Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Barner not at all (mouth) guarded about punt mistake
How loud was it last Sunday when the Eagles defeated the Falcons at Lincoln Financial Field?
Punt returner Kenjon Barner had to ditch his mouth guard because teammates couldn’t hear him bark out a “poison” call to his teammates, resulting in a huge secondquarter turnover.
The Falcons recovered the muff at the 18-yard line of the Eagles, the ball bouncing off a small pile of players going this way and that in front of Barner, who chose not to field it. A few plays later, the Falcons scored their only touchdown to grab a 10-6 lead.
“I had this mouthpiece, the pacifier mouthpiece,” Barner said after practice Thursday. “When I say ‘poison, poison, poison,’ you couldn’t really hear it. So, what I did was get another mouthpiece that’s just on the top of my mouth. So, it’s almost as if I’m not playing with a mouthpiece in.”
Barner demonstrated Thursday how he was much more easily understood without the pacifier, which offers more protection than the traditional mouth guard.
Anticipating another loud and raucous crowd Sunday, the Eagles entertaining the Vikings, Barner will keep the pacifier on ice. Eagles fans might want to try to hush, just a bit, when the Vikings punt.
“I believe that’s why we were in that situation is because we couldn’t hear the call,” Eagles special teams ace Bryan Braman said. “Kenjon changed his mouthpiece in the second half so that way he could get more of a poison call out. When you get into these games, everything is magnified, whether it’s good or bad. I just feel like because it was the divisional round, it was in the red zone, and they ended up getting a cheap touchdown out of it, it was magnified.”
Rest assured, the Eagles reviewed their punt team communication to get ready for the Vikings.
The Falcons punt, by the way, bounced off three Eagles, including Braman. In order, it hit Rasul Douglas, Patrick Robinson and Braman.
Other than the muff, and a missed PAT by kicker Jake Elliott, the special teams helped the Eagles get solid field position. They’re going to need another stellar effort against the Vikings, who have a decent punt returner in Marcus Sherels, who averages 9.5 yards.
Braman atoned for the earlier mistake with a partially blocked punt. It set up a 53-yard field goal by Elliott.
“I feel like we played well,” Braman said. “The field position, besides that one bad punt return where we turned it over, we played well. I got my hand on the ball and it was a 22-yard punt that was crucial before the end of the half. We got a field goal. At the end of the game they needed a TD instead of a FG to win. It’s really just making sure that we stay at it instead of trying to do extra stuff. We could have tried to do extra after that turnover happened, but we just continued to push forward, do what we know how to do and just execute better than them.”
••• The Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA) named Eagles football operations chief Howie Roseman executive of year.
Roseman and personnel chief Joe Douglas built a final four team capable of weathering several significant injuries, including the loss of quarterback Carson Wentz.
Oddly the PFWA didn’t make Doug Pederson its coach of the year. Pederson was snubbed despite guiding the Eagles to a 13-3 record, tying the best single-season mark in club history. Last week he led the Birds to their first playoff game in nine seasons.
Instead the PFWA gave coach of the year to Sean McVay, who led the Los Angeles Rams to an 11-5 record and was one-anddone in the playoffs, his squad managing 13 points in the playoffs. This just in, knuckleheads: defensive coordinator Wade Phillips had much more to do with that success than McVay.
Which leads us to the PFWA assistant coach of the year, Pat Shurmur, of the Vikings. Great honor for Shurmur but a slap in the face of head coach Mike Zimmer, who, like Pederson, got zero credit for producing a 13-3 slate and the top defense in the league.
Bravo.
••• Limited at practice Thursday were Eagles middle linebacker Dannell Ellerbe (hamstring) and special teams linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill (ankle).