IS STOCKPILING DEFENSEMEN
Since I cover the Eagles, and the Super Bowl, I'm always interested in what the latter can tell me about the former. This year's lessons were not all that clear.
* If you were hoping to find evidence that Andy Reid should commit more to the running game, this was not the contest for you. The team that ran most effectively lost by two touchdowns. The team that couldn't convert third or fourth and 1 at the goalline won. I could almost hear the late Jim Johnson chuckling somewhere when Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams explained afterward that he wanted the Colts to run the ball to their hearts' desire - killing the clock and cutting down on Peyton Manning's ability to put up points with long strikes.
* I'm not sure Drew Brees' performance teaches us much, either. Sure, it would be great to have a quarterback who completes 82 percent of his passes. No, you're not likely to see Donovan McNabb do that. But would Kevin Kolb or Michael Vick? Sure.
* Probably the biggest Eagles lesson I took out of the game is that you really need to get that o-line functioning as a seamless unit. There was one sack in the Super Bowl, by Dwight Freeney, early, before his ankle stiffened up. After that, both passers were able to go deep into their progressions, sometimes waving blockers out into dump-down routes. I can see McNabb being effective in that type of game.
*The Saints' defensive model in the last two playoff games - you can give up yards and even points, as long as you produce the killer turnover when it matters - might make me look more charitably at Asante Samuel.
*I have to say, the Colts' vulnerability underneath might have cooled my ardor for potential free agent linebacker Gary Brackett, though I didn't go back and study his snaps closely.
*All in all, maybe the Saints teach us that a couple of key free agent signings can make a defense championship-worthy, and that you don't have to be perfect to win, you just have to be able to seize the moment.
Someday, maybe we'll be able to say the Birds did that.
*
To read our earlier post about Joe Banner, 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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