LeSean McCoy: ‘I’ve got to put the offense on my back’

When LeSean McCoy watches tape of the Bears, he sees holes. Big holes. He sees missed tackles and long runs. He sees the potential for big yards.

“A lot of guys are gashing them,” McCoy said Wednesday.

And McCoy, limited to a ridiculous eight carries Sunday in Minnesota, has a message for Chip Kelly:

“I feel like this game I’ve got to put the offense on my back,” he said. “I want to roll.”

Despite just 38 yards on eight carries against the Vikings on Sunday, McCoy still leads the NFL with 1,343 rushing yards -- 122 more than Adrian Peterson.

Safe to say he’d like to add more than eight carries and more than 38 yards Sunday night, when the Eagles face the Bears at the Linc.

“I want to get going,” McCoy said. “Me and the guys up front, we’ve got to set the tone. The big guys up front and myself, we need to put this game on our back and take care of business and get a win.”

If the Redskins beat the Cowboys earlier in the day, a win over the Bears would give the Eagles the NFC East title and a playoff berth.

And considering the Bears are allowing 152 yards per game and 5.2 yards per carry -- both by far the worst in the NFL -- it would seem a generous helping of McCoy would make sense.

“This is a big game for us,” McCoy said. “Very big. The Cowboys, they’ll do, will do what they’ve got to do, but we’ve got to win this game.”

McCoy’s eight carries Sunday in the Eagles’ 48-30 loss to the Vikings were his fewest since the 2010 opener.

For the sake of comparison, Matt Asiata of the Vikings, who entered the game with three career carries, got 30.

McCoy has always said the deeper he goes in a game and the more carries he gets, the stronger he gets.

And the numbers support him.

So far this year, he’s averaging 4.5 yards on his first 10 carries and 5.7 from his 11th carry on.

That’s why you keep giving him the ball. Even down a touchdown or two.

In the Lions game, the Eagles trailed 14-0 with six minutes left in the third quarter, but head coach Chip Kelly kept feeding McCoy the ball, and he responded with two long touchdowns and 145 yards in the fourth quarter alone.

And the Eagles won.

“It’s definitely a rhythm thing,” McCoy said. “Touching the ball so much, you might run a play two, three, four times, so you get the rhythm, how they play it.

“The first time, they might get you, stop you, then you run it the second and third time, you feel the weakness, where I can go, right side, left side, just the small things.

“Then you keep pounding it, pounding it. Maybe a guy 1-on-1, maybe he might tackle me, but in the back of my mind, I’m thinking, ‘The next time or maybe the next time, I know he can’t tackle me.’

“Just pushing along. Keep going. And kind of imposing your will on him from the first quarter, second quarter, all the way to the fourth quarter.

“It’s like once you get that rhythm and you’re confident and you know the guys up front are making room and holes, it’s easier to run.”

And it’s easier to run against a defense allowing 5.2 yards per carry, which is fourth-worst by an NFL team since 1960.

“Just a matter of getting out of line and the wrong angles, missed tackles and things like that,” McCoy said. “It starts to add up. If you watch on tape, a lot of guys are gashing them, so I think running the ball will definitely be big this game.”

McCoy is two weeks from becoming the first Eagle to win an NFL rushing title since Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren in 1949, but it’s unusual to hear him talk about putting the offense on his back, things like that.

But this week is different. It’s crunch time. It’s a playoff push, the Eagles’ first since 2010.

Potentially, there’s a tremendous amount on the line.

“It’s a big game,” McCoy said. “I feel like the matchup is there. I feel like our offensive linemen against their defensive fronts and the 1-on-1 matchups with our backs and their guys, their linebackers and safeties, I feel like we win that matchup.

“And it’s just, I don’t know, just determination. We put ourselves in a hole by losing last week and this week we come out and we have to win. That’s my attitude and my approach.

“I feel like the guys we have up front this whole year have been excellent. It’s no surprise the type of year I’m having because those guys are busting their butt each week making holes and opportunities for me to make guys miss.

“It’s a challenge for me and the guys up front to get it done.”

-- Reuben Frank, CSNPhilly.com