Kearse’d: Injuries to shoot down Eagles again?

By Os Davis  |   Wednesday, September 20, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Philadelphia Eagles
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When Jevon "The Freak" Kearse went down to injury in the 30-24 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday, he wasn't alone in his wincing. It may have hurt him more than it hurt Philadelphia Eagles fans, but only barely.

Kearse joined the wounded piling up on the Philadelphia sideline - tight end L.J. Smith, guard Shawn Andrews, cornerback Rod Hood and, most horrifying of all, Brian Westbrook - in an all-too-familiar sight in Eagle land. DB Lito Sheppard was there, too, still nursing a sprained ankle earned in the Houston Texans' game which has him listed as "questionable" for this week.

Except for Kearse's devastating textbook injury ("textbook" in that the reportage sounds like an anatomy textbook; Kearse suffered sprains to the medial collateral ligament, the lateral collateral ligament and the posterior cruciate ligament), none of the other wounded Eagles should be out for long. As of today, though, the official report has only been released on Westbrook, who is listed as "probable" for the San Francisco game.

The Terrell Owens flap aside, the 2005 Philadelphia Eagles were eliminated by dint of a long list of injuries which included names like Donovan McNabb, Jerome McDougle (who was injured again in the preseason and has not returned to the active lineup, two-plus weeks after his full recovery was expected), Todd Pinkston, Correll Buckhalter and Westbrook. With one hit (or hernia) after another, the Eagles slowly lost their NFC champion title by the most painful way possible.

If the Philly feathered faithful felt a bit injured themselves late in the Giants game, you can hardly blame them. Another game like that, and Lincoln Financial Field might be the first facility to feature an in-house counselor for post-traumatic stress disorder.

While the possibility of losing Westbrook was scary enough with the Eagles' running game looking the liveliest it's been in five years, the loss of Kearse is a serious body blow.

Kearse has been underwhelming for Philadelphia in two seasons-plus after making a name for himself with the Tennessee Titans and subsequently taking $66 million from Eagle brass. The Freak was meek in the silver-and-green, totaling just 7 ½ sacks each for 2004 and 2005; his average in four full seasons with the Titans was just under 12. Kearse had totaled 2 ½ sacks on Sunday, helping his D beat up on Eli Manning eight times before going down in the overtime period. With five years remaining on the 30-year-old's huge contract, one can't help but speculate whether he'll back in Philadelphia next season at all.

After Week 1 (and even three quarters of Week 2), it looked like the Eagles had it all figured out, nary missing a beat from their four-year championship run. Not all the talent in the world, however, can overcome a ward's worth of injuries.

And that's a painful realization for fans of a fragile squad.

Keep watching the Philadelphia Eagles (if you dare) on RealFootball365.com.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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