Steelers Matchup

First things first, Omar Gaither will be fine.  On the list of concerns heading into the season, he's maybe #15, somewhere after the issue of whether William James can stay healthy and nail down the nickel CB situation for good.

1 - As for the rest of the defense, I'm curious to see whether or not Jim Johnson will start his line rotation in tonight's third preseason game.  We don't know how Bunk will hold up with a heavy workload, but we already know that his three first-team linemates all need to be spelled for maximum effectiveness over the course of the season.  I want to know what happens when Kearse, Patterson, Bunk and Cole come out and JT, Reagor, ??? and Howard come in.  Will there be a drop-off?  Or can the backups hold their own against another team's starters?  Bring on the backups in series three, I say.

2 - Will Gocong make plays?  We know now that he can figure out the right place to stand and run with his assigned receiver, can he now start making some plays?

3 - Will Nick Cole grab the "starting" right guard spot tonight?  Scott Young and Max Jean-Gilles started in place of the injured Shawn Andrews in the first two games.  Clearly neither one did enough to lock down the job as top backup.  Tonight, Cole gets his turn.  Given the weirdness around Andrews' situation, this competition might actually matter this year. 

4 - As for the rest of the line, I'm starting to get just a little bit worried that maybe the improvement we saw at the end of last year was related more to Garcia's quick release and the general awesomeness of Brian Westbrook than it was to the front five.  Tonight should be a decent test for those guys, particularly because both teams are treating this as more of a "dress rehearsal" for the regular season by doing some actual game-planning.

5 - Will Tony Hunt get more than just a couple of goal line cups of coffee tonight with the first string?  This is more a personal thing, since regular readers know how much I like the guy, but I think the Eagles really need to have a 4th-quarter sledgehammer they can use to salt away games without putting McNabb or Westbrook at risk of injury.  Those two-yard power runs are nice, but we need to see if Tony can also get 4.5 when he needs to.