Eagles coach Bobby April's not-so-special teams

THE SPECIAL-TEAMS units have been a thorn in the side of the Eagles for most of the year. So it was only fitting that they helped deliver what was, for all intents and purposes, the season's death blow Sunday at the Linc.

There were a lot of reasons for the Eagles' 38-23 loss to the Cowboys.

But right up there near the tippy top of the list was Dwayne Harris' 78-yard punt return for a touchdown with 13:35 left in the game.

"That was a big play," said a somber Bobby April, the Eagles' special-teams coordinator. "Probably the most critical play in the game. There were other plays, but they followed that one. That gave them the impetus to maybe set the stage for things they could do pass-rushwise and everything else. It turned the game in their favor."

Actually, the game had started to turn a little before that when the Cowboys drove 80 yards on eight plays to tie the game at 17 on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Tony Romo to Dez Bryant on the final play of the third quarter.

The Eagles, with rookie Nick Foles playing for concussed Mike Vick, then went three-and-out and had to punt.

Matt McBriar's punt traveled 49 yards and appeared to have decent hangtime. But Harris whose three previous returns gained a total of 19 yards, had enough room to get to the left sideline, where a wall of blockers sealed off the Eagles' pursuit.

"We always look at the schemes of the team's kicking games," said Harris, who replaced Bryant as the Cowboys' primary punt returner two games ago. "Today, it was just a wall-return where we go right at the coverage team. It is predicated on the alignment of where the kicker kicks the ball. We get it on the return and then set up the wall and go around it in the direction that we need to."

The Eagles' coverage units have been poor all season. The kickoff coverage unit has given up nine returns of 36 or more yards and went into the game ranked 27th in the league. The punt coverage unit had given up six returns of 17 yards or more in the first eight games and was ranked 28th. But they hadn't given up a touchdown return.

Until Sunday.

"We had been getting better," said special-teams player Colt Anderson. "But anytime you give up a play like that, you take two steps back. It wasn't one guy who was out of his lane. It was all 11 of us. All 11 of us have got to cover better. Nobody saw it. It's very frustrating."

Linebacker Casey Matthews, another member of the Eagles' punt-coverage unit, said that by the time the Eagles realized what the Cowboys were doing, it was too late.

"After they rushed [the punter], they all just set up a wall," he said. "Not enough people saw it. It's something you've got to feel.

"You go down and all of a sudden see them go that way. And you turn and look and there's a wall of blockers. To give up a return like that in that situation, where [the game is] tied, that can't happen."

It was the biggest in a series of pratfalls by the special teams Sunday. The Eagles had to squander a timeout late in the third quarter when offensive tackle King Dunlap, whose illegal-hands-to-the-face penalty two plays earlier had cost his team a possible touchdown, forgot to go out on the field for a field-goal attempt.

Late in the game, after a 1-yard touchdown run by fullback Stanley Havili closed the gap to 31-23, Alex Henery, who has been one of the few bright spots on the Eagles' special teams this season, found a bad patch of ground and mishit his point-after attempt, drilling it off the left upright.

But the killer was Harris' punt return. It was the first punt return for a touchdown against the Eagles since 2007 when the Dolphins' Ted Ginn Jr. took one back 87 yards.

"It looked like they made some timely blocks on the two gunners," April said. "Once they got outside of contain, they peeled the other side around and we collapsed enough from the left side. And then it was Katie bar the door.

"I have to see [the tape to find out] why our right side wasn't in position at least to flank that side of the field. I couldn't see it from where I was other than we just weren't down there."

April said McBriar's 49-yard punt "probably was a little too deep" and gave Harris an opportunity to return it. "I have to look at the hang[time]-distance ratio," he said. "But it was a returnable ball.

You'd like those things to be high and short in general.

"But I'm not blaming Matt. He kicked the ball nice. That could've given us good field position [if Harris hadn't returned it]. I just have to get the guys prepared. I feel bad that I let the team down, let the head coach down.

"It's my responsibility to make those plays. I didn't do it. They beat us. They whooped us. Beat us in a couple one-on-one deals. Obviously, [Cowboys special-teams coach] Joe DeCamillis whooped me. We just have to answer the bell next week and do better."

McBriar had a shot at Harris, but couldn't force him out of bounds.

"[Cowboys safety Danny] McCray was in front of the returner," McBriar said. "I sort of tried to bang him into him. But it didn't really happen."

Email: pdomo@aol.com

" @Pdomo

Blog: eagletarian.com