Reid also blamed himself.

It took Reid most of his half-hour weekly news conference to explain how the Eagles, who have had just one winning season in the past four years, were still learning how to handle their new role as the hunted.

"You can talk all you want to talk about it but until you experience it, until you understand what it takes to be a top team in this league, it's not an easy thing to do," Reid said. "You have to be very mentally tough and mature to do that. We're learning."

Reid clearly was disappointed in the secondary, which was interesting in that he frequently applauds the unit, which is considered among the best in the NFL.

Two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Troy Vincent was beaten by receiver MarTay Jenkins and quarterback Jake Plummer on the decisive 35-yard touchdown pass with nine seconds left. Vincent also missed a tackle on Jenkins on a previous completion during the last-ditch 74-yard drive.

Additionally, Brian Dawkins, who Reid feels is the best free safety in football, failed to help Vincent on the play. Dawkins nearly surrendered the winning TD on the previous snap when David Boston got behind him in the end zone.

"They needed to score a touchdown to win the game," Reid said of the Cardinals, who embarked on their last possession with 1:09 left. "By all means, we thought that by playing zone (coverage) we could put our guys in position to make plays. You're talking about one of the top defenses in the league, and top players in that secondary. We put a little pressure on them to make things happen and it didn't work out for our side."

The politically-correct Andy Reid praised Plummer and Jenkins and the Cardinals, who entered the contest with a nine-game losing streak and were a league-worst 1-10 in their last 11 games.

Then again, Reid was all but second-guessing the coaching decisions that made the Cardinals look like NFC East contenders for a day.

Topping the list was handing the ball to rookie Correll Buckhalter on third-and-one at the Arizona 10 with two minutes left. Buckhalter, who had rushed for 134 yards on his previous 20 carries, was stuffed for no gain running to the right, or strong side of the line behind tackle Jon Runyan and guard Jermane Mayberry.

Reid subsequently chose to kick the field goal instead of attempting a fourth-down quarterback sneak with Donovan McNabb. Playing it safe boosted the Eagles' lead to 20-14, but gave Plummer one last chance.

"For the most part, I thought they did a good job," Reid said of his offensive line. "When it's third-and-one and I put a situation on to their backs to get us a first down, I expect them to do that. I include in there the tight ends and the fullback. I expect that to get done."

In the third quarter, with the wind at his back, Reid ran the ball eight times in 12 plays. The Eagles didn't get any points out of it. Their deepest penetration was the Cardinals' 44-yard line.

"My feeling is that we come out in the third quarter and you're going to take an aggressive mindset and try to put that team away," Reid said. "That's the approach that I took. The run game was working. Whether it was running the football or throwing the football, you would like the option to do both. I fairly expected to come out and score in that third quarter. We didn't do that and it's a shame. Stats can be deceiving, but you look at the stats that we had and only score three points in the second half, that's a shame."

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