Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb reacts after throwing a touchdown pass to wide receiver DeSean Jackson in the first quarter of a football game against the New Orleans Saints.

You can’t pin this loss on Kevin Kolb…well…maybe you can.

Depending on what side of the fence you are on, one could look at the Eagles young quarterback’s performance yesterday as a complete failure; or one could say it’s a guy who put up numbers against the red hot New Orleans Saints (2-0) and just needs more time to develop.

Certainly there was enough blame to be spread around after the Eagles (1-1) fell apart in the second half, dropping an embarrassing 48-22 verdict to the Saints at the Linc in front of a home opener-crowd of 69,144.

What level quarterback is Kolb? Is he a pro or a pretender?

Is he the one who threw three interceptions against the Saints including a strike right into the arms of free safety Darren Sharper, who raced 97 yards for a touchdown?

Or is it the Kolb who completed 31 passes out of 51 attempts for 391 yards and two touchdowns?

Coach Andy Reid sounded like he was still divided over his 2007 second round pick out of Houston.

“I think he did some good things, but there were a couple of things that he shouldn’t have done,” Reid said. “In the first half he did some real good things.”

In the second half it seemed like the closer Kolb got to the end zone, the more the other team’s uniforms look like his own.

At the start of the third quarter, Ellis Hobbs coughed up the opening kickoff, handing the Saints the ball on the 22-yard line. It took New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees all of three plays to get into the end zone and give his team a 24-13 lead.

When the Birds finally got the ball on offense, Kolb’s first pass went right to Saints linebacker Scott Shanle at Eagles 24-yard line.

The turnover resulted in another New Orleans touchdown that made the score 31-13 and effectively ended the game.

The Eagles have never been a consistent come-from-behind team during the Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb’s 11-year tenure in Philadelphia, so a comeback was not likely.

After the game, Kolb was asked if there were any positives to take from his performance.
“No,” he said without hesitation. “The fact is we lost. The fact is that I had three turnovers again and it upsets me. You won’t feel better until you get back on the field for practice on Wednesday, or I guess we’ll go in tomorrow too, but it’s frustrating from a personal standpoint.”

As bad as Kolb was, the Eagles defense was worse.

After putting on a clinic last week against Carolina, the Birds allowed 421 yards of offense including 311 passing by Brees.

Brees threw six touchdown passes against the lowly Detroit Lions last week. Against the Eagles, he threw three more including a 25-yard beauty to Marques Colston in the second quarter.

Brees finished with a quarterback rating of 118.6, to borrow an expression from Eagles announcer Merrill Reese, he could have played wearing a white tuxedo out there and it would not have gotten dirty.

The one highlight for Kolb was his 71-yard TD strike to DeSean Jackson in the first quarter that tied the score 7-7.
But that was it. The rest of the game was made up of plays that drew boos and then empty seats.

The Eagles rushing game produced just 85 yards on 21 carries. Westbrook tallied 52 of those yards on 13 carries.

Tight end Brent Celek led the Birds with 104 receiving yards on eight catches.

Mike Bell led the Saints running game with 86 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown.

Eagles defensive lineman Darren Howard said the Eagles were bad across the board – offense, defense, special teams – but he echoed the general feeling in the locker room that they would like to play the Saints again.

“[The Saints] did a good job today,” Howard said. “Hats off to those guys. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to play those guys again at the end of the year.”