Owens up?; More on Niners game
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Owens up?; More on Niners game
Les Bowen and Paul Domowitch
Updating: Jeff Owens, the Eagles' seventh-round rookie defensive tackle, stashed on the practice squad so far, has Tweeted: "Just found out that I will be playing on Sunday!!!! #ThankYouJesus!!!!!!"
From that, we might safely infer that when the Birds IR Brodrick Bunkley, who needs elbow surgery, they will officially promote Owens to the 53-man roster.
Oh, and by the way -- Kelly Washington is back in the house, working out. A response to the latest special teams coverage disaster? Plucky Chad Hall probably can't help the coverage as much as Washington would. Birds do need a fifth receiver.
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Some incoherent thoughts, some off-the-mark conclusions and one or two astute observations as we mourn the passing of Week 5 of the NFL season:
* These next 2 games against the Falcons and the Titans are going to tell us a lot more about the Eagles than the previous 5 did.
* The collective passer rating of the 5 quarterbacks the Eagles have faced this season is an unimpressive 81.1. Alex Smith, David Garrard, Shaun Hill, Donovan McNabb and Aaron Rodgers have combined for 31 interceptions.
* On those 2 Niner fourth-quarter touchdown drives that turned a seemingly comfy 24-10 Eagles lead into a 27-24 nail-biter, Smith completed 10 of 10 passes for 99 yards and 2 touchdowns. The rest of the game, he was 15-for-29 for 210 yards, one TD and 2 interceptions.
* King Dunlap is an equal-opportunity sack allower. He gave up 3 of the Eagles’ 4 sacks Sunday, all to different pass-rushers – Travis LaBoy, Justin Smith and Manny Lawson. For the life of me, I can’t understand how a guy with arms as long as his can allow guys to bullrush him like LaBoy, Smith and Lawson did. Dunlap is the quintessential looks-like-Tarzan-plays-like-Jane offensive lineman. If Jason Peters can’t play Sunday, which is a very real possibility, Andy Reid needs to consider either moving left guard Todd Herremans out to tackle or giving rookie Austin Howard a shot.
* Herremans had two very big plays Sunday. He and center Mike McGlynn had a nice double-team block on linebacker Patrick Willis that sprung LeSean McCoy for a 29-yard touchdown run. And he saved McCoy’s bacon late in the fourth quarter when he recovered a fumble by the running back at the San Francisco 32-yard line. David Akers ended up kicking a 45-yard field goal, which turned out to be the difference in the game.
* The Eagles defense continues to have trouble getting off the field on third down. The 49ers, who had converted just 30.2 percent of their third-down opportunities in their first 4 games, converted 8 of 13 (61.5 percent) against the Eagles. The Niners converted a third-and-10, two third-and-8s and a THIRD-AND-21! For the season, opponents have converted a disturbing 11 of 36 third downs of 6 yards or more.
* Sunday’s 5 takeaways against the Niners were the most by the Eagles since they had 7 against Carolina last year in Week 1.
* Mike Bell has 16 carries this season. Just 2 of them have been for more than 3 yards (4 and 9).
* LeSean McCoy has just 2 negative-yardage runs in 68 rushing attempts this season. He’s got 10 runs of 10 yards or more, including his 29-yard touchdown run against the Niners. Mike Vick has 9 runs of 10-plus yards.
* The Eagles’ run defense will face another big test Sunday when the Falcons come to town. They’re second in the league in rushing and are averaging 36 rushing attempts per game. The Eagles will have to stop Michael Turner and Co. without tackle Brodrick Bunkley, who is out for the year with an elbow injury. That means Antonio Dixon and Trevor Laws will have to step up. Dixon played well against the Niners after Bunkley got hurt. He collected the first sack of his career and was a factor in the middle against the run.
* Some run defense numbers after 5 games: opponents have averaged 3.8 yards per carry on first down, 5.1 on second down and 5.0 on third down. Yards allowed per carry by quarter: 5.1 in the first, 3.4 in the second, 4.1 in the third and 4.0 in the fourth.
* In 2008, Eagles defensive backs had 8 ½ sacks. In 21 regular-season games since then, they’ve got 2 ½, including one this season by rookie safety Nate Allen.
I'm thinking that Sunday was the last Eagles win for a month.— mibrze
So anybody else notice how Jason Babin and Will Witherspoon are starting and making big contributions to the Titans in wins over the Cowpukes and vaGiants but they weren't good enough to be backups on the Iggles?— tornadoh- Vernon Davis is a match-up disaster with any team in the league except maybe his own. Pat Willis and Manny Lawson are the only two LB's in the NFL that can match his size and speed combo. And it's going to take more than a few games for Bradley to really get back from his injury. You saw that in 2007 with McNabb, he was off for most of the first half of the year, aside from the DET blowout, but finished the year strong. Aside from Davis and Pettigrew, who was being covered by the embarrassing Omar Gaither, Tight Ends really haven't been an issue thus far. Cooley took advantage of Bradley getting caught adjusting the defense at the snap, it led to a TD, Mercedes Lewis didn't do anything and he's one of the better TE's in the AFC and Jermichael Finley was pretty invisible on opening day.— Omorales510
- @ Wolf 4 Jaworski never won the MVP... even though he deserved it in 1980.... he won NFC player of the year.... That year Brian Sipe won the MVP— kramer65
- Dunlap is a victim of the Eagles mentality that it's never about the players; it's about the SCHEME. This is no different than what happened to Winston Justice against the Giants. Once the Eagles draw up a game plan, nothing in heaven or on earth can change it. Peters gets hurt, TOUGH, we're not doing anything to help out on that side. Same with Bradley trying to cover a tight end. That's the way it was drawn up on this week. That's the way we play it until the final snap. It's really no surprise given that McNabb audiblized and called his own plays probably fewer than any other NFL QB over the last ten years. It's all about control.— jimmyj
- Andy Reid........Better than average, but far from being the best.— Voytas
- Everything that Younged said ditto. Jamar Chaney needs some snaps on D as does Keenan Clayton.— oldBird
- AR will be patrolling Cleveland's sideline whenever the next season commences. From 2004 to now, the objective is clear save money. Now AR makes excuses for Howie and Uncle Joe pathetic. Gruden, Cowher , here ? No way. The next coach will be on the cheap as well. Eagles are the east coast Raiders.— oldBird
- King Dunlap is more like a Pee Wee Dunlap. The Eagles should cut him!!!!— Fast Eddie
- The Eagles were lucky to eek out a win against the 49ers. Now, the Falcons are coming to town. Here you have one of the leagues best power running teams against one of the leagues worst at stopping the run.Andy Reid and Sean Macdermott you better come up with a successful plan because this will be your biggest test yet.— MJPD345
I don't know how it will turn out, but Dunlap was nowhere near as bad as Justice was in his first action. Personally, I would move Herremans to LT and start Wells at LG if Peters gets hurt again, or can't go now. I do agree that Clayton and Cheney should get a shot to play. For those of you who think the team sucks, this reminds me a lot of last season. Lots of O-line injuries, the QB's are hurt, McDermott is still too young to be the Defensive boss. Even at that, the Birds went 11-5 last season, and will most likely do it again. Andy sure does suck, doesn't he?- Wonder why the Eagles cut Will Witherspoon and started the year with Akeem Jordan. Witherspoon was lightning fast, and would be a significant upgrade over Foku or Jordan.
But the eagles cut him in March. Uh, now he's a starter on the monster Titan's defense.— valorius - I never understood that witherspoon cut either. Where was Cunningham mentioned? ya he was great on that vikings team but you mustve missed all those yrs with the eagles when they cldnt score unless he ran it himself, those were painful yrs with the greatest defense ever assembled.— peteike
