Rich Hofmann: Eagles' offense: Well, it's still early

BETHLEHEM - It was a day like every other day at Injuryfest 2009. Backup quarterback Kevin Kolb had already been taken off the field with a sprained knee, and defensive end Trent Cole with a sprained shoulder, and a half-dozen big, black birds were flying in lazy circles above one end of the Eagles' practice field. Buzzards, perhaps.

The offense looked lousy yesterday (lousy being a technical football term). It is not the first time, either. There is no reason to be panicked about it, and nobody up here is panicked about it, but the troubles are becoming stubborn. They have an offensive line that has not yet been intact for a single practice, with right tackle Shawn Andrews and his uncooperative back the major issue. They have new faces scattered all about the formation, kids and acquisitions. They are desperate this season to play against their history and start the regular season quickly, but they cannot get through the morning stretch without somebody tweaking something.

You wonder if a fast start is in jeopardy. You wonder if they are starting to worry about it. You ask Donovan McNabb and you listen to him knock down the notion.

"I'm not worried about that at all," he said, dismissively. The man does not do declarative statements but this was one.

In his 11th professional training camp, McNabb still looks like himself. He looks fine. And while he has never been closer than an adjacent practice field, running back Brian Westbrook looks fine, too, as he works his way back from offseason surgery. McNabb and Westbrook are two legs of the stool, and their news is good. But the rest remains a mystery, 2 weeks into hell (aka two-a-days).

"You go through days like this," McNabb said. History suggests he would not have acknowledged the offense's bad day had not offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg preceded him in the interview tent with just such an acknowledgement. But there it was.

"When you're in training camp not everything is going to be crisp," McNabb said. "I thought, offensively, we've been able to do some great things in the previous days and we've had some tough days, but we've been able to battle through. Today was a tough day for us and the defense had a wonderful day today and we saw some different looks that we haven't seen before and guys were making plays. You obviously want that to happen, but you don't want that to happen vs. us.