Eagles’ Vick, McCoy will test Bears’ defense

It’s safe to say that the Eagles’ offense will have the undivided attention of the Bears’ defense tonight in Philadelphia.

Philly’s 34-7 wipeout of the Cowboys last Sunday night guaranteed that. It served as the exclamation point for an offense that is No. 1 in the NFL in total yards, rushing yards and average gain per run.

“I watched some of it,” Bears nickel back D.J. Moore said. “It was touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. I fell asleep, but then I woke up, and it was more touchdowns.”

The Eagles piled up 495 total yards, including 269 on the ground against a Cowboys defense that came in ranked No. 1 in rushing yards, No. 4 in average gain per rush, and No. 6 in total yards allowed. At 3-4, it’s possible the Eagles have the most misleading record in the NFL, but the Bears aren’t fooled by the sub-.500 mark. They’ll go into Philadelphia as 8-point underdogs.

“We’re playing a good football team,” coach Lovie Smith said. “(We) know what their record says, but we’re preparing for that team that dominated a good Dallas team.”

Part of what makes the Eagles so difficult to defend is figuring out what aspect of their offense to focus on.

The run-pass threat of Michael Vick is unparalleled in the NFL — at least until Cam Newton plays a few more games. Vick averages 8.3 yards per carry, more than anyone in the NFL with 20 or more attempts. And he’s 10th in the league with a 90.0 passer rating, a bit of a dip from last year’s career-best 100.2.

Then there’s LeSean “Shady” McCoy, second in the NFL with 754 rushing yards, a 5.6-yard average and 8 touchdowns, better numbers than the Bears’ Matt Forte.

So who do you key on if you’re a defender?

“If we can stop both of them, we win,” said Bears wide receiver Roy Williams, who saw the Eagles’ offense twice a year the past two seasons when he was a Cowboy. “But they’re too talented to try and stop both of them. You want Vick to make the mistakes or McCoy to fumble that ball.”

The Eagles are tied for 28th in turnover-takeaway ratio with a minus-7, while the Bears are tied for seventh at plus-4.

There seems to be a misconception that the Bears have handled Vick over the years, maybe because he had a miserable game against them in frigid Soldier Field on Dec. 18, 2005, when he was a Falcon. In 12-degree weather with a wind chill of zero, Vick completed 13 of 32 passes for 122 yards and a 25.8 passer rating in a 16-3 loss.

But last year he completed 29 of 44 passes for 333 yards with 2 TDs, 1 interception and a 94.2 passer rating in a 31-26 loss at Soldier Field. The Bears sacked him four times, but he ran nine times for 44 yards.

“It’s tough when you have a quarterback that fast,” Moore said. “Once he breaks the pocket, instead of getting a couple yards and running out of bounds, he can take it all the way.”

Bears coaches and players agree that a threat like Vick leads to a heightened awareness by everyone on the field.

“He definitely increases the focus,” Lance Briggs said. “If he scrambles, you need to know where he is because his scramble can be a 50-yard touchdown. And he’s (also) got a cannon. Every time we’ve played him, he makes some great throws.”

For years, the Eagles have been a pass-first team, and Vick has excellent targets in DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Jason Avant. But with McCoy’s emergence as an impact player, the Eagles have taken to the ground more frequently. In the past two games, both victories, McCoy has toted the rock 58 times for 311 yards.

“The guy can cut on a dime,” Bears defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said. “Sometimes he’ll just weave his way back and find a hole and explode through it. He’s like a punt returner back there. He’s so quick, and he can reverse his field. It really stresses our discipline. We’ve got to have our gap control, and if somebody makes a mistake, it’s our speed and our effort and our hustle that (hopefully) makes up for a lot of stuff.”

The 5-foot-11, 208-pound McCoy can also be dangerous as a receiver. He has 23 receptions this year, but he caught 78 passes last season.

“He’s got quick feet,” Briggs said. “He gets to the hole fast, gets through that hole fast and gets to the second level. For a smaller, faster guy, he puts his head down (and runs hard).”

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