Bennie Logan 'week-to-week' with 'significant' groin strain
Defensive tackle Bennie Logan suffered a "significant" left groin strain Sunday in the Eagles' 27-20 loss to the Washington Redskins and is "week-to-week," coach Doug Pederson said Monday.
In Pederson's time with the Eagles, the players who've been declared week-to-week have missed several games with injuries. So Logan's status appears in doubt for this weekend's game against the Minnesota Vikings. Beau Allen, who replaced Logan on Sunday, would be in line to start.
Logan, 26, was a third-round pick in 2013 who has started every game he has played for the Eagles since entering the lineup midway through his rookie year. In five games this season, he already has matched a career high with two sacks and has forced a fumble. Logan will become a free agent at the end of the season.
Elsewhere on the injury front, cornerback Ron Brooks suffered a left calf contusion that Pederson termed "significant," adding that it's a "deep bruise." Brooks is considered day-to-day and will not practice Wednesday.
Neither will center Jason Kelce, who has plantar fasciitis. Pederson expects Kelce to play Sunday against the Vikings, but Stefen Wisniewski will take first-team snaps at center on Wednesday.
Cornerback Leodis McKelvin, who missed Sunday's game with a hamstring injury, will return to practice this week. Pederson also expects wide receiver Jordan Matthews (knee), safety Rodney McLeod (shoulder), and defensive end Bryan Braman (shoulder) to practice Wednesday.
Bradford's return
The Vikings are the NFL's last undefeated team, and they've won four of their five games with former Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford behind center. Bradford's return to Lincoln financial Field will be a major story line this week, and the questions about Bradford already started on Monday. Pederson said he's not surprised by the performance of Bradford, who has completed 70.4 percent of his passes and thrown six touchdowns with no interceptions this season.
"You are seeing a lot of the same concepts offensively with them that we did here," Pederson said. "He's a sharp kid, a smart kid. He's a very accurate thrower. So I'm not surprised. … He didn't go to a 1-15 team. He went to a playoff-caliber team with a tremendous defense, so that helps as well."
Why call time?
With the Eagles down seven points on Sunday, Carson Wentz was sacked on third down right after the two-minute warning to force a fourth-and-24 situation from the Eagles' 40-yard line. Pederson elected to punt the ball, but he used his first timeout before the punt.
He called the timeout instead of rushing his punting unit onto the field and preserving all three timeouts, and Pederson said the timeout was a calculated decision.
"You end up doing the math on the whole thing, you're going to end up in the same spot whether you take the timeout or you don't," Pederson said. "So at that point I elected to take the timeout, save the time knowing we were going to have to punt [and] hoping to get a stop on third down. They were going to run the time there, but we still would get the ball back with just under 50 seconds in the game with an opportunity to still go tie it."
