But most of the blame for the Eagles' 24-23 loss to the considerably less talented 49ers yesterday rests the same place as previous losses to the Giants and the Falcons.
With Juan Castillo's defense.
They had a 20-point lead midway through the third quarter against the league's 32nd-ranked offense and blew it. They had a 20-point lead against a team whose leading rusher was averaging 2.5 yards per carry and whose quarterback had thrown just two touchdown passes in 14 quarters.
And blew it.
For the third straight week, a fourth-quarter lead went poof. Before these three collapses, the Eagles were 91-15 under Reid when they had the lead after three quarters.
"You can't be up 23-3 and lose it," said cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. "You just can't. Even when they got within six, we kept saying in the huddle, 'It's 23-17. If they don't score, we win. If they don't score, we win.' Then they drove down and had that run down the right side [a 14-yard gain by rookie Kendall Hunter on a third-and-7 at the Philadelphia 26 with less than 4 minutes left] and they took it in.
"Stuff like that can't happen. It's not good. It's not good right now. Everybody's embarrassed."
They should be. The play of the defense in the second half was absolutely awful. Niners quarterback Alex Smith, who completed just eight of 16 passes for 90 yards in the first half, was 13-for-17 for 201 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. He had six completions of 18-plus yards.
The Niners became the latest team to run all over the Eagles, collecting 164 rushing yards, 96 of which came in the second half. Frank Gore, who entered the game with a gimpy ankle and a 2.5 yard-per-carry average, gashed the Eagles for 127 yards and had 40- and 25-yard runs to go with the 12-yard touchdown run that gave the Niners the lead with 3 minutes left.
