Vick Not Concerned About NY Rush, Patterson’s Learning From Samuel

The Eagles just finished their Friday workout in preparation for Sunday night’s battle with the Giants.  When practice was over and everybody had gone inside, I stood there watching as Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson stayed out for some extra work.

As if they haven’t already been lethal enough, here you have these two guys who are as hot as anybody in the league, putting in some extra work, so that they’re as sharp as possible against New York.  That can’t be good news for Giants head coach Tom Coughlin who said his stomach was bothered as he watched the Eagles dismantle the Skins defense.

This will be the toughest pass rush the Birds have faced all season, but Vick isn’t concerned that New York has knocked five quarterbacks out of games this year.  He said he’s used to players trying to knock him out of games because they’ve been trying to knock him out of games throughout his career, plus the team has confidence that Kevin Kolb will step in there and do the job if he gets hurt.

They expect adjustments from the Giants, so they’ll be ready to counter whatever New York does defensively.

I was amused by Asante Samuel’s conversation concerning Dimitri Patterson.  Seems like the young cornerback has been doing his homework studying the veteran cornerback.  Everybody knows that Samuel reads pass routes better than any corner in the league, so Patterson has been smart enough to pick Samuel’s brain and emulate him.

The former Patriots corner studies the down and distance of plays and he studies the way receivers come off the ball to run their routes.  If they do something in their release or anytime as they get into the route which tips off the route their running Samuel picks it up.

Many times he’ll read something that a receiver does when  he comes off the ball which will allow him to run the route for the receiver.  Samuel picks off the ball and you don’t know which guy is the receiver because Samuel runs the guy’s route like he the cornerback is the receiver.

Patterson has picked up on the preparation.  He learned some things about the Redskins before the game which gave him a heads up on which routes they were going to run.  He ended up with two picks against Washington by running the wide receivers routes.  On the second interception, which he ran back for a touchdown, he knew McNabb was going to have to get rid of the ball quickly because of the blitz, so he ignored the deep route and squatted on the short route.

Samuel knows what Patterson is going through because he went through the same thing in New England while playing on the side opposite Ty Law.

“Like I told Dimitri, I was in his shoes before. When [former Patriots CB] Tyrone Poole went down, it was me and [former Patriots CB] Ty Law out there. Every meeting, coach always told me, ‘they’re not coming at Ty Law, they’re going to come at you.’ He was the Pro Bowler and I was the rookie, the young guy. I definitely earned my stripes and they came at me. It took weeks, years. It took awhile to earn it.”

Somebody had better let Ellis Hobbs know that his job is all but lost.  Notice how many times this year, guys have lost their starting spots due to injury.  All that you can’t lose your starting job because of injury is garbage.

Quintin Mikell doesn’t agree with everybody who says the Dallas Cowboys are the Eagles arch-rival.  Mikell thinks it’s the Giants and not the Cowboys.  He talked about all the big games the two teams have played since he’s been in the league.

Nate Allen is expected back and he doesn’t think he’ll miss a beat after missing some time because of a neck injury.