Eagles in search of new identity

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Eagles have an identity crisis.

After winning the first Super Bowl in franchise history, coaches and players repeatedly stressed throughout the offseason and training camp this is a different team and a new year. They were no longer underdogs wearing dog masks. Winning titles was supposed to be their new norm.

Players even went to coach Doug Pederson before the season and asked that a Super Bowl champions sign be removed from the locker room. They knew opponents would be giving their best effort and they embraced having a target on their backs so much it became a logo on a T-shirt players wore.

But now after a 3-4 start, the Eagles are an afterthought in the NFC. The Rams are 7-0, the Saints are 5-1 and eight other teams also have better records. Pederson told the team in the locker room after blowing a 17-0 lead in a 21-17 loss to Carolina on Sunday the pressure was off and everybody is counting them out again.

Sounds like they’re trying to use underdog status as motivation again. So much for different team, new season.

“I think part of it can be that,” Pederson said Monday when asked about turning to last year’s motivation tactics. “I think it’s an important part of kind of where we are, kind of the identity of the football team.”

Former NFL player Carruth out of prison after 18 years for murder plot

Rae Carruth is a free man.

The former NFL wide receiver was released from prison Monday after serving more than 18 years for conspiring to murder the mother of his unborn child.

The Carolina Panthers’ 1997 first-round draft pick was released from Sampson Correctional Institution in Clinton, North Carolina, after completing his sentence of 18 to 24 years.

Carruth did not speak to reporters as he left prison wearing a knit cap and an unzipped jacket on a chilly morning with temperatures in the high 30s. There was a smattering of applause when he got into a white SUV and was whisked away. He was taken to an undisclosed location.

The 44-year-old Carruth will be on a nine-month post-release program, according to North Carolina Department of Public Safety spokesman Jerry Higgins. He would need special permission from a case officer to leave the state or the country during that span but is free to go wherever he pleases after nine months.

Carruth was found guilty of orchestrating a plot to kill Cherica Adams on Nov. 16, 1999, in Charlotte, North Carolina, to avoid paying child support. Adams was shot four times while driving her car but managed to make a 911 call that helped implicate Carruth.

Adams went into a coma and died less than a month after the shooting.

Kansas City finishes tough stretch of season with 45-10 blitzing of Cincinnati

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs had just scored their second touchdown in less than 10 seconds of game time, an interception that Ron Parker returned untouched for a score, and taken a 38-7 lead over the Cincinnati Bengals with nearly an entire quarter to go. Talk about being able to put a game on cruise control. The Chiefs didn’t exactly sub out their entire first string down the stretch, leaving quarterback Patrick Mahomes and most of the regulars in the game. But they were able to rest easy over the final 10 minutes as they improved to an AFC-best 6-1 and kept their stranglehold on their own division.

“Week in, week out, we’ve just been preaching playing consistent, playing a full 60 minutes,” Chiefs cornerback Kendall Fuller said. “We’ve been putting good film out there.”

Now it’s up to the rest of the league to break it down. The only team that’s managed to hang with the Chiefs this season was New England, and even Tom Brady and Co. had their hands full at home. If not for a crucial drive that set up Stephen Gostkowski’s winning field goal, the Chiefs might have been able to win that one, too.

Cowboys get receiver Amari Cooper from Raiders for first-round pick

DALLAS — The Dallas Cowboys made a bold move for the present Monday, trading a first-round pick for Oakland receiver Amari Cooper in Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s latest play for the future.

The Cowboys gave up their top pick in the next draft in hopes of giving quarterback Dak Prescott another weapon.