CAN HEAR CLEARWATER CALLING
For once, the need to do a better job putting players in positions to make plays was nowhere to be found at an
Andy Reid postgame news conference. No pieces of blame-sharing pie were served.
On Black Friday, the Eagles' coach was as bubbly as a shopper waving discount coupons. It was the morning after a 48-20 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in which Reid said he believed his team "played well, probably for the first time this year, with all three phases playing at a high level."
In case you dozed off early after a hearty Thanksgiving dinner, Donovan McNabb shook off his recent funk, completing 27 of 39 passes for 260 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. He also took off four times, gaining 24 of the Eagles' 185 rushing yards. Brian Westbrook, somehow revived just four days after limping off the unforgiving Baltimore turf in a blowout loss, gained 110 yards on 22 carries and became the first Eagle to score four touchdowns in a game since Irving Fryar in 1996.
The Eagles' secondary, missing $57 million corner Asante Samuel, handled the league's best wideout corps, intercepting Kurt Warner on his first two drives. Anquan Boldin had several drops and a crucial fumble.
McNabb, as always, was the focal point. Reid referenced "the things that he went through," including Reid's decision to bench his 10th-year franchise quarterback at halftime in Baltimore. "He just showed again what makes him a great quarterback," Reid said.
Reid said right guard Max Jean-Gilles will undergo season-ending right ankle surgery either Monday or Tuesday. Shawn Andrews is back in town after what the coach described as a painful flight from California; Reid was scheduled to sit down with Andrews to assess his condition, but don't hold your breath there. Nick Cole will start at right guard and the Eagles will make a roster move, quite possibly promoting practice squad offensive lineman Chris Patrick. Fourth-round rookie Mike McGlynn becomes the top reserve guard.
Reid was jovial about the standing ovation the Linc crowd awarded a third-and-1 conversion by Episcopal Academy alum Kyle Eckel in the early going. Reid said he thought maybe the crowd was just cheering Eckel since "he'd bought about half the stadium" for his Eagles debut. But the coach knew better. "I was cheering with them," he said.
Reid talked about the fact that wideout Reggie Brown didn't catch a pass Thursday, noting that he felt one of the offensive problems in recent weeks was too many different packages, too many players in and out. "Things were getting too diluted there," Reid said. With the short preparation week, Reid decided to winnow the wideout rotation (which, of course, says nothing good about where Brown stands right now). It was hard to argue with the results.
The Eagles will take the weekend off before reconvening at NovaCare Monday for a brief practice, as they begin preparations for a tougher test, Dec. 7 at the Giants.
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.
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