Moise Fokou

The Eagles are nowhere close to a sinking ship, but the waters were rough enough for the team to shuffle its linebackers after two games. No one was benched, however, despite the swelling call for rookie middle linebacker Casey Matthews to be demoted. Instead, Jamar Chaney will move into the middle, where he showed signs of promise late last season. Moise Fokou will replace him at strong-side, and Matthews will slide outside to weak-side in place of Fokou. Apparently, two games of watching running backs gash the middle of Juan Castillo's defense was enough for coach Andy Reid to make the moves with the home opener against the New York Giants looming Sunday.

The Eagles are nowhere close to a sinking ship, but the waters were rough enough for the team to shuffle their linebackers after two games. No one was benched, however, despite the swelling call for rookie middle linebacker Casey Matthews to be demoted. Instead, Jamar Chaney will move into the middle, where he showed signs of promise late last season. Moise Fokou will replace him at strong-side, and Matthews will slide outside to weak-side in place of Fokou. Apparently, two games of watching running backs gash the middle of Juan Castillo's defense was enough for coach Andy Reid to make the moves with the home opener against the New York Giants looming Sunday.

AFTER GIVING up a franchise-record 31 touchdown passes last year, the Eagles invested a lot of time and money into fixing the problem. They beefed up their pass rush (see: Jason Babin and Cullen Jenkins) and added two top-of-the-line cornerbacks (see: Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie). So guess what? Two games into the season, the Eagles are on pace to give up even more touchdown passes than last year. That's right . . . More. After successfully managing to keep the Rams' receivers out of the end zone in their 31-13 Week 1 victory, they gave up four TD passes to Matt Ryan and the Falcons Sunday.

A football game can pivot and swing on the fulcrum of a dozen or more plays, any of which could eventually be called the most important of them all. It was certainly that way Sunday night in Atlanta when the Eagles and Falcons traded scoring drives and punches before the wild music finally stopped with Atlanta holding a 35-31 lead. Because the Falcons won, the biggest play could have been a third-down touchdown catch by Tony Gonzalez in the second quarter, a juggling, straining catch in which Gonzalez had both tippy toes on the turf and control of the ball for only the briefest of moments.

Despite losing Michael Vick, despite a Falcons interception that maybe wasn't, despite trailing by 11 points early in the third quarter, the Eagles had Sunday's game in their hands when the fourth quarter opened. With 15 minutes to go, they had a 10-point lead and Atlanta was on its own 35-yard line. The Eagles had gained 350 yards on offense. The Falcons had 167. Running back Michael Turner's average run had been limited to 2.8 yards. Quarterback Matt Ryan had completed just nine passes (though three of them were for touchdowns)

ATLANTA - Somehow, Michael Vick's much-hyped return to Atlanta as a starter defied all expectations. On a wild night inside the raucous Georgia Dome, Vick did not finish the game - he suffered a third-quarter concussion on a helmet-to-helmet collision with right tackle Todd Herremans - and the Eagles gave up 14 fourth-quarter points to blow a 10-point lead and drop to 1-1 with a 35-31 loss. Andy Reid did not indicate who he thought would start in the coming week. The Eagles were without backup Vince Young on Sunday due to a hamstring injury, though he had practiced more last week.

On offense, it's obvious who's in charge: This is Michael Vick's team. But when the Eagles defense is on the field, the leadership picture is less clear in the early days of the 2011 season. Ask members of the defense who sets the tone for their group, and each rattles off a series of names. Sometimes the lists match up, sometimes not. In other words, no one person serves as the driving personality of this Eagles defense, at least not yet. No one player's style has become synonymous with the group as a whole.

As the Falcons prepare for Sunday's game against the Eagles, their offensive coaches will scour the Birds defense, looking for weak spots. They will look at two Pro Bowl cornerbacks in Nnamdi Asomugha and Asante Samuel, who helped force Rams quarterbacks into an 18-of-35 performance on Sunday, and at a pass defense that held St. Louis without a touchdown through the air, and they will shake their heads and move on. They will look at...

As the Falcons prepare for Sunday's game against the Eagles, their offensive coaches will scour the Birds defense, looking for weak spots. They will look at two Pro Bowl cornerbacks in Nnamdi Asomugha and Asante Samuel, who helped force Rams quarterbacks into an 18-of-35 performance on Sunday, and at a pass defense that held St. Louis without a touchdown through the air, and they will shake their heads and move on. They will look at...