We really are missing Dawkins/ Do we need Matt McCoy?

Oh yes, you heard right...

When I've talked about the injuries the Eagles have had this year, the one I always say hasn't hurt has been the loss of Brian Dawkins. Mostly thanks to the fact that Quintin Mikell has played well and not really made mistakes. However, while the defense has been solid, its still lacked the ability to make plays. Get picks, strip the ball, get the big sack... Stuff that changes games.

That's what Dawkins does.

As a team, the Eagles have 5 INTs this year(bottom half of the league) and just 4 forced fumbles(3rd fewest in the league).

Last year, Dawkins had 4 picks and 5 forced fumbles himself. He also had 14 pass defenses. Contrast that with Mikell this year who has no picks or FFs and has only knocked away one pass. I'm not saying that Mikell is playing bad, he's just not making plays. He's really a microcosm of the defense as a whole. They've been solid and played well... but they haven't changed games.

The linebacking corps is maybe the worst offender in this category. Certainly they haven't been bad,  and to man they're probably an upgrade over last year's corps... but they have combined this year so far for 1 INT(Gaither), 0 sacks, and 0 forced fumbles. Bottom line that's not going to cut it. You have to make plays to win in the NFL, and Jim Johnson knows this. If you listen to any one of his press conferences you'll hear him say that guys have to make more plays. He's specifically called out his LB corps a few times in basically the same way I just did. He thinks they've done good things, but he's told them they need to make more plays.

So as we look for playmakers, you wanna hear something a bit shocking? I talked about this guy a bit last year and I know that Andrew has brought him up this year... Maybe Matt McCoy should be playing more.

He only started for about half of last year, if I remember correctly he got benched after the Jacksonville game in week 8. Still, he managed almost 70 tackles, 3 forced fumbles, and 2 sacks. That's more flat out production than any starting LB this year. Now, I'm not saying the guy should start. There was a reason he got benched. He'd occasionally be out of position, he tended to get dragged by RBs, and he had real difficulty getting off blocks. Takeo Spikes and Chris Gocong have played much more physical this year than McCoy did last year, but I do wonder why he seemingly never gets a chance to get in the game? In a limited role, McCoy could potentially bring some much needed playmaking ability to this defense.

Am I crazy?