CAN HEAR CLEARWATER CALLING
The Eagles broke their Sunday Night Football skid with a victory over Chicago a few weeks back to move to 1-7 on NBC. The Giants are 1-1 this season on Sunday nights, with a win over Dallas in Week 1 and a loss to Arizona in Week 7.
Regardless of when, there is no question what is at stake Sunday night:
"Right now the Philadelphia Eagles are playing as well as anybody and they are going to have a chance to put their mark on this division," analyst Cris Collinsworth said.
"Big game," added NBC's Tony Dungy. "The Giants got their running game going last week. Philly has got to get their running game going to keep that defensive line off Donovan McNabb."
And the wild card here could be Michael Vick, coming off his two-touchdown performance last week in his return to Atlanta.
"You have to be more aware of Michael Vick," said Dungy, who also has been a Vick adviser. "I have a feeling Andy Reid may have been saving some things for the big division games down the stretch."
Added Rodney Harrison: "That's a big headache for defensive coordinators. It creates so many different problems."
EAGLES' WIN STREAK
The Eagles have won the last three games against the Giants, but neither coach was much interested in talking about that yesterday.
"No. I’m not going to talk about the three games," the Giants' Tom Coughlin said. "I think we are well aware of the first game here this year. We gave up a lot of big plays; didn’t stop the run. And, again, I think that is where it starts for us."
And Andy Reid: "Listen, every game is different. We understand that, so I am not going to get into all of that. Every time we play each other it’s a knockdown, drag out. That’s how it works, physical football game. This won’t be any different. It’s going to be one of those kinds of games. That’s how we are preparing ourselves."
Donovan McNabb shed a little more light on the subject, but only a little: "We just eliminated mistakes more than they did. When you play a game like this it’s about who wins the turnover battle and who capitalizes on mistakes. I think we have had the opportunity of having less turnovers than them and have put ourselves in position to score when the time was needed. I think that not only for this particular game, but that is how you win games in this league."
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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