For LeSean McCoy, the NFL's leading rusher, last Sunday's game against the Dallas Cowboys served as a bit of a wake-up call. The elusive back was bottled up by the Cowboys defense, held to just 55 yards on 18 carries. After watching the tape, McCoy found that there were things that he could have been done differently, but he is confident that the necessary adjustments will be made in the run game.
"I just wasn't myself," McCoy said on Wednesday. "I felt like with a game like that where my team needed me and depended on me, I didn't show up. I started doing too many individual-type plays and not really going with the plays and just doing my own thing. I was just a little bit frustrated. I wasn't making the plays that I usually make, and they were stopping us, making us go three-and-out and things weren't really going our way.
"I tried to make too many things happen - certain plays from running the ball and screens and different things like that. I felt like that was probably my worst performance since my rookie year, but I'll bounce back this week for sure. I just have to trust in the scheme. If things aren't working out, eventually they'll break."
Unfortunately for McCoy, things haven't been working out quite as well in recent weeks as they were at the beginning of the season. A 116-yard performance against Tampa Bay was sandwiched by games against the Giants and Cowboys in which McCoy ran for a combined 101 yards. It appears that opposing defenses have been making a concerted effort to take away McCoy first and the Eagles passing attack second. McCoy isn't worried about how teams will play him defensively, and instead remains focused on what the Eagles, themselves, can do to execute at a higher level.
"I'm not sure how (defenses) will play me," said McCoy. "For the most part, it has been very similar each week with the type of preparation that they have for the run game. We can't just give in because they're trying to stop the run. There are different things that I can do to be more successful in the run game, and we have a lot of adjustments, so I'm waiting for this week to really see how it works out."
The team awaiting McCoy and the Eagles this Sunday is the NFC East-rival Giants, who used their stout defensive line to shut McCoy down earlier this month.
"Up front they made some plays," McCoy said, recalling the Eagles 36-21 victory at MetLife Stadium. "They mixed plays and ran a lot of stunts, and to their credit, they've got some guys up front that are pretty good. That was a good defensive strategy for that week, but we've made some adjustments, ourselves. We watched the tape and we learned from it by going back to that game. We took some things out of that game and we're going to use it this (week). I think we have a good matchup. I think we made the right adjustments. Coach (Chip) Kelly is good at that - finding different ways to get us in space to make plays."
As Sunday's rematch with the Giants approaches, McCoy is more than ready to get back out onto the field. Heading into another all-important divisional game, the All-Pro running back isn't very preoccupied with how many yards he can gain or how many touchdowns that he can personally put on the board. There is only one thing that will be on McCoy's mind come Sunday - winning.
"I think that a game like this in the division where we need a win, coming off of a bad week where we didn't play well at all - just to get back on the winning side of things makes this game so important," said McCoy. "Every player on the offense, from the linemen down to the running backs, they all have that competitive attitude that we want to get out there and put some yards up. When we played the Giants, we didn't do that at all. They made some plays, so you want to kind of answer back. I think the most important goal is to win the game. I think individual stats and feelings are second."
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