It was a painful end to the season for Donovan McNabb both physically and emotionally. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

PHILADELPHIA -- At some point in what figures to be another painfully long offseason in southeastern Pennsylvania, maybe the Philadelphia Eagles will find their answer. Maybe the light bulb will go on, or the pressure finally will melt away, or the front office will discover the missing piece to this increasingly frustrating puzzle.

More likely, though, the Eagles will limp through the next several months exactly as all their loyal fans will.

Wondering how in the world they could blow another chance. Wondering how they could come up a game short of the Super Bowl for the third year in a row. Wondering how they could lose the final game of their season at home, again, in front of their rabid fans.

And, of course, wondering if they ever will get that chance again.

"We got booed off the field in our last game," defensive end N.D. Kalu said in the deathly calm of the Eagles' locker room Sunday night after their 14-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers. "So those 12 [regular season] wins don't mean crap."

The Eagles lost another NFC Championship Game on Sunday, their third in the last three years and their second consecutive at home, and you could read the reaction in Philadelphia from Charlotte. There's the disappointment, of course. And the anger. And, sadly, there's resignation.

Two years ago, it was the St. Louis Rams who broke the Eagles' hearts. That loss supposedly hardened them for the tests to come. But last year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers overcame the frigid cold to beat the Eagles in the final football game at Philly's old Veterans Stadium; the Bucs went on to win the Super Bowl.

Sunday, with the pressures of their failed past haunting them and the prospect of an uncertain future already weighing them down, the Eagles strutted in as the favorites against a team they had already beaten this season -- and lost. They were never in it.

"I still say we're the better team," Kalu said. "But ..."

But nothing. For all the disappointment, for all the soul-searching that will go on, the fact is that the Eagles did not lose to an inferior team Sunday. The Eagles were the inferior team.

Their weaknesses finally caught up to them.

Philadelphia's so-called run defense, ranked 22nd in the NFL, allowed 155 yards to the Panthers and was bowled over, by one back (DeShaun Foster), on a 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that pretty much sealed the game. The Eagles' defensive line didn't manage a single sack. Their pass defense fell apart on a critical second-quarter touchdown.

Their nifty quarterback, Donovan McNabb, was rendered a non-factor by a good Panthers defense that kept him from running free -- he scrambled for 107 yards last week -- intercepted him three times, sacked him four times and finally knocked him from the game.

And the team's wideouts, who had kept the Eagles in these playoffs probably longer than they should have been, dropped at least six passes.

"We just didn't execute, man. That's what it boils down to," running back Correll Buckhalter said. "It's difficult. It hurts, man. After we overcame a situation like Green Bay ... it hurts. There's no other way to describe it."

The Eagles, remember, were lucky to get this far. It took a miracle pass last week on a fourth-and-26 play against the Green Bay Packers to put them in another NFC title game. Sunday, their luck ran out.

The question that will be asked throughout another gloomy offseason is whether the Eagles, who started 0-2 n '03 before winning 11 of their next 12 games, will be able to get this far again. Longtime running back Duce Staley is a free agent, as are cornerbacks Bobby Taylor and Troy Vincent. The team is aging. The opportunity is passing. It will not be easy on McNabb or coach Andy Reid next year.

Then again, in Philadelphia, with its famously hardened fans, it never is.

"We're just as disappointed, if not more so," defensive tackle Corey Simon said. "I've heard that before ... 'It hurts us more than it hurts you.' That's a crock of bull.

"We lay our hearts on the line every week. It doesn't hurt anybody more than it hurts us."

Saturday night, in a team meeting, the Eagles listened as a few players -- including Staley and Taylor -- talked about winning this game for the veterans.

"They said that we had to lay it on the line and ...," said Buckhalter, before sighing and lowering his head.

"I'm done, man," he said, and walked off.

The Eagles are done, too. Again. And unless someone comes up with some magic answer to this team's problems this offseason, they could be done for a while.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.