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A weekly examination of the Eagles’ ESPN.com Power Ranking:

Preseason: 25 Last Week: 19 | ESPN.com Power Ranking since 2002

Chip Kelly knows all about how a blowout can affect a football team’s place in the weekly rankings. He used to run up scores all the time at Oregon. In his four years there, Kelly’s teams scored 50 or more points 21 times.

It’s a little different being on the other side of that. In the smoldering aftermath of Sunday’s 52-20 humiliation in Denver, the Broncos are BCS bowl-bound at the top of the ESPN panel’s weekly rankings. The Eagles dropped all the way to No. 27. That’s two spots below their preseason spot, which was based on a first-year coach taking over a 4-12 team.

There is good news in the rankings for Eagles fans, though. Three of their next four games are against teams that are below them: home-and-home against the No. 30 New York Giants and a road game against No. 31 Tampa Bay. There is a home game against the NFC East-leading Dallas Cowboys in there, too.

So the Eagles are where they deserve to be, but there is an opportunity for them to start climbing back toward the top 10.

PHILADELPHIA -- DeSean Jackson had a frustrating day in Denver, from the pass that soared over his head on the Eagles’ first drive to the moment he blew off reporters in the postgame locker room.

Frustrate Jackson and you frustrate the Eagles’ entire passing game. That has quickly become the formula for stopping Chip Kelly’s offense.

With former teammate Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie running with him stride for stride, Jackson was targeted six times by quarterback Michael Vick. Jackson caught just two passes for 34 yards.

“I think we have seen just a little bit more man [coverage],” Kelly said Monday, “and I think that's overall with everybody. But I also think we've been productive moving the football. I still think we're stopping ourselves. We are not getting stopped by a scheme and we are not getting stopped by a look.”

When Jackson isn’t open, Vick has trouble getting the ball to his other wideouts. Either Riley Cooper (two catches, 25 yards) and Jason Avant (one catch, seven yards) aren’t getting open, or Vick just doesn’t trust them with tight throws.

“It depends on what play,” Kelly said. “There's maybe one play where, yeah, he should have let it rip, but there's other plays where we have to do a better job of getting open and other plays where we have to do a better job of protecting him. It's a combination of the whole thing.”

Early in the game, Kelly had rookie tight end Zach Ertz lined up in the slot with Brent Celek also on the field. That was a rare look at the kind of inventive use of the tight ends Kelly teased fans with in the preseason. Kelly liked the matchups created when the Eagles ran against opponents’ nickel schemes, and he also seemed to get seduced by Jackson’s quick-strike potential.

As a result, free-agent pickup James Casey has just one catch in four games. The screen game disappeared almost entirely until Vick found Bryce Brown and LeSean McCoy for a couple of big plays Sunday.

On Monday, Kelly talked about getting running back Chris Polk some more playing time. He continued to defend the play of Cooper, who is valued more for his blocking ability than his receiving at this point. And he shed some light on Ertz’s development.

“We've seen more and more from him on a weekly basis here as he starts to continue to grasp what we are doing here,” Kelly said. “I expect him to grow. He's four games into his professional football career. So to see him run around and line up all over the place like Jimmy Graham from the New Orleans Saints, I don't think anybody envisioned that as we put together an offense and start to figure out what he's good at, what he's not good at.

“There's a lot of details in doing it. It's not as easy as saying, ‘Hey, we drafted this guy and he has got the ability.’ Yeah, he does. But I also think we have to get him settled. It's not going to come with all of a sudden tomorrow we are going to come up with 17 different ways where we can deploy Zach and put him in different situations because it's not fair to him.”

Kelly had great success getting the ball to Jackson in the Eagles’ first two games. He caught 16 passes for 297 yards and two touchdowns, and the Eagles scored a total of 63 points. The past two weeks, Jackson has five catches for 96 yards, and the Eagles scored a total of 33 points.

Defenses adjusted. Now Kelly has to find a way to counter. He isn’t getting Jeremy Maclin back this season, so he has to find production from Ertz, Celek and Casey at tight end, from the running backs and from the wideouts, including the underutilized Damaris Johnson.

If he does, who knows? Maybe defenses will have to back off and Jackson can break loose again.

PHILADELPHIA -- You know it was a rough game when the head coach resorts to comments like this the next day:

“And I think in special teams, aside from the punt block and that kickoff return, we are getting a decent job and decent effort out of those guys,” Eagles head coach Chip Kelly said.

And aside from that iceberg, the Titanic had a decent first voyage. Kelly has stressed the importance of special teams in everything from roster building to practice time allotted. So it is especially galling to have his kicking game blow up on him during a 52-20 drubbing in Denver on Sunday.

The kickoff return was a 105-yard sprint by speedster Trindon Holliday. Holliday fielded Alex Henery’s kick slightly to the Eagles’ left. Several players, including Najee Goode and Casey Matthews, drifted toward that side and got caught up in a crowd of blockers when Holliday made a decisive cut to their right.

Jeff Maehl, part of Kelly’s Oregon alumni club, had the outside edge. He was wiped out by safety Duke Ihenacho. That allowed Holliday to build up speed. Rookie cornerback Jordan Poyer ran right into a block by Steven Johnson, who body-slammed Poyer. That left Henery, who made a feeble effort as Holliday blazed by.

The punt block in the fourth quarter was simple carelessness.

“You can’t make mistakes like that,” Kelly said. “It wasn’t even a designed punt block. We had a guy trying to escape and get down the field too quick trying to cover the punt and not take care of the little things.”

The “little thing” in this case was blocking Johnson, who lined up between long-snapper Jon Dorenbos and Brandon Graham, who was at right guard. Colt Anderson was the up back on that side.

At the snap, Graham fired toward his right, allowing Johnson to run right by. Johnson grazed Dorenbos, who fired to his left to make a block. Anderson, who is likely the player Kelly described, ran downfield without noticing a defender rushing right past his spot. Johnson made the block easily, then scooped up the ball and ran it in for a touchdown.

“It's not like we put in a new scheme or something special for the Broncos game,” Kelly said. “And then you look at it, that scheme kind of backfired. It's base fundamental coverage and base fundamental protection and then coverage that we didn't get done on those two particular plays.”

A review of four hot issues after the Philadelphia Eagles' 52-20 loss to the Denver Broncos:

This game was never going to be a pleasant afternoon in the Rockies for these Eagles. After Philip Rivers dissected their patchwork secondary in Week 2, we immediately wondered how bad things would get when the Eagles faced the elite quarterbacks, with no one being more elite than Peyton Manning. Now we know.

“We ran into a buzzsaw,” Eagles defensive coordinator Bill Davis said after the game. Davis had left the locker room, possibly after turning in his belt and shoelaces. He spoke to reporters via the iPhone of a member of the media relations staff.

The Eagles became a part of the history that Manning is making, the same way Michael Spinks was part of the history Mike Tyson made or the rest of the field was part of the history Usain Bolt made in the Olympics. They have no choice but to accept that and find a way to move on.

The next three weeks are huge for Chip Kelly. After losing three games to the AFC West, by larger margins every week, Kelly’s Eagles play the New York Giants (0-4), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-4) and Dallas Cowboys (2-2).

The Eagles have an opportunity to win all three of those games, which would get them to 4-3, restore their respectability and give the second half of the season meaning. All three games are against NFC teams and two are within the division, where the Eagles are 1-0. Since 1990, teams that start 1-3 have just a 14 percent chance to go to the playoffs, according to ESPN Stats & Information. But somebody is going to win the NFC East. It says so right in the rulebook. Until they lose games and ground to Dallas, the Eagles have a chance to be that team.

The offensive line is becoming an issue. Kelly laid the blame for the offensive struggles squarely on the pressure quarterback Michael Vick is experiencing. “We’ve got times where he is at the top of his drop and he’s sticking his foot into the ground and there’s pressure on him,” Kelly said. “That’s not on Mike.”

A quick history lesson: Two years ago, Andy Reid brought in longtime Indianapolis Colts assistant Howard Mudd to coach the offensive line. Mudd has a unique approach suited to slimmer, more athletic linemen. The result was a purge of players who just didn't fit. Could it be that some of the linemen here just don't fit Kelly’s own unique approach? Could it simply be that the players returning from injuries -- Jason Peters, Todd Herremans, Jason Kelce -- aren't at full health? Is it just a natural transition period?

“Someone who’s been playing fantastic for 52 plays, on the 53rd play makes a mistake up front,” Kelly said. “Somebody you expected to be picked up is creating penetration.”

Time will provide the answers, but there is enough of a body of work to start asking the questions.

There are no playmakers on this defense. Davis has been trying to scheme around the personnel he has while shifting the team from a 4-3 to a 3-4 base. The results were not very good through three weeks, and they were disastrous Sunday against the Broncos. No matter the scheme, though, a great player will find ways to make an impact: a sack on a crucial third down, a ball stripped from a running back or receiver, something. The Eagles just aren't getting those plays.

“We only have one way to go,” Davis said. “We have to get better. Everything about the defense has to improve. We have enough talent.”

Davis may or may not believe those words. The rest of us have to believe our eyes.

DENVER -- Tying up some loose ends from the Philadelphia Eagles' 52-20 loss to the Denver Broncos:

1. There is a domino effect when things go wrong for a football team. The Chip Kelly who went for a two-point conversion against Kansas City last week chose to punt the ball in Broncos territory late in the first half Sunday.

“I just didn’t want to give them that field position if we didn’t get it,” Kelly said. I thought we could pin them and make them go the distance.”

Kelly didn’t want to try a long field goal. Kicker Alex Henery later missed a shorter attempt, from 46 yards. He didn’t go for the first down because Peyton Manning was just too dangerous.

Earlier in the half, the Eagles scored a touchdown to make the score 14-12. Kelly kicked the extra point instead of going for two and the tie.

The bottom line is Kelly didn’t have confidence in his offense to pick up six yards, in his special teams to make a long field goal or in his defense to stop the Broncos.

2. The Eagles allowed two special teams touchdowns. Trindon Holliday broke a 105-yard kickoff return in the first quarter, when the game was still a contest. Steven Johnson blocked a punt, scooped it up and returned it 17 yards for a touchdown in the fourth, helping to make the game a joke.

Kelly had few answers immediately after the game and special teams coach Dave Fipp left without talking to reporters.

“I didn’t see the film,” Kelly said of the kick return. “I know there was a pretty big hole. I know [Johnson] came through the A gap, but I don’t what the call was up front.”

3. Kelly said last week he didn’t think the altitude would have an effect on his team. He was incorrect.

Running back LeSean McCoy said he “couldn’t breathe” during the first half. He had to leave the game for long stretches. Tight end Brent Celek said the thin air made it tough for him, as well.

“It’s not an excuse,” Celek said. “They had to play in the same conditions.”

Except, of course, the Broncos live here and are acclimated to the thinner air.

DENVER -- In praising the other quarterback, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly might have revealed a little truth about his own.

Kelly was asked about the Eagles’ heavy use of the running game again on Sunday.

“You pick what you do best,” Kelly said. “If I had Peyton Manning, I’d throw it a lot, too.”

Kelly does have Michael Vick. He praised Vick’s performance in the Eagles’ 52-20 loss.

“I think Mike played well,” Kelly said. “I thought he threw the ball very accurately. I do know this and we’ve got to address it: We have to protect him better. I thought he put the ball in really good places, I thought he kept drives alive with his legs and I thought Mike played really well.”

But it is a passing league, and Vick’s production the last two weeks has been less than impressive. He completed 14 of 27 passes against Denver for 248 yards. Vick had at least four well-placed passes dropped by receivers. He was sacked three times for 13 and forced to scramble a number of times.

“I would like to have more time,” Vick said, “but I have to go out with what I have and keep fighting. Regardless of what I got, I have to keep fighting and working with those guys every day. I want to do my job to the best of my ability.”

Like Kansas City last week, the Broncos neutralized DeSean Jackson. Vick threw six passes to Jackon, but only two were complete for 34 yards. Defenses are willing to concede a certain amount of yardage on the ground if it prevents the big scoring plays that have become the Eagles’ calling card.

“We’ve been trying to run the ball,” Vick said. “That’s our thing. We try to keep that momentum between that and the passing game.”

Vick said he would take it upon himself to provide the kind of leadership a team needs to get out of an 0-3 tailspin.

“It took us three days to get over our loss to Kansas City,” Vick said. “That shouldn’t happen. It should hurt because we want perfection, but we have to find a way to get our juice and enthusiasm back. We need to understand that we still control our destination.”

Vick will remain at the wheel. Kelly put Nick Foles in for a garbage-time touchdown, but said he had given no thought to changing quarterbacks.

DENVER – The scoreboard mocked the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday. No matter what anyone says, the embarrassment of a 52-20 beating lingers.

"We've got to get over it," linebacker DeMeco Ryans said. "We can't dwell on it. We can't let this demoralize us to the point where we can't come back and fight."

That is the issue facing coach Chip Kelly just four weeks into his NFL career. He conceded his team "got down" in the second half, as Peyton Manning just continued throwing footballs into the Eagles' end zone.

"I don’t think, 'Holy smokes, the season is over,'" Kelly said.

The question is whether his players think that. A lot of them endured the 4-12 nightmare that was 2012. They embraced a fresh start with Kelly. A loss like this has to bring back a lot of bad memories.

"I'll be able to answer that question Tuesday when we come out on the practice field," Kelly said. "If we're hanging our heads and feeling sorry for ourselves, then I'll say we didn't have any progress. But I think we have to understand that this is a tough-ass league. You play against some pretty good teams. If they come back on Tuesday, then I'll be excited about this group going forward. And I really believe they will."

Running back LeSean McCoy said he was "very surprised" to find the Eagles sitting at 1-3.

"Just knowing the players we have in the locker room and the type of coaches we have," McCoy said, "if you had told me at the beginning of the season that we would be 1-3 right now, I would have called you a liar. We've just got to get it together."

McCoy said he didn't believe players would let this loss affect their attitude.

"No way," he said. "If you're a coward probably, but guys in this locker room got heart. We'll keep fighting and battling."

Cornerback Cary Williams called next Sunday's game against the 0-4 New York Giants "a must-win game."

"We're 1-0 in our division," Williams said.

"It's big," safety Nate Allen said. "It's a division game. If we can get that win and get back on the right track, it will be big for us."

DENVER -- If yards were points, Chip Kelly's Philadelphia Eagles would be awfully good right now.

Instead, despite piling up remarkable yardage numbers, the Eagles have lost three games in a row. They amassed 450 yards against the Denver Broncos, just 22 fewer yards than Peyton Manning &Co., and yet they were outscored by 32. In their Week 3 loss to Kansas City, the Eagles managed just 16 points despite 431 yards of offense.

That's almost hard to do, but the Eagles are doing it.

“At one point, I think, even in the fourth quarter, we had more yards than the Broncos did,” center Jason Kelce said. “But we aren't putting the ball in the end zone. I can't speak for the defense or the special teams, but it was just a very rough game for us.”

Kelly calls them “SIWs” – self-inflicted wounds like the third-down pass Brent Celek dropped in the first quarter or the holding penalty on Evan Mathis that ruined a second-quarter drive.

"I just dropped it," Celek said. "It was totally my fault."

“They're coming at critical times,” Kelly said. “They're the things that hurt you. Not only do you they set you back, but they nullify a big yardage gain. Those are drive killers. Good teams don't stop themselves and we're stopping ourselves right now.”

The Eagles were trailing 21-13 at halftime. Denver scored on its first possession of the third quarter, creating a must-score drive for the Eagles. They moved from their own 20 to 44 on two plays, then stalled. Vick was flushed and ran for two yards. LeSean McCoy dropped a pass on second down and Celek dropped another on third down.

The Eagles punted and were never able to get within striking distance again.

“They went down and scored,” Kelly said. “If we can sustain and score, then we can trade a little bit and hope you can get a stop and keep yourself in the game. We didn't. I felt that drive, offensively for us, was the biggest thing for us.”

McCoy rushed for 73 yards on 16 carries, but had to leave the game for long stretches because he had trouble breathing in the thin air. DeSean Jackson, the Eagles' primary deep threat, was targeted six times but had just two catches for 34 yards.

“We just didn't click today,” McCoy said. “I thought for a while we were rolling and firing back, but we just didn't get it done. It's as simple as that.”

DENVER -- Seen and heard in the Philadelphia Eagles' locker room immediately after their 52-20 loss to the Denver Broncos:

Breathless: LeSean McCoy didn’t have the wind knocked out of him in the first half. He just didn’t have any wind to begin with. “I couldn’t breathe,” McCoy said. “I needed the oxygen mask. I didn’t adapt to the weather until the second half. I couldn’t breathe at all.” So much for the Eagles’ pregame belief that the altitude wouldn’t affect them.

Response time: Chip Kelly doesn’t know how his players will react to a 32-point embarrassment, their third loss in a row. “I’ll really be able to answer that question Tuesday when we get back on the practice field,” Kelly said. “If we’re hanging our heads and feeling sorry for ourselves, I’ll say we didn’t have any progress.”

Peyton Manning is really good: That is obvious from the 37-year-old quarterback’s record-breaking start. But the Eagles spent about three hours discovering firsthand just how good, how smart and how accurate Manning is. “There’s no question you’re frustrated,” cornerback Cary Williams said. “Four teams have tried to stop them,” Kelly said. “They haven’t yet.”

The NFC East looks like home: After three losses to AFC West teams, the Eagles get their NFC East rivals, the New York Giants, next week. "It's a must-win game," Williams said.

DENVER – A few thoughts in the wake of the Denver Broncos' 52-20 dismantling of the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday:

What it means: Sometimes, on any given Sunday, the far superior team with the incredibly hot quarterback blows out the lesser team. This one played out exactly as it looked on paper, with Peyton Manning shredding the Eagles' subpar defense. Michael Vick and the offense were not able to compete with Manning. Mix in two special teams touchdowns and you get an embarrassing 32-point loss. It is a good thing the Eagles (1-3) aren't in the AFC West. They went 0-3 against San Diego, Kansas City and now Denver in three weeks.

Stock Watch: Falling: Chip Kelly. His predecessor, Andy Reid, is 4-0 in Kansas City. Cleveland, the team he turned down, has won its last two games under Rob Chudzinski. Kelly has lost three games in 14 days, as many as he lost in his final two years at Oregon. Indeed, Kelly must have felt a lot like many of his college opponents as the Broncos ran up the score on his Eagles.

Empty yardage: As hard as it is to believe from the final score, the Eagles were competitive in the first half. They were within one score, 21-13, at the half. But the Eagles had just 13 points to show for 271 yards of total offense in the half. Mistakes –- a dropped first-down pass by Brent Celek, a holding penalty on Evan Mathis –- derailed productive drives. Against Kansas City the week before, turnovers and penalties kept the Eagles to 16 points despite 431 yards of offense.

What's next: The Eagles go from perhaps the hottest team in the NFL to one of the coldest, and from the unbeatable Manning to the one that's scuffling. Next Sunday's road game with the New York Giants gives Kelly and his team a chance to regroup and get their season turned in the right direction. Of course, the 0-4 Giants are overdue for a victory, aren't they?

DENVER -- It wasn't surprising when the Philadelphia Eagles announced that safety Patrick Chung will be inactive for today's game against the Denver Broncos. Chung injured his shoulder against Kansas City and didn't practice all week. Rookie Earl Wolff will start in his place.

There was a little intrigue in the rest of the secondary. The Eagles are desperately trying to develop some depth with their young cornerbacks. Roc Carmichael, who was signed off the Texans' practice squad last week, will dress for the first time. Seventh-round pick Jordan Poyer is also in uniform. Both of them were inactive for the Chiefs game. Shaun Prater, who dressed last week, is back on the inactive list this week.

Carmichael and Poyer are likely to see most, even all, of their playing time on special teams. But there is always a chance they will be pressed into action due to injury. Poyer was forced to play against Washington and was immediately targeted by Robert Griffin III.

Offensive lineman Dennis Kelly is inactive for the fourth time. The first three weeks, he was unable to practice because he was recovering from back surgery. Kelly practiced this week, but is behind Allen Barbre, who backs up at both guard and tackle.

Matt Barkley, Matt Tobin, Damion Square and Emil Igwenagu are the other inactive Eagles.

Cornerback Champ Bailey (foot) in inactive for the Broncos. It will be interesting to see if that means Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is assigned to DeSean Jackson wherever he lines up.