Matt Schobel

Matt Schobel never needed to look far to recruit training partners. The Eagles' newest tight end spent the off-season as he typically does, training with his brother Aaron and cousin Bo - who are also NFL players - in their home state of Texas. This time, Schobel was getting ready to join a new team: He signed with the Eagles as a free agent after four seasons in Cincinnati. "When I'm not here, working 14-hour days, I talk to [Aaron] every day," Schobel said yesterday at the Eagles' training camp.

1. Smith       2. Brent Celek       3. Matt Schobel 4. Todd Herremans

-- LEANING ON PASSES AND WESTBROOK Two trends have remained obvious since the beginning of the season. The Eagles will continue to pass more than they run and Brian Westbrook will account for more and more of the plays. He now has 56 percent of the team's carries (89-of-159) and 25.4 percent of their receptions (31-of-122) despite missing a game. Yesterday Runs: 25 40.3% Passes: 34 54.8% Sacks: 3 - This season Runs: 159 40.8% Passes: 206 52.8% Sacks: 25 -- -- THIS TIME, CUPBOARD IS BEAR Yesterday was the fifth time Chicago native Donovan McNabb has started against the Bears.

The Eagles' receivers, tight ends and running backs have typified the team's struggles during a frustrating 4-4 first half of the season. They have certainly made their share of big plays, but have often erred at the most fundamental part of their job - catching the ball. They have literally dropped the ball when it comes to being consistent, and it's just one element that must improve if the Eagles are to make a playoff run. The Eagles lead the NFL in yards per catch with 14.3 per game.

Let's get this straight: The Eagles signed defensive tackle Dan Klecko to be a fullback 10 days ago, then signed fullback Kris Wilson to play tight end yesterday. In between, they signed linebacker Rocky Boiman to actually be a linebacker. Truth be told, those moves were made to improve the Birds' special teams. Yesterday, for that reason, they gave Wilson a three-year deal. Wilson, 26, was a tight end out of the University of Pittsburgh when Kansas City took him in the second round of the 2004 draft.

Practice was over and Rob Myers was halfway into the locker room on Sunday before he heard a voice beckon from the field. Andy Reid had subjected his team to a practice that lasted beyond two hours, and Myers was ready to call it a day. "Coach wants you to do special-teams work," Ted Daisher, the Eagles special-teams coordinator, said to Myers. The tight end turned around and slowly jogged back onto the field. Myers understands this: It can only be positive if the Eagles spent an extra 15 minutes after practice with a rookie free agent from Utah State who missed his senior season with turf toe and was cut by the New York Jets before training camp even started.

Twenty-one days. It seems like an eternity, but that is how long the Eagles have until their season opener against Green Bay. Twenty-one long days. We sit here at the midpoint of the meandering preseason, two games down, two to go before the real action starts. What do we know? And what do we need to know? Here are some questions - and a few answers. Not quite, but he is well on his way. For months, everyone inside the Eagles locker room has been saying how rigorously McNabb worked in the off-season to rehabilitate his surgically repaired knee.

THIS IS ABOUT the quarterback because, in the National Football League, it is always about the quarterback. Eagles coach Andy Reid can attempt to deflect the attention away from Donovan McNabb, and you would expect nothing else, but it is wasted breath. This is about McNabb. He is off - off timing, off target, all of it - and there is no sense in denying it. This is the main reason the 2-4 Eagles are not scoring enough points, the main reason why they have become so impotent in the red zone.

When the Eagles lost a first down and tight end Matt Schobel on the first series of yesterday's stunning 10-6 win over Dallas, Andy Reid showed more sideline outrage than at any other time during his nine seasons as coach. Reid was convinced that Cowboys safety Ken Hamlin should have been penalized for the helmet-to-helmet hit that separated Schobel from the football. No call was made on the play, but it would be shocking if Hamlin is not fined a hefty amount by the NFL this week.

There's room for improvement, and it's an enormous room. That probably should be the message coach Andy Reid relays to his team tomorrow morning when the Eagles go back to work at the NovaCare Complex. Not much positive happened for the Eagles during their 29-3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the exhibition opener for both teams last night at M&T Bank Stadium. "All in all, it was not a very good performance all the way around," Reid said. "That's from the first unit all the way down to the last unit.

SUNDAY NIGHT, Soldier Field, Chicago. Also known as the scene of the crime. Late last September, this is really where it started for the Eagles. It was the fourth game of the season. To that point, they had thumped the hapless Rams in the opener, lost a memorable shootout in Dallas and beaten Pittsburgh in an impressive, low-scoring game. Then it happened. Trailing by 24-20. Less than 6 minutes to play. First-and-goal at the 4. It was hard to know what to think about the Eagles before that moment.

If you can't trade them, keep them. That's the plan the Eagles implemented yesterday when they revealed their 53-man roster at the 6 p.m. deadline. A team source indicated quarterback A.J. Feeley and wide receiver Reggie Brown were the subject of trade talks as the team worked to reduce its roster, but when they couldn't make a deal for either one, the Eagles decided to keep them both. Something will have to change in the near future because in order to keep Feeley, the Eagles placed quarterback Michael Vick on the exempt list.

Practice was over and Rob Myers was halfway into the locker room on Sunday before he heard a voice beckon from the field. Andy Reid had subjected his team to a practice that lasted beyond two hours, and Myers was ready to call it a day. "Coach wants you to do special-teams work," Ted Daisher, the Eagles special-teams coordinator, said to Myers. The tight end turned around and slowly jogged back onto the field. Myers understands this: It can only be positive if the Eagles spent an extra 15 minutes after practice with a rookie free agent from Utah State who missed his senior season with turf toe and was cut by the New York Jets before training camp even started.

The biggest injury concern for the Eagles after yesterday morning's practice was wide receiver DeSean Jackson. By the end of the afternoon, the really bad news was that tight end Cornelius Ingram's rookie season had ended before it started. For the second straight year on almost the same day, Ingram tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. The extent of the injury, which will require season-ending surgery, was revealed during an MRI examination yesterday. Ingram was injured Tuesday, one day before the one-year anniversary of the same injury that cost him his senior season at the University of Florida.

On Monday evening, Eugene Bright walked into his former high school as a Philadelphia Eagle. There were high-fives and back slaps for the one-time Harriton Ram. Bright was being inducted into the Lower Merion school's Hall of Fame, but the praise had more to do with his suiting up for the local football team than it did for that night's honor. "Gene had all these people coming up to him and congratulating him on making it this far," said Hal Smith, Bright's high school coach.

1. Smith       2. Brent Celek       3. Matt Schobel 4. Todd Herremans

Of his first nine passes yesterday, Donovan McNabb completed two of them, and the Eagles' offense had a grand total of 34 yards on their first 15 plays against the Seattle Seahawks. They were in a grim routine - three-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out - and someone had to step up and bring them out of their malaise. Who could have imagined it would be a guy built like a John Deere tractor, but who probably couldn't outrace one? A guy who was in the starting lineup because the player ahead of him, L.J. Smith, had to stay home because of a concussion?

Rookie DeSean Jackson is the Donovan McNabb target that created optimism for the Eagles' offense in the preseason. "What DeSean has is very unique as far as playmaking skills," tight end L.J. Smith said. "Some guys have the moves, but not the speed. Some guys have the speed, but they don't have the knack for making that move. He has both. " And that could mean more for Smith than for any other player in the Eagles' offense. The last time the Eagles had a game-changing wide receiver - what was his name again?

Let's get this straight: The Eagles signed defensive tackle Dan Klecko to be a fullback 10 days ago, then signed fullback Kris Wilson to play tight end yesterday. In between, they signed linebacker Rocky Boiman to actually be a linebacker. Truth be told, those moves were made to improve the Birds' special teams. Yesterday, for that reason, they gave Wilson a three-year deal. Wilson, 26, was a tight end out of the University of Pittsburgh when Kansas City took him in the second round of the 2004 draft.

When the Eagles lost a first down and tight end Matt Schobel on the first series of yesterday's stunning 10-6 win over Dallas, Andy Reid showed more sideline outrage than at any other time during his nine seasons as coach. Reid was convinced that Cowboys safety Ken Hamlin should have been penalized for the helmet-to-helmet hit that separated Schobel from the football. No call was made on the play, but it would be shocking if Hamlin is not fined a hefty amount by the NFL this week.