At the time, even without Simon, who held out of training camp, they
were five deep at tackle with veterans Hollis Thomas, Darwin Walker and
Paul Grasmanis, up-and-coming third-year player Sam Rayburn and rookie
first-round pick Mike Patterson.
But Walker, the team's starting right tackle, has missed the last
three games with a thigh injury and Grasmanis suffered a season-ending
Achilles' tendon injury two weeks ago against Kansas City.
With just three healthy DTs, the Eagles were compelled to sign rookie
seventh-round pick Keyonta Marshall off their practice squad last week
so they'd have enough bodies to throw out there against the Dallas Cowboys.
While that group did a decent job against the run in their surprising
33-10 loss, it was unable to get any inside push on Cowboys quarterback
Drew Bledsoe.
Walker is expected to return after the bye week for the Eagles' next
game, against the San Diego Chargers, and that should help the pass rush
a little. But Simon was the Eagles' best interior pass rusher and the
only one of the tackles who drew double-teams from the opposition.
With Simon gone and right end N.D. Kalu a non-factor in the Eagles'
first five games, opposing teams have been able to focus more attention
on left end Jevon Kearse. Kearse has just one sack in five games and was
in on just one tackle Sunday against the Cowboys.
PLAYER NOTES
--QB Mike McMahon, the club's No. 3 quarterback, will have
exploratory arthroscopic surgery on his knee this week, which probably
will force the Eagles to sign another quarterback.
--QB Donovan McNabb is looking forward to resting his sports hernia
during the bye week, though it still is going to eventually need surgery
to fix. He is hoping to put that off until the end of the season.
--RB Brian Westbrook has had just 24 touches in the last two games.
He averaged just 3.4 yards per touch in those two games after averaging
more than 8 per touch in the Eagles' first three games.
--FB Josh Parry's playing time has been severely reduced as the
pass-oriented Eagles seldom use a two-back set.
--WR Terrell Owens had just one catch longer than 10 yards in
Sunday's loss to the Cowboys. Owens was frequently covered by Cowboys
cornerback Anthony Henry, who did a good job on him.
--WR Reggie Brown, the Eagles' rookie second-round pick, has just two
catches in the past three games. Brown is the third wideout, behind
Terrell Owens and Greg Lewis. He's getting a lot of playing time as the
Eagles use a lot of three-wide receiver sets. He's just not getting many
balls thrown in his direction.
--TE L.J. Smith had an MRI on his ankle and it doesn't appear to be
anything serious. The Eagles are confident he'll be able to play in
their next game after the bye against the Chargers.
--DT Darwin Walker is expected to play in the Eagles' next game
against San Diego after missing the last three games with a thigh
injury.
--DE Jevon Kearse continues to have a quiet season. He's got just one
sack in five games and had just one tackle Sunday against the Cowboys.
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