PHILADELPHIA - LeSean McCoys left toe turned an ordinary preseason game into one worth watching. When the NFLs reigning rushing champion missed a practice because of a minor toe injury, it raised some anxiety among Eagles fans and fantasy football owners everywhere. But McCoy is expected to play when Philadelphia (0-2) hosts the Pittsburgh Steelers (1-1) on Thursday night. "In this league, you have to learn how to play through pain if you can," McCoy said. "And if you can, you have to go out there and work hard." Coach Chip Kelly downplayed McCoys toe injury which forced him to watch practice Sunday. "Hes fine. Its not as big an issue as I think anybodys made it out to be," Kelly said. McCoy set a franchise record with 1,607 yards rushing in 2013. The two-time All-Pro has his sights set on a 2,000-yard season this year. It wont be easy if his toe slows him down. "My track record, I dont miss a lot of games, I dont miss a lot of practices," McCoy said. So, there will be plenty of eyes focused on McCoy to see how much he plays and how well he plays against the Steelers. The third preseason game is the closest to a real one because starters usually play into the third quarter and then sit out the final game to be ready for the opener. Both teams are looking for improvement after so-so performances the first two weeks. Nick Foles and the rest of Philadelphias offence havent been too sharp. Penalties, turnovers and various mistakes cost them in losses at Chicago and New England. But this will be the first game starting wide receivers Jeremy Maclin and Riley Cooper play together. The first-team defence is a bigger concern because it struggled both games. Theyve allowed three touchdowns on six drives in two games. "This is an evaluation phase. Sometimes evaluation looks painful, but sometimes it looks promising," defensive co-ordinator Billy Davis said. "Sometimes those growing pains that youre looking at hurt, you dont want them to happen, but they happen. The goal is that every day were punching through and we continually move forward with getting better in both growing assignments and techniques of the young guys and the backups and some of the older guys that are new to the scheme." The Steelers are eager to test themselves against Philadelphias up-tempo offence and face a 3-4 defence. Ben Roethlisberger and the offence will get to try their no-huddle approach on the road. On defence, rookie linebacker Ryan Shazier looks to build off his dazzling debut against the Bills. "Were excited about it, particularly some of the challenges that the Philadelphia Eagles present offensively with the no-huddle stuff and the up-tempo pace," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "Theyre a 3-4 defence. Weve seen some 4-3 defences. Were excited about that and theyre capable of being multiple (formations), particularly on situational downs, third downs and so forth. They give you a lot of looks. Thats an exciting opportunity for us to check our in-game readiness." Roethlisberger is working hard on perfecting the no-huddle, which is becoming a regular part of more offences around the league. He threw for a pair of touchdowns during his three series of work in a win over Buffalo last week. "This week is the last week to get it right," he said. Shazier, the 15th pick in Mays draft, had 11 tackles and one interception in one half in his first NFL game. He missed the preseason opener because of a knee injury. "One week I might have 11 tackles; one week I might have five," Shazier said. "Im just doing whatever they want me to do." ___ AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org ___ Follow Rob Maaddi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_RobMaaddiJoe Nieuwendyk Jersey . 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Custom Calgary Flames Jerseys . -- Chad Labelle scored the winner 17:36 into the third period to give Medicine Hat a 2-1 victory over the Swift Current Broncos on Sunday and lift the Tigers into the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.After a bit of a slow start at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, the United States is right up there in the overall medal standings. Seven days into the competition, the U.S. began the day with four gold, two silver and six bronze medals. They are ranked fifth and have the second largest total amount of medals (12) behind Norway. Team USA has produced medals in alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, figure skating, luge and snowboarding. The glaring omission: long track speed skating. Coming into these Games, the U.S. was third in the all-time long track speed skating standings with 67 total medals and they lead in overall gold with 29. Its been 30 years since the U.S. didnt win at least one speed skating medal at the Olympics. In Sochi, Americans Brittany Bowe and Heather Richardson were the undisputed gold medal favourites in the womens 1,000 meters. Between the two, they won every World Cup race this season but in Russia they finished seventh and eighth. Shani Davis was expected to complete his historic three-peat in the 1000m and yet he finished eighth. No American has finished better than seventh place so far. In a sport where races are decided by hundredths of a second, the talk in Sochi has been about the new Under Armour suits U.S. skaters are wearing. Developed in secrecy in corporation with Lockheed Martin, the Mach 39 as it is known even looks uncomfortable to the untrained eye.dddddddddddd A ventilation panel on the back is possibly to blame for taking in air, which hinders skaters from achieving the deep squatted stands required to deliver the ultimate stride. Then there is the U.S. training facility. 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