SCORES TWICE AFTER A PUCK TO THE FACE
Earlier this week, we heard from Mike Jenkins about his plans for the Eagles receivers, then we heard from Roy Williams with his thoughts on his family's experience in Philly last year.
Now, we hear from Miles Austin, who took a more tactful approach.
Asked to describe Eagles fans, Austin replied: "Passionate. I might have more adjectives, too.”
Austin has just two catches in four career games against the Eagles, but his numbers over the last three weeks have impressive: 482 yards and 5 touchdowns.
"I want to see me do it against a Philly defense and a division game on the road,” Austin said. “All I can do is play my hardest. That's what I've been doing, and we'll see what happens.”
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The Eagles' punt-coverage unit has allowed just 5.3 yards per return this season, the fourth best mark in the league. In their last six games, they've held opponents to 3.9 yards per return and haven't given up a punt return longer than 11 yards during that period.
They'll get a major test from the Cowboys' Patrick Crayton, who has returned punts for touchdowns in each of the last two games. He had an 82-yard return against Seattle Sunday, and a 73-yarder against Atlanta the week before.
"He's doing the job right now," said cornerback Joselio Hanson, one of the Eagles' "gunners" on the punt coverage unit. "If he gets another one, that'd be the record [for consecutive games with a punt return for a TD]. We can't let that happen."
Crayton's touchdown returns were the first two of his career. He came into this season with a career average of 8.4 yards per return.
At 6-foot and 204 pounds, there's nothing fancy about Crayton's return style. He's more Brian Mitchell than DeSean Jackson.
"He's going to catch it, find a seam and try to break it," Hanson said. "We can't give him that straightforward seam."
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Pretty interesting item we saw in the San Antonio paper: The Cowboys have given up scores on the opening possession in the last two games, against Seattle and Atlanta. The Eagles lead the league with 61 first-quarter points and have scored 44 points on their first two possession. A quick start can only help.
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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