SB Nation The FanHouse^® Leagues

I’ve neglected to mention this week that Brian Westbrook has yet to practice this week. Several injuries, including some swelling in his ankle have left him listed as questionable for this weekend.

It’s hard to figure out how to take this for Eagles fans. It’s not at all uncommmon to see Brian Westbrook miss most if not all practices during a week and then not only play on the weekend but play well. So as usual it’s wait and see with Brian.

Whether Westbrook is entirely healthy or not, most fans would like to see Correll have a bigger role in the offense than he has so far this year. Buckhalter touched the ball just twice in last Sunday’s tie with the Bengals and one of those touches was a short pass that went for 44 yards. Buck had a 20 yard run against the Giants, a 27 yard catch against the Falcons, 178 total yards against the 49ers in his only start of the year, a 25 yard run and 20 yard catch against the Bears, 20 yard catch against the Steelers… The list goes on.

Point is that Buck has made plays in the precious few times he’s touched the ball this year. Finally, it appears Andy Reid is realizing that he needs to find ways to get the ball into the hands of #28 more than he has.

“Correll will have an opportunity to play,” Reid said. “We probably could have played him more last week and probably should have. That’s my responsibility. And he’ll get a few more opportunities this week.”

“He’s a good football player,” Reid said. “I think we all know that. Every time he has had an opportunity to start, he has had big days. Any time he gets in there, he has positive yards. That’s the majority of the time, not every time; but normally, he has positive yards.

“And as good a football player as he is, he’s an even better person. He understands his role on this football team and works his tail off and has overcome a lot of things.”

I’m sure many of us rolled our eyes hearing Andy say he’s going to increase the workload for his RBs… but Buck has faith.

And although he’s been told he will see more action tomorrow, Buckhalter was asked whether he would have to see it to believe it. “Not really, man,” he replied. “That’s his word. He said I’m going to play more, so that’s his word. What more can I go off of?”

Reuben Frank has some stats Terrell Owens owners may know all too well…

Reuben Frank gathered some numbers that suggest our favorite soon to be 35 year old WR may be slowing down.

After his latest disaster – two catches for 31 yards in St. Louis Sunday in the Cowboys’ 34-14 loss to the Rams – Owens has now gone 11 consecutive games without a 100-yard performance. And in most of them, he hasn’t been close. He’s been held under 50 yards in seven of those 11 games, including performances with 49, 48, 37, 36, 31, 21 and 17 yards.

Since Week 14 last year, T.O. has fewer yards than such household names as Greg Camarillo, Bobby Wade and Anthony Gonzalez and fewer catches than such superstars as Kevin Walter, Lance Moore and Tony Scheffler.

Heck, during that span T.O. hasn’t even been the best guy in the league with his name. Owen Daniels of the Texans has three more catches than T.O. since late last year.

That’s only a few of Reuben’s stats… He’s got quite a bit more that seem like evidence of Owens decline. He also suggests that maybe the Cowboys themselves have seen it.

Maybe this is just a little blip for Owens. Maybe he’s about to heat up. But he turns 35 in six weeks. He’s been held without a catch of 20 yards or more in four of his last five games. And the Cowboys are so concerned about T.O. that they went out at the trade deadline and acquired Roy Williams and gave a guy with one career 1,000-yard season $54 million over six years.

Williams has three 100-yard performances in his last 18 games. He should fit right in.

Great honor for one of the true surprises of this year, well done Juqua.

As is typical with the Eagles bye week, local writers usually take this time to pen more player focused stories. Some of it’s just fluff, but some of it ends up being fairly interesting.

First up, we start off with our favorite writer (and many blogs favorite writer) /sarcasm Ashley Fox who had Jim Johnsons’ thoughts on Stewart Bradley so far this year.

“He’s a smart kid, and he’s just seeing things well,” Johnson said. “Every game he seems more comfortable. I think we’ll see more production out of him as the year goes by.

“I think he’s solid right now, handling the defense, getting guys lined up, making the checks, tackling well. He’s around the football. That’s all you can ask, but I think he can be more productive.”

Everybody is feeling good about Correll Buckhalter these days after his great performance in San Francisco, and Buck talked about the humble beginnings that brought him to where he is today.

“My mom passed away when I was 3 years old, ” Buckhalter said during a recent meeting in South Jersey. “My sister was only 3 months old and there was my older brother, my father and my grandparents, who lived a couple houses away. I had so many chores that I had to do daily. I was a country boy and my grandpop had a pig farm. Me and my older brother and cousins had to clean and fix the pens, put up fences. We had to do something every day.

“But you know what, all the chores and the hard work that we had to do molded me into the person I am right now.”

It’s pretty amazing to see Buck still performing at a high level after all he’s been through. It would be tough for any athlete to come back from all those knee injuries, but for an NFL running back? It’s almost unheard of.

Minutes ago Andy Reid announced at his day after press conference that Brian Westbrook has fractured ribs. I’ll update as soon as more info about what this will mean comes available.

This weekend the Eagles host that Pennsylvania team with all those rings… The Steelers will be playing their first regular season game at Lincoln Financial Field and will be seeking their first road win against the Eagles in their last 7 tries. Surprisingly, the Eagles hold a significant head to head historical advantage(46-27-3) against their more successful cross state pals.

Bad Matchup for the Birds?

On offense, it’s no secret what Pittsburgh will try to do… They’ll try to establish the run early and often leaning heavily on their big offensive line and Willie Parker. The good news is that the Eagles have been very stout against the run not just last year but so far this year as well. In the first two weeks the Eagles D has held pro bowlers Steven Jackson and Marion Barber to 40 and 63 yards rushing respectively.

However… one area where the Eagles defense has been particularly week is one that the Steelers happen to be very strong in. Tight End. Why the struggles? Quintin Mikell seems to think it’s because they’ve faced so many good TEs.

“When you look at our schedule, it seems like every week we’re facing a great tight end, and he’s another one,” Eagles safety Quintin Mikell said. “I’m pretty sure they’re going to try to work him in there, seeing what happened last week, and we’ve got to be ready for that.”

Miller is not as big a name as Jason Witten, but he certainly isn’t flying under Brian Dawkins’ radar

“It’s real important that we take care of that, because Heath Miller is one of the best tight ends in the league,” Brian Dawkins said. “I think because the Steelers run the ball so much and they throw it down the field, too, that people don’t realize how good he is. But when he gets his chances, he makes some big plays.”

The Eagles linebacking corps, who looked so good against the Rams, struggled against the Cowboys especially in coverage. Chris Gocong is using that as motivation for this week.

Any time you have a game in which you lose like that or give up 41 points, you’re always looking forward to a little redemption,” Gocong said. “I think we’ll be playing with a chip on our shoulders. It’s just pride. We play to win, but we’re playing to dominate.”

Stewart Bradley thinks the Eagles linebackers are a good match for the Steelers will try to do on offense.

“You see different philosophies and you have to adjust,” Bradley said. “Pittsburgh’s mentality is to run the ball. Well, one of our main focuses last week was to stop the run, and we did a pretty good job of that. It’s one of our big goals this week, too. We’ll try to get our hands on them early.”

Injuries/Offensive Line woes

As for the Eagles offense, part of the news this week will be who can play and who can’t. Pro Bowler Shawn Andrews has been listed as questionable after leaving Monday Night’s game with back spasms. Although he is reportedly improving, Reuben Frank thinks he unlikely to play this weekend. Starting in his place would be Max Jean Gilles. Elsewhere along the offensive line, center Jamal Jackson missed practice twice this week for what the team is calling “personal reasons.”  He is expected to play on Sunday.

Good news on the injury front is that WR Reggie Brown says he’s “ready to go”, but with Desean Jackson putting up big numbers at Reggie’s position in his absence what kind of role will Reggie have?

“I don’t know,” Brown said. “My role is to go out there and make plays whenever plays are needed. It’s like a jack-in-the-box. Crank it up and see what comes out.”

The general thought is that Reggie should end up starting opposite Jackson in the role normally filled by Kevin Curtis.

This is a game of two very contrasting offensive philsophies. The Eagles are heavy pass first and the Steelers are heavy run first. Just to underscore the point, Ben Roethlisberger has thrown 36 passes in two games this year…. Donovan McNabb threw 37 passes last week.

By the way, doesn’t it kind of look like Big Ben and Donovan are about to smooch in the pic I posted at the top? Odd shot there…

Reggie Brown has practiced this week but only in a limited capacity and remains questionable for Monday night. Good news for Desean Jackson owners in fantasy football, such our pal Nick Pampani in the BGN Fantasy league…

For the Cowboys, WR Sam Hurd is out and Miles Austin has yet to complete a full practice this week.

Injury report: Eagles

Out
DE Victor Abiamiri (wrist)
WR Kevin Curtis (hernia)

Questionable
WR Reggie Brown (hamstring)

Probable
S Sean Considine (hand)
DT Dan Klecko (hand)

Injury report: Cowboys

Out
WR Sam Hurd (ankle)
G Kyle Kosier (foot)

Questionable
WR Miles Austin (knee)
CB Terence Newman (groin)
LB Anthony Spencer (knee)

Probable
RB Marion Barber (rib)
WR Isaiah Stanback (shoulder)

Reggie Brown missed Sunday’s opener with a bad hamstring and it’s unclear whether he’ll play this Monday night against Dallas.

Wide receiver Reggie Brown practiced Thursday, but said he was limited in reps and he isn’t sure of his status for Monday night’s game against Dallas.

Brown has practiced sparingly and hasn’t played in a game since injuring his hamstring during the Eagles’ second preseason game against Carolina.

“I don’t want to have to go out there and tweak it again,” Brown said. “So just take your time and get back when you’re 100 percent so you can go out there and be effective. And that’s what we’re doing right now.”

Head coach Andy Reid said that Brown is “questionable” at his press conference Thursday. Reid is being cautious with Brown because he doesn’t want Brown to have a setback.

“We are just going to see how he does and start him off slow,” Reid said. “He went through the walk-through this morning and did that. We’ll see how he does. We don’t want any setbacks, that’s the primary thing.”

If you own Reggie, keep an eye on his sta