LeSean McCoy rushed for a career-high 99 yards in the Nov. 22 win at Chicago that sparked the team's current four-game win streak. One week later, the second-round draft pick totaled over 100 yards from scrimmage for the first time in his career with 76 rushing and 25 receiving yards.
However, in the last two weeks combined, McCoy has 30 rushing yards on 16 carries and 50 receiving yards on seven catches.
Has McCoy hit the proverbial rookie wall? Last year at Pitt, McCoy played in just 13 games. McCoy had done that already and that's not including the four preseason contests.
But head coach Andy Reid said that McCoy is holding up "pretty well" physically.
"He wants to have a hundred yards every game, so he's his own worst critic," Reid said. "That's OK. You can live with that part. I think he's running hard and he's seeing things. I do know that we keep getting better here down the stretch."
McCoy was expected to contribute as a rookie, but probably not as much as he has. With Brian Westbrook sidelined for a significant portion of the season due to his concussions, McCoy has started in four games and leads the team with 558 rushing yards on 139 carries (4.0 yards per carry) and three touchdowns. He also has 34 catches for 256 yards and also scored on a two-point conversion.
On Sunday against the Giants, McCoy had three runs of 6 yards or more. On the first play from scrimmage, McCoy bounced outside for an 11-yard gain. McCoy's vision has improved. He's done a much better job of hitting the hole. The burst is there.
Three of his carries came during the four-minute drill near the end of the fourth quarter as the Eagles tried to run the clock out. While Reid would have liked to have had more success in that four-minute drill, up until that point he felt that the run game was "productive when we needed to be productive."
"They were opportune, at the right time," Reid said. "We had decent gains when needed."
The amount of weapons in the Eagles offense also plays a factor. Leonard Weaver and Michael Vick help out in the run game. And when DeSean Jackson is averaging nearly 30 yards per reception for the game, the Eagles are going to feed him the ball a little more.
"It shows you how this offense can come together anytime we need to put up points," McCoy said. "Our offense, we have so many playmakers across the board. We also have guys coming back off of injury that are deadly. This offense, there's no telling what we got."
It's somewhat fitting that No. 29 is just 29 yards from setting the franchise record for rushing yards by a rookie (Correll Buckhalter, 586 yards, 2001). Even when Westbrook returns, McCoy will remain a pivotal piece of the offense. The key is making the most of the opportunities he gets.
-- Posted by Chris McPherson, 3:50 p.m., December 14
