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By REUBEN FRANK
phillyBurbs.com
PHILADELPHIA - Corey Simon is a Colt, Paul Grasmanis is out for the year and Darwin Walker is still iffy for this weekend. What was once the Eagles' deepest position is now a huge question mark.
The Eagles find themselves thin at defensive tackle as they begin preparing for the Cowboys, but team officials believe there's a good chance that Walker will be able to play in Dallas Sunday after missing two games with a thigh contusion.
If not, the Eagles will likely promote rookie seventh-round pick Keyonta Marshall from the practice squad to the 53-man roster to replace Grasmanis, who suffered the third Achilles tear of his career Sunday.
Grasmanis played the last two games in place of Walker, who had never missed a game as an Eagle until this injury.
The injuries to Grasmanis and Walker leave Hollis Thomas, Mike Patterson and Sam Rayburn as the Eagles' only healthy defensive tackles, and it's a position where defensive coordinator Jim Johnson likes to rotate four players and keep everybody's snaps down so the Eagles can remain strong against the run late in games.
Injury report
Meanwhile, results of an MRI taken yesterday on all-pro safety Brian Dawkins came back negative, and the Eagles expect Dawkins to be able to play Sunday with his ankle heavily taped.
Dawkins missed just one play after twisting his ankle on Eddie Kennison's 23-yard run Sunday in Kansas City, the same play Grasmanis was hurt on.
Reid also said kicker David Akers was consulting a specialist yesterday to confirm the initial diagnosis that he has a torn hamstring. Either way, Akers will be out several more weeks.
The only other significant injury is Donovan McNabb's continued soreness in his lower abdominal area. McNabb said after the game he tweaked the injury during the game and was in significant pain.
"He has pain in the lower ab area," Reid said. "I'll probably be saying that every week from here on out."
Loud and proud
The Chiefs bill Arrowhead Stadium as the loudest in the NFL and they brag about having the best fans in football.
Not this weekend. It was loud for a while at Arrowhead, but by the middle of the fourth quarter - when the game was still up for grabs - at least 20,000 Chiefs fans had left. By the time the Chiefs scored in the game's final minutes and set up for a critical onside kick, there couldn't have been more than 15,000 people left.
And half of them were Eagles fans.
"They want to be like Philly fans, but they're not," defensive end Ndukwe Kalu said. "They just don't know what it means to be rowdy. They think they're loud and obnoxious, but they've got nothing on the guys in Philly."
The Eagles played the entire game on a silent count but were not cited for a single false start, so Wednesday's indoor practice with piped-in crowd noise apparently helped.
Reid noticed the hordes of Eagles fans who gave the traditional Arrowhead Sea of Red a slight green hue.
"I thought they were tremendous," Reid said. "It's always good to see a little green in the stands."
McNabb in elite company
McNabb is the first NFL quarterback with three consecutive games of 342 or more passing yards since Kurt Warner - then with the Rams - the first three weeks of the 2000 season. Warner passed for 441 yards vs. the Broncos, 386 vs. the Seahawks and 394 yards vs. the 49ers.
McNabb has thrown for 330 or more yards in nine of his last 21 games after reaching 330 or more yards in just one of his first 78 games.
With his performance Sunday, McNabb improved his career passer rating from 84.7 to 85.0 and passed Rich Gannon (84.7) and Brian Griese (84.9) to move into 12th place all-time NFL. He began the season in 16th place.
This and that
The Eagles maintained their hold on the No. 1 ranking in total offense at 432 yards per game. The Seahawks are second at 388 ... Reid on sending Todd France out for a 44-yard field goal attempt after his first career kick was blocked: "He had a good look in his eye" ... Reid said Adrien Clarke played well in place of left guard Artis Hicks, who missed much of the second half with a sprained knee ... L.J. Smith (nine catches) and Terrell Owens (11 catches) are the first Eagles with nine or more catches in the same game since Keith Jackson (9-62) and Keith Byars (9-77) against the Giants on Oct. 10, 1988 ... Owens' 506 yards are the most by a receiver after four games since former Eagle Jimmy Smith had 516 in 2000 (52 vs. Browns, 291 vs. Ravens, 41 vs. Bengals, 132 vs. Colts) ... The Eagles-Chiefs game will be featured in detail at 9 p.m. tomorrow on NFL Network Game of the Week.
E-mail: eagleswriter@yahoo.com
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/99-10042005-550230.html
phillyBurbs.com
PHILADELPHIA - Corey Simon is a Colt, Paul Grasmanis is out for the year and Darwin Walker is still iffy for this weekend. What was once the Eagles' deepest position is now a huge question mark.
The Eagles find themselves thin at defensive tackle as they begin preparing for the Cowboys, but team officials believe there's a good chance that Walker will be able to play in Dallas Sunday after missing two games with a thigh contusion.
If not, the Eagles will likely promote rookie seventh-round pick Keyonta Marshall from the practice squad to the 53-man roster to replace Grasmanis, who suffered the third Achilles tear of his career Sunday.
Grasmanis played the last two games in place of Walker, who had never missed a game as an Eagle until this injury.
The injuries to Grasmanis and Walker leave Hollis Thomas, Mike Patterson and Sam Rayburn as the Eagles' only healthy defensive tackles, and it's a position where defensive coordinator Jim Johnson likes to rotate four players and keep everybody's snaps down so the Eagles can remain strong against the run late in games.
Injury report
Meanwhile, results of an MRI taken yesterday on all-pro safety Brian Dawkins came back negative, and the Eagles expect Dawkins to be able to play Sunday with his ankle heavily taped.
Dawkins missed just one play after twisting his ankle on Eddie Kennison's 23-yard run Sunday in Kansas City, the same play Grasmanis was hurt on.
Reid also said kicker David Akers was consulting a specialist yesterday to confirm the initial diagnosis that he has a torn hamstring. Either way, Akers will be out several more weeks.
The only other significant injury is Donovan McNabb's continued soreness in his lower abdominal area. McNabb said after the game he tweaked the injury during the game and was in significant pain.
"He has pain in the lower ab area," Reid said. "I'll probably be saying that every week from here on out."
Loud and proud
The Chiefs bill Arrowhead Stadium as the loudest in the NFL and they brag about having the best fans in football.
Not this weekend. It was loud for a while at Arrowhead, but by the middle of the fourth quarter - when the game was still up for grabs - at least 20,000 Chiefs fans had left. By the time the Chiefs scored in the game's final minutes and set up for a critical onside kick, there couldn't have been more than 15,000 people left.
And half of them were Eagles fans.
"They want to be like Philly fans, but they're not," defensive end Ndukwe Kalu said. "They just don't know what it means to be rowdy. They think they're loud and obnoxious, but they've got nothing on the guys in Philly."
The Eagles played the entire game on a silent count but were not cited for a single false start, so Wednesday's indoor practice with piped-in crowd noise apparently helped.
Reid noticed the hordes of Eagles fans who gave the traditional Arrowhead Sea of Red a slight green hue.
"I thought they were tremendous," Reid said. "It's always good to see a little green in the stands."
McNabb in elite company
McNabb is the first NFL quarterback with three consecutive games of 342 or more passing yards since Kurt Warner - then with the Rams - the first three weeks of the 2000 season. Warner passed for 441 yards vs. the Broncos, 386 vs. the Seahawks and 394 yards vs. the 49ers.
McNabb has thrown for 330 or more yards in nine of his last 21 games after reaching 330 or more yards in just one of his first 78 games.
With his performance Sunday, McNabb improved his career passer rating from 84.7 to 85.0 and passed Rich Gannon (84.7) and Brian Griese (84.9) to move into 12th place all-time NFL. He began the season in 16th place.
This and that
The Eagles maintained their hold on the No. 1 ranking in total offense at 432 yards per game. The Seahawks are second at 388 ... Reid on sending Todd France out for a 44-yard field goal attempt after his first career kick was blocked: "He had a good look in his eye" ... Reid said Adrien Clarke played well in place of left guard Artis Hicks, who missed much of the second half with a sprained knee ... L.J. Smith (nine catches) and Terrell Owens (11 catches) are the first Eagles with nine or more catches in the same game since Keith Jackson (9-62) and Keith Byars (9-77) against the Giants on Oct. 10, 1988 ... Owens' 506 yards are the most by a receiver after four games since former Eagle Jimmy Smith had 516 in 2000 (52 vs. Browns, 291 vs. Ravens, 41 vs. Bengals, 132 vs. Colts) ... The Eagles-Chiefs game will be featured in detail at 9 p.m. tomorrow on NFL Network Game of the Week.
E-mail: eagleswriter@yahoo.com
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/99-10042005-550230.html
