Where Birds' narrow defeats are concerned, the philosophy is at fault

November 10, 3:00 AMPhiladelphia Eagles ExaminerGordie Jones

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“Choker” is the ugliest label in sports, one that is thrown around too much, too carelessly. It is one Eagles fans might be tempted to place upon their team, which on Sunday night again came up short in a close game, this one a 20-16 loss to Dallas.

A word of caution: Don’t.

I would submit to you that the reason this team has gone 1-9-1 in games decided by four points or fewer since the beginning of the 2007 season – and it is 1-9-1, not 1-8-1, as has been reported elsewhere – is not the result of a character flaw but rather a philosophical flaw.

Their basic approach – pass on every offensive play, blitz on every defensive snap – works great when they can play the front-runner, but becomes more problematic when they have to grind out a drive or stymie an opponent in a game-on-the-line situation.

Only three of their 21 touchdown drives this year have been longer than six plays. That includes their lone TD march in Sunday’s game, which was exactly six snaps, covered 77 yards and culminated in Donovan McNabb’s 11-yard pass to Brent Celek, early in the third quarter.

But when they needed to get down-and-dirty, they couldn’t do it. Witness the fateful drive early in the fourth quarter that ended when McNabb was allegedly stopped on a fourth-and-one sneak at the Dallas 45 – allegedly, because it appeared he had picked up the first down, but was victimized by a faulty spot on the part of referee Walt Coleman and his crew. (And the mistake went uncorrected when Andy Reid challenged the call.)

What is forgotten is that the Eagles were unable to move the chains on the two previous plays – runs by LeSean McCoy – after McNabb passed to DeSean Jackson for a gain of nine on first down.

As the Daily News’ Paul Domowitch pointed out in Monday’s editions, the Eagles struggled in third-and-short situations much of last year, only to improve late in the season and carry that over into the playoffs, and the early stages of this year.

On Sunday they were 2-for-5 on third-and-two or shorter, with one conversion coming on a penalty, the other on fullback Leonard Weaver’s three-yard run on the Birds’ final possession of the night.

Weaver is the best weapon the Eagles have had at his position since Reid became coach in 1999, but he has only really begun to see the ball the last two weeks, and only because of the continuing absence of Brian Westbrook with his concussion (and, possibly, more problems with his right ankle; Reid told reporters Monday that it had swollen up on Westbrook Friday, which is why he was held out of practice that day.)

Last year, the lack of a legitimate fullback cost the Eagles on the goal line at Chicago, one of the losses in that 1-9-1 record, as well as a 23-17 loss to Washington.

Some of the other narrow defeats of late have been for other reasons. There was one to Green Bay in the 2007 opener, in which the braintrust thought it could bluff its way through with J.R. Reed and Greg Lewis as the punt returners; the two of them wound up fumbling the game away, literally. There were two late that season, against New England and Seattle, in which A.J. Feeley threw critical interceptions.

There was the one against Oakland this year, in which Reid refused to run the ball against a bad run defense.

Again, part of the overall philosophy.

That is also reflected in a defense that is forever aggressive – generally a good thing, but not always. Witness the way cornerback Sheldon Brown bit on a slant-and-go move by Miles Austin with 8:04 left Sunday, resulting in the decisive 49-yard touchdown pass from Tony Romo.

Asked afterward if he would have played it any differently had the Eagles been ahead (instead of tied), Brown said he would not have.

The approach is always the same, in other words. And lately, the results have been, too.