AFTER SPENDING 12 seasons in charge of the security detail that protected the Colts’ Peyton Manning, Howard Mudd was coaxed out of retirement by Andy Reid a couple of weeks ago to help keep Michael Vick in one piece. Aside from the fact that they both can hum the ball, Manning and Vick are about as different as two quarterbacks can be. One is the prototypical pocket passer. The other is, well, uh, not the prototypical pocket passer. In the 12 years Mudd spent as the Colts’ offensive line coach, his unit gave up a league-best 227 sacks in 6,746 pass attempts, which comes out to one sack every 29.7 pass attempts. Six times in those 12 years, the Colts finished either first or tied for first
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Eagles’ new offensive line coach Mudd will keep Vick protected
For more than a decade, Howard Mudd’s job was protecting Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, the cerebral quarterback with a talent for reading defenses but whose mobility is largely limited to his pre-snap arm waving. Now Mudd, the Eagles’ new offensive line coach, is charged with drawing up ways to keep defenders off Michael Vick, whose unparalleled running ability creates unpredictable situations for offenses and defenses alike. Mudd said this Pro Bowl quarterback, though, will get the same kind of protection as the last one. On every play, he explained, there is a spot where the quarterback is expected to throw from. Mudd will focus on making that one place a sanctuary. “We’re going to
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Eagles offensive line coach Mudd has proven track record
The Dallas Cowboys have not quit. After losing seven of their first eight games, the Cowboys will not be going to the playoffs. Their season is essentially over, but they are not playing like it. Want proof? It was scattered all over the turf inside Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday – effort and execution and turnovers and big plays and poise, all of the things you need to win in the National Football League. For the third time since offensive coordinator Jason Garrett replaced Wade Phillips as coach, the Cowboys won, beating the Indianapolis Colts, 38-35, in overtime. They are 3-1 post-Wade, and 4-8 overall with four games to go. The Cowboys will face the Eagles twice in the next four weeks,
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Resurgent Cowboys await Eagles after beating Colts in overtime
THEY BEAT Peyton Manning, so it couldn’t have been that bad. They’re 5-3, so it can’t be an epidemic. They seem unfairly targeted as a cheap-shot team, so all of the penalties must be bogus. Right? Wrong. Yes, the Eagles’ defense held the Colts to 24 points in the Birds’ two-point win Sunday, but 21 of those 24 points came as a direct result of sloppy fouls. The sandwich shot from safeties Quintin Mikell and Kurt Coleman that knocked out Colts receiver Austin Collie hurt the Eagles’ cause, sure. It wasn’t the worst penalty of the drive. A few minutes earlier, on third-and-10 at the Colts’ 20, cornerback Dimitri Patterson was flagged for illegal contact, which gave the Colts an automatic
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Eagles can’t escape sloppy penalties
MOST OF THE questions Kurt Coleman fielded yesterday on a conference call with reporters had to do with his hit on Colts receiver Austin Collie, which was no longer such a big deal by the end of the day. Collie seems on his way to recovery from a concussion, and late yesterday afternoon the NFL announced that Coleman will not be fined. The news of more long-term import involving Coleman yesterday was coach Andy Reid’s assertion that rookie starting free safety Nate Allen “looks like he’s going to struggle to make it for this week,” when the Birds travel to Washington. That means rookie Coleman, who said he played “hands down by far the most time I’ve had” Sunday after Allen suffered a neck
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Eagles’ Coleman escapes fine on Collie hit
Five years after he entered the NFL through the back door as an undrafted free agent, Eagles cornerback Dimitri Patterson finally got his first starting opportunity yesterday. The fact that it came against a guy who, just a couple of days earlier, was voted the eighth greatest player in the history of the NFL didn’t faze him in the least. “I was excited about that,” said Patterson after the Eagles’ impressive 26-24 win over Peyton Manning and the Colts. “I was excited to show [what I could do].” Patterson knew there was going to be a big red target on his back yesterday afternoon. He knew Manning was going to go after him, and he was right. The Colts’ top wide receiver, Pro Bowler Reggie
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Cornerback Patterson impressive in first start
Things got off to a fast start late Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field. Unfortunately for the Indianapolis Colts, they were headed the wrong direction. Down 10-0 fewer than four minutes after kickoff, the injury-wracked Colts made a gallant comeback but fell 26-24 to the Philadelphia Eagles on a crisp November evening before a sellout crowd of 69,144. It was too much Michael Vick, too many Philadelphia big plays and too flat a second half for the Colts. Vick, the Eagles’ cat-quick quarterback, passed for 218 yards and one touchdown and ran for 74 yards and another. “One thing we wanted to do was try to make certain that we could limit the big plays,” Colts coach Jim Caldwell said.
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Vick, Eagles snap Colts’ 3-game win streak
This game of giants changes remarkably when one of its littlest threats takes the field. DeSean Jackson yesterday returned from a concussion and, with a special helmet hopefully designed to lessen the risk of further head trauma, Jackson provided the answers to every question the Colts’ defense offered. He caught a 9-yard touchdown pass less than 2 minutes into the game. He burned the Colts for a 58-yard reception 10 minutes into the quarter that set up a field goal. He took a pair of end-around handoffs 11 yards, then 6 yards, to help milk 69 seconds off the clock near the end of the Eagles’ 26-24 win. “He’s able to do so many things other players can’t do,” said quarterback Michael Vick,
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A little dynamite (DeSean) ignites the Eagles
ON THE EAGLES’ sideline, Michael Vick was mulling how “any time [Peyton Manning] is out on the field, you think he’s going to score a touchdown.” That’s certainly how it has seemed, whenever the Eagles have played the Indianapolis Colts, but that wasn’t how it was yesterday. While Vick and the rest of Eagles nation fretted, trying to will those pesky final seconds off the clock, Asante Samuel told safety Quintin Mikell to line up in Samuel’s corner spot for what turned out to be the Colts’ final snap. Samuel wanted to play centerfield, on third-and-10 from the Colts’ 41, with 18 seconds remaining. Manning was pressured and lofted a pass that might as well have been thrown to Samuel, the
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Eagles defense handles Peyton challenge in win over Colts
Andy Reid isn’t bitter — even though he’s 0-3 against the Colts. Even though he’s never come close to beating them. Even though Peyton Manning has carved up his defense all three times. The Eagles coach said Friday he’s studied all three games but hasn’t let the lopsided outcomes influence his confidence that he can overcome the Curse of Peyton Manning. “Listen, we’re all competitive guys. When we go into these games we go in — and I’ll tell you all games — we go in wanting to win the game and do everything possible that we can,” Reid said. “I’ve got a different team, as they do with the exception of Peyton.” The Colts have beaten Reid’s teams in a variety of ways. Manning was the star
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Reid would like to finally beat Colts
The Eagles finally get a chance Sunday to cleanse the bitter taste of their loss to Tennessee, but it won’t be easy. Not with one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history coming to Philadelphia, one still throwing with sports-car precision, even with many spare parts around him. Peyton Manning, who led the Colts to victory Monday night against Houston, comes to Philadelphia on a short work week while the Eagles are rested from a bye, and will have the dynamic Michael Vick back at quarterback. “A lot of things are going to make it tough for us this week,” Manning said. When we last saw the Eagles, though, they were giving up 276 yards passing to Kerry Collins, who, while technically in
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Eagles brace for Peyton Manning
Finally, a free-agent visit. The Eagles apparently see Marlin Jackson as a free safety, and there seems to be a pretty good chance that Jackson will be signed by the time he is scheduled to meet with reporters today at 11 a.m. at NovaCare. (Though at least one report indicates a pending visit with the Jets.) Yes, he’s the Colts cornerback with the anterior cruciate ligament injuries each of the past two seasons, the left in 2009 and the right in 2008. He is the guy who intercepted Tom Brady to seal the Colts’ trip to the Super Bowl following the 2006 season. No, he isn’t Michael Jackson’s brother. That’s Marlon. What else do we know? Well, Jackson was a Jason Avant teammate at Michigan, …
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Former Colts safety Marlin Jackson visits Eagles
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