That's not a moon, that's a shopping mall

Imagine the Death Star wasn't blown up. Imagine the Rebel Alliance found some other way to defeat the Galactic Empire, then they took over the Emperor's secret weapon, put in a thre-story Gap, a Rainforest Cafe and an amusement park.

Welcome to the Mall of America. Welcome to Minneapolis.

Apparently, shopping here is more popular than football, because the MOA was freaking mobbed last night, and yet there are Vikings officials outside the Metrodome handing out game tickets for free. Trenton Times reporter John Nalbone had a parking pass that he tried to give away, and he failed. It's 35 minutes before kickoff here, and the place is about a quarter full of sleepy, half-interested folks in Moe Williams jerseys.

I heard this place was supposed to be really loud, but so far, I'm unconvinced.

By the way, it looks like right tackle Jon Runyan is playing. He's not on the inactive list, despite that broken tailbone. God bless him, he's the toughest, hairiest man I've ever met.

Victor gets his first action

The Eagles just announced their inactives, including DT Montae Reagor, G Max Jean-Gilles and G Scott Young. That means Nick Cole is backing up both C Jamaal Jackson and both guards, Todd Herremans and Shawn Andrews. It also means that second-round draft pick Victor Abiamiri, will be in the rotation at defensive line for the first time this season.

As expected, Brian Dawkins and L.J. Smith are also inactive with injuries. But tackles William Thomas (knee) and Jon Runyan (tailbone) will both play. That's good news for all of us ho worried about seeing Winston Justice back in the starting lineup.

The multitalented Cecil Martin

If you hurry, you sill have time to catch former Eagles fullback Cecil Martin at the Philadelphia Terror Festival downtown. The movie he stars in, Heart of Gold, is part of a four-short program that starts at 2 p.m.

Sheppard is inactive

Apparently, Half Lito was half a Lito short. Lito Sheppard is among the inactives for today's game against the Jets, along with Brian Dawkins, Greg Lewis, Kimo von Oelhoffen, Pago Togafau, Victor Abiamiri and Scott Young.

So Brian Westbrook, L.J. Smith, William Thomas and Todd Herremans are all playing today.

This game has the feel of a must-win for the Birds. The Jets are weak, and if Philadelphia can't take care of business today, then a lot of people will be off the bandwagon permanently.

Everybody practices... except Dawk

Just came from the bubble at the NovaCare Complex, where the Eagles practiced today. Brian Westbrook was in there practicing fully, which is at most a mild surprise. William Thomas was also doing just about everything, whihc is a slightly bigger surprise given the fact that he could not work at all just 24 hours ago.

L.J. Smith was involved to a limited extent. Todd Herremans worked a little at the beginning, but spent most of the time watching. And Lito Sheppard ran with the scout team, which is pobably a pretty decent sign, since that means he was working against the starting receivers.

The lonely guy chucking footballs against the wall was Brian Dawkins, who did not practice at all. It's been half assumed by a lot of us that "neck stinger" is actually code for "concussion," but speculation is not starting to boil that his injury is actually career-threatening. I remember the play where he got hurt, tackling Washington tight end Todd Yoder on th Eagles' six-yard line at the start of the fourth quarter. He went limp right after impact, and stayed down a while. Some have said they saw him twitch, which would be an awful sign, but I was way too far away to see that, and I didn;t notice it watching the TV coverage.

The thing that has triggered this latest round of speculation is the fact that he didn't talk to the media yesterday (Wednesday). I wouldn't have known this since this is my first season with the Birds, but others have said that Dawkins is a guy who will talk and answer questions even in weeks that he has no chance of playing. So the fact that he isn't talking now is a bright red flag.

The longer this thing goes on, the more thoughts like this are going to pop into people's heads. The fact that no one really inderstands what a neck stinger actually entails, that makes it worse. Now there is some talk that his Achilles injury from back in training camp might have been less than sincere on the part of the team. It's not uncommon for NFL teams to throw up a smoke screen to veil what's really going on, both from the media and from opponents. That's fine, I guess, right up until the moment the cover no longer makes sense. A month of recovery seems like it ought to be enough for a stinger.

Back from the bye

With the Phillies "distraction" out of the way, there are a lot of people congregated here at the NovaCare Complex for the resumption of the Eagles season. The only scheduled availability for today is in the locker rom -- i.e., no Reid and no McNabb -- but the sharks are circling in the wake of some unsubstantiated bye week rumors.

Personally, I don't think there's much chance at all of Reid stepping back for the rest of the season, as has been "reported." As far as I've seen, there have been no hard facts involved, no sources revealed, and nobody who knows Andy very well has really come forward to lend cred. I've never believed he would step back, nor should he. After all, if he quits his job, what the heck is he going to do? His sons are adults. His heavy lifting on the parenting side is done, for better or for worse. His kids are unextraordinary sufferers of Rich Kid Syndrome who have the mildly unfortunate lot of also being borderline public figures.

There are plenty of other issues to address today, most of which would have a much better chance at illumination if Reid were going to the podium today. I'm particularly thinking of the injury situation, since the players are forbidden from discussing such things. Herremans will have had nearly two weeks of rest after his surgery by the Jets game, Westbrook and Thomas will both have had three weeks of rest, Smith and Dawkins four weeks and Sheppard five. it's reasonable to expect that the Birds will get some of those guys back.

The Monday After

Al last week I thought that a little too much was being made of Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's familiarity wioth the Eagles, after having coaches in Philadelphia for the previous eight years. I figured he'd probably sniff out a few more calls than the average coach, but that impact would largely be offset by the fact that his defense looks a lot like the one the Eagles offense sees in practice every day.

But a day later, it's clear that Spagnuolo's familiarity with the Eagles personalities played a huge part in the game, possible even a decisive one.

The Giants showed Philadelphia several different looks on defense. Most notably, Osi Umenyiora lined up over left tackle, on the inside and even at linebacker. At today's day-after press conference, Andy Reid sourly admitted that the linebacker bit was "different" than anything they had seen in any of the films so far. Just like countless Philadelphia fans, Spagnuolo knows that the Reid-era Eagles have a little trouble dealing with new stuff on the fly. Midstream adjustments just aren't the Birds' thing, at least from a coaching standpoint.

Nothing else but gross incompetence could explain the almost total lack of help for Winston Justice in the second half. As early as the first quarter, the guy was clearly overmatched. By halftime he was coming apart, and the Eagles coaches just watched it happen, paralyzed.

Anyway.

Now comes the bye. Before the season started, I figured the Eagles should be 3-1 at this point, given the toughness of the schedule down the stretch. Now they're 1-3, but that touch back-end schedule... not so much. The Bears look like garbage. So do the Saints, and New England notwithstanding, the AFC East (Jets, Bills, Dolphins) look like the worse division in football.

So maybe there's hope left. After all, the last time Philly started 0-2, they were also 2-3 after a Week 6 loss to Dallas, and they still ended up 12-4. The Jets game has to be the beginning, though, or the hole will be too deep.