ESPN NFL

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It was all in the body language of the Philadelphia Eagles.

After four straight trips to the conference championship game and a 3-point loss in last February's Super Bowl, they are dead.

Yes, they all said the right things ("we just need one win," was popular) following a 27-17 loss Sunday to the Giants. But their true feelings were in their slumped shoulders and resigned looks as they trooped into the locker room.

Just look at the numbers.

The Eagles have lost four in a row, the last three to division opponents, making their hopes slimmer even than the chance that Andy Reid will relent and let Terrell Owens back in the lineup. At 4-6, they are three games behind the Giants and Cowboys in the NFC East, a game behind Washington and, worst of all, 0-4 in the division.

Yes, they can win out and finish 10-6, or, as safety Brian Dawkins put it "just look at the next game, try to win it and go on." But division record is the ultimate tiebreaker and there's not much more they can do about that.

"I know what it's like to fight and crawl your way back," said Dawkins, one of the few Eagles who can remember when Philadelphia had a bad team. "It's hard to earn respect around the league and that's all we can try to do right now."

It would be easy to blame Philadelphia's problems on the T.O. controversy. Or on Donovan McNabb's multiple injuries, which finally forced him out of the lineup.

But there is more to it than that.

In fact, you could argue that Mike McMahon was probably more effective Sunday than an immobile McNabb would have been. McMahon threw for 298 yards after constantly evading New York pass rushers.

And Owens could have done no more than Reggie Brown and Greg Lewis, who averaged 29.3 and 21.3 respectively against the Giants' young cornerbacks.

Because it's the defense that is killing the Eagles.

They trailed 10-0 at halftime, then cut it to 10-7 on their first possession of the second half.

Then began the recurring pattern -- the Eagles would score, the Giants would counter with a big offensive play or draw a costly penalty.

After that first TD, it was a 55-yard run by Tiki Barber that led to a New York field goal. In the fourth quarter, it was a 61-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress after Philadelphia had cut the deficit to 20-17 with 7 minutes and 40 seconds left.

And in between, it was a pass interference call in the end zone that set up a 1-yard TD pass from Manning to Jeremy Shockey.

That was too reminiscent of the loss to Dallas last Monday night, when the Cowboys scored twice within 15 seconds late in the fourth quarter in Philadelphia to turn a 20-7 deficit into a 21-20 win. Yes, the winning TD in that game came on Roy Williams' 46-yard interception return, but the first TD, on a pass from Drew Bledsoe to Terry Glenn, was on the same play as the Manning-Burress hookup -- an out and up.

"Blame it on me," defensive coordinator Jim Johnson said about Sunday's play. "It was third and three and I thought they were going to do something else. They didn't and they beat us."

It's far more than Johnson, one of the NFL's more respected coordinators.

It has to do with all sorts of things -- injuries, a post-title letdown and, yes, the constant scrutiny and locker-room disruption from Owens. A football team playing well is a finely tuned instrument and it's hard to have to keep retuning from week to week when everyone is asking you about the antics of your star wide receiver.

There also are factors beyond the Eagles' control.

The Giants, Cowboys and Redskins are all better teams than last season -- New York and Dallas each have seven wins in 10 games, one more than they had in all of 2004.

And despite their problems, everyone gets up for the Eagles.

"You win so much that even when you're having troubles, teams feel like you're still the champions," guard Shawn Andrews said. "You're always wearing this big red target on you."

It would help if the Philadelphia defense could tackle the big red target the other teams sometimes wear.

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press

This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index