Eagles' McCoy being compared to Sanders

WHEN IT started, it was once a game. LeSean McCoy would stop in full stride, shift his body a foot or 2, then resume full speed as if someone hit the play button on their Tivo.

"Barry Sanders," an announcer would say, and the usual disclaimers would follow.

Too young. Too soon. You're talking about one of the greatest running backs of all time, ranked first by NFL.com as the most elusive ever.

But man, Shady McCoy sure does remind you of . . .

Especially on a night like Sunday, when a big chunk of the 185 yards he gained against the Cowboys came off improvisation, off his very, very Barry-like ability to make the first man miss. On a night when, by unofficial count, "Barry" was uttered at least four times. And on a night when the immediate disclaimers were not nearly as fervent.

"I don't think anybody should be compared to Barry Sanders at this stage," Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said yesterday. "Barry was pretty unique and LeSean is still kind of making a name for himself. And so that's way too early."

OK, OK, we'll leave out the name and just stick with descriptions. "It doesn't matter where the play is blocked," Sports Illustrated once wrote about Sanders. "He'll find his own soft spot . . . The scheme doesn't matter with Sanders. He can run from any alignment. While other people are stuck with joints, he seems to have ball bearings in his legs that give him a mechanical advantage . . . Sanders' finest runs often occur when he takes the handoff and, with a couple of moves, turns the line of scrimmage into a broken field . . . Nobody has ever created such turmoil at the point of attack as Sanders has . . . Knock on wood, he seems indestructible . . . "

Hmm. Sure sounds like that 11-yard run Shady busted outside in Sunday's 34-7 victory over Dallas, the one on which Cowboys nose tackle Jay Ratliff seemed to freeze in place inches from McCoy, the one on which Sean Lee seemed in slow motion as he tried to keep McCoy from gaining the edge.

That's not the way the play was designed, of course, a trait of McCoy's - and that other guy's - that has irked coaches in the past. Clearly though, he is receiving more latitude in that area as more and more of his improvisations turn into the kind of downfield sprints that punctuated the victory over Dallas, and the previous victory over the Washington Redskins as well.