by by Paul Domowitch , The Philadelphia Daily News

Through seven games, the Birds have scored 20 offensive touchdowns. Fourteen of those 20 drives have been four plays or fewer. Seven have been only one or two plays.

Just three of their touchdown drives have been longer than six plays. Only one has been longer than eight plays. That was a 10-play, 74-yard touchdown drive against Carolina way back in Week 1.

"It shows we can score on any given play," said tight end Brent Celek, whose team is third in the league in scoring (29 points per game) and leads the league in offensive plays of 40-plus yards (12). "It shows we can score at will. We've proven to teams around the league that we can be one of the greatest offenses out there."

With home-run threats on the outside like DeSean Jackson, who has racked up seven of those 12 40-plus-yard plays, including five for touchdowns, and rookie Jeremy Maclin, the Eagles clearly have proven they have big-strike capability. But the question for the moment is: What if the big strike ain't there? What happens when they meet up with a defense - maybe this week, maybe next week, maybe in the playoffs - that can take away the big play? Are they as capable of putting together an old-fashioned, 10-play, 80-yard scoring march as they are a one-play, 64-yarder?

"I would like to gain a little [more] efficiency," admitted offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. "I think we can do that. I think we can be an efficient offense. The offensive line is a little bit more healthy now. So I think that helps with the efficiency situation."

Offenses that can put together long drives are good red-zone teams, and the Eagles aren't a good red-zone team yet. They're 19th in the league in red-zone offense, converting just eight of 16 trips inside the 20 into touchdowns.

Right now, the longer the Eagles have the ball, the more their chances of scoring a touchdown decrease. They've had 10 scoring drives of more than six plays this year. Seven of them have ended in field goals, not touchdowns.

For comparison purposes, I took a look at the touchdown drives of three other high-octane offenses from the past - the '04 Eagles with T.O., the '07 Patriots who scored an NFL-record 589 points, and the '06 Super Bowl-champion Colts.

The '04 Eagles : Twenty-one of their 42 touchdown drives were longer than six plays. Just 14 were four plays or fewer. Five were two plays or fewer. Fifteen were nine-plus-play drives.

The '07 Patriots: Forty-two of 67 touchdown drives were longer than six plays. Just 13 were four plays or fewer. Only four were two plays or fewer. Thirty-two drives were nine plays or longer.

The '06 Colts: Thirty-four of 47 touchdown drives were longer than six plays. Just six were four plays or fewer. They didn't have a single one- or two-play touchdown drive the entire season. Twenty-five drives were nine plays or longer.

"I'll take 'em any way I can get 'em," coach Andy Reid said. "So, if they come quick, I'll take 'em quick. If they come long, I'll take 'em long. I don't care. As long as we're putting points up on the board, I don't care."

Defending the tight end

One of the reasons the Eagles are replacing Macho Harris with Sean Jones at free safety is because the 6-1, 220-pound Jones is better equipped physically to help with coverage on the tight end.

The Eagles fixed this problem in the second half of last season when the late Jim Johnson gave the tight-end coverage responsibilities mainly to strong safety Quintin Mikell and weakside linebacker Akeem Jordan. But the problem has resurfaced again this year. Opposing tight ends have caught five touchdown passes against the Eagles in the last four games and have averaged 102.7 receiving yards per game in those four games.

Last week, Giants tight end Kevin Boss had three catches for 70 yards and a touchdown. Jones was victimized on one of those catches, picking up Boss late off the line and giving up a 22-yard catch-and-run.

This week, they must find a way to neutralize Cowboys tight end Jason Witten, whose 37 catches are tied with Brent Celek for most by an NFC tight end.

Around the league

-- While the 7-0 Saints probably won't go unbeaten, they're a very good bet to end up with homefield advantage in the NFC through the playoffs. Just three of their remaining nine games are against teams currently with a winning record - the Patriots and Cowboys are 5-2 and the Falcons are 4-3. Their other remaining opponents include the 0-7 Bucs (twice), the 2-5 Redskins, the 1-7 Rams and the 3-4 Panthers (twice).

-- The Cardinals' big-play offense hasn't had many big plays this season. A year ago, on the way to the Super Bowl, they finished second in the league in passing and had 13 pass plays of 40-plus yards. Through seven games this season, they have just two. Larry Fitzgerald is third in the league in receptions with 47, but is averaging just 10.8 yards per catch. That's 4.1 yards per catch less than last year. He has just three receptions of 25 yards or more. Last year, he had 14 in the regular season and eight more in the playoffs. "I've seen my fair share of coverages," Fitzgerald said. "But I'm not using any excuses. We have to find solutions. The teams that we play against, they watch tape like everybody else does. They want to make us go on long drives, and when you make long drives, you have to make tough third-down catches. We understand that and we have to deal with it."

-- Falcons QB Matt Ryan is struggling. The Penn Charter grad has thrown seven interceptions in the last three games. He completed just 19 of 42 passes in last week's loss to the Saints and had a 46.6 passer rating. It was his third straight sub-70 rating. "I've got to play better," Ryan said. "As a quarterback, you've got to protect the Football better, and I haven't done a great job of that the last couple of weeks.''

-- How disorganized are the Raiders? They have a bye this week, yet as of late last Sunday, they still hadn't given their players a bye-week schedule. Players had no clue whether they had to stay in town and practice or would be given the week off. Most teams give their players most of the bye week off. The Raiders ended up practicing through yesterday, then getting the weekend off.

From the lip

-- "I'm not a T.O. or I'm not trying to be a T.O. I don't know why people are trying to put me in that category, because I'm happy to win. I've said that 100 times. I don't understand why people won't just say OK and leave it alone. But I'm a professional Football player and am trying to get this thing right." - Cowboys WR Roy Williams, on his complaints about the poor passes he has been receiving from QB Tony Romo.

-- "This is a bad guy that owns this team. I'll just tell you that up front. Bad guy. And if the commissioner is worried about potential new owners and saying some of these guys shouldn't apply, he might want to police his own inside guys." - Former Redskins RB John Riggins, on current Redskins owner Dan Snyder.

-- "To date we have let everyone down, including ourselves. We know that. We're just apologetic. We've blown some games that obviously we think we should have won." - Snyder, on his team's 2-5 record

-- "I beat Joey [Porter]? Wow. How can I be the dirtiest player on the field - a little, old wideout with no speed? I don't know whether to be happy or mad about it." - Steelers WR Hines Ward, who was named the NFL's dirtiest player in a Sports Illustrated poll of players

-- "They're not going to run me out of town. I'm not too worried about it. They want to win probably as bad as we do, and it's understandable. They're going to get after guys when the team's not playing well. I like to think that I do a pretty good job of letting that stuff go." - Lions QB Matthew Stafford, who was heckled by fans after his team's loss to the Rams last week.

By the numbers

-- In their Week 2 loss to the Giants, the Cowboys allowed six completions of 20 or more yards. In their five games since, they've given up a total of 10.

-- The Saints have committed eight turnovers in their last two games, and still have managed to win both of them.

-- Eagles defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley has a team-high five tackles for losses in the first seven games. He had one all of last year.

-- Since left tackle Chris Samuels got hurt in Week 4, the Redskins have completed just one pass that has traveled farther than 25 yards.

-- Vikings LG Steve Hutchinson was flagged for a holding penalty last week. So what? So, it was his first holding penalty in 97 starts. The last time he was flagged for a hold was Nov. 20, 2003!

-- Of the eight teams that won division titles last season, just three - the Vikings, Cardinals and Steelers - currently hold at least a share of first place.

-- Titans RB Chris Johnson, who leads the league in rushing with 824 yards, is averaging 6.9 yards per carry. That's the highest rushing average by an NFL rushing leader through the first 8 weeks of the season since 1970.

-- The Seahawks have lost 11 of their last 13 road games.

-- With a win Sunday, Colts coach Jim Caldwell can tie the league record for the best start by a rookie head coach. Caldwell's team is 7-0. The record is 8-0 by the immortal Potsy Clark with the 1931 Portsmouth Spartans.

Thumbs up

To former Eagles running back Ryan Moats, who rushed for a career-high 126 yards and a franchise-record three touchdowns for the Texans last week in their win over Buffalo. Moats, a third-round pick by the Eagles in the '05 draft, lasted just 2 years with the team, mainly because he was fumble-prone. Ironically, he got a chance to play last week because starter Steve Slaton was benched after losing five fumbles in the first seven games.

Thumbs down

To Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who deserves a lifetime achievement thumbs down for the pathetic way he's run his Football team. Forget for a moment what he's done to the awful product on the field with his meddling and stupidity and bad hires. This arrogant jerk also has had the audacity to sue more than 100 Redskins fans who, thanks to this stinking economy, defaulted on multiyear contracts to purchase premium seats at his money factory, FedEx Field. Then, a couple of weeks ago, in an obvious attempt to prevent people from bringing "Die Danny Die" signs to games, he announced a ban on all homemade signs, claiming - get this - that they are a safety hazard. Two weeks ago, at the Eagles game, they took a sign away from a woman who was just trying to send best wishes to her husband in Afghanistan, who was going to be watching the nationally televised game over there.

Domo's rankings

1. Colts, 7-0

2. Saints, 7-0

3. Vikings, 7-1

4. Broncos, 6-1

5. Patriots, 5-2

6. Steelers, 5-2

7. Ravens, 4-3

8. Eagles , 5-2

9. Packers, 4-3

10. Bengals, 5-2

11. Falcons, 4-3

12. Giants, 5-3

13. Texans, 5-3

14. Chargers, 4-3

15. Cowboys, 5-2

16. Dolphins, 3-4

17. Jets, 4-4

18. Bears, 4-3

19. Panthers, 3-4

20. Cardinals, 4-3

21. Niners, 3-4

22. Bills, 3-5

23. Jaguars, 3-4

24. Titans, 1-6

25. Raiders, 2-6

26. Seahawks, 2-5

27. Chiefs, 1-6

28. Rams, 1-7

29. Redskins, 2-5

30. Lions, 1-6

31. Browns, 1-7

32. Bucs, 0-7

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