Eagles run amok in road victory vs. Bills
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. >> Lane Johnson isn’t sure what the Eagles proved except to silence their critics for one week after their run game and defense trampled the Buffalo Bills 3113 on Sunday.
“What are we, 4-4? It looks like we’re average,” the starting right tackle said, injecting a profanity into his comment for emphasis. “We needed a damn win. That’s really what it all boiled down to. It felt good to get one.”
Having spent the past week listening to how awful and soft they were following a 37-10 loss at Dallas, the Eagles responded by snapping a two-game skid with a 31-13 win on the road and against a Bills team that dropped to 5-2.
Rookie Miles Sanders scored on a 65-yard run, one of Philadelphia’s three touchdowns rushing, on a wet and windy afternoon in which the Eagles finished with 218 yards rushing.
Linebacker Brandon Graham keyed a stifling defensive effort by forcing and recovering a fumble, while adding one of Philadelphia’s four sacks.
“It was a lot of stuff that tried to distract us from this game this week. There was a lot of things we were still trying to answer for,” Graham said, referring to former cornerback Orlando Scandrick questioning the team’s leadership after being released on Monday.
“Everybody knows our stuff whatever it is, so let’s go out and change the way people view us,” Graham added. “Now we’ve got a clean slate.”
And now it’s the Bills’ turn to face questions about being for real, or whether they’ve benefited from an easy season-opening schedule.
AFC-leading New England was the only one of Buffalo’s first six opponents entering this weekend with a winning record. And the Bills raised concerns after they needed to rally from a five-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the winless Miami Dolphins 31-21 last week.
“I don’t know if it’s a wakeup call,” said receiver Cole Beasley, who scored on a 14-yard catch. “I mean, we’ve known that already. We didn’t put together many good quarters today.”
The Eagles took control by scoring touchdowns 83 seconds apart spanning halftime to build a 17-7 lead.
Graham’s forced fumble of quarterback Josh Allen at Buffalo’s 24 led to Carson Wentz hitting Dallas Goedert for a 5-yard touchdown catch with 25 seconds left in the second quarter.
On the second snap from scrimmage in the third quarter, Sanders followed Howard’s block of linebacker Matt Milano in bursting up the left sideline. The secondround draft pick celebrated his touchdown by leaping into a group of Eagles fans in the northeast corner of the endzone’s stands.
After Devin Singletary scored on a 28-yard catch on Buffalo’s next possession, the Eagles responded with Wentz overseeing a six-play, 68-yard touchdown drive capped by Boston Scott’s 4-yard touchdown run.
“I think it’s just a step in the right direction, for those guys to step up and kind of take ownership,” coach Doug Pederson said. “Listen, being a leader is not about being perfect, and everybody made mistakes. But they owned it. They stepped up and really led today.”
The yards rushing total, led by Howard’s 96, was the most since Pederson took over in 2016 — and most since finishing with 256 in a 33-10 win over Dallas on Nov. 27, 2014.
The Eagles defense limited Allen to go a combined 3 of 13 for 9 yards over Buffalo’s final six possessions following Singletary’s touchdown.
Allen finished 16 of 34 for 169 yards passing with two touchdowns passing. He fumbled three times, losing one.