HOPES CHICAGO IS FOG-FREE TONIGHT
Earlier this week, we heard from Mike Jenkins about his plans for the Eagles receivers, then we heard from Roy Williams with his thoughts on his family's experience in Philly last year.
Now, we hear from Miles Austin, who took a more tactful approach.
Asked to describe Eagles fans, Austin replied: "Passionate. I might have more adjectives, too.”
Austin has just two catches in four career games against the Eagles, but his numbers over the last three weeks have impressive: 482 yards and 5 touchdowns.
"I want to see me do it against a Philly defense and a division game on the road,” Austin said. “All I can do is play my hardest. That's what I've been doing, and we'll see what happens.”
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The Eagles' punt-coverage unit has allowed just 5.3 yards per return this season, the fourth best mark in the league. In their last six games, they've held opponents to 3.9 yards per return and haven't given up a punt return longer than 11 yards during that period.
They'll get a major test from the Cowboys' Patrick Crayton, who has returned punts for touchdowns in each of the last two games. He had an 82-yard return against Seattle Sunday, and a 73-yarder against Atlanta the week before.
"He's doing the job right now," said cornerback Joselio Hanson, one of the Eagles' "gunners" on the punt coverage unit. "If he gets another one, that'd be the record [for consecutive games with a punt return for a TD]. We can't let that happen."
Crayton's touchdown returns were the first two of his career. He came into this season with a career average of 8.4 yards per return.
At 6-foot and 204 pounds, there's nothing fancy about Crayton's return style. He's more Brian Mitchell than DeSean Jackson.
"He's going to catch it, find a seam and try to break it," Hanson said. "We can't give him that straightforward seam."
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Pretty interesting item we saw in the San Antonio paper: The Cowboys have given up scores on the opening possession in the last two games, against Seattle and Atlanta. The Eagles lead the league with 61 first-quarter points and have scored 44 points on their first two possession. A quick start can only help.
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.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at 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 came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
