MVN - Most Valuable Network

Thursday Eagles Notes

Thomas Tapeh is still questionable for Saturday night’s game with a knee strain. If he can’t go, Correll Buckhalter will fill in at fullback. Not quite an ideal solution. Joe Horn is still questionable for the Saints with a groin injury.

I was thinking about this a week or two ago, but I came back to it today after Sam Donnellon wrote a column in today’s Philadelphia Daily News about Marty Mornhinweg’s reputation getting a boost in recent weeks. Could Mornhinweg ever have enough success as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator to be considered for a head coaching job again? His failure in Detroit was almost comical, until you realize that the Lions’ problems have turned out to be far worse than Marty’s coaching ability. Sometimes, you can have success in your second tenure as an NFL head coach—just ask Bill Belichick. (Not that I’m putting Morhinweg in Belichick’s league, just saying he had a tough go-round his first time out as well.)

Don Banks of SI.com ask a “veteran NFC insider” his thoughts about the Eagles-Saints matchup. which completely lack any insight (sample “analysis”: “Brian Westbrook is really showing what he can do in the run game.” Wow. Want more? “Marques Colston had a hell of a year.” Stop, my head is swimming from all this insider info.) Mark Eckel of The Trenton Times offers a similar interview (with the same guy?), with only slightly better results. One semi-decent point the scout makes: “I guess having Hollis Thomas back will help. He played really well against (the Eagles) last time.” Thomas is returning to action after a four-game suspension for violating the league’s banned substances policy. Will he make a difference in the Saints’ lackluster run defense?

KC Joyner at ESPN.com offers far more cogent points in his breakdown of Saturday’s game (Insider account required). If you remember all those bombs Andy Reid called in their first meeting not falling into the arms of Eagles’ receivers, you’re right. Joyner notes that not one of Donovan McNabb’s 10 deep passes was caught in that game. Joyner thinks the Eagles could have better luck this time with Donte’ Stallworth being in the lineup. He also points out that in the earlier Eagles-Saints matchup, Drew Brees was 9-for-9 for 77 yards on short passes to receivers that were uncovered. That’s just one of many stats that should be keeping Jim Johnson up at night this week.  

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 11:07 pm and is filed under Eagles Eye. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.