The Eagles lost veteran running back Brian Westbrook for the second time in three weeks due to a concussion.  This time the Eagles will likely shut down Westbrook for a while to ensure his health.  Westbrook has played in 6 games for the Eagles this season and he has carried the ball 47 times for 225 yards (4.8 ypc) with 1 TD run.  He also has caught 19 passes for 156 yards (8.2 avg) with 1 TD grab this year.  In other years the loss of Westbrook would have been huge but rookie Lesean McCoy will be able to replace Westbrook without the team losing much if at all.  McCoy has played in 9 games this year for the Eagles and he has carried the ball 86 times for 353 yards (4.1 ypc) with 2 TD runs.  McCoy also has caught 23 passes for 181 yards (7.9 avg) this year for the Eagles.  Look for McCoy to do a good job for the Eagles the rest of the way as the team’s main running back.

The Philadelphia Eagles (5-4) could not keep up with the San Diego Chargers (6-3) in their game Sunday, as field goals were not enough.  The Eagles were only able to get three field goals through the first three quarters, while the Chargers were able to reach the endzone four times in that period.  Donovan McNabb and the offense finally got some more things going in the fourth quarter, and made it a 28-16 game early in the final period on a McNabb touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin.  McNabb was able to get the Eagles even closer, making it a 28-23 game when he hit Brett Celek for a touchdown with 7 minutes to play.  They were not able to get anything else though, and the Chargers added a late field goal to seal it.  McNabb had a huge day, but did throw one pick.  He ended up with a ridiculous 450 passing yards and two touchdowns on 35/55 pass attempts.  McNabb had to throw it so much because the running game could not do anything, finishing with 29 yards as a team.

The Eagles defense did enough to keep the Eagles in the game and give McNabb a chance to comeback, but it wasn’t enough.  They did not do a good job against the Chargers running game, which has been struggling all year.  LaDainian Tomlinson has his best game of the season, rushing for 2 touchdowns and 96 yards on 24 carries.  They also let Philip Rivers go 20/25 for 231 yards and 2 touchdowns.  Both of his touchdown passes were for 20 yards, so the Eagles could not stop the big play when it was needed.  The Eagles put up a good fight, but without a running game they just did not have enough weapons to match the high-powered Chargers’ offense.

The Eagles have signed 25-year old CB Ramzee Robinson.  Robinson played in 13 games for the Lions last year and he compiled 24 tackles and defensed 1 pass.  He has now played in 19 games in his two year NFL career and he has made 31 tackles and defensed 1 pass.  This is the Eagles scraping the bottom of the barrel to try to find some help for their depleted secondary.

The NFL has suspended cornerback Joselio Hanson for the next four games for use of a banned substance.  Hanson has played in 8 games this season for the Eagles and he has made 29 tackles, has 1 tackle for a loss, 5 passes defensed and 1 interception.  This suspension coupled with Ellis Hobbs’ injury has seriously hurt the depth of the secondary for the Eagles.

The Eagles have lost CB/KR Ellis Hobbs for the year due to a back injury.  Hobbs played in 8 games this season for the Eagles and he returned 20 kickoffs for 481 yards (24.1 avg).  He also had 11 tackles this season for the Eagles.  The Eagles will try to replace Hobbs on kickoff returns with rookie WR Jeremy Maclin.  Maclin has returned 2 kickoffs for 35 yards (17.5 avg) so far this season.  Maclin has also caught 25 passes for 337 yards (13.5 avg) with 3 TD grabs this season.  Maclin should do a good job for the Eagles in his new role returning kicks.