Moise Fokou will start at strongside linebacker this week for the Eagles if Chris Gocong can't go, and Gocong hasn't practiced, after suffering separate hamstring and quad injuries in Sunday's victory over the Giants.
What does defensive coordinator Sean McDermott see in Fokou that makes him think the seventh-round rookie from Maryland, who has played mostly on special teams, is up to such a task, against a tricky, multifaceted Dallas offense?
"He's the next guy in line, so he's got to be up to the task," McDermott said yesterday. "He's had a great start to the week and approached it with hard work. The preparation part of it is there, and it's important he plays well.
"He's a big guy [6-1, 233] that can rush the passer. He's played some linebacker, he's played down on the line when he was at Maryland. He's been in our system now for, ah, a couple months, so he should be fine, right?"
After a morbid chuckle, McDermott went back to praising Fokou, a training-camp standout.
"He's been in the system long enough and he studies, he really works hard. He's a conscientious young guy that works hard."
Fokou said his fellow linebackers have been communicating with him on the practice field, "which has allowed me to play up to Chris' speed almost, even though I'm not as experienced as he is. It's Week 8 already? Week 8, Week 9 - I've been studying this defense, learning what I had to do week-in and week-out. I feel pretty comfortable with the defense. It's just little things that I haven't seen that probably Chris s has seen I need to work on, pretty much detail my work a little bit."
Fokou got 11 or 12 snaps in Gocong's spot against the Giants, he said, which gave him a taste of what he needs to do.
As a special-teamer, he is often around the ball, but he also has seen some penalty flags dropped with his name on them.
"I'm an aggressive player. We're trying to correct those things right now," he said.
Ingram at work
Rookie tight end Cornelius Ingram was a standout in the spring and early on in training camp, before the repaired ACL in his right knee gave way again. Ingram, who missed his senior year at Florida, is going through a second successive season on the sideline.
Ingram said yesterday it helps that he's busy, going to position meetings, doing rehab. "I try to forget about it, but it's definitely something I think about every now and then," he said.
The Daily News reported in August that some NFL teams took Ingram off their draft boards because they weren't satisfied with the state of his ACL repair in predraft testing. Ingram subsequently said he was aware of those concerns, and wasn't terribly surprised when his knee swelled up the second week of training camp. He said yesterday he's confident this surgery, performed by Dr. James Andrews, would put the ACL issue behind him.
Ingram said he works closely now with fellow ACL patient Stewart Bradley, the Birds' middle linebacker.
"I'm doing a lot of similar stuff to what I was doing at Florida, but we do have an advantage here with an underwater treadmill. That actually helps out on the graft," Ingram said. "Me and Stewart, we've been running for 3 or 4 weeks in the pool. It helps out a lot. Once we hit the grass, we'll be feeling real good.
"I'm happy where I'm at right now. I definitely think I'm ahead of schedule."
Maclin makes mark
Coach Andy Reid praised wideout Jeremy Maclin's blocking earlier this week, Reid admitting he was surprised and impressed at the first-round rookie's attention to this detail.
"Blocking has nothing to do with how strong you are, it just has something to do with the will that you have to block," Maclin said yesterday. "A lot of guys kind of take plays off, but you want to go out there and you want to establish yourself. Me being a rookie, I think guys are going to come up and try to push me around a little bit. I just want to let 'em know they're not going to be able to get away with that."
Birdseed
The only change in the injury situation yesterday was that defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley and defensive end Victor Abiamiri were partial practice participants . . . Special teams coordinator Ted Daisher was asked if Dallas' Patrick Crayton, who has returned punts for touchdowns 2 weeks in a row, was among the league's best. "He has been the last 2 weeks, that's for sure," Daisher said. "I give him a lot of credit. Excellent slasher returner, big strong guy. He gets north-south in a hurry, has done a real nice job."
