Two key miscues obscure otherwise good play by Eagles' special teams

A YEAR AGO, Dave Fipp's special teams were the Eagles' salvation.

Take away the huge contributions those units made, take away the four punt and kickoff returns for touchdowns, take away the four blocked punts, including the three returned for scores, and the blocked field goal and extra point, and Cody Parkey's 32-for-36 field goal accuracy, and 10-6 maybe ends up being 9-7 or 8-8 or worse.

But Fipp's special teams haven't been able to do anything to help the Eagles avoid a puzzling 0-2 start this season. In fact, they've actually contributed to it.

In their 26-24 Week 1 loss to the Falcons, Parkey missed a 44-yard field goal attempt with 2:26 left that would have given the Eagles the lead and a likely victory.

On Sunday, the Cowboys blocked a Donnie Jones punt early in the third quarter and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown to take a 13-0 lead in a game the Eagles would lose, 20-10.

Missed field goals happen, even to guys who converted eight of 10 from 40-plus yards last season.

The blocked punt, though, was a little more out of character. The Eagles were the NFL's top-rated special teams last season. They are stacked with guys who excel on those units and take pride in playing on those units.

"The bottom line is, they did a great job of executing and we didn't execute well enough," Fipp said yesterday. "It wasn't a look we hadn't seen before. We'd seen that look on film before and had worked against it in practice. But, obviously, we didn't work it well enough. We had a couple of guys who didn't play well enough on that play. It's unacceptable."

On the punt block, six Cowboys were on the line, including defensive backs Jeff Heath and rookie Byron Jones, who lined up on the shoulders of Eagles long-snapper Jon Dorenbos.

Another Cowboys defensive back, Danny McCray, lined up 2 yards off the ball directly in front of Dorenbos.

Jones and Heath both attacked the gap between Dorenbos and left guard Bryan Braman. As Braman slid over to help Dorenbos, McCray ran a twist stunt around Jones and through the suddenly huge "B" gap between Braman and left tackle Jordan Hicks. He went in untouched. Jones also got through.

Chris Maragos, the personal protector in front of the punter, could block only one of them. He took out Jones, but McCray got to Donnie Jones and blocked the punt.

"It was an old-school play that's been around the league for a bunch of years," Braman said. "They just ran it better than we protected. Every dog has his day."

"They brought five guys over to that side (the Eagles' left side)," Fipp said. "They looped the down guy (Heath) over. They looped the stack guy (McCray) over. And they had a guy in the A gap (Jones)."

"Said Dorenbos: "I needed to get more depth on my set. They ran a good stunt, and we didn't block it. It's pretty cut and dried. It is what is."

The Cowboys actually ran the same stunt on Jones' first punt, after the Eagles went three-and-out on their first possession. McCray lined up a little farther away, but came through clean on that one as well and very nearly blocked it.

"They ran a good twist stunt," Maragos said. "It was a good play for them. All eight of us (protecting the punter) just didn't execute it the way we needed to. We all have to be better, we've got to be tighter, we've got to be stouter. The bottom line is we have to protect the punt."

Except for the blocked punt and Parkey's costly Week 1 field goal miss, the Eagles' special teams units have played pretty well in the first two games.

They've held opponents to 4.8 yards per punt return and 22.5 yards per kickoff return. Jones has had only four of his 11 attempts returned. Punt returner Darren Sproles, who led the league in punt return average last year and took two back for touchdowns, already has two returns of 15 yards.

"There's been a lot (written and said) about what we did last year," Braman said. "I'm sure all the other (special teams) coaches in the league are sick and tired of hearing it every time they prepare for us - 'Well, you know what they did last year.'

"We have a huge target on our backs. But you know what? I'd rather have a target on my back than be in a situation where I'm not even being talked about. If I've got a target on my back, it means I'm in front. I'd rather be in that position than behind."

Braman said none of the players on the Eagles' punt coverage unit is dwelling on Sunday's block.

"We have a great group of guys and we're obviously disappointed by what happened (Sunday)," he said. "But we're done with it. There's nothing we can do about it now. It's all about moving on and making sure we don't let it happen again."

"We are an extremely confident group," Maragos said. "If you look at the way we've been playing, covering kicks, our coverage, the way we've been doing everything, we're playing really dang good right now."

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