IS LEARNING THE PRINCETON OFFENSE
Each week, Daily News football writer Paul Domowitch will tell you the things he will be keeping his eyes on during that week’s game:
1. The turnover battle. The Eagles lead the league in takeaways with 18. That’s the good news. The bad news is they’ve scored just 53 points off of those 18 takeaways. The Giants have five fewer takeaways than the Eagles, but have cashed them in for 65 points.
2. The Giants’ giant pass rush. No matchup will impact Sunday’s game more than the Eagles’ offensive line vs. the Giants’ front four. If the Eagles don’t neutralize Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka, it’s going to be a long day for Donovan McNabb and the offense.
3. Oh, those third-and-longs. The Eagles have converted just six of 31 third-down opportunities in the last two games. The biggest problem has been that too many of their third-down situations have been long yardage. Twenty-three of the 31 third downs the last 2 weeks have been for 6 yards or more. The Eagles have converted just one of 22 third-down situations of 10 yards or more all season.
4. A better McNabb. Donovan McNabb has not been sharp the last two games, particularly on third down, where he completed just nine of 20 passes against the Raiders and Redskins. He struggled against the Giants last year, completing just 54.2 percent of his passes and averaging 5.63 yards per attempt in three games.
5. When opportunity knocks, answer the freaking door. The Eagles have had 27 possessions in the last two games and have had the ball in enemy territory 13 times. Yet all they have to show for those 13 trips beyond the 50 is four field goals. They need to capitalize on those opportunities Sunday.
To read Les Bowen's report from Thursday's practice session, click 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.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at 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 came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
