We got some good injury news on Wednesday. CB Sheldon Brown was able to practice and thinks he's got a good shot to play on Sunday. If he's unable to play we slide Dimitri Patterson out there. Nothing against Mr. P, but I think Sheldon is a slightly better player. Our defense is predicated on coverage.
Update on Westy from PE.com...apparently the tests went well. That doesn't mean Westy is anywhere close to playing, but it does mean he's in okay shape. The concussion out in San Diego was a mild one (as opposed to the one vs WAS). Here's the key quote:
"We are very encouraged by Brian's progress, we believe that he has an excellent prognosis and we expect a full recovery," reported Drs. Maroon and Collins. "We developed a comprehensive physical rehab plan for Brian, and we will repeat the detailed testing in the next two to three weeks.
Jason Peters practiced and is expected to start. We need him at LT so that Todd can play LG and we have our best possible players on the field.
THOUGHTS ON LESEAN
I've read quite a few Eagles fans ripping LeSean McCoy in recent weeks. I think we need to understand a few things. I've picked on LeSean in regard to a couple of specific issues, but I still see his talent and think he's had a good year. Look at his numbers:
86 - 353 - 4.1 ypc - 2 TDs ... Rcvg - 23 - 181 - 7.9 ypr
People do realize LeSean is a rookie, right? He's had a better rookie year than either Brian Westbrook or Duce Staley. LeSean is about to pass Charlie Garner's numbers. The only guy ahead of him is Correll Buckhalter and LeSean has a real good shot to top him. Here are Buck's numbers:
129 - 586 - 4.5 ypc - 2 TDs ... Rcvg - 13 - 130 - 10.0 ypr
LeSean has played behind a makeshift OL. Buck got to run behind Tra, Jon, Honey Buns, Welbourn, and Jermane Mayberry. That was a great OL.
LeSean hasn't shown us anything great this year, but what did Westy do in 2002? His long run was 18 yards. His long catch was 20 yards. LeSean has a 66-yard TD run and a 45-yard reception. He's light years ahead of where Brian was at this point in 2002.
My biggest beef with LeSean is that he's looking around too much. He needs to be less hesitant and concentrate on getting upfield for whatever yardage is there. In college he was a master at reading his blocks, reading the defense, and finding creases to run through. He has that ability in him. He's just got to adjust to the speed of pro football. When he does and he starts to play more instinctively we'll see just how good he can be. LeSean has the physical ability to be a good starter in the NFL.
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3 comments:
That fellah over at igglesblog raised some interesting points about your article about McNabb. He failed to touch on the most important element of it though. McNabb's consistency and accuracy. He didn't mention the stat in his graph that shows passes into the backfield are at their highest ever and there has been a significant drop off in 1-10 yard completions. That could well be the difference between us moving the chains and sustaining drives and us not.
That stat isn't necessarily just McNabb but he's partially responsible judging by what i've seen in the games.
Thanks for putting McCoy's rookie season in perspective.
I hadn't heard too much grumbling about McCoy. I know I certainly think he's been doing an okay job. Plus there is a steep learning curve for the RBs in this offense since they're asked to do so much in pass protection and the receiving game.
I haven't chimed in on McNabb yet so here it goes...I think it's interesting that some people feel like McNabb can't win a championship but Reid can. It's fair to question McNabb's accuracy and his ability to perform in the clutch. I have always felt that Reid puts too much on McNabb's shoulders though. And you can see that with the different gameplans when McNabb isn't in the lineup.
McNabb also seemed to perform better in the clutch back in his younger years, as strange as that may sound. Once he stopped running, it took away some of his mojo. The pre-T.O. years were essentially great defense and McNabb.
Now it seems like Andy just doesn't know what to do with McNabb at the helm. He's a coach that loves to throw with a QB who likes to go downfield with the ball. It's like Reid has altered the offense to more of a downfield attack to accomadate McNabb's strengths and to take advantage of the best WR corp he's ever had.
The problem is that the deep ball isn't always there but McNabb is always looking for it. He either throws the deep pass regardless of whether it's there or not, or he waits so long for the big play to develop that by the time he goes to the checkdown, he's rushing his throws and tossing balls into the turf.
Everyone knows by now that I'm not entirely fond of Reid, but I do think he's implemented a good offensive philosophy to play to the strengths of his players. But his QB needs to be smarter with the ball sometimes. It seems like we're in 3rd and long far too often and it's because we can't make a positive play on 1st downs. Brees and Manning are great at using their checkdowns to get some positive yardage on 1st and 2nd downs.
When I look at Brees' WR corp, I don't think it's necessarily better than ours. But he finds the right guy to throw to on almost every single play. Manning is in a class amongst himself so that's not a fair comparison to anybody...
I guess this is why I feel Reid should run the ball more. You don't want to take what McNabb does best out of the offense. But if he's not going to be smart and accurate in the short passing game, we need to get those yards somewhere. I also think the threat of a running game would open up the plays down field -- everyone wins.
I think both are capable of winning the SB, and doing it together. But Reid will need to slightly alter his offensive philosophy for it to work. On the surface, he's playing to his team's strengths. But the offense lacks conistency and he needs to figure out how to get that with McNabb as his QB. Or he should make the switch to Kolb.
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