IS GLAD SPRING TRAINING IS FINALLY HERE
Eagles coach Andy Reid said Brian Westbrook suffered his second concussion on a screen pass early in the third quarter Sunday, when sandwiched between teammate Jason Avant and Chargers safety Eric Weddle. On replays, it seems that Westbrook trips over blocker Stacy Andrews, who lunges at Weddle and misses. Westbrook then collides helmet-to-helmet with Weddle.
Reid said Westbrook was not knocked unconscious, as he was when his helmet hit London Fletcher's knee at Washington Oct.26, but Westbrook was "foggy," and there was a "sense there's something wrong here."
Reid said it was too early to say whether Westbrook will be able to play again this season.
"That's the last thing on my mind right now," Reid said. "Football now for Brian Westbrook is not the important thing."
Reid defended the team's handling of Westbrook's initial concussion, emphasizing that the Eagles followed the advice of experts (though he did not identify the experts, and the Eagles have made available only head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder, who did not speak today).
"We took every precautionary measure we could before, and it happened again," Reid said.
He also said the team was not looking at adding a running back. “I’ll look at it as we go," Reid said. "We’ve got some good young guys here who can play. I’m not at that point right now.”
Reid indicated the Eagles expect to get left tackle Jason Peters (ankle) back for the Chicago game. There was no update on corner Sheldon Brown, having an MRI today after suffering a hamstring injury. Reid called safety/kick returner Quintin Demps' injury a high ankle sprain, which sounds ominous. Weakside linebacker Akeem Jordan is making progress recovering from his knee injury, Reid said.
Peters had said Friday that he expected to play. As to what happened over the weekend, Reid said: "“He has some swelling in there and we weren’t able to get all the swelling out. He didn’t feel comfortable in the pregame part of it that he could feel he could go.”
Reid reiterated his displeasure with the three early trips to the red zone that resulted in field goals, with the Eagles' nine penalties, and with his defense's inability to get off the field with enough time left to give the offense a good last shot at tying or winning.
“We needed to make some plays there," Reid said of his team's play on the Chargers' last drive. "There were a couple of key third-down situations. The one that jumps out is third-and-6 on about the 40-yard line. You have to be able to get off the field in those situations, whether it’s the coaches’ responsibility or the players’ responsibility of execution … You have to be able to execute in those situations. Those are key situations in a big game.
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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