CHICAGO -- Mistakes in the red zone on Sunday haunted the Eagles once again.The offense was just one of five inside the Chicago 20-yard line, including one touchdown in three trips in a rough first half, in the 31-26 loss.
One sequence hurt the most, however. On a second-and-goal play from the Chicago 4-yard line on the first play after the two-minute warning, quarterback Michael Vick made one of his few mistakes. It couldn't have come at a worse time. Vick tried to throw to the right, looking for wide receiver Jeremy Maclin running a slant route. But defensive tackle Tommie Harris penetrated over the right guard spot and deflected Vick's pass.
From then, it was all downhill.
Safety Chris Harris intercepted the pass and returned it out of the end zone to the Bears 37-yard line. Instead of going in for the lead at the half, the Eagles were on their heels.
Chicago put together a 6-play, 63-yard drive to score a touchdown and lead 21-13 at the half.
"It's on everybody," said left tackle Jason Peters, who battled defensive end Julius Peppers one-on-one for most of the game. "I have to be better and everybody has to be better. We will fix it. We will get it right. Right now, though, it is frustrating. We're killing ourseives."
The red zone was a strength early in the season with Vick at quarterback. The Eagles converted 7 of their first 8 red-zone chances for touchdowns then, but there have been ups and downs since. In the win over New York two Sundays ago, the Eagles converted just one of five chances in the red zone.
That makes the Eagles 2 of 10 in the red zone in the last two games, if anyone is counting.
"I don't know what it is, but we have to figure it out and score touchdowns. You can't let teams off the hook with field goals," said wide receiver Jason Avant, who caught 8 passes for 83 yards. "We are missing too many chances to get a lead."
There isn't a whole lot of time to fix anything. The Eagles have only two days of practice before they play Houston on Thursday night.
"We're going to keep working at it and we will get it right," said offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. "We had chances. We had the opportunities right there. We're all taking responsibility, myself first. I have to do a better job. We all do."
-- Posted by Dave Spadaro, 8:57 p.m., November 28
