IS BUYING CROSS-COUNTRY SKIS
Updating: Sheldon Brown (hamstring) played, as he’d said he would, running his regular-season consecutive games streak to 122, but Brown sat out long stretches of the first half. Replacement Dimitri Patterson took an illegal contact penalty that nullified a third-down stop. The second half began without the other starting corner, Asante Samuel, who aggravated his previous stinger.
Jay Cutler should have been picked off at least twice in the first half, but Quintin Mikell failed to break on the ball both times. Another forced pass bounced off Macho Harris’ hands.
The Bears converted a fourth-and-1 from the Birds’ 21 as the first half clock ran down, on the drive started by the Jackson fumble. They settled for a 28-yard field goal, making the score 10-9 at halftime.
Significant stop? Well, coming into the game, the Eagles were 5-0 when leading at the half, 0-4 when trailing.
The Eagles definitely missed Brian Westbrook. Rookie LeSean McCoy gained 33 yards on 7 first-half rushes, Leonard Weaver 5 on a couple, Eldra Buckley nothing on one attempt. Forty of the Birds’ 78 first-half rushing yards came from Vick and McNabb, McNabb scrambling 6 yards on his only carry.
Earlier: The first quarter just ended with the Bears driving but the Birds up, 10-0. Now, Jay Gould has hit a 45-yard field goal early in the second, and it's 10-3, after Jay Cutler missed open receivers twice for sure touchdowns on back-to-back plays.
The Eagles drove 9 plays, 68 yards for a 25-yard David Akers field goal, then drove 76 yards in 8 plays, aided by a couple Bears penalties, for their touchdown, on a really nice 13-yard inside screen to Jason Avant from Donovan McNabb. Avant looked Westbrookian as he darted up the seam.
Earlier: We can probably infer that Stacy Andrews did not impress the coaching staff last week, in his second start of the season. This week, with left tackle Jason Peters returning from an ankle sprain, Andrews is inactive for the first time.
He does not have an injury, at least not one the team has disclosed. He was warming up on the field 30 minutes ago.
The other inactives are as expected: running back P.J. Hill, RB Brian Westbrook, S Quintin Demps, LB Akeem Jordan, OL Mike McGlynn, WR Kevin Curtis and third QB Kevin Kolb.
Sheldon Brown said he would play despite last week's hamstring strain that had him listed as questionable, and he was right. Jordan's deactivation (knee) probably means lots of Joe Mays in the middle tonight.
Stay tuned for more.
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.
