not much national mentioning of this one but erasmas james(def. end) minn. vikings, knee acl. this hurts-- he's 2nd yr. and starting to make a inpact on vikes front 4. yet the team is was said have extra dept. at that position during the preseason. not much in the way of def. stats for him, but he was constantly getting qb. pressures.
I think Steve Smith's injury CLEARLY takes this award. I said the Panthers were overrated before the season, and that was assuming Steve Smith was healthy. Now, that offense looks terrible. In my opinion, benching DeShaun "never had 900 yards in a season" Foster and letting the rook DeAngelo Williams take over could jumpstart the offense with or without Smith.
My EAGLES did lose Kearse, but they still have a 7-man rotation on that DL. I'm hoping Jerome McDougle will be able to step up for them.
Anyway, with regards to Carolina, in addition to Steve Smith being out, this team also has another problem....their inability to stop the run on D. Over the past 2 weeks, this team has been literally getting POUNDED by the ground game (Atlanta ran for 262 against them, and Minnesota had success against them on the ground as well). The good news is that this Sunday, they will be facing a team whose offense in 2 games, has scored a whopping 3 points! So hopefully they'll be able to turn it around this week.
My EAGLES did lose Kearse, but they still have a 7-man rotation on that DL. I'm hoping Jerome McDougle will be able to step up for them.
Anyway, with regards to Carolina, in addition to Steve Smith being out, this team also has another problem....their inability to stop the run on D. Over the past 2 weeks, this team has been literally getting POUNDED by the ground game (Atlanta ran for 262 against them, and Minnesota had success against them on the ground as well). The good news is that this Sunday, they will be facing a team whose offense in 2 games, has scored a whopping 3 points! So hopefully they'll be able to turn it around this week.
It's more than seven. It was eight until Kearse went down, and they kept ten on the roster altogether. MacDougle CAN step up. Aside from Darren Howard, Trent Cole and Juqua Thomas look pretty nasty. It's no coincidence that these last two no names started to get sacks after the Birds got serious about their interior. Patterson is coming into his own, and Bunkley already looks like he's figuring it out. So does LaJuan Ramsay. Darwin Walker is as steady as ever. In that context, The Freak was like...a luxury item. So I'm not worried too much about the line. We'll miss The Freak, but this isn't going to ruin our season.
More potentially disastrous is the loss of Lito Shepard and then Rod Hood at halftime of the Giants game. Sheldon Brown looks really vulnerable with a third stringer on the other side of the field, and a depleted backfield really limits Johnson's schemes....
as far as the scope of the entire season, not taking into acount how much it hurts the individual player, and understanding a teams overall potential with and without injuries... i agree that shepherd and hood being out kills the eagles... a double injury at a single position in week 2 is no bueno... how many third stringers are already playing full games in this league... not many. and with a lot more football left, god forbid something else happens to that secondary... this is an area of the field the eagles didnt worry too much about, with pretty good reason... but the injury bug can strike anyone at anytime...
