On Sunday, the 4-6 alive-again Eagles will play the AFC’s current number one seed, New England Patriots, led by future Hall of Famer Tom Brady. The Patriots aren’t lucky enough to have a player of such caliber on their defense, and it shows. New England has the league’s worst pass defense and 
the 13th ranked run D in the league. LeSean McCoy should, again, be a focal point for the Eagles.
While running offenses have had their way against the Patriots defense, they have not allowed a single player to run for over 100 yards in a game. Instead, the Pats have been vulnerable to a duo or trio of running backs. Eagles’ fans may get their first look at extended playing time for Ronnie Brown and/or Dion Lewis beside Shady in the backfield.
Number 25 won’t have a tough time getting into the endzone in week 12. In ten games, New England has allowed 7 rushing touchdowns. The Patriots have only kept the opponents’ running game out of the endzone in three games this year. With ten rushing touchdowns on the year, Shady will likely be able to punch it in again and start another streak.
With Michael Vick held out of practice on Thursday, along with Jeremy Maclin, Vince Young looks to be the starter for this week’s matchup. With Vick out last week, McCoy got 23 carries, only the fourth game of the year in which he carried the ball more than 20 times. The Giants were able to shut him down for the majority of the game but the offense still relied on the third year back when they needed a big play, and ultimately, he delivered the final blow.
The Eagles running back remains the sole running back in the league averaging over 100 rushing yards per game. Coming off his fifth game of the season where he passed the century mark, he will face a defense that has allowed 105.3 rushing yards per game. While only allowing an average of 4.3 yards per carry, opposing backs need almost 25 carries to reach that mark. This is yet another reason to feed Shady the ball.
The biggest name in the Patriots front seven is Vince Wilfork, a 320-pound nose tackle, or Jerrod Mayo, the former Defensive Rookie of the Year. Both of these defenders shut down the middle of the field and leave the Patriots vulnerable around the edge. With the speed the offensive line and McCoy have, outside runs should be a big part of the offensive attack for Sunday.
The Eagles opponents will come in off of a short week after a physical Monday night win against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The defense set the tone in last week’s win against the Giants. If the Birds establish the run early, they could set a tone with the league’s number one rusher and keep their season alive. At least for one more week.
Vince Young better avoid starting out 5 of 13 with 3 picks again. This isn’t Eli we’re up against.
All this talk of McCoy…when it will be the QB, who, as usual, will be responsible for 60-65% of the plays called Sunday.
no shock Vick won’t play, worse decision by eagles paying this bum all that money, Vince young will win this game and and qb controversy, young leads birds on playoff march, go eagles
Not sure if Young can lead team to win here but hope so. Vick is 3 year trial disaster….people sucked in…..results mixed,,,,,,\
s\Young can’t win SB. VIck clearly inferior and never be able to lead team thru playoffs………..]
….that leads bords no absolutely no chance in plahoffs//////
ugh. Rye has a detrimental effect on my spelling abilities!!
If Young can lead this team to a win, particularly with no more than 1 turnover, the FO would be absolutely crazy to let this guy get away after the season. As this point in their careers, VY has more upside than Vick… bigger, able to take hits without breakage, a strong arm and a more natural pocket passer. Lots of time in the off-season and mini-camps under strong QB coaching will bring out what Young never got in Tenn. Hang onto VY at all possible costs; Kafka is not an NFL starter. Draft some top D talent and a big WR, and let go of players who can’t execute on the field. Bring in through draft or FA another DE, LB and DB. No lockout so it’s full speed ahead; this season, even if we win out, will not get us to SB; the Pack will repeat! Keep Young here and make concerted effort to compensate DJax fairly.
Ewing Theory!! Nice! We’ve got a chance this week…I totally forgot about the Ewing Theory in relation to the loss of VIck….but here it is from the Sports Guy himself…
SG: And then it took four quarters for Vince Young to turn him into the best Ewing Theory candidate in recent memory. (Is there a better Ewing Theory guy than Vick? Overhyped, never won anything, all sizzle and no steak … he’s the very definition of a Ewing Theory guy. Cutler has a faint Ewing whiff; Vick has an overpowering Ewing stench.) Ricardo brings up a good point though — it’s too bad we don’t have off-the-cuff awards for things like “The Crashdown Player of the Year” (Vick), “The Daunte Culpepper Memorial Fantasy Football Mass Murderer” (Chris Johnson) and “Where The Hell Did You Come From and Why Are You So Good???” (DeMarco Murray) just for historical purposes. Plus, it would be neat to hear Joe Buck say, “Here comes Michael Vick … our first two-time Crashdown Player of the Year Award winner.”
Unfortunately, The birds will not make the playoffs this season. Too many issues with this team that should have been addressed and the coaching has been atrocious. Speaking of coaching, heres to hoping next season will be better. In the meatime, I will try to enjoy whats left of it. Cheers!
As we all know, an effective running game provides a good chance for a win. An awesome running game today, which is very possible, would provide an outstanding chance for a win today. Unfortunately, any time you stack the chips towards the need to run the ball, Reid & company go the opposite direction and pass, pass, pass cause they’re smarter than everyone else. Of course they also usually get oh so close to a win but, close don’t count in football and will lijely seal the door on this season.
Here’s hoping I’m wrong.
Obviously, I’m expecting a loss but will thoroughly enjoy beating those cheatin’ sons-of-a-beaches!