Instead, the Eagles couldn't protect the quarterback, called a quarter-million pass plays anyway, lost by 13-9 to a previously terrible team, a freak show of a team, and raised nagging questions to the level of legitimate doubts.
This really was as bad as it gets.
"It was very disappointing, man, because we're so much better," said Peters, who injured his left knee in the first quarter. "We're so much better than that. It was disappointing just watching that. I wish I could be out there with them. If we were going to struggle, I wanted to struggle with them. It was disappointing sitting on the sideline."
Peters is having an MRI on his left knee sometime today. (The initial X-rays were negative.) He says he is hoping to play next Monday night against the Washington Redskins. By the time he got hurt, on the first play of the Eagles' third series, the evidence already existed that the Raiders were going to blitz more and stunt more and try to pressure the quarterback more than they had shown on film. As right tackle Winston Justice said, "They weren't really a team that blitzed as much as they blitzed us. It was a shock."
But an issue became The Issue almost immediately after King Dunlap came in to replace Peters. It wasn't all Dunlap's fault, although he did have his hands full with the Raiders' Richard Seymour. The truth is, the whole delicate structure crumbled without Peters. A lot of the pressure came on stunts up the middle.
As Dunlap said, "Seymour is a Pro Bowler, a really good guy. I didn't feel I was thrown in the fire. I always have to be ready . . . I have to be ready when my time is called. I did all right - I just have to get better."
