Time was just right for nice Sunday drive
PHILADELPHIA >> The last pass Mitchell Trubisky would throw Sunday flopped to the Linc surface, Avonte Maddox having successfully covered Adam Shaheen.
The clock read 8:48, plenty of time for another Chicago Bears chance. The Eagles’ body language projected something much different.
“It’s our recipe,” Carson Wentz would say. “It’s what we want to do, finish games like that.”
Though Darren Sproles would muff the ensuing punt out of bounds at his 11, the Eagles believed they were in the right spot to do what they recently had done so well. So for the second time in as many weeks, they began a lengthy, time-wasting demonstration of effective playcalling, execution and confidence, using the next 16 plays to cross 69 stripes on their way to the Chicago 20.
Jake Elliott’s 39-yard field goal would extend a lead to the final score of 22-14, the
Bears would fumble the ensuing kickoff, and Trubisky would not again roll onto the field.
In the wide scope of what the Eagles may achieve this season, one drive to a field goal may be lost. But that four-first-down cavalcade of excellence said as much as anything about how they were able to reach their bye week at 5-4.
“We talk about that all the time,” Doug Pederson said. “We talk about our four-minute offense. We weren’t really in ‘four-minute’ mode. Offensively, we kind of sputtered there in the second half a little bit. We had some opportunities and we just didn’t capitalize.
“But for them to kind of take it upon their shoulders was important. The defense was fighting and battling and doing their part. The offense needed to go. And it was time for them to go. Again, it goes back to trusting the players, trusting the guys up front, trusting our quarterback, putting our guys in position to make plays. And they did that.
“It’s a credit to go down and obviously kick that field goal and then get the ball on the kickoff. It was just a great effort for the offense.”
After trailing, 12-0, at halftime, the Bears weren’t easily dismissed and would draw within 19-14 on a one-yard David Montgomery run with 12:46 to play. By then, it was clear that clock management would be critical.
After the Eagles and Bears both wasted a possession, Wentz would lead a decisive march that would not go into his personnel file as a game-winning drive, yet would be just as critical. He would toss five passes, each one complete. He would scramble out of trouble for a nine-yard gain. He would trust Miles Sanders and Jordan Howard to run for valuable yardage, as the backs would trust their offensive line to keep plowing Bears out of the way.
“The goal is just to try to get first downs,” Lane Johnson said. “It wasn’t pretty.”
Yet even if Wentz would be hesitant to brandish it as a personal statement drive, it was a beautiful display of precision.
“Coming out of the game, you just kind of want to critique everything,” he said. “There were throws I left out there early in the game and late in the game, plays we left out there as an offense. At the end of the day, being able to sustain that drive, that’s what we have to do.”
In that moment, it was critical to a team still technically trying to prove championship readiness.
“They were tired,” said
Howard, the former Bear. “They knew what we were going to do, but we’re still hard to stop sometimes. Our offensive line got a great push and we made the right plays.”
As for the Bears, they would be able to run no more plays at all.
“That’s what good football teams, good offenses, have to do, stay on the field and grind the clock out like we did,” Wentz said. “That was really big for us.”