Birds rely on lines on way to turnaround
Birds rely on offensive and defensive lines on way to second-half turnaround
PHILADELPHIA >> By the time Washington’s Vernon Davis had run through and hurdled over a couple of weak Eagles tackling efforts...
By the time Terry McLaurin waltzed past two Eagles defenders and reeled in a Case Keenum pass for another long Redskins scoring strike...
By the time Doug Pederson called for a puzzling timeout to give Washington a little extra time to keep driving in the final minute of the first half, and finally when an offside penalty by Derek Barnett moved Redskins kicker Dustin Hopkins close enough to hit a second field goal of the first half ... the call had gone out.
Across the social media apps and straight from the yaps of Eagles fans everywhere Sunday, one half of 2019 football had revealed all their darkest fears. These Eagles who seemed to take things so lightly in the preseason had gotten what it deserved.
They weren’t prepared. They weren’t game-ready. So in case they couldn’t admit that...
“We deserved all the boos,” Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said later, describing the Lincoln Financial Field atmosphere heading into halftime with a 13-point Philadelphia deficit. “That’s the fun part of playing here. When you deserve a boo, you’ll get it.”
It would turn around, of course, primarily because a guy like Case Keenum has no business picking apart an Eagles defense that should know how to put pressure on a quarterback like him. And because DeSean Jackson had much more to give than the 51-yard touchdown catch that was a lone Philadelphia bright spot in the first half. And because everyone, including those town criers venting their frustrations from the notso-cheap seats, knows the Red
skins ultimately couldn’t embarrass these Eagles the way they had in those first two quarters.
When a completely reversed second half produced a 32-27 Eagles victory was finally diagnosed, then, it was rather easy to see what had so drastically changed. Or was it?
“I don’t know, man, but we knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” defensive end Brandon Graham said. “As long as we fight, as long as we do our jobs - you saw in that second half. We just came out and did our jobs.”
Graham went on to suppose the Eagles were “a little overly excited” at the start of this season opener at home, but really didn’t offer much of an explanation as to why his defense was playing so hands off when it came to Keenum, the same quarterback that threw three interceptions in an Eagles beating of Minnesota during the playoff ride to the 2018 Super Bowl.
Keenum would head to intermission having completed 16 of 22 passes for 267 yards and two touchdowns.
“They say if you don’t hit the quarterback, they’re going to pick you apart,” Graham said, “and I think in the second half we turned it up a little bit as a d-line with that. We took on that challenge. Even though we didn’t get that many sacks we were just trying to be disruptive.”
The formerly dormant Birds pass rushers did exert more pressure on Keenum in the second half. But it was the Eagles’ other line, that one on offense that had already been laid bare (in so many words) on a magazine cover in the preseason, which also made some drastic adjustments.
The Birds blockers began to open holes and the fatherson(ish) tandem of Darren Sproles and Miles Sanders took advantage. In the first drive of the second half, the 36-year-old Sproles dashed five times for 51 yards, knocking the Skins off balance. Then Sanders followed with a 19-yard sprint that set the stage for a Carson Wentz to Alshon Jeffrey five-yard scoring pass, getting the Birds and their booers back into the game.
“We knew we needed to come out (in the second half) and score on the opening drive,” right tackle Lane Johnson said. “Once we did that the momentum kind of switched. We started running the ball better.
“You have a big plan (for the game), and then you go and get hit in the mouth. That’s when you go to Plan B, and that’s really it.”
That’s really not different for an Eagles team that Johnson pointed out was usually playing from behind, not only last season but for chunks of that glorious Super Bowl run the season before.
“We need to use some reverse psychology,” Johnson said. “Like say, ‘Don’t go out there and don’t start fast.’ We’ve been wanting to start fast for a year and half and it hasn’t happened, so maybe they’ll just tell us not to start fast.”
Whatever mental games may help, Jenkins said the Eagles’ experience ultimately will make a difference in most situations as the season goes along.
“We’ve been through it too much,” Jenkins added. “It’s not the first time we’ve been down. I think if you look around the locker room, we have too much talent, too many guys that we believe in to think that we’re out of a game. It really comes down to us being ourselves, doing the small things, getting back to basics, and playing complimentary football.”
Jackson, 32, who was playing in front of friendly Philly fans for the first time since before the Eagles thought Chip Kelly was going to be a good head coach, showed his savvy and speed from start to finish.
First, he hauled one in from 51 yards out from a previously cold Carson Wentz to keep hope alive in the second quarter. Then he curled under Wentz’s loopy pass in the third quarter for a 53-yard scoring connection that would give the Eagles a 21-20 lead.
That’s about when it became obvious that whatever had gone wrong in that first half would very soon become a distant memory. Hopefully, the lesson learned won’t be forgotten so quickly.
“The way we started the second half, we have to start the first half like that, too,” Sproles said. “We really wanted to stay with the run. We got together at halftime and kind of said, we can get out of this, we just have to be patient with it.”
Sproles showed his patience with a superb cutback run that added two points to the next Birds’ touchdown, making it 2920 right at the open of quarter four. It was mostly a celebration after that, the first of what they think will be many in a season that promises untold excitement.
You know, as long as there are more second halves to cheer than first halves to jeer.
“Winning in this league,” Brandon Graham said with a grin into a TV camera, “you know, I’m not going to say it’s better than sex, but it is. It’s a great feeling.”