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When Michael Vick ran in for a three-yard score late in the second quarter, a jubilant DeSean Jackson jumped onto his quarterback in celebration and […]
Here are 10 things to know about how the Eagles’ offense matches up with the Redskins’ defense. If you missed the first cheat sheet, click here.
LeSean McCoy has been as candid as anyone when it comes to Riley Cooper. Where several of his teammates rallied around the receiver publicly after his racial slur at a Kenny Chesney concert went viral, McCoy allowed his raw emotions to show and admitted that he had lost some respect for his one-time friend.
According to several Eagles players, including Cooper himself, the scuffle between Cary Williams and Cooper was unrelated to anything that went down this summer, and was more about two competitors getting after it. However, according to a report from Jeff McLane, Williams said to Cooper more than once, “I’m not a n- you [mess] with” during the spat.
Either way, the conversation has bubbled back up to the surface. And once again, McCoy took it head on.
A position-by-position review of how the Eagles’ offense performed against the Jaguars, with extensive notes on Jason Peters and the line.
There seems to be no question in the Eagles’ locker room that Chip Kelly made the right decision in naming Michael Vick the starter.
Many of Vick’s teammates saw him go through a magical stretch in 2010, a spell of mediocrity in 2011 and an outright disaster in 2012.
Now he’s in a new offense, playing for a new coach. And even though Vick is 33, his teammates believe Kelly’s scheme is tailor-made for the veteran QB to succeed.
“The biggest thing with Michael Vick is, when you say his name, when you see him in the lineup, when you prepare for him, is the running ability that he has,” said LeSean McCoy. “In this offense, we do tons of running, as far as the quarterback and the running back, so you never know who has the ball. And we’re going at such a high tempo/pace in the offense that Mike can throw it, he can run it.
“This offense, it fits him so well. He can be so deadly. There’s times where we watch tape and he hands the ball off to me and then he’s going around with his fake and he’s taking two guys with him until they realize that he doesn’t have the ball. When that happens, you take less defenders out of the box where you don’t have to block ‘em.”
Several of the Eagles’ offensive players had seen or heard about Chip Kelly before he became their head coach.
They adjusted to the new scheme, the new practice methods and the new environment in the spring and then the summer. They knew Kelly had great success at Oregon, but they didn’t know exactly how his philosophies would translate to the NFL.
There are tweaks and and adjustments and wrinkles, but many of the basic concepts – tempo, options, taking advantage of the numbers – are the same. And through two preseason games, the players are buying in.
“I haven’t been this excited about football in a long time,” said center Jason Kelce. “The whole way the offense is structured and the scheming and all the stuff we are doing, it’s really exciting to see where we are going to go.”
LeSean McCoy says that he has forgiven Riley Cooper. But that doesn’t mean his relationship with the receiver hasn’t been altered.
“I don’t think you say things like that and think that everything will be the same,” said McCoy. “He is looked at differently. Not only just him but anybody.
“Something like that happens, it’s like, ‘Are you the same person? Is it because the cameras were off?’ There’s not a point where I’m pissed off at the person where I’ll just say something racial. It’s more anger at the person. It’s never the individual race. It is what it is. It’s football, we are here to play ball and we’re definitely going to try to move past him. But reality is reality.”
LeSean McCoy has a simple goal for the 2013 season.
“I want to be more dominant,” said McCoy on Thursday upon arriving at camp. “The last few years I’ve had good years but I also have to be dominant, especially in this offense with the ability to run the ball more, where I can kind of take over a game. There have been flashes of it in the past but I have the ability to do it day in and day out, game in and game out. I think it’s a different story. Chip has shown that he runs the ball tons.
“Kind of getting back to that old stage where I’m used to taking over a game. I think with all the talent and the supporting cast around me, that should be easy.”
Maybe not easy, but the ingredients are there.