SCORES TWICE AFTER A PUCK TO THE FACE
Each week, Daily News football writer Paul Domowitch will tell you the things he will be keeping his eyes on during that week’s game:
1. Defending the tight end: The Eagles will face yet another dangerous pass-catching tight end in the Bears’ Greg Olsen. In the last six games, opposing tight ends have 43 catches for 532 yards and five touchdowns vs. the Eagles. Olsen, who has 34 catches, including six TDs, is one of Jay Cutler’s favorite targets. Only WR Devin Hester has had more passes thrown in his direction (73) than Olsen (51).
2. Jay’s interceptions: Jay Cutler has a league-high 17 interceptions, including five in last week’s 10-6 loss to the 49ers. He’ll be going against a defense that has been very good at forcing interceptions. The Eagles have 15, the third most in the league, but just one in the last two games.
3. Eagles’ third-down defense: The Eagles are ninth in the league in third-down defense, but have struggled lately. In their last three games, opponents have converted 46.1 percent of their third-down opportunities, compared to 29.7 in the first six games. Last week, they allowed the Chargers to convert two critical third downs late in the game that helped put the game on ice.
4. The real McCoy: With Brian Westbrook out after suffering another concussion, the spotlight is on rookie LeSean McCoy. He played well in the three previous games Westbrook has missed, averaging 5.0 yards per carry in those games. He’s still a work in progress with respect to blitz recognition, though. He failed to pick up a blitz last week that resulted in a sack.
5. The longest yards: The Eagles are among the league leaders in big plays. They’ve had 38 plays of 20 or more yards. But they haven’t been nearly as successful lately with shorter distances. In their back-to-back losses to the Cowboys and Chargers, they converted just one of seven third downs of 2 yards or less. They were 3-for-7 in the red zone in those two games.
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To read our earlier post with reports on injuries, the changes at linebacker and more, click here.
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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