Creating turnovers leads to Eagles’ first win of season
After successful start, Mailata is answer to Eagles’ waiting game on aging Peters
Easily buried in the Eagles’ first victory of the season was the way their defense impacted the game with three takeaways Sunday night in San Francisco.
The 49ers were on their way to the end zone when safety Rodney McLeod intercepted Nick Mullens at the six-yard line about halfway through the second quarter, the Birds nursing an 8-7 lead.
Genard Avery, who collected a sack, set it up with one of his five quarterback hurries over 16 snaps.
In the fourth quarter, the Eagles trailed, 14-11, when cornerback Cre’Von LeBlanc blitzed Mullens and dislodged the ball with his helmet, Malik Jackson recovering at the
49ers’ 34-yard line. After Jalen Hurts took an eight-yard loss by falling on a snap that he was unable to field cleanly, Carson Wentz went up top to Travis Fulgham for the go-ahead, 42yard score.
“We pride ourselves on turnovers,” LeBlanc said. “It starts in practice. We set a goal. We try to get three turnovers week in and week out. The goal was to win this football game. And we knew we had to come out with some turnovers in order to win this game.”
Last but far from least was the game-winning score in the
25-20 decision by linebacker Alex Singleton, who had played just one defensive snap this season before taking over for the injured T.J. Edwards.
Singleton was in zone coverage when Mullens attempted to force the ball to Kendrick Bourne and jumped the route.
“My heart kind of skipped a beat,” said Singleton. “I just caught it and went with it. I knew I had to get in the end zone. We talked about it all week, to score on defense. It was the only thing going through my mind.”
Singleton capped the 30yard touchdown return by splitting would-be tacklers Mullens and Mike McGlinchey, who he left on the ground.
The Eagles had entered the weekend a league-worst mi
nus-7 in turnover ratio. They’ve improved to minus-5 (including a Wentz interception, his seventh of the year).
Since the start of the 2018 season, the Eagles are 7-0 in games where they don’t commit a turnover. In that time the Eagles are 13-4 when committing one turnover or fewer, as they did Sunday. They are 3-9-1 when committing two or more turnovers, and 1-7 committing three or more.
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Running back Miles Sanders actually predicted the Eagles would defeat the 49ers. He said it last Friday.
“Just trying to — not trying to — we’re going to get a W this week,” Sanders said. “That’s all that matters.”
Sanders had 13 rushes for
46 yards and two catches for
30 yards, playing 48 snaps (77 percent).
Sanders’ absence on the last series raised questions about the glute injury he played through.
“Listen, don’t read into anything,” head coach Doug Pederson said, framing it as situational use of personnel. “You guys asked me to play our backs more, so I’m trying to play our backs more.”
Right. For the record, Pederson said Sanders was “fine.”
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Elsewhere on the unofficial injury report, Pederson said Edwards (hamstring) and safety Rudy Ford (hamstring) would miss some games.
Right offensive tackle Lane Johnson had a sore ankle that limited him to 37 of 62 offensive snaps.
“There were just a couple plays early in the game where it didn’t feel right to him, so we wanted to make sure and get it loose and keep it loose,” Pederson said. “He eventually came back and played well in the second half.”
The injury Pederson wasn’t asked to address was to pivot Jason Kelce, who was shown having his groin area examined during a break in action. With Isaac Seumalo on injured reserve and Nate Herbig needed at guard, the Eagles can ill afford to lose Kelce.
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Even before the Eagles batted away a Hail Mary pass on the last play, they had plenty of chances to lose to the Super Bowl runner-up.
Mullens overthrew fullback Kyle Juszczyk on the first series for what could have been a touchdown because the entire Eagles’ defense was on the other side of the field, except for Nate Gerry, who was badly beaten in coverage.
The 49ers dropped what would have been two more interceptions of Wentz, including a deep ball for Richard Rodgers that dropped right into the stone hands of safety Jaquiski Tartt.
Wentz ran for a touchdown, threw for 193 yards and a score and used his mobility to limit the 49ers to three sacks. It’s a big step forward after Wentz threw his seventh interception of the season in the first quarter.
“It’s just great for our foot
ball team to be able to do this but for Carson Wentz specifically to play better, and to really play physical in his play yesterday and efficient in the passing game,” Pederson said. “Obviously, there wasn’t a lot of yardage but the thing was he was efficient. There are a couple throws he would definitely like to have back and all of that but this is big for him, just to get that taste of winning again. For everybody, me included, just to get that taste back, it gives you a little bit of motivation. Something to build on as we move forward to this week.”
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The Eagles released running back Adrian Killins. Killins had a catch for two yards and a carry for minus-12 yards in the fourth quarter.