McCoy's performance carries Eagles

HOUSTON - LeSean McCoy notched his second 100-yard rushing performance in three games yesterday and yawned.

Yawned as in no big deal, folks. Just another day at the office of the defending NFL rushing champion.

"It's weird," he said after rushing for 117 yards on 23 carries in the Eagles' 31-21 win over the Houston Texans. "Every time I get 100 yards, [people act like] it's a big deal. But I'm used to just doing it."

It was the 21st 100-yard game of McCoy's career. Had seven of them last year on the way to his rushing crown.

But this year has been different. This year has been a struggle. With his offensive line already having missed 14 games because of injuries and a PED suspension, and with opposing defenses stacking the box and daring the Eagles to beat them through the air, the yards often have been hard to come by for McCoy.

He had just 192 rushing yards and averaged 2.7 yards per carry in the Eagles' first four games. Had just 22 yards on 19 carries against Washington. Had just 17 yards on 10 carries in a loss to the 49ers.

"They load up that box," McCoy said. "Sometimes we'll be in three-wide receiver and they'll stay in their base front. But I guess they have to. Because the first thing you want to do when you play this offense is take the run away."

The Texans tried to do that yesterday. For a while, it worked. They held McCoy and the Eagles' other two running backs, Darren Sproles and Chris Polk, to 61 yards on 14 carries in the first half.

But the Eagles slowly but surely wore them down with their tempo offense, running 43 rapid-fire plays in the first half and a total of 79 for the game a week after running 88 plays in their four-point loss to Arizona.

The Eagles finished with 190 rushing yards on a season-high 40 carries. They had 124 yards on 23 carries in the second half, including 70 on a tide-turning four-play touchdown drive late in the third quarter that gave the Eagles a 24-14 lead.

Polk had 50 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. Sproles added 17 yards on three carries.

"They were wearing down with their hands on their hips," All-Pro left tackle Jason Peters said. "We just kept going and we wore them down in the fourth quarter."

"They just got tired," McCoy said. "We wore them down. That [Houston] defense is a good defense. They have some special players. We just played smashmouth and ran at them and kept going with it."

The Eagles got their invaluable center, Jason Kelce, back yesterday. He had missed the last four games after needing surgery to repair a sports hernia. All-Pro left guard Evan Mathis, who has been out since Week 1 with an MCL sprain in his knee, will be back next Monday for the Carolina game.

But right guard Todd Herremans, who already was playing with a torn bicep in his left arm, left yesterday's game with yet another injury. His status for next week is uncertain.

"Todd hurt his ankle," coach Chip Kelly said. "I think it's the ankle on the same side as the [bicep]. So he's kind of a one armed, one-legged man."

That's the best you're going to get from a coach who claimed not to have a clue as to the nature of possible season-ending injuries to starting quarterback Nick Foles and linebacker DeMeco Ryans.

Backup Andrew Gardner stepped in for Herremans late in the third quarter and played very well. It was right after Gardner went into the game that the Eagles' run game exploded.

McCoy dashed around left end for a 14-yard gain. Followed that up with a 26-yard run to the left side. Then Polk had back-to-back 8-yard runs, including one right up the middle behind great blocks by Kelce and left guard Matt Tobin for his fourth career rushing touchdown.

"They just cleared that thing out," Polk said of his touchdown run. "It parted like the Red Sea. I just hit it. I didn't want to get stopped."

Said Kelce of the TD run: "It was a good situation to run that play. We got great blocks on the back side that set it up. The nose guard on my side really tried to jump the count. When he jumped it, I just tried to wash it to make the read easier for the running back. He ended up hitting it vertically right away."

Last season, the Eagles had the sixth highest run percentage in the league, running the ball on 47.4 percent of their plays. In their first seven games this season, it was quite a bit different. The Eagles' run percentage dropped to 38.5.

In last week's loss to the Cardinals, the Eagles threw the ball a season-high 62 times and ran it just 26 times.

Kelly said he will do whatever it takes to win. But clearly, his offense is at its best when it is running the ball effectively. The run game will be even more important going forward with Mark Sanchez replacing Foles at quarterback.

The Eagles' two most impressive drives yesterday were that four-play, 70-yard touchdown drive late in the third quarter, and then another run-driven 15-play, 80-yard drive in the fourth quarter that ate 8 minutes off the clock and was capped off by Sanchez's 8-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin that gave the Eagles a 10-point lead with 3:50 left.

"It was huge," Kelly said of the Eagles' marathon drive. "We've talked about it. When you're a good football team, you've got to be a good 4-minute football team. I thought we did a great job of not only taking a lot of time off the clock, but coming away with a touchdown to make it a two-score game."

Kelly opted to go for it on fourth-and-1 at the Arizona 4. Polk bulled his way for a 1-yard gain that survived a Houston challenge of the spot.

"I really didn't want to settle for a field goal in that situation," Kelly said. "Because then it would've been just six points. If we could extend it to 10, it was big.

"That whole drive kind of told you about how we're coming together a little bit offensively. I think it bodes well for the future."

The Texans had held their previous three opponents to 205 rushing yards and 2.8 yards per carry. Held the Colts to 93 yards on 35 carries and the Steelers to 76 yards on 25 carries.

"The coaches did a good job of getting a bead on what they were trying to do," Kelce said. "We adjusted at halftime. Coming out for the second half, we felt we had a really solid idea of what we were going to get to with our running game."

And that was?

"I don't really want to get into the specifics," he said. "But it enabled us to get into some really, really good plays. We were getting into some good plays in the first half. But the second half, I thought we ran a lot of good plays that were conducive to what they were trying to do defensively."

The Eagles were helped by referee John Parry and his crew, who spotted the ball quickly and allowed the Eagles to run plays at a machine-gun pace.

"The tempo helped us out a lot today," McCoy said. "Some of the times they weren't lined up. They were just getting down.

"You got guys 350 pounds, it's hard to just put your hand down and move laterally. That's one of the things we do best. Play with tempo."