SCORES TWICE AFTER A PUCK TO THE FACE
With the final roster cutdowns a week away, the Eagles remain uncertain about the fullback position. For a position that has largely been an afterthought in the Birds' offense, a lot of recent attention has been given to who will win the job.
Tony Hunt, who had never played the position, was moved into that spot early last week and made his debut in Friday's preseason win over New England.
Hunt gained 16 yards on six carries, including getting some first downs in short-yardage situations, but he remains a work in progress.
“Tony had some good blocks and he had some blocks he needs to work on," coach Andy Reid said. "I thought the effort was there and the aggressiveness. I think he needs to continue to work on the technique, so he’ll keep working at fullback this week. There is great competition there; that door is wide open at that spot for guys to continue to compete for.”
Asked if Hunt's running ability was a bonus, since that is the advatange he has over the other candidates, Reid agreed, although he also cited Jason Davis' running ability.
“It is. To Jason [Davis'] aid there, he did well when he had opportunities to touch the ball, too," Reid said. "Both of those two, that is their strength, and Jed [Collins] had the one in the game before. Tony did a nice job with the couple chances he had in the game.”
As for the guy who will benefit most from the blocking by the fullback, here is Brian Westbrook on Hunt's performance: “The thing –Tony, he continues to try hard. He’s trying to get a hang of the fullback [position]. He’s never played the position before, but he’s trying to get the hang of it. I think he did a pretty good job being that it is his first time out there, and he’ll just continue to improve the longer that he gets to play in that position.”
*
In some other news, the view from New England about its special teams was not terribly rosy.
And, the Web site http://awfulannouncing.blogspot.com/ reports that Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa have been given the assignment for the Eagles opener against St. Louis on Fox.
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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