Andy Reid acted like it was no big deal yesterday when he was alerted to the fact that he would have to rely on unproven offensive left tackle King Dunlap to block Pro Bowl Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney.
If I were Reid I wouldn't get any sleep while thinking about that matchup. It is as a terrible matchup for the Birds. I don't know if it could get worse.
Reid said he's going to have Donovan McNabb playing for the first half. He's got to be kidding.
Freeney is a master of the low to the ground pass rush where he almost crawls underneath the armreach of the offensive tackle to get to the quarterback. Sometimes he tackles the quarterback low on the knees.
Dunlap has had problems with low to the ground rushers like Trent Cole during the training camp. He's going to have to deal with Freeney on the turf and in a dome which is going to be loud.
Freeney is also adept at getting underneath offensive tackles and bull rushing them. During the recently completed training camp, I've seen Dunlap bullrushed by Eagles defensive ends who couldn't shine Freeney's shoes.
I hope Freeney chooses not to use his much talked about spin move because that wouldn't be fair.
If I were McNabb I would talk Andy into letting me stay in Philadelphia and help Michael Vick on his fundamentals.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the matchup on the other side between Robert Mathis and Winston Justice is nothing to write home about.
I must admit that Justice has improved from the guy who gave up six sacks to Osi Umenyiora but I wouldn't be surprised if Mathis spends a lot of time in the offensive backfield.
Hopefully Reid will choose to work on the running game this week.
