Eagles Notes: Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie agrees that Eagles don't want to hit

Eagles cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie has heard the reputation the Eagles defense has around the NFL. It's not flattering.

"Everybody looks at us as a pretty defense," Rodgers-Cromartie said. "They're just big guys with big talent that don't really want to hit nobody."

The comments come after two games in which opponents scored a combined 58 points against the Eagles, with tackling a clear issue.

Rodgers-Cromartie said opposing players tell him, "You guys are talented, but you all don't want to hit nobody."

Asked whether that reputation is fair, Rodgers-Cromartie said, "When I look at film, it's fair."

The solution is to become more physical, he said. Because of the Eagles' reputation, opposing offenses are running toward Rodgers-Cromartie's side and "throwing dink-and-dunk stuff" in the direction of the other cornerback, Nnamdi Asomugha. Rodgers-Cromartie added that the Eagles are seeing more passes to the flat and screen passes because they play the wide-nine defensive front.

Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles said that the Eagles don't see dump-offs more than other teams do. But Rodgers-Cromartie said that they do occur more against the Eagles and that offenses will continue running the plays until the Eagles stop them.

"It's working. Why not?" Rodgers-Cromartie said. "That's one thing about this league. Until you fix it, it's always going to show itself."

Bowles said that the Eagles are not bad tacklers, but that they do have issues with fundamentals that must be corrected in practice. He does not believe the ninth game of the season is too late to fix the problems.

"I don't think it's bad tackling," Bowles said. "There are players who are going to miss tackles that are good tacklers, but there are some good players who just aren't good tacklers. You can fix that with fundamentals, you can fix that with attitude. Attitude is the main thing."

The Eagles defense has not improved the way coach Andy Reid had hoped since he fired Juan Castillo during the bye week and promoted Bowles. Bowles did not entertain the perception that the defense has become worse, but he understands that it is not playing well.

"There are plays each game that we're not finishing, either in the first quarter or not finishing in the fourth quarter," Bowles said. "And we can't have the same mistakes creep up every week. We've got to rectify that."

In 20 red-zone plays in Monday's loss to New Orleans, the Eagles had negative-20 yards. They ran only three running plays, which yielded negative yards. Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg agreed that, in hindsight, he should have called more running plays in the red zone. He mentioned three passing plays in a goal-to-go situation after the Eagles forced a turnover in the third quarter.

"I just wanted to be aggressive and certainly could have run the ball there," Mornhinweg said.

Running back LeSean McCoy missed practice for the second consecutive day with an illness, but Reid said McCoy would practice Friday. . . . Reid said that he wasn't likely to list guard Danny Watkins (ankle) as out for Sunday's game and that Watkins would be a game-time decision. Watkins missed practice Thursday. . . . Running back Chris Polk has a toe injury and will be out Sunday. He was seen walking in the locker room with crutches. . . . Trainer Rick Burkholder said no surgery was planned now for injured tackle Todd Herremans. He might need surgery in four weeks, but it's still not likely.