Eagles vs. Raiders: The pick

ALL MY INSIGHTS this week are obvious. (This week, you ask.)

If you're looking for reasons to worry, you can run the old "trap-game" argument up the flagpole. It definitely can be a bad thing, in any sport, to string together a bunch of games against bad teams. That's not how you get sharp, or become resilient. If there's going to be a flat game for the Eagles, though, it would seem more likely to come next week, visiting a struggling Redskins team that always seems to play the Eagles well, regardless of its own fortunes.

There might be a little Raiders bounce-back from last Sunday's drubbing at the hands of the Giants, but it isn't as if Oakland is a tough, proud team that suddenly faltered. The Raiders have been bad for a long time. I'm not sure how much appealing to pride their coaching staff can do at this point (when it isn't sparring in the film room).

Harder tests are coming for the Eagles - after the Redskins, they have the Giants and Dallas, then they go to San Diego and to Chicago. There are no "laughers" in the second half of the schedule, at all.

But we aren't there yet.

The prediction: