A Shady way to handle Packers blitz

ONE IDEA that has been voiced more than a few times this week is that with Green Bay expected to blitz Michael Vick all the way out the back end of Lincoln Financial Field and onto I-95, an excellent countermove would be for Vick to frequently hand the ball to the fellow wearing No. 25, LeSean McCoy.

All McCoy did this season, in addition to leading NFL running backs with 78 receptions, was average 5.2 yards per carry, the highest-ever figure for an Eagle with at least 200 carries. He had 207 carries for 1,080 yards.

"Playing physical is going to be key for us, running the ball at them a little bit, take some shots . . . Just playin' our ball. I think, lately, we haven't been playing our kind of offense, high-scoring," McCoy said yesterday, when asked how the Eagles need to come out Sunday in their wild-card game against the Packers.

McCoy decried a lack of focus lately, which he said won't be a problem this week, because of the stakes. He called the blitzes that have been successful lately against the Birds "stuff that we've worked over, and fixed."

Certainly, McCoy seems to see the linkage between helping Vick and running on the Packers' aggressive defense.

"The 3-4 defense invites you to run the ball a little bit more," McCoy said. "It forces you to run it on them. You also want to keep the hits off of Mike; the last few games, he's been taking some blows. So we'll try to run it a little bit, try to get him out of the pocket a little more, just try to help him out."

Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said the Pack actually will show an eight-man front.

"They sort of invite you to run the football to base-type personnel groups," Mornhinweg said. "However, they're very good, and if they get hurt just a little bit - even against [good-running] Chicago they did it that way - and then they'll jump into 3-4 if they think that you're hurting them with the run just a little bit.

"[Defensive coordinator] Dom Capers is a fire-zone, 3-4 personnel-based guy that has had great success with this scheme, and he's got players that fit each position within that scheme pretty well."

Helped by Vick's 676 yards on 100 carries, the Eagles averaged 5.4 yards per carry this season, the highest average in the league since Vick's 2006 Falcons (5.5), and the sixth-highest in NFL history. The Eagles were the only team in the league this year to average at least 4 yards per carry in every game.

Both starting guards, Todd Herremans (calf) and Max Jean-Gilles (ankle), missed yesterday's practice. Both seem likely to play Sunday - though Herremans, who injured his calf in the Wednesday walkthrough, wondered last night if any of his Twitter followers had undergone acupuncture, which was not terribly encouraging.

If Herremans and Jean-Gilles do play, will the line have missed working with them in practice this week? Left tackle Jason Peters said as long as they get healthy, all will be fine.

Right tackle Winston Justice said Herremans, especially, "has played so long, he doesn't need to practice to play."

If Jean-Gilles can't go, his replacement, as usual, would be Nick Cole. Reggie Wells is behind Herremans. Wells started at left guard for Arizona last year in its 51-45 overtime wild-card victory over Green Bay.

Special teams coordinator Bobby April said new kick returner Gerard Lawson "played tough and played tough in [kick] coverage. He's what we expected. He's a tough guy, he's a hungry guy, and that makes a lot of difference" . . . April said it would ultimately be coach Andy Reid's decision, but DeSean Jackson likely would return punts this week . . . The Eagles announced that returner/corner Jorrick Calvin has undergone a microdiscectomy on his back and that defensive tackle Jeff Owens underwent patellar tendon repair and microfracture surgery. The team said Owens will have his ACL repaired at a later date; that certainly seems to have been a devastating injury Owens suffered against the Vikings, only a few snaps into his NFL debut.

For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.

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