There is an old joke in the pro football world that NFL stands for ""not for long."" What happens one week is great, but only lasts until the next game. Heck, sometimes a player can go from hero to goat in the matter of a play or two. Last week, we all loved defensive coordinator Sean McDermott and the Eagles defense. This week was a bit different, to put it mildly.

There is no shame in having a bad day. All coaches and players are going to struggle at some time or another. Bill Walsh and Vince Lombardi lost games. Jerry Rice dropped a pass. Reggie White got blocked. This stuff is going to happen. The Eagles defense faced a major challenge in trying to match up with the Saints potent offense. I knew that we wouldn't completely stop them. I did hope that we would control them enough to win the game.

Sean Payton called a masterful game and Drew Brees executed the offense brilliantly. They got the best of McDermott, Quintin Mikell and Trent Cole. Last week's glory is a distant memory. This week's tough loss is now front and center. Having the Saints get the better of you doesn't mean that McDermott is in over his head or our guys can't play. That is the most explosive and efficient offense in the league.

I was highly frustrated watching the game live and just as frustrated when I went back and watched the tape. We made a ton of mistakes, in every phase of the game. The defense will get most of the blame because people will focus on the 48 points allowed, but no group came out of this game looking good.

McDermott was very aggressive last week in facing the Panthers. He dialed that back this week. I think he expected the defensive line would play well enough to get some pressure on their own and he wanted the back seven to be free to cover. Neither group played well in either area. Brees had plenty of time to throw and Saints receivers consistently found holes in our coverage. We did mix in some blitzes, but didn't have much success with them. If one play could sum up the game it was a third-and-11 play in the third quarter. We brought an aggressive blitz. Omar Gaither and Darren Howard got some pressure and forced Brees to hurry his throw. Sheldon Brown had great coverage on Devery Henderson down the sideline. Brown put his hand up to deflect the ball, but just missed. Henderson made a great catch for a gain of 38 yards. That pass could not have been more perfect. We did everything right on that play, but they were still better.

The offense had an interesting day. Kevin Kolb made his first start and played well. Can you imagine if I told you last week that Kolb would throw for 391 yards and a pair of touchdowns? Not many people would have believed that. Kolb did make some mistakes, but they were due to lack of experience, not skill or talent. You can coach him up on the areas that need work. I was pleased with his pocket presence. He took some big hits, but still got the pass off and the ball was on target. He threw some passes away when it was clear no one was open. The one sack he took was a blitz up the middle where the defender was untouched. You just have to eat that ball, which Kolb did.

One area that many fans have worried about is Kolb's arm strength and ability to throw the ball on intermediate or deep routes. I thought he did very well in this area. He threw an excellent ball on the long touchdown catch by DeSean Jackson. That pass was accurate and had some zip. Kolb threw a couple of good passes to Jason Avant in the middle of the field. He hit Brent Celek on a seam route for a good gain. We had five pass plays of longer than 20 yards. We had a couple more that went 19 yards. Kolb doesn't have an elite arm, but he showed enough arm strength to run an NFL offense and make the defense cover the whole field.

I thought Kolb made good reads and accurate throws. He was comfortable running the offense. Some young quarterbacks look nervous and it shows in their play. Kolb did fine … until we got to the red zone, that is. Kolb struggled down there. All of a sudden things get compressed and you have to be very precise. Reads have to be made quickly. Throws have to be on target. The quarterback also has to get the ball out quickly so as not to give defenders a chance to bat the ball down at the line of scrimmage or make a play on it near the receiver. Kolb was indecisive and his reads were slower than you'd like. These are typical mistakes from a young quarterback. The one touchdown that he threw in the red zone came on a fourth down play where Kolb scrambled and relied on his playmaking instincts. He saw Avant open in the back of the end zone and got him the ball.

Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg ran the most creative game plan I've ever seen from an NFL team. I think they had a plan behind this strategy. Reid was bound to know that we would have to score points to beat the Saints. If you go back to A.J. Feeley starting as a young guy in 2002 it was the defense that won games. Feeley made some plays, but it was good defense and special teams that largely carried the team in his time as the starter. That mentality is normally good for when you have a backup quarterback playing. It wasn't going to work against Brees and company. Reid knew that we'd likely need every offensive edge possible. He and Mornhinweg devised a complex game plan that featured a lot of Wildcat looks and original plays. I give them a lot of credit for opening up the playbook.

However, I thought as long as Kolb was moving the ball within the conventional offense and the score remained close the prudent thing to do was to remain somewhat basic. You only need to ""manufacture"" yards and points when the offense is struggling on its own. That wasn't the case on Sunday. I think Reid was a little too anxious to try out some of the plays and that it took away from the offense at times. I wanted Kolb and the offensive players to get in a good rhythm as far as running, blocking and executing plays. That couldn't be easy with constant shifting of personnel and formations. The plays were very creative and generally well executed. I'm just a believer in the old saying that ""you don't fix what ain't broke."" Kolb threw a beautiful touchdown to Jackson early in the game. We never threw another deep ball to Jackson. The Saints gave him a lot of attention with their defensive backs, but Jackson is one of the few guys in the league that is fast enough to outrun a double team. Put him in motion if you want to try and free him up. Get creative in that way, but use his speed on vertical pass routes.

One thing I was happy about was the effort. I never saw any let up. The players definitely got discouraged when the score went from 17-13 to 31-13 in a very short span. Our guys didn't mail it in after that. Kolb and the offense kept firing. The defense played with a lot of emotion despite their struggles. That effort didn't affect the scoreboard on Sunday, but it can carry over to other games. You want players who care. You want guys who play hard no matter what.

The play of the special teams was bad. They cost us big time. Ellis Hobbs fumbled a kickoff just after halftime and that was a crushing blow. The Saints turned that into a quick touchdown and got to play with an 11-point lead. I think the game really shifted at that moment. Hobbs is not alone in the mistake category. Jackson fielded a punt at the 4-yard line before the half. That wasn't the best decision. A penalty on his return trapped us inside the five. We punted to them and they got the ball at midfield. Two plays later they scored a touchdown. We gave them great field position and they took advantage of it. They also had a field goal drive in the first half that started near midfield. You just can't give a good offense like the Saints that kind of field position.

I'm not down on the Eagles coaches or players. I don't think substantially less of the team than I did a week ago. We got beat by a good team. We didn't have our starting quarterback and compounded that by playing a very sloppy game. The players and coaches now have a couple of games to look at and figure out what is working and what isn't. While the Saints game wasn't much to smile about, there were some things I was happy to see.

• Akeem Jordan had an interception for the second game in a row. The last Eagles linebacker with two picks in a season? Ike Reese in 2004. Jordan also had a couple of tackles for loss. He is developing into a solid playmaker.

• Tight end Brent Celek had a great game. He led the team with eight catches for 104 yards. He showed great awareness of where he needed to go to get a first down. He also was darn near impossible to tackle. Did the Saints ever cleanly put him on the ground?

• Jason Avant had a great game in the slot. He moved the chains all day long and got his first touchdown of the year.

• LeSean McCoy showed excellent burst on some of his runs. He is really effective on the shotgun draw play we used.

• Sean Jones played well on special teams. He led us with three tackles in kick coverage. Jones is too talented not to get on the field and contribute in some way.