Eagles look far from first place

THE EXODUS took place in two waves, each of them following a fourth-quarter interception by a rookie fourth-round draft pick thrust into the first NFL game of his career. The fans filed out of their plastic rows into the concrete aisles, many en route to that magical repository of revisionism where people go to forget everything they said over the previous week about the new starting quarterback and the potential of his offense.

Turns out, the Eagles can look just as bad with Nick Foles as with Mike Vick. Turns out, Marcus Mariota and Teddy Bridgewater and Brett Hundley might be worth keeping an eye on. But it also turns out that the problems on this Eagles roster go much deeper than the quarterback position.

At least that's the way it looked in 17-3 loss to the Cowboys yesterday afternoon. If you missed it, go sit in traffic for 3 hours while playing erectile dysfunction commercials every 5 minutes. That's pretty much how it felt. If this was the best the NFC East has to offer, perhaps relegation should be on the agenda at the next owners' meeting. Neither side acquitted itself particularly well in what was supposed to be a showdown between two first-place teams, but it was the depth of the Eagles' impotence that stole the show.

While the Cowboys eventually found a way to feed the ball to playmakers Dez Bryant and Jason Witten, Chip Kelly spent 60 minutes waiting for somebody, anybody to step up. Yes, a lot of that is on the guy slinging the rock. Before leaving with a head injury in the fourth quarter, Foles looked about as brutal as an alleged quarterback-of-the-future can, from the rapidity of his decision-making to the confidence of his footwork to the trajectory of his throws. But Kelly was correct in his sentiments afterward.

"I think it's everybody on the offensive side of the ball," the coach said. "I don't think we blocked very well, I don't think we caught the ball very well, I don't think we got off routes very well. It was 11 guys on offense. It was all of us on offense, me calling plays, everybody. It's not just one guy."

The thing Kelly can't say, but you hope that he realizes, is that any NFL team that uses Riley Cooper as an outside receiver is going to struggle. And that the Eagles' tight ends - specifically veteran Brent Celek and second-round pick Zach Ertz - have been missing in action for most of the season (they combined for four catches and 42 yards after entering yesterday ranked 34th and 37th among NFL tight ends in receptions). And that Bryce Brown might not be the type of running back who thrives in a shotgun running scheme (35 carries for 99 yards on the season after two inconsequential runs against the Cowboys, this after a rookie season in which he carried 115 times for 564 yards).

The most glaring weakness is on the outside, where Monte Kiffin devoted a single cornerback and little else to nullifying Cooper, just as plenty of defensive coordinators before him have done. The lack of respect that opposing defenses have for Cooper is almost humorous when you watch it on tape. The Cowboys? They complemented Dez Bryant with a kid named Terrance Williams, who happened to be a third-round draft pick this past April, and who happens to have 24 catches for 380 yards and three touchdowns (including six for 71 yards and a touchdown yesterday). Cooper was a nonfactor until the Cowboys dropped into prevent defense on the final drive of the game, at which point he caught four passes for 70 yards.

Long story short, the Eagles are a one-dimensional team, and the Cowboys limited that dimension to 55 yards on 18 carries. Kelly said later that the Cowboys did not employ any wrinkles that the Eagles had not prepared for, and that the lack of a running threat at quarterback did not play a big role because the Eagles ran more power than read option. The Cowboys just played better.

"I don't think, as offensive weapons, we gave [Foles] much of a chance," LeSean McCoy said. "There are plays that we should have made, there are plays that I should have made, to help him out. If you look down the line, I bet guys would say the same things about themselves. We just didn't give him a shot."

Down the line, that is exactly what they said. Jason Avant. Jason Kelce. DeSean Jackson. Kelly himself.

The question is whether the Eagles' offense has already reached its ceiling with the current crop of playmakers. Jackson and McCoy can both be electric. But are they enough? Would Jeremy Maclin be enough? He is coming off an ACL injury, and will be a free agent.

The difference for the Cowboys down the stretch was the presence of big targets Bryant and Witten, who helped pull Tony Romo through a day in which he was often off his mark. Bryant finished with eight catches for 110 yards, while Witten made a couple of big catches, including one when he was blanketed by safety Nate Allen. See, you can out-scheme the National Football League for a certain period of time, but at some point the genius of a head coach regresses to the ability of his playmakers, and the Eagles do not have enough of them. Jackson is dynamic, but a one-tool receiver. Maybe Ertz develops. Maybe Maclin returns. Maybe a power back emerges to complement McCoy. Maybe the offensive line gels.

Or maybe the team that we are watching right now is not one that can be fixed with one draft. Maybe it will take a lot more than a new quarterback. Maybe what we saw yesterday was how far the Eagles are from a team that belongs in a battle for first place.