Eagles' run game better, but ...

IT WAS A WIN that felt like a loss. It was a postgame locker room where the search for positives felt forced. And so, when LeSean McCoy was asked about the Eagles' running game after a 34-7 lead over the St. Louis Rams had shrunk into a 34-28 victory, and he said, "Today was better than the last few weeks," it was hard to know what to make of it.

Thinking about what he said, though, McCoy was right. The running game is still nothing like it was last year, and it was not good enough on this given Sunday to put away the Rams without forcing everyone to experience just a touch of vertigo, but it was better.

Despite a slow start, the blocking was better and McCoy was better. Despite the fact that it was Darren Sproles, not McCoy, who broke the 25-yard run that might have saved the afternoon, there is something to build upon. Fair is fair.

"I was not that frustrated today," McCoy said. "I had more opportunities today. There were more lanes and more holes. At times, they stopped me by making nice adjustments and selling out for the run. Today, I felt like I could have broken more tackles."

For a couple of weeks now, McCoy has not looked himself. Coach Chip Kelly has said that it was the jumbled offensive line's fault, not McCoy's, but there still seemed to be a bit of missing magic from No. 25's elusive game. Even in the first half yesterday, with right tackle Lane Johnson returned from his suspension, the feeling was the same - and that was even discounting McCoy's absurd fumble in the second quarter, when he danced and danced and danced and danced and danced and danced and danced and then coughed up the ball.

But in the third quarter, there were more holes and McCoy seemed just a bit quicker and more decisive. There did not seem to be an underlying, unspoken injury - which has been the worry for a while. His numbers for the day: 24 carries for 81 yards, with a long run of 19 yards.

And as for the question of it being Sproles, not McCoy, who had the 25-yard run in the fourth quarter that changed the field position and who stayed on the field as the Eagles tried (and failed) to close out the game on offense, McCoy said, "Well, I actually took myself out for a couple of plays. Sproles and I work together . . . I touched the ball a lot today. I had 24 rushes. Next time, we really have to finish it, no matter if it's me or if it's him."

Still, let's not kid ourselves. They were better, yes, but they probably won't be closing out many games with the running game until center Jason Kelce and/or left guard Evan Mathis return in a few weeks from injury. That's really hard work, to run it when they know you're running it, and 60 percent of an offensive line probably isn't enough to get that done consistently.

But there is a different question. Whenever you are talking about an NFL offense, you are talking about circles within circles - and you also are almost always talking about the quarterback, even when you are talking about the running game. And the truth is that Nick Foles remains unable to consistently find the effectiveness that he experienced last season and, until he does, the running game will not approach what it did in 2013, either.

Last year, when the Eagles would put three wide receivers on the field - which was very often - opposing defenses would typically go to their nickel packages, with a defensive back replacing one of the linebackers. Against those nickels, the Eagles did a ton of their running business.

This year, though, the Eagles go to three wideouts and the defense often stays in its base defense; against the Rams, that meant three linebackers on the field. You see all kinds of variations during a game, but that has been the overall trend. Three linebackers says they are defending against the run. Three linebackers against three wideouts says they are daring you to beat them with the pass.

When they dare you to beat them with the pass, you have to beat them with the pass - and Foles has not been able to do that often enough. He hasn't been accurate enough down the field, and he hasn't been stepping into enough throws - and until he is, and until he does, and until defenses feel the need to worry about getting beat by the pass, it's going to be hard to run the ball.

Given that, you can only look for signs. McCoy said the Rams showed the Eagles "a totally different scheme than we saw on tape." Because of that, maybe it took the Eagles a half to pull themselves together. But there was enough there, at least for a while. There was something you could see, something just north of a glimmer, to suggest that McCoy will be OK and the running game will be serviceable.

But the gap between serviceable and excellent will not be bridged until Nick Foles can accept the dare. As they wait for that to happen, the Eagles are still 4-1; this just in.

Blog: philly.com/DNL