Eagles offense needs a jump start
As the Eagles were sputtering through their season-opening, 18-12, victory over the Atlanta Falcons Thursday, Doug Pederson had an idea.
He would run that play from the Super Bowl, the one where the ball would be passed to the quarterback. No, not the Philly Special. The other one: The one that Tom Brady dropped.
“That’s where,” Pederson sheepishly admitted early Friday morning, “we got it from.”
The Birds down, 6-3, with 7:41 left in the third, Nick Foles took a third-down snap, flipped the ball to Nelson Agholor, then took off down the right side as a receiver. Agholor completed a pass to Foles, who stepped out of bounds at the Atlanta 26 after a 15-yard gain, giving the Birds a first down and momentum.
Five plays later, Jay Ajayi charged one yard for the first of his two touchdowns. And Pederson, who had made a certain splash for throwing to Foles in the last Super Bowl, had done it again.
“It was the Philly Philly,” he said. “It was a play that we had put in for this week. It was a play that’s in our third-down menu. We were on the right hash mark. And it was the right time of the game.”
The play was only slightly different than the Philly Special, which the Birds ran in the Super Bowl. On that one, the ball was snapped directly to Corey Clement, who fed Trey Burton, who hit Foles in the end zone for a TD.
Both, though, had the same purpose: Invigorate the offense.
“Offensively, we sort of misfired a little bit early in the first half in particular,” Pederson said. “We came out in the second half and were just looking for a big play, somebody to make a play. You kind of look for that from time to time. And again, I just felt it was the right time for that call. And the guys executed it.”
The Patriots ran the same play in the Super Bowl, but failed to score when Brady could not hang onto the pass.
“We just put different people in the game,” Pederson said.
When it worked, the Eagles seemed revived and took an early lead in the NFC at 1-0.
“Again, no panic on the sideline,”
Pederson said. “Toughness. Resiliency. Hanging with each other through the ups and downs, the ebb and flow of the game, mistakes, penalties, turnovers. Just the guys hanging together. There was no panic
tonight.”
There was no panic when the Eagles were struggling.
There was not panic when Pederson called a trick play … risky as it might be to continue to send his best available quarterback into passing lanes, particularly when his No. 1 quarterback continues to recover from a knee injury.
“You’ve got to make sure
the defense is going to be in man coverage,” Pederson explained, “and they are not accounting for your quarterback. It’s a little calculated risk. You’re not going to do it every week. But we felt like we had a great opportunity of doing it. And Nick did a nice job of securing the catch and getting himself out of bounds.” pull a late goal back for LC when he followed up a teammate’s shot off the crossbar and buried the second chance opportunity.
“We didn’t get a win but I thought we played well in our first game against Penn Charter but then we came out flat in our next game against Carroll,” James said. “Today, we picked up our level offensively in the second half. At this point, it’s all about consistency. We have the guys to do it.”
Friday’s match pitted a pair of brothers together in LC junior Sean Cole against La Salle freshman Joseph Cole in their first high school meeting.
Sean Cole started as a central midfielder for LC while Joseph didn’t get into the match for the Explorers. There’s always a chance the teams could meet in the PCL playoffs and if not, there’s always next year.
Most of the second half was played in a total downpour that Steinbach called some of the worst conditions he’s played in. The senior said the visibility on the pitch went down and as the grass field was drenched, the ball started to stick in puddles across the surface.
“There’s nothing you can tell them,” James said. “You could see the ball sticking and the water kicking up anytime someone made contact with it. It’s tough but at the same time it’s fun, it’s just one of those experiences you have come along from time to time.”