Roseman gave Birds new ways to win
PHILADELPHIA » Amid all the hero worship for a group of players who couldn’t seem to do anything wrong Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field, there was one unassuming, 42-year-old guy in an upstairs luxury box who could have been cheered louder and longer than anyone else.
The Eagles’ stunning 38-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship game Sunday was almost a numerical testament to a surreal offseason turned in by front office boss Howie Roseman. From a point shortly after the Vikings opened the game with a 9-play, 75-yard drive, capped by a 25-yard Case Keenum to Kyle Rudolph touchdown pass, all the way through the 38 unanswered points the Eagles put up the rest of the way, the impact of Roseman’s offseason moves were evident.
The game’s one major turning point came with 6:36 left in the first quarter, as cornerback Patrick Robinson, signed as a free agent to a cheap ($775,000) one-year deal last March 28, picked off a Keenum pass and serpentined 50 yards for a game-tying score.
“I don’t think that just pumped up the offense,” quarterback Nick Foles said, “I think that pumped up the whole city of Philadelphia.”
Like a breath of fresh air, the Eagles reacted to that play by sucking the life out of the Vikings.
LeGarrette Blount, a year removed from a Super Bowl victory with New England and delivered to the Eagles via a 1-year, $1.25 million deal, uncorked a bruising, 11-yard run to a touchdown with 13:37 left in the second quarter.
Alshon Jeffery, another value signing (one year, $14 million), made 39-year-old cornerback Terence Newman look foolish with 1:09 left in the first half when he broke wide open before reeling in a 53-yard touchdown pass from ... quarterback Nick Foles, who had been signed to a two-year, $11 million deal to return to Philly as a backup quarterback on March 19.
“All week he’s been calm, he’s been confident, he’s been energetic,” head coach Doug Pederson said of Foles, “all the things we knew he was.”
Then at the halftime gun, early-season emergency signee Jake Elliott booted a 38-yard field goal for a 24-7 lead.
One half of football, highlighted by plays made by “new” Eagles.
“It’s a credit to the front office,” veteran Eagles center Jason Kelce said. “I’ve seen it go one of two ways. You can bring a lot of new pieces in, and obviously you have the dream team when I was a rookie here, and we had another year where we brought in DeMarco Murray and Sam Bradford. Not all the time do the pieces fit and gel together for whatever reason. But they got it right this time.
“I feel like every piece they’ve gotten has acclimated well and has fit into the group. And it has been a really, really fun time playing with these guys.”
The Eagles’ new guys weren’t through with the Vikings yet. The Birds took the opening kick of the second half and marched 75 yards on eight plays, culminating in a too weird for words, 41yard flea flicker pass from rookie free agent Corey Clement back to Foles and downfield to Torrey Smith.
The veteran receiver had been signed a three-year free agency deal with the Birds on that same March 9 shopping day in which Jeffery signed on.
Smith’s TD catch was his fourth of that drive, his prolonged case of dropsies a distant memory.
“I was really happy for Torrey Smith tonight,” offensive lineman Lane Johnson said. “He’s had his ups and downs throughout the season. He came in and made a huge play, a touchdown when we needed it. There are not a lot of selfish players. There is veteran leadership. And that is what propels this team.”
As for Jeffery, he would catch the last TD pass of the game, from five yards out, another payback on the $52 million contract extension that Roseman rewarded him with in early December.
It should be noted that Roseman, a longtime club employee who had dutifully taken a front office back seat during the Chip Kelly NonEra, set up this Dream Season by surrounding himself with the right people. That would include player personnel director Joe Douglas, his assistant Andy Weidl and senior football advisor Tom Donahoe.
Their offseason handiwork also helped build a defense that included freeagent defensive lineman Chris Long, another member of the 2017 Patriots Super Bowl team.
It was Long who applied the pressure on Keenum on the pass he tossed into Robinson’s hands.
“I want to be a differencemaker,” Long said. “I want to help my team. We all got a piece of this; offense, defense ... everybody. I’m happy to do my part.”
Long knows it’ll take every part of the kind of game the Eagles played Sunday for them to win once more, against those Patriots in Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis.
“I know them well,” Long said. “We’re going to have play our best game. They’re built from the ground up and they’re a complete football team.”
But don’t expect the Eagles to start acting like the incomplete, Carson Wentzless underdog everyone has painted them to be before the two playoff games.
“We’re going to the Super Bowl; we are going to the stinkin’ Super Bowl,” Pederson said. “And that’s all we need to know.”