SCORES TWICE AFTER A PUCK TO THE FACE
Some observations from the Eagles' win over the San Francisco 49ers, heading into the bye ...
* The fourth-quarter gut check: Eagles entered the fourth quarter down by nine points and their season on the brink of collapse. Then Jim Johnson’s defense forced three turnovers in a 6-minute span, the offense scored on three consecutive possessions and the Eagles head into the bye week 3-3 rather than 2-4. After posting just 19 takeaways in 2007, the Eagles have notched 12 through six games.
* The ongoing special-teams struggles: David Akers converted 4 of 5 field-goal attempts, but one of them was a too-close-for-comfort 38-yarder that may or may not have been good. And his 54-yarder at the end of the first half not only was blocked, but returned for a touchdown. And did I mention that they gave up a 45-yard punt return to Allen Rossum?
* Another tight end has a picnic at the Eagles’ expense: The Niners’ Vernon Davis, who had just five receptions in the first five games, had six catches for 75 yards against the Eagles, including a 57-yarder. If you’re counting, that’s 36 catches for 493 yards and two touchdowns by opposing tight ends in six games.
* Buckhalter comes up big: Without Brian Westbrook, the Eagles needed a big effort from his backup, Correll Buckhalter. They got it. He notched 178 rushing and receiving yards against the 49ers. Buckhalter averaged 5.2 yards per carry, but showed he can be a contributor in the passing game, catching seven passes for 85 yards.
* Another terrific game from the rookie: DeSean Jackson, who got the cold shoulder from Donovan McNabb last week, catching just one pass for 8 yards, had six receptions for 98 yards against the 49ers. He also had a 19-yard punt return.
* Time off: Andy Reid will address the media today in his weekly news conference and then has given the players off for thebe until next Monday, when they will begin preparing for the surprising Atlanta Falcons and Penn Charter product Matt Ryan.
* Donovan and Andy: Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid won their 76th game together, surpassing Bill Walsh and Joe Montana as the winningest head-coach/quarterback tandem who started their careers together … Reid won the 99th game (including playoffs) of his career today. He needs one more victory to become the 37th head coach in NFL history and seventh active coach (Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan, Bill Belichick, Tony Dungy, Jeff Fisher, and Tom Coughlin are the others) to reach 100. He would also become the just the 22nd coach to win 100 games with one franchise.
* Up the ladder: With 278 yards passing and 2 touchdowns on 36 attempts, Donovan McNabb moved past Ron Jaworski to become the franchise leader in both attempts and yards. He now leads the Eagles in attempts (3,943), completions (2,324), yards (26,978), and touchdowns (179), joining Colts QB Peyton Manning as the only two quarterbacks in the NFL to lead their current team in all four categories.
Les
Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News
since 2002.
Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les
only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no
penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite
what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News
from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much
lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their
two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with the paper covering the
Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a
selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre
and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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