Owens Comes Back With His Baggage, and Little Else

In the parking lot next to Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, Eagles fans indulged themselves in a tailgate barbecue, Philadelphia-style.

They dumped old Terrell Owens jerseys on the ground and pushed them into piles that were then set afire, bonfires of the vanities Owens had brought to town during his two years of extreme antihero worship in Philadelphia.

T.O. was back in Philly, in case you missed it on ESPN, CNN, Fox, HBO, Showtime, the Sci-Fi Channel, Comedy Central and the Cartoon Network. Even if you had, you couldn’t miss the sledgehammer sacrifice of a T.O. figurine in the parking lot -- or the recently rewritten T.O. song, featuring the new lyrics, “T.O.! T.O.! OD-OD-OD!”

Yes, overdose was the phrase of the week when it came to Owens, the prodigal Eagle making his first appearance in Philadelphia since sabotaging that franchise and returning with a new one already teetering on the brink of implosion. For six-plus days, everybody with a TV set or a newspaper subscription overdosed on “T.O. On Demand” -- for every minute, in fact, until the opening kickoff between the Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys.

After that, Owens all but vanished. On the field, where actions continue to remain unbeaten against words, Owens was virtually frozen out -- limited to three catches for 45 yards in Philadelphia 38-24 victory.

Perhaps he was distracted. For days on end, the Cowboys insisted they weren’t distracted by the news of Owen’s “accidental overdose” of pain pills, or the chronic pain in the Cowboys’ backside ever since Jerry Jones mistook the NFL for a fantasy league and brought in Owens to ruin Bill Parcells’ life.

But what about Owens?

Could he have been distracted?

Of course he could. Maybe he couldn’t find the Sharpie pen he wanted to use to autograph his children’s book, titled “Little T Undermines Big D,” or something like that.

From Owens’ perspective, his return to Philadelphia was a bust in every way imaginable.

His new team lost to his old team, his old team somehow fashioning a 4-1 record without him.

His renowned sparring partner, Donovan McNabb, passed for 354 yards and two touchdowns.

And a couple of young receivers named Baskett and Brown did everything for the Eagles that Owens once did, minus the one-handed catches Owens had to make because his other hand was always occupied with so much extra baggage.

Hank Baskett, an undrafted rookie acquired in a trade from Minnesota, had three receptions for 112 yards and scored a touchdown, covering 87 yards, on a soon-to-be-patented Baskett catch.

Reggie Brown, a second-year pro from Georgia, added four receptions for 79 yards and another touchdown.

Afterward, Owens expressed frustration when talking with reporters and suggested, “Maybe I need to work harder,” a novel concept that should make banner headlines in Dallas.

The current NFC East standings show Philadelphia alone in first place at 4-1, followed by three of the league’s bigger disappointments -- the 2-2 Cowboys, the 2-3 New York Giants and the 2-3 Washington Redskins. The Redskins fell into last place Sunday when another bitter reunion went against them, LaVar Arrington contributing to the Giants’ defensive shutdown of Mark Brunell and Co., 19-3.

Another disappointment, Seattle, sat this one out, the Seahawks using the open date in their schedule to rest injuries and watch St. Louis vault past them in the NFC West standings with a 23-20 victory at Green Bay.

The Seahawks, who bombed out in their most recent trip inside the NFC North, a 37-6 loss at Chicago, were hopeful Brett Favre might lend them a helping hand against the Rams. Instead, Favre handed it to the Rams -- fumbling the ball away at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds to go.

The victory left the Rams at 4-1, just ahead of 3-1 Seattle, and set up an early NFC West showdown this Sunday between the front-runners in St. Louis.

Of course, the way the Bears are playing, every other NFC divisional race could be moot. Chicago improved to 5-0 with its latest rout, a 40-7 triumph over Buffalo in the kind of all-around performance Bills Coach Dick Jauron never experienced when he coached the Bears from 1999 to 2003.

Three of the Bears’ last four victories have been by scores of 34-7, 37-6 and now 40-7. Jauron’s Chicago teams scored 30 points only four times in five seasons, and never more than 37 in a game.

The Bears, 5-0 for the first time in 20 years, were so dominant against the Bills that backup quarterback Brian Griese got a bit of garbage time, completing all four of his passes for 29 yards while pondering the timeless existential question, “Is it better to be second-string on a 5-0 team or starting for a 0-4 team?”

Griese was sounding pretty good to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who will play the rest of this season without injured quarterback Chris Simms. The Buccaneers gave Bruce Gradkowski his first NFL start against New Orleans, and although Gradkowski acquitted himself with a couple of touchdown passes, Tampa Bay still dropped to 0-4 after a 24-21 loss to the 4-1 Saints.

Notable for New Orleans: Reggie Bush scored the go-ahead points with his first NFL touchdown, a 65-yard punt return in the fourth quarter on a sort of Throwback Afternoon for USC football fans.

Let’s see: Bush scores the winning touchdown, Matt Leinart passes for 253 yards and two scores and LenDale White averages a robust six yards a carry.

That sounds like your typical Trojans box score in 2005. Except this is 2006, and Leinart now plays for the Arizona Cardinals, 1-4 after a 23-20 home defeat to Kansas City, and White plays for the Tennessee Titans, 0-5 after a 14-13 near miss against Indianapolis.

Old Trojans move on, but not all of them necessarily move up.

*

mike.penner@latimes.com