The Wednesday practice reports are drifting in, and one guy not practicing is Eagles rookie Miles Sanders. He left last week with a shoulder injury, so he's iffy to face the Bears on Sunday. That could put Jordan Howard in line for a heavier than usual workload against his former team.
The Eagles also have Boston Scott, who scored last week after Sanders left, but Howard would be the main back. He's primarily a runner, but actually saw 2 targets in the passing game last week, catching a 15-yard pass.
But the main reason to use him would be as the main ballcarrier running hard against the team he began his career with, and that gave him away in the offseason.
The Bears were very tough on the run a year ago; No. 1 in run defense, in fact. And they started out similarly this year. None of their first four opponents did much of anything against them.
| RUNNING BACKS VERSUS CHICAGO, WKS 1-4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Att | Yds | TD |
| Jones, G.B. | 13 | 39 | 0 |
| Lindsay/Freeman, Den. | 24 | 90 | 0 |
| Peterson, Wash. | 12 | 37 | 0 |
| Cook, Minn. | 14 | 35 | 1 |
Since that time, though, opponents have had some success on the ground. Not the Chargers, but they're not running it against anyone (though they did get in the end zone, at least. And both Oakland and New Orleans had a lot of success against the Bears on the ground.
| RUNNING BACKS VERSUS CHICAGO, WKS 5-8 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Att | Yds | TD |
| Jacobs, Oak. | 26 | 123 | 2 |
| Murray, N.O. | 27 | 119 | 2 |
| Gordon, LAC | 8 | 31 | 1 |
I don't have Howard on any teams; you may recall my trashing him back in the summer as some nobody who couldn't play. But if I had him, I'd at least be thinking about starting him against his former team this week.
--Andy Richardson