Eagles Notes - Bunkley is bummed & Harbaugh faces his mentor

Marcus Hayes wrote a really great article about Broderick Bunkley and what effect losing has on him. After the game against the Bengals where the defense was dominant and got 8 sacks Bunkley sat at his locker, with his head in his hands distraught over the the fact that he didn't play better. This is in a game where the opponent rushed for less than 60 yards and the QB sacked 8 times. After the Giants game, Bunk was inconsolable.

"One sack? I'm very disappointed," Bunkley said after the Eagles left Eli Manning virtually clean in the Eagles' Nov. 8 loss to the Giants.

Bunkley paused as he cut off the tape that held the gauze from the IVs he took in the third quarter to stave off further cramping and dehydration, a speed bump from which he returned. Blood had soaked through the gauze under the tape.

"I've waited for this game since February. To get to Eli," he said. "And I didn't."

That pretty much nobody else did, either, supplied him little solace.

"These guys are like my family," Bunkley said, "and when I don't play as well as I think I should, I feel like I let down my family."

It's great to hear that some guys take losing as tough as us fans do.

Raven's coach John Harbaugh spent 10 years here in Philadelphia most of which was as coach of the special teams. He was asked if facing his old boss and mentor will be special for him.

"I know you say, 'Well, that's what he's going to say.' Now, competitively, you're going against your brothers. It means something. It's exciting. There's a little bit of something at stake, and it'll be fun before the game. But when the game starts, it's going to be our players playing against their players, and whoever plays the best is going to win. It wouldn't be much of a showdown between me and Coach Reid out there. I think I'd be able to cover him, and he'd probably be able to block me. That'd be my guess."

Harbaugh says it will be awkard to face the Eagles and Reid.

"It's an awkward situation," Harbaugh said. "I'm still an Eagles fan. On any other Sunday, I want them to win. My wife and I root for them.

"The other side of the coin, though, is you want to make a good showing, a good impression. You want to go out and do well and show him that he taught you well. I want to win. But not just because it's the Eagles. Because we're trying to make the playoffs."