Eagles are what their 3-4 record shows they are

ON MONDAY, after his team limped home from its 27-16 beating in Carolina the night before, Eagles coach Chip Kelly put forth his usual wash-rinse-repeat cycle of excuses for his faltering squad.

The problem with talking about "cleaning things up," however, is that if you still need to do that after seven games, it likely means your detergent isn't any good.

It is safe now to say the Eagles are what their 3-4 record states they are - a mediocre team that can stay in the playoff race only because the rest of the NFC East is just as mediocre.

That is a far cry from what many expected out of this team when it broke training camp. Thoughts of a deep playoff run are scattered dreams now.

Any success the Eagles have from here on out will be more due to luck and/or circumstance, rather than any significant improvement they can make in the second half of the season.

"I told my guys after the football game, 'I think we're a good team that just needs to clean things up,' " Kelly said.

He then went on to list a litany of isolated mental and physical mistakes he said contributed to the loss to Carolina.

"We're close, but when you're playing a really good team like Carolina you've got to stop getting in your own way," Kelly said. "You've got to stop stopping yourself."

Put that in the category of things a coach must say when his team is struggling but not dead - especially heading into a bye week.

Discerning reality is up to those who give this squad the eye test each time it steps onto the field.

The overall talent simply is not there. There are areas of quality, but when it is put all together, it does not function as a unit capable of performing consistently.

Still, what will Kelly and his coaching staff do?

They've gone back to the basics, simplified things, tried to re-establish the core, yet here they are, with the same issues that have plagued them since the 26-24, season-opening loss in Atlanta.

Yes, there are different variations, but the overall problems remain the same.

Against the Panthers, it was a case of the drops by the receivers, as many as 10, by Kelly's review of the films.

But that wasn't much different from the secondary getting torched by Atlanta; the offensive line struggling to find cohesion; running back DeMarco Murray's inability to get past the line of scrimmage for the first four games; quarterback Sam Bradford's inability to perform at a decent level for a complete game.

In each instance, Kelly said they watched film, saw the errors and deemed them correctable.

Monday, however, might have provided the excuse of excuses.

Kelly said the wide receivers aren't catching the ball because, "I think sometimes they may actually be thinking too much instead of just relaxing and going to play.

"Some of them need to just take a big, deep breath and do what we know they can do. And they have made some big-time catches in games for us and can continue to do that for us."

Actually, they haven't - at least not recently.

Second-year receiver Jordan Matthews is the only receiver who caught the ball on a consistent basis last season, and he's been the worst at dropping catchable balls.

"Fundamental stuff," Kelly said.

"I don't know anybody who catches more balls during the week than (Matthews). He's here at 7 a.m. working on the JUGS machine. Sometimes I think he just overthinks it and needs to take a deep breath and just go play. He has outstanding hands and has been a very clutch receiver for us."

It's not as if Kelly has the option of seeing the trees through the forest.

This is what the Eagles have. That won't change. There are no guys on the street who can come in and make things better.

The backups are not considered, except in the case of injury.

Nothing showed that more than Kelly again going to the mat in support of Bradford, who wasn't awful but was far from the quarterback Kelly talked so glowingly about on Monday.

"No, not all," Kelly said when asked whether he has even considered a quarterback switch. "I think our quarterback is playing well . . . I'm very pleased with Sam."

And that is the problem. Kelly seems to be pleased with all of the talent he has on this roster. After seven games of inconsistency, he's still saying the Eagles simply need to clean things up.

"It's every week, because every week is a battle," Kelly said. "We're right in the middle of everything, and so is everybody else. It's literally a one-game season as you keep going, and did you do good enough to win on Sunday, or did you lose on Sunday? And then you assess it, take a look at the film, make the proper corrections and then get ready to play the next opponent."

Columns: ph.ly/Smallwood