Sam Donnellon: Eagles are confident running backs will mesh

CHARLES SCOTT is a 22-year-old rookie tailback from LSU trying to learn how to be a rookie fullback for the Philadelphia Eagles. Well, that's the term in Eagles lexicon, but sometimes you need the mouths of babes to remind you that the more things change around here, the more they pretty much remain the same.

"Traditionally it's a big difference," Scott was saying after morning practice yesterday. "The fullback is known as a big bruiser and the tailback is the guy who gets the ball mostly. But here, you're a back. You're not a fullback or a tailback. You're a back and they ask you to run, block, catch, do it all here.

"There's no difference with the exception of a few plays."

Which is another way of saying that talking about any type of running back in the context of how things are done around here is a little like talking about goaltending in the world of the Flyers.

The positions are recognized.

They just don't receive the same type of reverence given in other places.

The other day Flyers coach Peter Laviolette wore a bemused smirk when it was relayed to him that the Hockey News picked the Flyers to finish fourth in the Eastern Conference this season.

Mostly, because they had not upgraded the goaltending position.

"Sixth game of the Stanley Cup final without a goalie?" Laviolette asked. "Holy crap. The sixth game? Really?"

The summer before, when Ray Emery was signed to a million-dollar deal, that same publication picked the Flyers to win the Stanley Cup.

Because of the goalie.

Brian Westbrook is no longer an Eagle. LeSean McCoy is the featured back the Eagles have in his place. It is hoped that Scott will provide some depth, the same hope that exists with Mike Bell, Leonard Weaver and Eldra Buckley.

The whole is supposed to add up to more than the parts.

It hasn't. Not yet, anyway. Not after two exhibition games, not after some "live" play against its defense in the final days of training camp. Signed to pound the ball, Bell has been nursing hamstring and calf injuries and will play in his first preseason game Friday against Kansas City - provided he can survive the next few days of practice.

In two preseason games, McCoy has 50 yards on 14 carries and one catch for 9 yards. Leonard Weaver, the Eagles' unlikely Pro Bowler, has carried it four times for 10 yards, with one catch for 8 yards. Neither is surprising, as the bulk of the carries have gone to players in search of a slot or spot on the team - players like Scott, Buckley and Martell Mallett, the Canadian Football League rookie of the year signed as a free agent.

It's also not surprising given the absence so far of offensive-line mainstays Todd Herremans and Jamaal Jackson. But the biggest reason it lacks shock value is because this is who the Eagles are, whether they had a quarterback who struggled with accuracy, or one as unproven and inexperienced as Kevin Kolb.

Yesterday, after once again pointing out that at least two of three preseason red-zone trips would have resulted in touchdowns if not for penalties and a drop, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg was asked if the red-zone approach would be "schematically different" with Kolb at the helm once the games become real.

"It will be," Mornhinweg said. "In the preseason, we don't show them much at all. It'll be a little different, because we have a quarterback with different strengths . . . and we've got some other players with a little bit different strengths."

Like Scott, perhaps, or the big-pushing Bell, or even the veteran Weaver, whose surprising versatility as a fullback, halfback and pass catcher earned him a spot in the Pro Bowl last year? Separately, both Weaver and Mornhinweg pointed out that passing the ball inside the 20 has become difficult for the Eagles because of a reputation as a "go-for-it team."

"We want to strike, but everybody's dropping six down there," Weaver said.

Said Mornhinweg: "Defenses play a little bit differently down there, and sometimes drastically different, depending on the team."

Against the Eagles, even the most aggressive defenses seem to drop back, aware of the pass-first personality that makes the 60 yards in the middle of the field seem so easy, and the 20 yards on each end seem so daunting at times.

"Every year is just a little bit different when you look at the whole picture. It changes, really, week-to-week."

So, too, do the job details. Tailback one week, fullback another. Block, run, catch a pass. So far, it has been more mess than mesh. But Mornhinweg insists it's coming.

"I think we're going to be fine," he said. Then, a few moments later, he said: "We're not concerned on how we get it done, run or pass, or who gets the credit or who scored the touchdown. We want to get that thing done by any means necessary."

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