Not a typical Andy Reid team

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - He was benched briefly for running a punt backwards.

He negated a huge 50-yard pass, which would have dug out the Eagles from their own 2-yard line, by tossing the ball at a Giants coach and taunting their sideline, drawing a penalty.

In another time, in an earlier Andy Reid era, DeSean Jackson might not have returned to the field for the big punt return that punctuated the first half and set up the touchdown that gave the Eagles a 10-0 second-quarter lead. Maybe if the record coming into their game with the Giants was upside down, 6-3 instead of 3-6, if Reid was fighting for first place and not fighting - in the view of some - for his job, the Eagles would have let the efforts of Vince Young, Chad Hall and Riley Cooper decide their fate last night and sent a sterner message to their tainted, talented, disgruntled No. 1 weapon.

Then again, given that this was his first game back after sitting one out for a missed meeting, maybe there's no message left to be sent.

Except maybe, for this:

There is no such thing as an Andy Reid-type player anymore.

Maybe no such thing as an Andy Reid-type team, either.

There are just wins and losses and survival.

The Eagles beat the Giants last night, 17-10. They beat the Giants because their defense played inspired and because the Giants made even more mistakes than the Eagles. The Giants tight end, Jake Ballard, could not hold onto a pass. Their touted defense, the one that leads the league in sacks, got to Eagles backup quarterback Vince Young just once. And their punter, once again, put the ball in Jackson's hands as time wound down, this time in the first half.

Jackson's 51-yard return to the Giants' 14 after the 2-minute first-half warning set up the Eagles' first touchdown. Some will call it a redemptive play, and there is something to be said for a player who played the second half on what he described afterwards as a sprained right knee or right ankle, saying, "I'll be all right," and that someone had stepped on his foot, before he walked from the locker room in a knee brace and foot boot.

And maybe he will. But just as likely is the inevitability of a future game, like those in the past, when his silly sins outweigh the redemptive plays and cost his team the victory that his punt return helped to procure last night.