Eagles Lose: ANTICLIMACTIC

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By LES BOWEN

bowenl@phillynews.com

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/12630576.htm

ATLANTA - The Eagles stumbled into trouble before the opening kickoff last night and they kept right on stumbling, losing their season opener, 14-10, to a fired-up bunch of Atlanta Falcons.

The Eagles' defense lost middle linebacker Jeremiah Trotter about 45 minutes before game time, when he and Falcons cornerback Kevin Mathis were ejected for starting a pregame shoving match between the teams. Rookie Mike Labinjo was thrust into Trotter's vacancy with no warning; the Eagles needed the whole first half to sort that out, against a rushing attack that led the NFL last season and hit the 200-yard barrier last night, its problems in last January's NFC Championship Game loss to the Eagles a distant memory.

"It was a tough spot," said Labinjo, who spent most of last season on the practice squad as an undrafted rookie. "I didn't get as many reps at the MIKE position as usual."

Labinjo said he found out Trotter had been ejected from rookie linebacker Matt McCoy.

"I thought he was joking," La-binjo said.

The Eagles' offense, meanwhile, was plagued by penalties and uncharacteristic turnovers, caused in part by pressure from Atlanta's front seven. The Eagles' blockers often weren't up to the challenge. Believe it or not, the Eagles did seem to miss injured wideout Todd Pinkston's deep-ball capability - though it wasn't clear that Donovan McNabb often had the blocking to throw deep.

Instead, the offense consisted almost entirely of short-to-medium passes to Terrell Owens and whatever Brian Westbrook could manage on dumps and screens. New starter Greg Lewis wasn't really a factor; ditto tight end L.J. Smith. Rookie wideout Reggie Brown was used sparingly and held without a catch until late in the fourth quarter.

"I think it came down to penalties and mistakes," said Westbrook, who gained 47 yards on 12 carries and caught seven passes for 64 yards. "They pressured us a lot, but I think we beat ourselves."

Despite many pratfalls, the Eagles actually got the ball back with a chance to win, with 3 minutes, 54 seconds left, and they notched a couple of first downs before the drive fizzled, as so many had before. On a final, desperate fourth-and 10 from their 49 with 1:32 left, Falcons defensive tackle Rod Coleman brushed away guard Artis Hicks one last time and blasted McNabb as he threw to Owens, streaking down the right sideline. The pass fell short.

The late chance to win was set up when the Eagles finally capitalized on a break. They drove 54 yards after Mike Lewis recovered a Michael Vick fumble at the Eagles' 20, caused by a Brian Dawkins sack, just as the Falcons seemed ready to restore a double-digit lead. Instead, a 44-yard David Akers field goal pulled the Eagles within 14-10, with 9:20 left.

The Eagles, who led the NFC East wire-to-wire last season, find themselves in last place now, after all three opponents won their openers. So many things the Eagles seemed able to depend on vanished under the Georgia Dome lights last night - they'd been 8-2 on Monday nights under Reid, 15-2 in prime time, 31-9 on the road since 2000. But they found the Falcons' field, where Atlanta went 7-1 last season, a noisy, difficult place to play.

"We shot ourselves in the foot," McNabb said after compiling only a 68.5 passer rating. He completed 24 of 45 passes for 257 yards, a touchdown and an interception, and lost two fumbles.

"We missed a lot of opportnities," he said. "There were chances. At times the noise was a factor... I definitely could have played a lot better."

Asked about his televised pregame greeting with Owens, McNabb called it "something we keep between ourselves. We could have been talking about the food in the vending machine."

The evening got off to a rocky start as Trotter walked toward the middle of the field with line judge Bill Spyksma, around 8:20 p.m. Mathis approached from Trotter's left, jawing animatedly. The players came together. Although analyst Michael Irvin kept insisting on ESPN that Trotter never threw a punch, indicating that Mathis did, it wasn't clear that either player actually threw anything that would count as a punch down at the Blue Horizon.

They shoved at one another and locked up together, as other players swarmed, pushing and yelling. Eagles special-teams coordinator John Harbaugh was at Trotter's side very quickly, and helped pull him away. Head coach Andy Reid also jumped in to herd his players away.

After reviewing video under the replay hood, referee Walt Coleman decided to eject Trotter and Mathis, a nickel corner - hardly an even trade, from the Eagles' point of view. Reid delivered the news to Trotter, as the middle linebacker completed his warm-up. Trotter then attempted to plead his case with Coleman, a futile effort undercut by another scrum, the Falcons' objecting to the Eagles' tradition of jumping up and down on the midfield logo before every game, home and away.

No punches and no real pushing occurred in the second encounter - players just bounced up and down in front of one another aggressively. It looked a bit like an aerobics-class rumble.

The Eagles' first drive began with back-to-back first downs, courtesy of an interference penalty and a pass to Owens, but it quickly bogged down. Akers' 49-yard field goal attempt faded off to the right; last season, Akers was 15 of 18 from 40 to 49 yards.

McNabb and Vick each threw an early interception; the Eagles suffered a scare when McNabb seemed to bruise his chest on the pick. (X-rays were negative, an Eagles spokesman said.) He was sandwiched by Brady Smith and Chad Lavalais as he threw, Lavalais leaving his feet and landing an unpenalized helmet-first blow.

"In a game situation, you're just battling," McNabb said. "You put injuries and aches and pains behind you."

He said his chest was "sore" after the game, but offered no details.

The Eagles' containment of Vick's rollouts broke down completely in a series in which the Falcons drove 58 yards in only six plays, Vick skipping into the end zone from 7 yards out on a right-side bootleg after leaving Jevon Kearse behind in the backfield.

When the Falcons got the ball back, Vick's blockers stood up the Eagles' pass rush long enough for him to unfurl a 58-yard bomb to Michael Jenkins, who fell at the 1. T.J. Duckett bulled over to make it 14-0 on the next play.

The Eagles finally got rolling as the second quarter began. A series of three quick passes to Owens established some momentum, and the offensive line finally found a running play it could block for, a counter on which Westbrook gained 17 yards. A 24-yard gain on a screen to Westbrook set up a 9-yard TD pass on which Westbrook was flanked wide, against linebacker Keith Brooking. Westbrook scored easily.

The Eagles then got a huge break when Darwin Walker hit Vick just as he tried to throw, forcing a fumble on what was looking like a scoring drive for the Falcons. But even though Kearse and Walker returned the fumble to the Falcons' 38, the offense could do nothing with the gift; it lost 5 yards in three plays, forcing a punt.

The Eagles seemed ready to put more points on the board on their final drive of the first half. They moved from their 35 to the Falcons' 27 in two plays, a 15-yard completion to Owens and a 23-yard Westbrook run, but three successive botched plays later, Akers was lining up for another 49-yard field goal - which he again missed to the right. The last time Akers missed two field goals in a game, he was in the process of going 4-for-6 on a windy day in Chicago, last Oct. 3.

The Eagles were 0-for-5 on first-half third-down conversions.

The Eagles' first drive of the second half also looked promising - they even converted a third down - until, on first down from the Falcons' 31, Kerney bumped Westbrook, throwing off the timing of a screen that sailed behind Westbrook, who didn't see the ball. The lateral was recovered by Brooking at the Falcons' 44.