back and make sure that we get in. You want touchdowns, not field goals. We have a good field-goal kicker but you'd rather see him out there kicking off than kicking field goals."

If there was an overriding theme to their ineffectiveness, Reid wasn't letting on. But, as right tackle Todd Herremans said, "It's a little frustrating . . . We move the ball so well up and down the field that it shouldn't be a question if we're getting six or three."

But it is. And here is the thing: Just as with the offensive line, the red zone also improved in 2011 as the season progressed. Through four games last year, the Eagles were converting touchdowns only 38 percent of the time - and turning the ball over a bunch, too. But from Weeks 5 to 16, the Eagles converted 58 percent of the time. Along the way, everything got better - and, not coincidentally, they won a lot more games.

Herremans says that the improvement of the line, both within games and through the season, is a natural enough phenomenon, and that part of it has to do with Vick. "Everybody plays Mike a little different," he said. "As a line up front, we're going to see a variety of things [from defenses], and they might not even be things we saw on film."

Sometimes, he said, it takes a couple of series for all of them to figure out exactly what the defensive plan of attack against Vick is going to be that week - and they do tend to sort it out, between the players themselves and offensive line coach Howard Mudd and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. "We'd prefer it wouldn't be like that," Herremans said, but it seems to be the pattern.

He said, "It can't be Christmas every day - at least that's what Marty always says."

But it had better start being a little more festive in the red zone, and fairly soon. The Eagles have won one game this season scoring 17 points and one game scoring 19 points. Over the last five seasons, NFL teams only win about 35 percent of the time when scoring in that range. It is to the Eagles' credit that they are winning like that, but they cannot kid themselves. You can only beat the odds for so long.