The Eagles battled gamely amid injuries across the board but lost in San Diego, 31-23. They threw for 433 net yards and had a shot to at least tie the game near the end of regulation. And there are several areas that are worth discussing — the Brian Westbrook concussion, the team's tenuous secondary situation and whether the playoffs remain in reach. But what hurt most Sunday was the team's inability to convert red-zone possessions.

The PFW spin

The Eagles had three possessions through three quarters inside the Chargers' 10-yard line that netted only nine points. Those three possessions could have cost the team the game.

"You can't get in the red zone three times early and not be able to punch it in, especially as tight in the red zone as we got," head coach Andy Reid said. "That hurt us at the end."

In the second quarter, down 14-0, the Eagles landed on the Chargers' 1-yard line courtesy of a Quentin Jammer pass-interference call. They had 1st-and-goal to go but could not get in on three attempts. Leonard Weaver was stuffed on first down. Donovan McNabb's pass for Brent Celek failed on second down. And on third down, third-string RB Eldra Buckley gained no ground. Replays showed he might have crossed the goal line, but Reid did not challenge the play. (Perhaps Reid was gun-shy after two failures the week prior against Dallas.) On fourth down, the Eagles kicked the field goal. It was still a two-possession game.

After holding the Chargers on their next drive, the Eagles came back, moving 85 yards from their own 6-yard line to the Chargers' 9. On 1st-and-goal, McNabb couldn't hit DeSean Jackson. Westbrook, who hadn't left the game yet, was forced wide for no gain out of bounds. McNabb hit Celek on 3rd-and-goal, gaining two yards. It was closing in on the end of the second half and Reid decided to make it a one-possession game with a field goal.

The Chargers made it 21-6 in the third quarter when the Eagles, on their second possession of the half, drove to the San Diego 16-yard line on a 58-yard pass to Jason Avant, who had his finest game as an Eagle. On 1st-and-10 from the 16, a pass attempt to Celek fell incomplete. Avant gained nine yards on second down, setting up a 3rd-and-1 from the Chargers' 7. Again, McNabb's pass attempt to Jackson failed. Fourth down, and the Eagles kicked to make it 21-9. Naturally, the Chargers scored a touchdown on their next possession, going up 28-9, which essentially sealed the game despite the late heroics of McNabb, Avant and Celek, who all came up big in defeat.

"When we have these opportunities to score, we have to pound it in there,'' McNabb said. "We definitely tried, and credit to them that they obviously stopped us from running in the red zone …

"We did fight back in the second half, just ran out of time a little bit, but you can't play games like this: mistakes, penalties, starting late."

The Eagles' shuffled offensive line — with Todd Herremans replacing Jason Peters at left tackle, Nick Cole replacing Herremans at left guard and Stacy Andrews starting at right guard — was partly to blame. The run blocking was uneven, forcing the Eagles to pretty much abandon that part of their game. The same troubles cropped up in the loss at Oakland.

Another issue was that the Chargers were stout against the run but also wary of Celek, the team's only real target of size. He has become a good player, and he scored a late touchdown to give the Eagles a chance. But the Chargers were ready for him, using a linebacker in front of him in the red zone with a safety helping over the top.

Naturally, the short-yardage failures brought up memories of big stops the week before against the Cowboys and it resurrected bad memories of early last season, when these problems also were topics of serious discussion. Critics say that the only time the Eagles have made a Super Bowl coincidentally was the last time they were a good red-zone club. We'll see if that's the case this season. Or if they even can make a run at the postseason.