Eagles' offense might lack DeMarco Murray

STRAIGHTENING out the Eagles' offense and particularly the running game this week without a healthy DeMarco Murray will be a bit of a challenge - but what hasn't been, thus far?

Murray, the team's key offensive free-agent signee with the much-discussed 11 yards on 21 carries through two games, did not practice yesterday after suffering what Eagles coach Chip Kelly called a hamstring "tweak" during Wednesday's session. Kelly said closed practices today and tomorrow at Monmouth (thanks to Popeadelphia gridlock) will determine whether Murray can play at the Jets on Sunday.

Kelly said this sort of thing was why the Eagles wanted both Murray and former Chargers star Ryan Mathews in free agency. Mathews has only four carries for 4 yards through the first two games.

Asked whether the game plan would change should Murray not be able to play, Kelly said: "No, and I think that's part of what we wanted to do. I think Ryan and DeMarco are similar-type players. You can do similar-type things with them. If you had a different-type back backing up, then it's a different deal."

Mathews said he has not been frustrated with his limited role thus far. He and Murray both are listed at 6-foot, Murray at 217 pounds, Mathews at 220.

"DeMarco's a good running back," said Mathews, who put together a pair of 1,000-yard seasons for the Chargers, in 2011 and 2013. "Either way, I'm willing to work as hard as I can. I'm not worried about carries, I just want to do what I can to help the team win."

What must happen to get the NFL's worst running game going?

"The coaches have us dialed in . . . We've got to have fun. We work so hard during the week in practice, we've just got to have fun in the game" rather than overthinking, Mathews said.

Murray walked through the locker room, without a limp, yesterday while reporters were present. He did not respond to questions.

Running back Darren Sproles, who also figures to get more work if Murray can't play, said "we have to get everybody on the same page."

How do you do that?

"That's a lot of film," Sproles said. "A lot of film, and making (blocking) calls, and stuff like that."

"We've been doing a lot of preparation the last couple weeks, really, but the film work (this week) has been more self-analysis," center Jason Kelce said. "We've definitely studied the Jets, don't get me wrong, but there's a lot of watching our own tape, watching our own techniques . . . to understand what might be causing us to struggle right now."

Asked about playcalling predictability, a popular topic this week, left tackle Jason Peters agreed that it seems other teams are picking up on tendencies, but "if we block it up, though, we'll bust some runs . . . We just have to calm down, relax and just play football. Not overthink stuff, and not make a game bigger than what it is, and be relaxed."

This would seem to be an especially formidable challenge, in that the Jets had the NFL's 10th-ranked defense going into Week 3. They'd allowed the fewest points - 17 - through the first two weeks. But they're 14th against the run, and they give up an average gain of 3.8 yards, which ranks 12th. Overall, the Jets' "D" has given up 5.4 yards per snap, the exact same figure as the Eagles' defense, which has played 16 more snaps. The Jets have forced a league-high 10 turnovers, intercepting four passes and recovering six fumbles.

Kelce said the Jets really like their defensive linemen, tending to "leave them in their gaps and let them outplay offensive linemen more than what Dallas did . . . (The Jets') linebackers are great, but I think they trust their d-linemen to win one-on-one matchups, whereas Dallas, I think, slants and angles their defensive line to try and take up multiple offensive linemen and screw up blocking schemes, so that the linebackers are free."

"Their d-line is real good, they're stout," Sproles said. "They like to blitz a lot."

In fact, if Murray plays, it might be at least partly to help with the blitz pickup, something he might be able to do without aggravating his hamstring.

Kelce noted that first-year Jets coach Todd Bowles, the Eagles' defensive coordinator down the stretch three years ago in the disaster of Andy Reid's final year, "is a guy who's known for blitzing - he'll always have something dialed up when he needs it. He's going to apply pressure to the quarterback. Being in tune to when they're bringing blitzes and when they're not, and situations, and yadda, yadda, yadda, that's going to be huge this week."

Though it has been terrible trying to run the ball, the Eagles' o-line has been much better protecting Sam Bradford, who has been sacked just once.

The Jets' blitzes often leave receivers in one-on-one coverage, which is another place where Sproles might excel.

"That's what we really want," he said. "We really want 'man.' The only thing is, you've got to be able to pick up the blitz, so the quarterback can get the ball out."

Bowles mentioned Sproles prominently when he talked about the Eagles' offense this week.

"He presents a problem. He's quick, he's fast, he's tough . . . You have to know where he is when he's in the game," Bowles said.

It might not be an exaggeration to say that Sproles, who has six carries for 46 yards, and 11 catches for 99, is the only Eagles weapon other teams really have to game-plan against, which might be part of the problem.

Another part is that Kelly depends on tempo to be a weapon in his attack, but when you're constantly going three-and-out, the weapon ends up pointed back at you. Against Dallas, after multiple failures, the Eagles intentionally slowed their tempo.

"You need to continue to string a couple first downs together to stay on the field," Kelly said. "When you do that, that's kind of a byproduct of getting able to start to go fast. It's kind of like you're in a car, and you can only go so far, because there's a stoplight 20 yards down the road. You can't stick your foot on the gas and go 60 miles an hour, because you're going to have to stop real quick."

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