By Mike Lurie
CBS SportsLine Staff Writer
Aug. 25, 1998

BALTIMORE -- For the third time in as many tries this preseason, the Ravens won an exhibition game convincingly.

Meanwhile,

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the Philadelphia Eagles played the role of victim. That's a state which could be all-too-familiar for them this fall and could mean the end of coach Ray Rhodes' run there.

Are the Ravens this good? Definitely not. They'd be the first to say so. They have beaten the Chicago Bears, the New York Jets two Saturdays ago and the Eagles. That translates into one terrible team, one decent team off its game, and a third team that falls somewhere between terrible and mediocre.

Are the Eagles this bad? Rhodes says they don't have to be. He still believes in the team he once helped build. He believes there is the personnel in place to do the job and at least be competitive.

BUT AS RHODES FIELDED questions after the loss to the Ravens, it seemed as though the coach might be trying to convince himself. The brash Philadelphia media peppered him with quick-fire challenges. "Do you have the players, Ray?" was one question. The tone of other queries indicated desperation, exasperation and frustration.

It could be a long, cold football season in Philadelphia, where the tolerance level for a struggling Eagles team is always low.

"We have not moved the ball effectively. Three preseason games and it just hasn't happened for us," Rhodes said. "We've got a lot of work to do. We've got to find a way to score points. We need to find a way to move the ball effectively."

This was a candid mea culpa from Rhodes, an honest acknowledgment of an offense going nowhere. The defense is not menacing. Only the special teams seemed to show any effectiveness.

PRESEASON FOOTBALL IS ONE of those misleading notions. Often teams that win a majority of their exhibition games lose the majority of their regular-season encounters. However, to watch the Eagles stumble is something altogether different.

"We have to go back in and look at certain plays that have been pretty

Quarterbacks Rodney Peete, left, and Bobby Hoying, right, haven't been able to get the Eagles offense pointed in the right direction. (AP)

effective for us throughout the years that we've been here," Rhodes said . "Pull all those plays up and take a look at them and start implementing those things that have worked in the past."

Trouble is, players make plays. The playbook doesn't. Dusting off a diagram from 1995 does not guarantee the Eagles similar success with his current collection of players. Rhodes heard this theory. He nodded. He was a little offended, but will have to get used to it.

" Irving Fryar has been here," Rhodes said of one of his top receivers (who is about to turn 36), "and Freddie Solomon has made plays and Bobby Hoying made plays last year. We are just not in sync as far as moving the football."

Here is how things look for the Eagles at the moment. In the first half, cornerback Bobby Taylor intercepted Ravens quarterback Jim Harbaugh.

ON THE FACE OF IT, this would be a positive development. Throw in the fact Taylor returned the ball to Baltimore's 6-yard line and this one play would seem a veritable bonanza.

But Taylor broke a bone in his shoulder on the play and will be out perhaps eight weeks as a result. Meanwhile, Hoying and the offense took over at the 6 and proceeded to move backward. After an assortment of penalties and plays gone awry, the Eagles didn't even finish in field-goal range. They punted.

From Baltimore's standpoint, there is reason to be optimistic about a defense that contributed to the Eagles' offensive ineptitude. In three games the defensive front seven played as if they could be for real. Considering some of the players here -- Peter Boulware, Ray Lewis, Tony Siragusa -- this front seven is no fluke.

Nonetheless, the Ravens also stumbled offensively as their line looked disorganized in its blocking schemes. The coaching staff wanted to see Jay Graham break through and pull off some of the big-play runs of which they feel he is capable. Instead, he never had enough blocking for a realistic chance.

The lengthy holdout of franchise player Wally Williams has put the offensive line in disarray. It is probably nothing too worrisome now. If it doesn't change soon, though, the Ravens will be in big trouble when they open their season with Pittsburgh.

"I DON'T KNOW what happened to them," Ravens coach Ted Marchibroda said. "This is an outfit that we're counting on. This is one of the cores of our football team. And we couldn't run the football when they were in there, and our pass protection wasn't the best, and we were making mistakes and making errors."

Williams is learning to play left guard. Former backup Jeff Mitchell is learning to play center. These processes take time. But Williams would have been much farther along if he hadn't held out of training camp for the better part of four weeks.

Marchibroda is not in a position to gloat about the defense. Veteran cornerback Rod Woodson, a first-year Raven whom teammates respect because of his All-Pro years with the Steelers, is also urging caution about the quality of the defense.

"It's preseason. We'll see September 6th," Woodson said.

This is the time of year coaches hold their breath, hoping mostly that no one gets hurt. No one expects serious answers about anything, unless one or two developments spell obvious trouble.

For the Eagles, obvious trouble may be looming. For the Ravens, now 3-0, there is justifiable concern about the offensive line on a night their quarterback was their most effective rusher. Perhaps that's the best sign of all for the Ravens: Despite some early indications of success, they are more aware than anyone of the distance they need to travel to compete in the AFC Central.

Mike Lurie is a CBS SportsLine staff writer.