Eagles Notebook: Knee could sideline Eagles' Kelce

JASON KELCE'S luxuriant beard, grown to mimic the Berserker warriors of Norse legend, did not grant him invincibility in battle, it turned out.

In the third quarter, a tackler missed LeSean McCoy and slammed into Kelce's right knee, the second-year center far downfield blocking, as usual. Kelce suffered a knee sprain that will get an MRI Monday, Eagles coach Andy Reid said. Kelce was in a brace, on crutches, in the postgame locker room. It would be an upset if the MRI doesn't reveal serious damage.

This is a huge loss to a line that is already without left tackle Jason Peters, who tore an Achilles' in March. Last season, Peters was the Birds' best offensive lineman and Kelce was a rookie sensation.

The Eagles also lost left tackle King Dunlap in the third quarter to a hamstring injury. And after the game, the Eagles confirmed, right tackle Todd Herremans was involved in a car accident, although he was not injured, they said.

Herremans later said: "I'm fine. No biggie."

Meanwhile, Kelce said: "Right when I was putting my right foot down and planting, they were going headfirst into my knee. It didn't feel good. Immediately, you knew it wasn't good. I didn't hear anything pop. That doesn't necessarily mean anything. I think it all happened so fast, even if something did pop, I wouldn't have heard it anyway."

Kelce said he wasn't able to talk to replacement Dallas Reynolds until after the game.

"I told him, 'You did good for the position you were put in,' " Kelce said. "Anybody that has to make [blocking calls] that gets limited reps in practice, that's tough."

Right guard Danny Watkins said the tough part was knowing tendencies, "everyone working fluently together."

Eagles safety and special teams ace Colt Anderson played Sunday for the first time since tearing his ACL last Dec. 1 at Seattle. Anderson was among the first to go to Kelce after the center was helped off the field.

"I just told him to keep his head up. As bad as it seems now, things are going to get better and time's going to fly by," Anderson said afterward. "It was definitely tough" to see in Anderson's first game back, he said. "He's a tough guy. He'll bounce back."

At the Eagles' Saturday-night defensive meeting, coordinator Juan Castillo had each player give a little talk about a Ravens opponent.

"I talked about [tight end Dennis] Pitta," safety Nate Allen said. "We knew they were going to come at us, try to use their tight ends a lot. I think we played pretty well against them."

The Ravens targeted running back Ray Rice or one of their tight ends on 29 of their 42 passes.

Wideout Jeremy Maclin played with the hip-pointer and hip-flexor injuries he suffered in Week 1. Maclin was mainly a decoy until Michael Vick, flushed from the pocket and rolling left, made a tremendous throw to him for a 23-yard touchdown, Maclin just inbounds at the Ravens' sideline on the first drive of the third quarter. Right after that, Maclin reinjured the hip blocking for LeSean McCoy and had to leave the game.

"It's along the lines of the same injury; it's a little different. I don't feel very good right now," Maclin said afterward. "I'm going to try to do everything I can to get out there" next Sunday at Arizona (2-0). "If I can't do the things I normally do, I can't be out there."

The Eagles said Brent Celek's 157 receiving yards (eight catches) were the most yards by an Eagles tight end since Pete Retzlaff's 204 on Nov. 14, 1965 . . . With DeSean Jackson catching seven passes for 114 yards, the Eagles had a pair of 100-yard receivers for the first time since the same guys did it in Kansas City back on Sept. 20, 2009 . . . Safety David Sims played in his first NFL game . . . The Ravens lost safety Bernard Pollard, who nabbed an early interception, to a rib contusion in the second quarter . . . Former Eagles safety Sean Considine stumbled going through the hole and failed to pick up a first down on a fake punt.