Business is never as usual when the Cowboys come to town. It's a special week, a special feeling, and in light of a 2-4 record, a critically important game for the Eagles on Sunday night. There was Samuel on Thursday whooping it up in the locker room, the life of the party at practice, shooting the breeze with reporters as if nothing had happened a day earlier when his off-the-cuff remarks critical of the Eagles' front office required an apology and an opportunity to allow everyone to move on.
Samuel is happy. He looks happy, acts happy and sure as heck tells you he is happy. As quickly as the story enveloped the team on Wednesday, it was gone on Thursday. The focus is on the Cowboys, and with that the Eagles defense must figure out a way to A) Slow down rookie running back DeMarco Murray, who sprinted for 253 yards last week against St. Louis and, B) Figure out what to do against Dallas' group of premier receiving threats -- tight end Jason Witten and wide receivers Miles Austin and Dez Bryant.
This is, folks, is a reason the Eagles loaded up on quality cornerbacks in the offseason. Dallas succeeds in its passing game because teams just can't match up against the soft-handed and strategic approach of Witten, or the relentless intelligence and precision in Austin's game or the freakish athletic skills of Bryant, who has all-time ability that he is just starting to display on a consistent basis.
The Eagles can match up with their cornerback trio of Samuel, Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. How defensive coordinator Juan Castillo finagles his scheme to corral that group remains to be seen. And it will be seen. Every play. Every alignment.
How will Castillo put it all together against such a powerful and balanced and varied Dallas offense?
"I'm not sure you give any team one look throughout the game," said Asomugha during a Fan Forum conference call with Eagles season-ticket holders on Wednesday. "You have to mix it up and execute those changes well."
Asomugha's long body and more physical nature seem to match up better against whichever pass catcher the Eagles line him up against. He is stronger enough to tangle with Witten, a Hall of Fame-bound tight end who controls the middle of the field and the red zone for quarterback Tony Romo. Asomugha can go up and get jump balls against Bryant, the young stud in Dallas. And he can run and change direction with Austin, a Pro Bowl player.
But the Eagles can also match Samuel up against all three threats, and they can use Rodgers-Cromartie in a variety of ways. It's likely that Castillo will choose to change up the coverage schemes often to give Romo pause each time he comes to the line of scrimmage.
Will the Eagles use all three corners on the field a lot at the same time? If Castillo does that, he must prepare for Dallas to try to run against the nickel look. The Eagles have to be sure in their tackling, because all three pass catchers are great running after the reception.
For Castillo, this is a litmus-test game. The progress made against Washington was encouraging and very enlightening, but this is Dallas and the Cowboys are a completely different animal. Dallas is well balanced with great variety, similar to what the Eagles saw in Atlanta in Week 2.
In that contest, the Eagles played the Falcons well and at times dominated the home team until Matt Ryan led Atlanta on a pair of 80-yard touchdown drives in the fourth quarter to send the Eagles home with a loss.
At the time, it was expected that the Eagles would rebound well from that loss. It turned out that the Eagles lost three more games before they stopped the bleeding against Washington.
Against the Cowboys, the Eagles have to rely on their cover men to make the difference. Romo isn't going to play around with 7-step drops. He has a young and injury-riddled offensive line in front of him and he knows the Eagles are well rested and hungry defensively, bolstered by the return of end Trent Cole after he missed two games with a calf injury. Romo is going to drop back and get rid of the football quickly.
The Eagles must challenge at the line of scrimmage.
Back when the Eagles were putting their blueprint together to build a roster and go the ultra-aggressive route in free agency, they have this kind of game in mind. Dallas, with its glitz and glamour and haul of offensive weapons goes up against an Eagles defense that matches up well on paper.
On the field, well, we'll see how it all goes down. Who matches up against whom? The scheme within the scheme may very well be the deciding factor in a nationally televised NFC East showdown.
