Lose a few games in this league and see how quickly the negativity swells. The Eagles, so hyped and so full of promise at the start of the season, are 3-6 and floundering. They are searching for answers. They are in desperate need of some positive momentum, some kind of spark to ignite a disappointing season.

These qualify as tough times, some of the toughest in Reid's tenure. His track record suggests that the Eagles will turn it around, either at some point in 2011 or next year. Maybe Reid already has a good idea, but he needs to find out for sure which players are tough enough to rise above the misery and the losing streak. He has to find out what he has in the locker room before the Eagles can move forward.

It was, you remember, one of Reid's first missions when he became the head coach. He wanted to clean up the "culture" of the locker room, which had become too much on the other side of caring in the waning years of Ray Rhodes' regime. Every player in the league wants to win, but how many really care enough to play first for the team, for the good of the victory?

Not as many as you think. And this locker room has been testing, that's for sure. The Eagles don't appear to play with fire and urgency, and leadership has simply not emerged through nine games. Reid has always relied on his veterans to pull the younger players along, but other than Michael Vick, which veterans -- and I am not necessarily including third-year men like Jeremy Maclin and LeSean McCoy in this conversation -- have done so?

I'll give a nod to wide receiver Jason Avant, who is well respected in the locker room. Defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins is trying. Trent Cole straps it on every day. The offensive line leads itself and has done a pretty good job there.

I don't see it from the rest of the team, though. Any team that loses five fourth-quarter leads -- and there haven't been any teams that have lost five fourth-quarter leads -- lacks leadership in a big way.

At 3-6, historically, players check out in this league. You don't necessarily see it when you watch the games on Sunday unless you study the game film, or you see how much time the player is spending on his own studying film, or the little things that add up to substantial things in the course of a week.

The culture needs to change, and right now. The Eagles made so many changes and then went right into the games that, clearly, this team never had a chance to establish trust and camaraderie in the locker room.

Now the Eagles are 3-6 heading into a nationally televised game against the Giants. The intrigue continues ...

• Reid was 100 percent correct in making wide receiver DeSean Jackson inactive on Sunday for the Cardinals game. Jackson exercised poor judgment and a lack of leadership when he missed a meeting and he knows it. He apologized to the team on Monday morning and the incident is behind everyone. We saw how much the Eagles missed Jackson both in the passing game and in the return game. What is Jackson's future with the Eagles? I don't know. It's going to be a very important decision made by the team and by Jackson ahead.
• I vote in favor of starting Vince Young at quarterback on Sunday against the Giants if there is the slightest concern for Vick's two broken ribs. Why risk it? Vick doesn't need to expose himself to further injury. The Giants have an outstanding pass rush and they are going to go after whoever plays quarterback. Let's see what Young can do with a full week of preparation.
• If I had any pull, Colt Anderson would be a Pro Bowl cover man on special teams. He has been a tackling machine. The coverage these past two games against Devin Hester and Patrick Peterson was really, really good. Akeem Jordan has stepped up, too.
• Showing that these numbers don't mean a thing, the Eagles rank first in the NFL in rushing offense, 10th in passing offense and third in total offense.
• The numbers that do matter are the turnovers. The Eagles rank 27th with a minus-7, better only than Miami, San Diego, Washington, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.
• Just because I know you already know, the Eagles have been outscored 74-27 in the fourth quarter of games this season. That is an incredible number.
• An injury to worry about, in addition to Vick's broken ribs, is Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie's high ankle sprain. That is the kind of injury that can keep a player out for several weeks. Is it time the Eagles start to work rookie Curtis Marsh into the rotation just a bit to see what he can do? They are obviously high on Brandon Hughes, who has seen some reps.