Rich Hofmann: This test was more like a quiz for Eagles

November 03, 2008
  • Quintin Mikell knocks pass away from Seahawks' John Carlson.

SEATTLE - Sheldon Brown has always been the toughest grader in the school. The man would have been a beast teaching English Comp 101, leaving papers littered with red circles and big X's and "argument doesn't follow" and then the dreaded "see me" underlined.

Brown is hard to impress before January. He is impossible to impress on the first weekend in November. He is the only one who will really volunteer the truth on a day when the Eagles beat the Seattle Seahawks by 26-7 - that is, that the Seahawks are playing with a backup quarterback and just aren't very good right now.

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"That's cool," said the Eagles' right cornerback, after a win in which they forced Seattle to punt 11 consecutive times at one point.

"But they're beat up. They're banged up. They're kind of in a tough situation - they were rallying the troops, trying to find and figure their way. They're searching.

"We'll really see where we're at this week," Brown said.

This week. The New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field. Sunday night football. Truth-telling.

For a while here, the 7-1 Giants have been the name-that-must-not-be-spoken around the Eagles. After all, the Eagles have had their own problems, falling into last place in the NFC East, losing their first two division games to the Cowboys and Redskins.

But now the Eagles have won three games in a row - and if they didn't exactly have to beat the '85 Bears in the process, well, there is no such thing as the '85 Bears in the NFL anymore. They started off painfully slowly yesterday against the

Seahawks, kept their wits about them in a noisy stadium, and then cruised to the finish, bringing their record to 5-3.

The Cowboys, now with four losses, have fallen behind them and into last place in the division. This thing is still likely to convulse a couple more times before the end of the season, because that is what the NFL is anymore, a season full of convulsions.

"It's all about getting into the playoffs and peaking at the right time. That's what New York did," Brown said. "That's the goal, and we are getting better, no doubt about that. But

we're not consistent."

They gave up a 90-yard touchdown pass to Koren Robinson on the Seahawks' first offensive play, when Lito Sheppard fell and then Brian Dawkins got outmaneuvered trying to make the tackle downfield. But that was it. As safety Quintin Mikell said, "They got a play on us and we said, 'No more.' "

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