Eagles' Beau Allen Enjoying Rookie Season Along The D-Line
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The Eagles fell to 3-1 this past weekend, losing a frustrating game on the road to San Francisco, 26-21. Next up, they will host St. Louis this Sunday at the Linc.
The defense played one of its best games of the season in the loss to the 49ers. Safety Malcolm Jenkins returned an interception for a touchdown and the pass rush sacked San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick four times and harassed him on several other occasions.
"It was definitely a physical game," Eagles rookie defensive tackle Beau Allen tells KYW Newsradio. "But as a defensive lineman, as an interior defensive lineman, I don't think I'd really want it any other way. Those are kind of the most fun games to play, when you know a team is trying to tee off on you and run the ball up the middle. That's what you want as a defensive lineman. So it was a tough game, especially up front. I thought we fought hard as a defensive line unit."
Allen was a 7th-round draft choice of the Eagles back in May out of the University of Wisconsin. He impressed over the summer and has played in all four games so far this season as a reserve on the defensive line.
"Its been good so far," Allen says. "I've kind of gotten my feet wet, I think I got 13 snaps against the 49ers and I think I've improved every game, which is really want you want. You want to keep getting better and build momentum as the season goes on as a rookie. So I think, so far, I've done that. I've got to keep building on my play and I think you've just got to take things one day at a time."
Allen is one of several young talents along that Eagles defensive line and he says it is a group he really enjoys being a part of.
"I can't say enough about those guys," Allen says. "They're just good dudes. Think that's the most simple way to put it. They've helped me a lot with my technique, (starting defenive tackle) Bennie (Logan) especially. He's not trying to keep anything secret from me, he wants me to get better as much as I want to get better. So it is great to have those kind of guys, Fletcher (Cox), too, Cedric (Thornton), Brandon Bair, Vinny Curry. We have a lot of good guys on the defensive line and we all want to help each other get better and that's how it needs to be."
On Sunday, the Eagles will host a 1-2 St. Louis Rams team that is coming off a bye week. Allen talks about what he expects in this one.
"My focus every week is on the run game," Allen says. "I think they're going to try to run the ball. They've got a lot of shifts and motions that they're going to try and do pre-snap to try and confuse us and get us kind of misaligned and stuff like that. So it is much the same as every week. We've got to be smart in our assignments and our alignments and we've got to be disciplined and ready to play and stop the run, really."
The Eagles and Rams will kick-off at 1:00pm on Sunday.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
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