IS TAKING DOC TO SEE THE DOC
What to keep an eye on in tonight's Bears at Eagles game:
NO HAPPY RETURNS: Devin Hester is the league's most dangerous return man. He's a home-run threat every time he touches the ball. He's third in the NFL in punt returns and seventh in kickoff returns and has taken both a punt and a kickoff to the house this season. It's incumbent upon Eagles' rookie kickers - Chas Henry and Alex Henery - to limit Hester's return chances. Easier said than done. Henry's directional punting skills aren't as good as Sav Rocca's, and Henery only has 15 touchbacks in 39 kickoffs.
NOT THEIR FORTE: Jury remains out on Eagles' run defense. Redskins ran just 14 times against them, and Dallas ran it just 10 last week (still averaged 8.5 yards a carry). Tonight, against red-hot running back Matt Forte, will be a better indicator of where they are. Forte has rushed for 138.2 yards a game - 6.2 yards a carry in last four games. He's also a dangerous receiver, averaging 11 yards a catch.
ATTACK OF THE WIDE-NINE: Bears QB Jay Cutler is capable of doing some incredibly stupid things when he's pressured. He's also capable of carpet-bombing the best of defenses when he's not. Bears' o-line has protected him well since giving up 11 sacks to Saints and Falcons in Weeks 1 and 2. But the Eagles' front four is fourth in the league in sacks per pass play.
COVER-2 REDUX: Bears play a Cover-2, which is what Dallas did in an attempt to take the deep ball away from scary-fast Eagles. Patient Eagles took what Dallas gave them, which was the middle of the field. Tight end Brent Celek and slot receiver Jason Avant were targeted 14 times and caught 12 passes for 168 yards and a TD.
SERVE AND PROTECT: There were a lot of reasons why the Eagles got off to a 1-4 start, but none were more significant than turnovers. The Eagles had a league-worst 15 giveaways in their first five games and a league-worst minus-10 turnover differential. But they had their first turnover-less game of the season last week and won the turnover battle against both the Redskins and Cowboys. The Eagles are 72-17 under Andy Reid when they win the turnover battle.
*
For a complete preview, check out today's Daily News Eagles Playbook by clicking here.
Les
Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News
since 2002.
Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les
only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no
penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite
what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News
from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much
lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their
two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with the paper covering the
Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a
selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre
and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
Download our iPhone/Android app for even more Birds coverage, including app-exclusive videos and analysis. Get it here for iPhone or here for Android.
 | Join on Facebook |
