Eldra Buckley

Do the Eagles have a quarterback controversy?   Before Kevin Kolb left the game with a concussion in the second quarter, he was awful. Completed just five of 10 passes for 24 yards and should've had two or three interceptions. His decision-making was poor. Mike Vick brought the Eagles back, mostly with his legs.   Finding a fullback.   Leonard Weaver looks like he's out for the year with a torn left ACL. Little Eldra Buckley replaced him in the few two-back sets the Eagles ran yesterday, but he isn't the long-term answer.

Some things to think about this week as the Eagles await the Detroit Lions: Omar Gaither could not be the starting middle linebacker last season. If Stewart Bradley's concussion is serious, will Gaither step up his game this season? Can he? If DeSean Jackson returns punts and Ellis Hobbs returns kicks, why dress Jorrick Calvin? The rookie saw some action on special teams, but he gave the Eagles a whopping six active cornerbacks. Will Mike Kafka's solid training camp give him a leg up as the backup QB if Kevin Kolb is sidelined for a period of time, or will Andy Reid look for a veteran replacement?

The Eagles showed their interest in keeping running back Jerome Harrison by tendering him at a second-round level yesterday. Harrison, a fifth-round pick out of Washington State, was acquired by the Eagles in a trade with Cleveland for Mike Bell during the season. He ran for 239 yards and a touchdown on 40 carries in eight games. He also had eight receptions for 43 yards. The Eagles also tendered punter Sav Rocca to give them the right of first refusal should he receive another offer.

Yesterday's win was only the Eagles' third in 11 games over an AFC South opponent during the Andy Reid era. The Eagles are 25-19-1 against AFC teams since Reid took over in 1999. The Eagles are 2-1 for the third year in a row and the fifth time in the last 6 years. Yesterday marked just the fourth time in his career that Mike Vick has thrown for three or more touchdowns in a game. Through three games, the Eagles have turned the ball over just once. That was a lost fumble by running back Eldra Buckley against the Packers in Week 1. Vick finished with a 119.2 passer rating against the Jaguars.

RUSHING OFFENSE: LeSean McCoy and Leonard Weaver combined for 120 yards on 23 carries. Weaver picked up a big first down on a fourth-and-1 on the Eagles' first touchdown drive and set up Eldra Buckley's game-tying TD with a 12-yard run. Grade: B-plus PASSING OFFENSE: With his team trailing by eight, Donovan McNabb engineered a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives, completing five of six passes for 116 yards, including back-to-back 46- and 21-yard...

Yes, there was still a game. And the first-team Eagles showed plenty of rust. As news of Michael Vick's signing swirled, myriad penalties plus shaky special teams gave the New England Patriots a 15-point lead at halftime, one the reserves would not relinquish. The Patriots defeated the Eagles, 27-25, in the preseason opener for both teams last night at Lincoln Financial Field. Eagles kicker David Akers made four field goals, but he missed a 43-yard attempt with 57 seconds left that could have won the game.

  40 Rushing yards for Eagles backup running back Eldra Buckley. Even if newcomer Jerome Harrison turns out to be a solid alternative to starter LeSean McCoy, it was nice to see Buckley chip in some yards against a pretty good Falcons defense. Buckley got 12 carries and averaged 3.3 yards, including a 13-yard rumble up the middle early in the fourth quarter.   78 Penalty yards for the Eagles. Overshadowed by the victory was the fact that the Birds committed nine penalties, far more than the Falcons' two flags for 30 yards.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Stewart Bradley marked the one-year anniversary of his knee injury by practically pummeling running back Eldra Buckley back into last August. "Eventually, you get tired of hitting your own guys because you're buddies," Bradley said. "But they're the only targets out there, so you got to hit somebody. Right?" The Eagles middle linebacker tagged Buckley twice during the morning "live" hitting portion of practice. The first pop came when a twisting Buckley, trying to get extra yards, left himself unprotected and Bradley squared him up with a big hit. The second collision, however, jolted the first-team defense and had to be the best wood-laying of training camp.

  BETHLEHEM - The morning session was hot, hot, hot. We don't have those fancy National Weather Service stats here, but our gauge, which measures the extent to which the polo shirt sticks to our back, indicates that this was the warmest day of camp, the adhesion level rising up from the kidneys, through the middle of the back and well into the shoulder blades. Tempers flared a bit, as well. The catalyst, as has often been the case, was new weakside linebacker Ernie Sims, who caught running back Eldra Buckley as Buckley reached for a high Kevin Kolb screen pass.

Jerome Harrison thought a trade to the Eagles would bring a new career opportunity. The deal fell through, but it may have saved his life. Eagles doctors found a brain tumor when they examined Harrison, according to an NFL source. The outlook for his recovery and playing career are both good, though he probably won't play again this year, ESPN reported. The story brought immediate recognition of the chain of events that led to the crucial diagnosis. Had Harrison not left the Eagles as a free agent last summer; and had he not signed with Detroit, where he got few carries; and had the Lions not needed a new running back because of an injury to starter Jahvid Best; and had the Eagles' Ronnie Brown not tried an ill-advised pass Oct. 2, leading the Birds to trade him in a deal that would have brought Harrison back to Philadelphia; and had the two teams not pulled the move together just before the NFL trading deadline Tuesday, then Harrison would not have had the physical Wednesday that revealed the tumor.

ALL NIFTY, undersized running backs are not Brian Westbrook. The Eagles learned this crucial lesson in 2008, when they traded for Lorenzo Booker to help lighten Westbrook's load. Slight, shifty guy, intelligent, good hands. Miscast in Bill Parcells-era Miami offense, figured to be a better fit with Andy Reid's West Coast scheme. Worth sending a fourth-round pick to the Dolphins, right? Ah, no. Lincoln Financial Field fans quickly grasped that Booker, who lacked Westbrook's squat, muscular base, could be knocked backward by a stiff breeze off the Delaware.

HARRISBURG - For more than six hours, LeSean McCoy worked the clock from the sidelines. The Eagles running back, back in his hometown to host his second annual community day, kept time for many of the basketball games during the "Shady's Shootout" portion of events on Saturday. McCoy, like some of his teammates, has passed the time during the NFL lockout by training in other locales. He has spent much of the offseason in Miami, but said he would join quarterback Michael Vick and other Eagles if informal workouts get off the ground next week.

The Eagles showed their interest in keeping running back Jerome Harrison by tendering him at a second-round level yesterday. Harrison, a fifth-round pick out of Washington State, was acquired by the Eagles in a trade with Cleveland for Mike Bell during the season. He ran for 239 yards and a touchdown on 40 carries in eight games. He also had eight receptions for 43 yards. The Eagles also tendered punter Sav Rocca to give them the right of first refusal should he receive another offer.

Asante Samuel did not practice Thursday for the second straight day, and with each day that the Eagles cornerback sits out with a knee sprain, the harder it will be for him to play in Sunday's game in Chicago. "I'm working every day to get better, so we'll see how it goes," Samuel said after practice. Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott said that Samuel was "day to day," although coach Andy Reid won't give the cornerback's official status for the game until Friday.

Cornerback Ellis Hobbs is out for the season with a neck injury, his agent said Monday, meaning the Eagles will be without their starting kick returner and some veteran depth in the secondary. The neck injury, Hobbs' second in two years, raises questions about his future in the NFL. The cornerback is "just thankful to be walking," his agent Kevin Omell wrote in an e-mail. "He's doing fine," Omell said in an interview. "He's just going to take the next few days to rest and figure out what his future may be. " Omell said the sixth-year cornerback will go on the injured reserve.

This was not the sort of homecoming Matt Ryan had envisioned. "Frustrating loss," said the third-year Atlanta Falcons quarterback, who played his high school football at Penn Charter, after the Eagles had put a 31-17 drubbing on Ryan's team. "Obviously, we didn't play as well as we would have liked to. " The Falcons entered with a 4-1 record, tied with Chicago for best in the NFC. Halloween came early yesterday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field. Unfortunately for the Falcons, it was the Eagles who got the treats.

  40 Rushing yards for Eagles backup running back Eldra Buckley. Even if newcomer Jerome Harrison turns out to be a solid alternative to starter LeSean McCoy, it was nice to see Buckley chip in some yards against a pretty good Falcons defense. Buckley got 12 carries and averaged 3.3 yards, including a 13-yard rumble up the middle early in the fourth quarter.   78 Penalty yards for the Eagles. Overshadowed by the victory was the fact that the Birds committed nine penalties, far more than the Falcons' two flags for 30 yards.

Aside from other obvious clues, one sign that Kevin Kolb will start at quarterback on Sunday is that he told a reporter Thursday he was flying his parents, Roy and Lanell, from Texas for the Eagles' home game against the Atlanta Falcons. A few weeks earlier, Kolb grounded his parents' flight to Philadelphia for the Washington game because, as he so aptly put it, "I'd been benched. " But with Michael Vick's ribs still not 100 percent, the Kolbs will witness their son's first start at Lincoln Financial Field since he was knocked out of the opener, Eagles coach Andy Reid confirmed Friday.

Jerome Harrison thought he had a bright future in Cleveland after rushing for 561 yards in the Browns' final three games last season. He thought wrong. The Browns were so impressed by Harrison's prolific late-season production that they went out and traded for one running back - Peyton Hillis - and drafted another - Montario Hardesty. They were so impressed that, on Wednesday, they traded the 5-9, 205-pound running back to the Eagles for Mike Bell. "I'm happy to be here," said Harrison, just before going out for his first practice with his new team.