Embattled Eagles bully Bills to snap skid
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Right tackle Lane Johnson isn’t sure what the Eagles proved except to silence their critics for one week after their running game and defense trampled the Bills.
“What are we, 4-4? It looks like we’re average,” Johnson said, injecting a profanity into his comment for emphasis. “We needed a damn win. That’s really what it all boiled down to. It felt good to get one.”
Having spent the last week listening to how awful and soft they were after a 37-10 loss at Dallas, the Eagles responded by snapping a two-game skid with a 31-13 win on the road against a Bills team that dropped to 5-2.
Rookie Miles Sanders scored on a 65-yard run, one of Philadelphia’s three rushing touchdowns, on a wet and windy afternoon in which the Eagles finished with 218 rushing yards.
Linebacker Brandon Graham keyed a stifling defensive effort by forcing and recovering a fumble and had one of Philadelphia’s four sacks.
“It was a lot of stuff that tried to distract us from this game this week; there was a lot of things we were still trying to answer for,” Graham said, referring to former cornerback Orlando Scandrick questioning the team’s leadership after being released Monday.
“Everybody knows our stuff, whatever it is, so let’s go out and change the way people view us. Now we’ve got a clean slate.”
The Eagles took control by scoring touchdowns 83 seconds apart spanning halftime to build a 17-7 lead.
Graham’s forced fumble of quarterback Josh Allen at Buffalo’s 24 led to Carson Wentz hitting Dallas Goedert for a five-yard score with 25 seconds left in the second quarter.
On the second snap from scrimmage in the third quarter, Sanders followed Jordan Howard’s block of linebacker Matt Milano in bursting up the left sideline. The secondround draft pick celebrated his touchdown by leaping into a group of Eagles fans in the northeast corner of the end zone’s stands.
After Devin Singletary scored on a 28yard catch on Buffalo’s next possession, the Eagles responded with Wentz overseeing a six-play, 68-yard touchdown drive capped by Boston Scott’s four-yard touchdown run.
“I think it’s just a step in the right direction for those guys to step up and kind of take ownership,” coach Doug Pederson said. “Listen, being a leader is not about being perfect, and everybody makes mistakes. But they owned it. They stepped up and really led today.”
The rushing total, led by Howard’s 96 yards, was the most since Pederson took over in 2016 — and most since finishing with 256 in a 33-10 win over the Cowboys on Nov. 27, 2014.