Turnover turnabout the key for Birds

THE BIGGEST change in the Eagles over the past two games is turnovers. They've gotten five and relinquished only two, both against Washington, after hanging up an NFL-worst minus-10 turnover differential through five games. It did not seem to be a coincidence, that when the Birds finally played four quarters without giving the ball away, they blew out the Cowboys Sunday night.

So, the happy conclusion to be gathered here is that the Eagles have figured out this turnover business for good; they will roll inexorably through the rest of their schedule like the juggernaut we originally expected, right?

Well, maybe. The team seems to have stopped making the really egregious, stupid turnovers, like Ronnie Brown handing the ball to the 49ers at the goal line on a misguided passing attempt Oct. 2. But as Michael Vick noted Sunday - maybe a bit too breezily for some observers - turnovers sometimes are just the way the ball bounces.

The Eagles benefited from one of those Sunday, when Martellus Bennett juggled a Tony Romo pass just long enough for Nnamdi Asomugha to swoop in and make a ridiculous diving catch. It was the mirror image of that final turnover of the five-turnover loss at Buffalo 3 weeks back, the ball Jason Avant inadvertently kicked into the stomach of surprised Bills linebacker Nick Barnett.

"In the first handful of games, we had some of those things that happen once in a blue moon, once every 3 or 4 years - about 10 of 'em happened to us, all at one time," offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said yesterday. "On those kind of crazy ones, the ball's tipped, and all, you move on from that very quickly. We had some others, whether it was a mistake or a choice or a decision . . . we damaged ourselves. Those are the ones we paid better attention to, and apparently got better at. Now, you've got to be consistently good at those specifics that were causing those turnovers."

Eagles coach Andy Reid saw the issue in a similar light. "That's how it works sometimes. Some of those turnovers were crazy; they were just things that normally don't happen," Reid said. "You work through it; you try not to dwell on it too much. You've got to have a short memory, in the case of being a player, you learn from it and then you move on. You can't play hesitant football."

The fact is, had the ball bounced a little differently, the Birds would have turned it over twice against the Cowboys. Would that have made a difference? Who knows?

The first close call came with the Eagles driving for their third touchdown. In the shotgun, center Jason Kelce basically snapped the ball to his own rear end. Seeing the ball bounce off Kelce's backside and fall to the ground, Vick launched himself through the air and landed on it, before Dallas linebacker Bradie James could react.

Much later in the game, Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware eluded Todd Herremans and blasted Vick from the QB's blind side. Vick was supposed to have already thrown the ball on a three-step drop, but he didn't like his options and held on. Ware arrived, the ball squirted free. This time Herremans launched himself through the air for the recovery, which was only fair, since he created the problem.

"Shouldn't happen," Mornhinweg said, when asked about the two close calls. "We had a little fortune."

It might be comforting for fans to know that sometimes the bounces go to the Eagles, not always against them. But it might be a little unsettling to acknowledge they are just that - bounces - and having them go your way 1 week doesn't give you a lifetime pass.

Mornhinweg allowed that he emphasized avoiding tipped passes with Vick, after a rash of having those intercepted. Mornhinweg maintains that Vick's 6-foot stature isn't the reason he gets balls tipped - Mornhinweg says taller passers don't really release the ball on a higher plane. Mornhinweg said the key is setting up in a clear passing lane, which Vick needs to make sure he has before letting the ball go.

You saw this passing-lane dynamic at work on the Eagles' first drive Sunday, when Vick threw a short ball too low for DeSean Jackson. Replay showed that Vick was trying to guide the ball around a Cowboys blitzer. On the next snap, after calling an audible, Vick did the same thing, except this time he more or less sidearmed a screen around a pass rusher to Jeremy Maclin, who took it 12 yards for a touchdown.

"The lower you go, heightwise, the better feet you'd better have," Mornhinweg said. "Because you typically throw in lanes. The big guys, once or twice a game, they may throw over somebody, otherwise they're throwing in lanes. Some 6-3, 6-4 guys get a lot of balls tipped. Some guys 6-foot, 6-1 rarely get it tipped. [Drew] Brees [listed at 6-foot] doesn't get it tipped much. Steve Young [whom Mornhinweg coached, and was listed at 6-2] rarely got it tipped. He was a little touch over 6-foot."

It would be nice to be able to say the Eagles have permanently solved their turnover problem. It's the biggest thing that stands between them and the playoffs.

As left tackle Jason Peters said Sunday night: "As long as we keep the ball, it's going to be hard to beat us. Now, if we give that ball away, it's a different story."

Andy Reid said running back Dion Lewis, who suffered a minor wrist injury in a Sunday auto accident, should be fine to practice Thursday . . . Linebacker Akeem Jordan is going through the postconcussion testing process.