Eagles' Kelce, Mathis warn return is no cure-all

EACH TIME Nick Foles throws off his back foot or sails one high or wide, their respective reputations seem to grow. Each time LeSean McCoy is enveloped at the line of scrimmage, or dances desperately as if a mouse trying to escape a descending box, the knee-jerk reaction is the same.

Just wait until Kelce and Mathis return, we say.

The colors will return to Oz and the path to the playoffs will be as wide and well-marked as a yellow brick road.

"I don't mind the pressure," Evan Mathis was saying after practice yesterday. "We have heard that a lot. But I don't think it bothers us. I think Kelce and I are the types who have always set the bar high for ourselves anyway. So when we come back, we'll do anything we can to help the team.

"It's really not about fulfilling anybody's expectations except our own."

Rarely, if ever, in the history of professional football has the imminent return of two interior lineman been more anticipated by a populace. Rarely, if ever, have two men built like rocks received rock-star treatment.

We already know that Mathis, on short-term injured reserve after spraining the MCL in his left knee during the first game, will return as starting left guard against Carolina in two Mondays, barring any setbacks. He looks as if he could play tomorrow, and he feels that way, too, saying things like, "My grace period's right now. The week of practice for Arizona, the week of practice this week - that's my grace period. When it comes time for Carolina? Give me every single snap, every single play.

"I've been doing this long enough. I don't have to adapt. It's in my head."

Less of a certainty is Jason Kelce, the Eagles' celebrated center, whose offensive-line calls and unnatural speed and quickness received much credit for both the performance of Foles last season and the yardage amassed by McCoy in winning the rushing title.

McCoy rushed for 83 yards against the Cardinals' league-leading rush defense Sunday, which followed a 149-yard outburst against the Giants, who entered that game with a stingy run rep as well.

As Kelce pointed out yesterday, the Eagles also put up 521 yards of offense against Arizona and would have likely won the game had they not turned the ball over in the red zone twice.

But maybe if the rock stars are in there, McCoy runs the ball better down there and they don't need to flip a pass to a rookie. And maybe if the rock stars are blocking instead of their subs, Foles trusts his pocket better, and is more stationary and more decisive rather than double-pumping his way into that awful end-zone interception.

Those are popular theories anyway, likely to be proved or disproved once the dynamic duo return.

There have been, of course, other factors contributing to the unevenness that has accompanied the Eagles' 5-2 start, most notably the four-game suspension of right tackle Lane Johnson. And now, with the possibility of a torn biceps ending Todd Herremans' season, the Eagles face the real possibility that they will not play a single game with the full offensive line with which they finished last season.

There is also this: Unlike Mathis, Kelce isn't quite sure what to expect when he gets out there. The surgically repaired sports hernia that he suffered in Week 3 against Washington still feels "unique," he said.

"There's a pain I'm not really used to . . . There's a little bit of the unknown with pushing through this stuff. It's the type of injury that no matter how hard you work it in the weight room and the training room and everything, there's just certain things in football that put abnormal stresses on your body and are going to tweak it a little bit . . . In practice, I've already tweaked it a few times. That's part of the deal. It stretches and you break up some scar tissue and you push the swelling out and that's just kind of the process.

"I can't say I'm going to be out there and be 100 percent healthy and not have any issues on Sunday. Because there could be a drastic instance where I'm completely off balance and I try to catch myself . . . It's going to be an ongoing thing, probably."

So goodbye, yellow brick road. At least for now. You can't plant the Eagles in the penthouse just yet, not until we get a good sense of what our rock stars are capable of and when, and whether Herremans' injury is an inconvenience, or continues the offense's nagging uncertainties.

"Is it higher than it should be?" Kelce asked out loud about our expectations when he and Mathis return.

"Yes. I think that Evan and I are good players, but I don't think it's going to be some sort of revelation that people are putting it out to be. Quite frankly, I think the guys who played have done a really good job. Although there might be some difference, I don't think it's going to be all-fixing of the problems we're having on offense."

On Twitter: @samdonnellon

Columns: ph.ly/Donnellon