10/01/08 ... 5:00 pm
Eagles punter Sav Rocca will be named NFC Special Teams player of month tomorrow. Rocca led the NFL with a 44.1 net average in September, including punts of 65 yards (a career long), 64 and 61. He also placed seven of his 18 punts (39%) inside the 20-yard line. Rocca becomes the first Eagles punter to earn player of the month honors. Eagles K David Akers twice earned those honors in November 2000 and October 2007.
9/26/08 ... 11:55 am / Updated ... 1:10 pm
Quarterback Donovan McNabb was back on the field Friday as the team held its final workout in preparation for Sunday night's game against the Bears. McNabb is from Chicago and has a 4-1 record vs. the Bears.
Head coach Andy Reid said at his 1 pm press conference that Shawn Andrews, L.J. Smith and Kevin Curtis are doubtful for the game, while Brian Westbrook is questionable. Andrews, Smith and Westbrook did not practice Friday.
9/26/08 ... 9:00 am
Every week is a challenge in the National Football League, but an injury-riddled football team compounds that process, especially in putting together a game plan for the next opponent. But Andy Reid says the key to attacking a week like this begins way back in the offseason.
"That's one of the challenges in the offseason," said Reid this morning. "You try to make sure that if you have a great player, that you have another player that can do similar things and help win football games."
One of the Eagles philosophies under Reid is finding smart football players who can digest the game plan whether they are on the practice field or not.
"It's important to have smart guys taking mental reps back there when they are watching in case they have to get in. If you already know you have injuries and you have guys waiting to come back, then you practice your other guys. Then the other guys that are hurt have to take mental reps. And you hope that they are smart guys, as well."
So what happens behind the scenes in a week like this?
"During the week, the trainers, the doctors and myself get together and try to project whether a guy is going to play or not and if there's a large gap in talent level between him and the backup, then you might have to stay away from certain plays. If there's not, then you put it all in and go with it."
9/25/08 … 9:30 am
This morning, Andy Reid reflected on the passing of Philadelphia police officer Patrick McDonald of the Highway Patrol Unit.
"Our hearts go out to Officer McDonald, his family, and the entire Philadelphia Police Department. As I understand, he was a big Eagles fan and actually worked the sidelines at our game on Sunday. We appreciated the things he did for us as a fan and from a security standpoint."
"I actually had a chance to see him play football as a member of the Philadelphia Police Department's football team, the Blue Flame. He was a heckuva running back and hard-nosed, tough, competitive guy. Officer McDonald was everything a teammate and a fellow officer was meant to be."
9/24/08 … 9:00 am
With two interceptions in his first three games in Philadelphia, Asante Samuel has made a good first impression within the Eagles organization, especially head coach Andy Reid.
"What people may not realize is how hard Asante studies film," Reid said this morning. "He studies the game, studies his opponents, and will often be here until 9 pm at night working on that part of his game. He focuses on the receivers and the quarterbacks, looking for any keys and tendencies he can use in the upcoming game."
"And then he brings that same work ethic to the practice field each day. He brings energy and bravado to that side of the ball."
Samuel leads the NFL with 18 interceptions since the start of the 2006 season. Throughout his career, his teams are 18-1 in regular season games in which he intercepts a pass.
9/23/08 ... 3:30 pm
Brian Dawkins will be announced as the NFC Defensive Player of the Week tomorrow for his outstanding performance vs. the Steelers on Sunday.
Officially, Dawkins recorded 10 tackles in the game, including a sack and another tackle for loss. His sack was arguably the finest play of his career as he soared over Steelers guard Kendall Simmons to swat the ball away from Ben Roethlisberger in the fourth quarter. Dawkins then recovered the loose ball to set up a field goal that clinched the Eagles victory. The game against the Steelers was the 170th of his Eagles career, moving him past Chuck Bednarik and into 2nd place on the Eagles all-time list behind Harold Carmichael (180).
It is the third time that Dawkins has won this award during his career. He also captured those honors in 2002 vs. Houston and in 2006 at New York, recording 16 tackles, two forced fumbles and an intercpetion vs. the Giants.
9/22/08 … 9:00 am
Andy Reid does studies each week on field position and the effect it has on an opposing team's defense. Said Reid this morning, "We track blitz patterns based on field position and coverage patterns based on field position and the better field position a defense has, the more aggressive they become. That's why it's so important to win that battle during a game."
Throughout the year, Sav Rocca has helped the Eagles win a lot of those battles for field position. Yesterday, Rocca's 54-yard directional punt in the 4th quarter landed out of bounds at the Steelers' 6-yard line. Three plays later, the Eagles forced Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger into a safety when he was flagged for intentional grounding in the end zone.
"There's not many guys in the league that can do what Sav does," said Reid. "The tougher the situation, the better he does."
So far in 2008, Rocca leads the NFL in net punting average (44.1) and has downed half of his punts inside the 20-yard line (6 of 12) this year.
9/18/08 ... 9:15 am
In a sport where so much attention and resources are placed on youth, this week's game features two of the most accomplished defensive coordinators in recent NFL history in 71-year-old Dick LeBeau and 67-year-old Jim Johnson. "Those guys bring a lot of passion to the game," said head coach Andy Reid this morning.
LeBeau was a three-time Pro Bowl cornerback with the Detroit Lions and has spent nearly 50 years in the National Football League, making his mark along the way.
Said Reid, "Dick is the creator of the fire zone blitz, which really has changed defensive football in the modern era, especially in the past 15-20 years. That scheme lets teams blitz while playing zone coverage behind it and it's a lot safer. It's something that every team does now. What you get with Dick is a highly intelligent guy who played the game at a very high level. He brought that to the coaching ranks in a league that is offense-oriented and changed things around and made it even more exciting to watch defenses."
"It's tough to prepare for him, because he's continued to grow with his blitz package. His players know him so well and he knows how to teach them complex schemes and get them accomplished during the game."
On the opposite sideline stands Johnson, a former college quarterback at Missouri. In this decade, no team has sacked the quarterback more than Johnson's Eagles defense.
"Jim does a great job of finding ways to pressure the quarterback both with utilizing man coverage and with zone blitzes,"" said Reid. "He does a great job with disguising them."
"Jim had played on the offensive side of the football at one point. He was a really good quarterback at Missouri. So he sees his blitzes through a quarterback's eyes. There are not many guys out there that understand the blocking scheme of offenses like Jim does. Knowing that so well, he picks and chooses the specific blitzes that really disrupt all these different blocking schemes that offenses are using."
Reid understands the importance of a good defense and a good coordinator. "You really win games on defense. It's tough win in this game without a really good defense. If you are going to play championship caliber football, you better be playing good defense. And the decision makers in the NFL realize that. When teams are hiring defensive coordinators, they know they need to find the best guy to fill that spot. In modern day football, it's about how you are pressuring the quarterback and for coordinators, that's what you are looking for."
