The main reason the Skins lost to the Eagles?

There's no "right" answer to this poll. I went with the defense just because they got carved almost all day. I really thought we should have tried to bring some pressure. Of the teams we face, I'd rather try to 1v1 the Eagles WRs and hit McNabb all day than having our safeties 20 yards back.

A change on any of the options could have saved the game. Running 7 times inside the 10 and not scoring. Overall, I thought the offense played pretty well. I'd still like to see us use the middle of the field a bit more in the passing attack. Seems like defenses are trying to take away the sidelines at this point.

And penalties.. ugh. Especially that first drive.

I agree this was maybe the hardest poll up in a while and there really is no "right answer", that being said I voted penalties because that first Eagles drive kept moving due to our penalties and I believe there were a couple other drives for the Eagles were our penalties kept it alive.

I went with the D and big plays because I count their penalties as part of the big plays.

How about "All of the above?" Seriously, if I had to pick only one it would be the penalties. Aside form the obvious blunders (i.e.-Cooley's jumping off side on the goal line, etc.), it's almost automatic that the 'Skins will get penalized on a punt or kick-off.

I don't know, there are so many reasons. Smoot's penalty on 3rd down led to Philly eating up the clock and scoring 7 points. Suisham's missed extra point essentially cost us 3 points (1 missed Xp, 1 failed 2 point conversion, and Philly going for the 2 point conversion which they wouldn't have had we had the aforementioned extra 2 points). Those 10 points alone that we needlessly gave up cost us the game...

Maybe not the "main" reason we lost yesterday, but that really bothered me. I know he was money against the Jets, but damn, you just don't miss those chip shots. I sure hope this doesn't become a trend.

The most obvious reason is that we're just not a good football team.

Why we aren't a good football team is more difficult to answer.

Cooley's false start directly cost us 4 points (ARE was open in the flat... great designed play) and Fletcher's interference led to 7pts (and confidence) in the 1st quarter. Not to mention the 3 illegal contact penalties that kept Eagles drives alive.

Dude Cooley's false start sucked big time for sure. BUT...WTF was the damn call for a draw play from that far out from the goal line!?? That call made me go nuts! Friggin Al Saunders i guarantee it!
JC was throwing good all day...why not give him a chance to go to Cooley or even a bootleg! I mean JC is NOT slow! DAMN!

Defense, which incorporates the stupid defensive penalties that extended Philly drives. The D had the 9-point lead to protect and went to sleep. I know injuries hurt, so to speak, but someone needed to step up. No one did, and now maybe Gregg should step down - or at least shut up.

I agree with SGG, that there are a lot of reasons, and changing only one would have resulted in a win.

I do believe one reason is more right than the others, and it's got to be the big plays on the defense. For those to be touchdowns, multiple players had to have total breakdowns. That simply can't happen often to an NFL football team, and for us, it happened twice in the same quarter.

Goal line play calling? Yeah but...it's not like any other call guarantees success. Penalties? Yeah, but...that's part of the game. A good defense, especially one that plays it's safeties so far from everything should be able to prevent the big play, and we gave up two too many.

If your defense isn't going to try to play aggressive and force mistakes because as your coordinator reasons it, you have to prevent the big play at all costs, and then you give up not one but TWO huge plays in the same quarter, it's very obvious where the blame falls.

I'm tired of watching Gregg Williams drop 7-8 on every play and not cover the short routes. For him to give up any big plays this season playing that kind of coverage is completely inexcusable. This scheme sucks, and needs incredible talent to make it work.

It worked early because our DL was playing incredibly well, but now that it's only playing at it's talent level, we can't stop anybody anymore.

It's OK though. Next year, we won't draft any help on the Defensive Line and this BS will happen again.

I don't think you can rely on defense to win games every week. The offense needs to win games when given the chance. The offense had the chance to win the game this week and just didn't do it.