Reid on Jackson's antics; Graham done for season
Sunday night's stirring victory over Dallas did not come without its casualties.
Reid on Jackson's antics; Graham done for season
Jeff McLane, Inquirer Staff Writer
Sunday night's stirring victory over Dallas did not come without its casualties.
Linebacker Stewart Bradley is likely done for the remainder of the regular season and rookie defensive end Brandon Graham is done for the season after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the fourth quarter of the Eagles' 30-27 win over the Cowboys.
As for Michael Vick's bruised hand and DeSean Jackson's foot injury, Eagles coach Andy Reid said that both the quarterback and receiver were OK and would be able to play in Sunday's big game at the New York Giants.
Jackson, of course, put on an unbelievable performance. He finished with 210 yards receiving off just four catches and provided the game-winning touchdown on a spectacular 91-yard catch-and-run. Jackson caused a stir, however, when he stopped just short of the goal line and flopped backward into the end zone.
Reid, who said after the game that he was not pleased with Jackson's antics which drew an unsportsmanlike penalty, was asked where he draws the line with a talented player like that.
"Well, I'm going to sit him down for the rest of the year," Reid joked on Monday at the NovaCare Complex. "Listen, I love his enthusiasm. I've told you this from the get-go. He loves to play the game. There are not a lot of guys out there that love to play the game more than he does. ... Do I like those things? No, I don't like them. Do I express that to him? Yes, I do. And I'll leave it at that."
Bradley won't be placed on injured reserve, but Graham will, Reid said. The Eagles will add a defensive end in the next few days to take Graham's spot on the roster. Rookie Jamar Chaney will likely step in at middle linebacker with Bradley sidelined.
Reid said that he'll meet with defensive coordinator Sean McDermott before he makes a final decision. Akeem Jordan and Omar Gaither are other candidates but all signs point to the rookie being the man in the middle.
"His challenge will be now that he's on film people will get an opportunity to study him," Reid said. "He's got to take it up another notch."
Reid said that he expected cornerback Asante Samuel and tackle Winston Justice, both of whom didn't make the trip to Dallas because of knee injuries, to be able to return to practice by Wednesday. Samuel has missed three straight games with an MCL strain.
"Nobody wants to be out there more than Asante," Reid said. "The guy doesn't miss games. That's not his deal. He wants to be out there and he tested it and it didn't work. He had a good workout today, so we'll see how it goes."
In other injury news, linebacker Keenan Clayton has a knee strain and should miss the next game, Reid said.
Comments (43)
Bradley going down hurts bigtime!— erniebanks14- no it doesn't. butkus sucks— TripleCap
- Bradley and Graham out: we won't miss them.
— Don Cornelius - It is going to be a rocky couple games. The O is going to need to score 30+ to win a game from here out.— Murrayag11
- Tough breaks. Chaney is maybe a better athlete, but I'm guessing Gaither or Jordan will be in the right place more often.— tacklinjoe
- anyone who thinks bradley isn't going to be missed, didn't watch the eagles last year. I'm not saying he's that great, but unless chaney is a can adequately play the position, they will be much worse off.— TheCaptain18
- I think people look at DJax from a fans perspective, I'm quite sure he irks cornerbacks that plays against him with his trashtalking & endzone celebrations. It's all a head game DJax plays with CB's, it's competition at it's highest were most don't understand, except coaches and players. CB's hate it, but the Dallas defensive backfield respect him, don't be surprise if the next game he draws an overabundance of attention from them, opening up the game for Jermey, Avant and McCoy. I think his antics are being blown overboard in an age of media visual/soundbites. Jordan and Bird was known by players as the dirtiest and most fowl-mouth players before the age of twitter & redzone 5 sec replays. DJax is a entertainer, not a role model, nor do I expect him to be.— gditty
- In a season or two, Jackson's "antics" will be old, but until then, if you don't like him, stop him.— bpkrier
What else has DJax done? People make it seem like he's constantly doing silly things like TO or Ochocinco or Horn. He's the best WR the Eagles have drafted in the modern era and most likely will be the best WR ever on the team. Also, he's 24 years old. What kind of dances did you do when you scored a 91-yard TD strike in a close game against your best friend playing Madden at that age?— Leegles
TheCaptain18
I agree. Lots of people have talked about Bradley. Now they'll get to see what life without Bradley is like.- Note to DJax, opposing defenses don't need extra motivation, and you don't need to provide it with "antics".— Midwest FA
- Jackson was only celebrating that Kolb wasn't playing QB. Can you really blame him?
- We can get by with chaney for now...Need Stu for the playoffs.
- I'm sure DJax's celebrations irk non-Philly fans and other teams, but come on, he's having a bit of fun in a game that Goodell has been trying to make as un-fun as possible over the past 4-5 years (to carry on Tagliabue's tradition). Do we need to go back to the elaborate & choreographed dances from the 80's and early 90's, no, but he's not hurting anyone a la helmet hits and he's not shooting or raping people off the field like some other stars-he's just kickin their butts on the field and having some fun. My only problem with it is: stop getting us 15 yrd penalties!— donde
- The reason Jackson's antics are dumb is simple....his team has not won a dang thing. If he were on the Steelers or Patriots, dance away.— JonKap
- He's fun to watch and I'm glad he does not play for the cowflops or the nygrunts or the deadskins. That joke in the endzone was the funniest thing I've seen on a football field.— jjthree
There's nothing in the rulebook that says what Jackson did was illegal. All he did after the play was stand up and spike the ball. If you are able to demonstrate so elaborately during the play and not get your head taken off, more power to you. It's still a game after all.- If the Cowboys had scored a touchdown because of Jackson's antics then all the Drucken Eagles fans would be screaming.— ALJ
- I agree with leegles, Djax is a great WR if he wants to have some fun out there then GO FOR IT. 210 yards and a TD yeah... i think he has the right to have all the fun he wants. Excessive celebration penalty is ridiculous anyway— KrackinWise
Comment removed.- War of the Satellites - Great name. Did you see them at the 1st Uni Church a few weeks ago? I missed it, but heard it was awesome.— Zee77
- We had to kick off from the 15 after 10's "penalty" (if that had happened at home, he doesn't get flagged I say), but our KR coverage stopped the enusing return at the DAL 22. So, nevermind. Dance on, D-Jax. SCOREBOARD!— Jaxen
- I don't see why Jackson's flop into the end zone was a penalty. Pretty lame call.— gee1971
- i think with all the DTs playing so well a smaller faster middle linebacker might work better. Even with chaney in they stopped the run game, which is saying something.— j-mo 25
- When a professional football player, who's job it is to score, has to act like a child when he gets there, it reflects on the whole team.
Why not act like you've been there before? Score your td (and nobody has more long ones than 1yard anyway), nod your head in an up-and-down fashion like you knew you were scoring, hand the ball to the ref, and make the defense believe you know you are going to do it again on the next possession. Barry Sanders, Fitzgerald, and others acted like they knew they were going to score, and that makes a better statement than flips, or flops, or leaving the ball on the 1 yard line.— Bleue - Us not resigning vick nd jackson yet is beggining to scare me— flyfightinbullies
- I find Andy McReid's appearance to be offensive, in addition to many players' attempts to coerce people into believing their religious preferences by pointing to the sky. It was a pretty passive endzone entry - what's the big deal? (Go complain about the Jets coach tripping the Dolphins player.)— Liberty4All
- Watching Desean freefall into the end zone like that on purpose, I could not help but be reminded how George W. Bush and the Republican Party put our economy in freefall on purpose in order toe nrich their cronies on Wall Street and Big Oil. When Bush was President, gas was $4 a gallon to make his pals even richer than he made them with his tax cuts for the rich, and Bush made sure he helped them knowing that it would ravage our economy. I am sure Bush was at the game last night, drinking Cognac with Jerry Jones, another right wing oilman, and were laughing at how rich they made themselves at the expense of women and minorities, who are discriminated against worse than ever thanks to Bush and Republican policies.— eldiablodelsol2009
- Couple things here: 1)The last I looked, a player was permitted to dive into the end-zone. I'm still looking for the REASON he was penalized. 2)Speaking of penalty REASONS, how about V-7 getting struck in his helmet by TWO defenders' helmets on the same play....with zero flags. It's bad enough our O-line (What there is left of it) can't protect him very much any more. 3)And this might be the MOST disturbing: Our line CAN'T...the Zebras WONT, and it seems like the coach is UNWILLING to protect our most valuable offensive player. One of these times, he just won't be physically able to get up. O-KAAAAAY...FLY IGGLES FLY, Or Really...Limp Eagles Limp.— TBear
It's nice to see Kap is consistent.Negativity is abundant in KapLand. There are more issues in the world than Jackson doing a plunge in the endzone. It's not like he invented it. It's a game grown men get paid to play. That doesn't mean they can't have fun.- If you saw DJax on the post game with Andrea Kramer and Vick he really came across as an idiot. At some point he's got to grow up at least alittle. I'm sure any other fan other than Eaglesw must hate the guy..which is fine but I've got a feeling he's going to do something that will make him not worth resigning. Hope this isn't the case but it's heading that way.— dabirds
- Refs got the call wrong on DJax. DJax should have sat on the bench for the next offensive play as punishment by Reid. The coverage team TOTALLY bailed out DJax. If they get great field position, DJax is way in the dog house. Other thoughts....Why didn't the Cowboys get called in the first quarter for ripping Cole's head around by the faceguard? After Vick got shoved way out of bounds, why didn't Reid tell the punter to slam his kick as hard as possible into Jerry's Scoreboard? or at least after Dallas started to smack Vick hard and high, why didn't Reid call some run plays?
- I didn't mind the TD celebration, but I thought D'JAX's antics during the post-game interview was pathetic. Vick's being interviewed and he acts like a 4-year old. He was a little better when the mic turned to him. But he is immature and has to grow up if he is going to be a true star ala Jerry Rice, Sterling Sanders, etc.
- God forbid he should have some fun.
- Jackson has already had 2 concussions and there will be a lot of smiles when he's carried off the field with the third one. What a jerk— farley
Much ado about nothing again. I loved it when T.O. pranced upon and stomped the Cowboys logo at midfield when he was a 49'er. I have no problem doing anything which antagonizes the Cowboys and their sorry fan base of frontrunners. This is the second good times. The first was Dallas' 1 win season in Aikman's rookie year. Reid has it right. You might not like the antics, but you applaud the player and know he is a gamer, a team player, and most of all, has the TALENT to back up his style of play. Eagles don't win without him or Vick. End of story.- Desean's just a young guy out there enjoying himself, having fun. I thought it was great. I hope to see a lot more endzone celebrations from him and the rest of the receivers(inc. Todd Herremanns).
Disrespectful? Give me a break!— hoverer - Comment removed.
- I'm sorry TBEAR but i just can't take your comments anymore. You must be the only one in the country who watched the game who didn't see the penalty called when V7 otherwise called Vick got hit helmet to helmet. Even the announcers commented there should have been a double penalty because of two helmet hits. To say the offensive line is anything but strong is plain stupid after watching them move Dallas at will over the last four minutes of that game. You know in this game of pro football QB's take a beating every game. Not just in philly, everwhere. Try being a little inteligent with your backwards comments. Loosing Bradley in 2010 is not the same as 2009. The entire defense is better, younger and faster. The rookie who took Bradley place played excellent. He led the team in tackles while plugging all holes along the line. Thing man, if V-7 went down that guy on the bench called Kolb would be the best back up in pro football. Open your eyes and stop the senseless bitc hing. You got a great team here, young and getting better each week. Try, just once, to enjoy. Lastly, WTF is wrong with beating Dallas in Dallas. It 'made' this season even if they don't win another game except the last one. TBEAR, do you really think this team is ready to win a super bowl?— JACK V
- Do whatever you want, just dont get a 15 yard penalty, end of story!
— NYPHILLYPHAN - amazing how completely negative people can be. the dude is a scoring machine and quite possibly the most talented receiver - including TO - that philly has ever had. but we're going to complain about his antics during a post game interview. i'll take some healthy bravado and genuine excitement on camera to go with his playmaking any day.— djack10
- JonKap: Agreed. Cliff Branch, where are you?— andrewfrombrooklyn
- I'm guessing most of you would love it if the league's name was changed to the No Fun League! Because if you have a problem with a player having fun in a game that is hard and brutal most times then I don't see how you enjoy it all. I guess we'd feel better if we had "genuises" playing the game (X= MC2 and all that jazz) that gave us "intellectual" interviews after the game. Or boring robots ("I'm going to score now. I'm going to the bench now. I'll only do what you tell me to do") with everybody going through the same motions. No fun, no excitement, nothing different...just everybody doing the same thing. And who knew the stupid referee would throw a flag for that? Don't think he would've done it if the rule was clearly defined (who can dive, who can jump, who can fall into the endzone). Am I the only one that sees the inconsistency? Leave the boy alone!— phillyboy88
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Birds' Eye View is the Inquirer's blog covering all things Philadelphia Eagles and the NFL.
Jeff McLane
Inquirer Staff Writer
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Inquirer Staff Writer
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