The first quarter of the season has concluded and in hindsight, it was a much tougher schedule than it looked before the season. Their first 4 opponents have a combined 13-6 record with all 4 teams currently over .500, that's good for a .680 winning percentage.
Contrast that with the Eagles' October opponents who currently sport a combined 4-10 record. No October opponent is currently even .500 and the strongest of those teams, the Bears at 2-3, have to come to the Linc. With the Eagles getting healthier coming out of the bye and the schedule getting easier... there will be no excuses for the kind of form we've seen so far.
In fact, a perfect October would put this team over .500 and right back in the hunt. With a killer November on the horizon, it's do or die. They start off the stretch against the Jets, who look and sound like the Eagles...
"It's never about one person," Mangini said, sounding much like Andy Reid as the questioners honed in on Mangini's quarterback, Chad Pennington.
Like the Eagles, the Jets are a 2006 playoff team that seems to have lost its way. Unlike the Eagles, they can't blame key injuries; the Jets just flat-out aren't putting solid games together the way they did a year ago.
Ashley Fox says | Eagles in better spot than the woeful Jets
In other words, as bad as the Eagles have it right now with one win to their name, at least they're not the New York Jets, who yesterday dropped a game they should have won to their would-be rivals, the New York Giants.
After the crushing 35-24 loss, the Jets were inconsolable. The locker room was nearly silent. Jonathan Vilma sat shirtless, with his head in his hands. For a long time, Chad Pennington had his feet propped up on his locker, still wearing a green undershirt, his hair drenched in sweat.
Like the rest of the Jets, Pennington simply couldn't believe, after all that had gone right in the first half, that so much could go so wrong in the second. He couldn't believe that, here, with the Eagles up next, the Jets were 1-4. One and four.