• April 19, 2024

Eagles Want To Win 1st, But They Also Want The Rushing Title For LeSean McCoy

LeSean McCoy continues his amazing break out season by lighting up the scoreboard and embarrassing opposing defenses. He had his sixth 100 yard rushing performance on Sunday against the New York Jets and got into the endzone three times.

By adding three touchdowns on Sunday, McCoy gained an even bigger lead on top of the touchdown scoring list. With 20 touchdowns, McCoy is four ahead of the next closest, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. The closest running back on that list? Marshawn Lynch who has 12 total touchdowns. With an average of 1.4 touchdowns per game, McCoy averages almost a half of a touchdown more per game than any other player in the league.

With two games to go and 20 touchdowns, McCoy already has the most touchdowns in a season since DeAngelo Williams scored 20 in 2008. If he can add three more in the remaining two games, he will have the most by any player since LaDainian Tomlinson’s 31 touchdown season in 2006.

Shady trails the NFL’s leading rusher, Maurice Jones-Drew by 60 yards. With Tennessee (91.9 rush ypg allowed) and Indianapolis (138.7 ypg) as Jones-Drew’s remaining opponents, he will look to pad his lead. McCoy and the Eagles have to face the Cowboys (98.1 ypg) and the Redskins (112 ypg).

Luckily, both of these players have faced those defenses once already this season. Against the Redskins and Cowboys, McCoy ran for 311 yards, a 155.5 yard average. Against the Titans and Colts, Jones-Drew ran for just 211 yards, a 105.5 yard average. If the results are anything similar, McCoy has a serious chance of passing Maurice Jones-Drew for the rushing title. Shady and Pocket Hercules are the only two NFL backs with over 1,200 yards so other backs are a long shot to win the title with only two games remaining.

The last Philadelphia Eagles running back to win a rushing title was Steve Van Buren who won four, three of which were in consecutive seasons from 1947-1949. McCoy is also 238 yards short of the Eagles record for rushing yards in a season. In 1979, Wilbert Montgomery ran for 1,512 yards which was good for fourth in the league at the time. Surely the Eagles running back will look to continue his record-breaking season. He has his offensive line in front of him as well who is looking to help him finish off his impressive season.

“Having him win the [rushing] title and getting him those yards would be big because it would translate to a win for us,’’ said left guard Evan Mathis.

Said center Jason Kelce of the title, “We want LeSean to get it, but not at the sacrifice of the season. I’m all for him getting as much notoriety and publicity as he can because he should get it. He’s one of the best in the league.”

Brenden Peddigree

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DCar
DCar
December 22, 2011 3:19 am

Give him the damn ball!!!

bugsyhawk
bugsyhawk
December 22, 2011 8:23 am

Seems like these 2 things have a lot to do with each other. When McCoy bets the ball a lot the Birds win, so seems that we should be able to have both.

paulman
paulman
December 22, 2011 8:53 am

Eag;es have to win regardless of any individual players performance,stats or Pro-Bowl Status.. With the way that McCoy ran against the Cowboys in Game 1, I would expect Cowboys DC Ryan to bring Safeties up in the box and attempt to take McCoy out of the game, He will have his DE’s play a little wider (to try to limit McCoy’s cut back runs) and probably have his LB play 1-2 YArds deeper to give them better angles and try to Keep McCoy from hitting that 2nd level with open spaces..
This may be a game where the Eagles should go deep early and often to take advantage of their outside Speed over the Cowboys CB and shaky Safety play and try to get a jump on them earlt to soften them up and then once the Cowboys start backing off and play 2 deep like in the 1st game, then pound the round with McCoy… Watch for how the Cowboys line up their Safeties early in this game, If up, attack over the top, if they are 15-20 yards back, then pound the ball.. should be an interesting chess match between DC Ryan and OC MM ..

schiller
schiller
December 22, 2011 10:17 am

Bugsy, you’d think that but he didn’t get a lot of carries last week, and still had 3 Tds…

schiller
schiller
December 22, 2011 10:17 am

Bugsy, you’d think that but he didn’t get a lot of carries last week, and still had 3 Tds…

bugsyhawk
bugsyhawk
December 22, 2011 10:39 am

Well, when you have over 100 yards on 18 carries… plus there was extended garbage time in that game.

Stevo
Stevo
December 22, 2011 4:37 pm

We r taking what we’re givin. Last game the patties gave us EVERYTHING under neath because they were afraid our WR’s would destroy them. What will they give us this time around? The eagles have to be smart and get the ball out quick. Look for them to spread this team out because dallas has a great front 7 that like to smash you if you keep things in tight. Go birds, smash those patties regardless of playoffs or not.