.png){kind=logo}
HURTS GAME-WINNING, LAST MINUTE DRIVE LIFTS BIRDS OVER TENNESSEE
NASHVILLE: Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts entered the field with 1:56 left in the fourth quarter trailing 20-17 to the Tennessee Titans and according wide receiver Darius Cooper, the Eagles captain simply told the huddle, “Let's finish this.”
Finish it they did.
Starting from the Eagles 35-yard-line, Hurts marched his team 65 yards on nine plays.
Those plays included a 20-yard laser over the middle to Dontayvion Wicks on third down, a 19-yard fingertip, toe-tapping completion to DeVonta Smith, also on third down and finally a three-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Copper with nine seconds left on the clock.
Eagle win 24-20 and improve to 2-0 on the young season.
Hurts was asked to talk about the final drive which, like the rest of the game, was played in sweltering hot conditions.
“The same approach at the end of the game is the same approach going throughout the game,” Hurts said at his post game pres conference. “It’s a really good opponent that we played. I think the narrative or the notion of their record, kind of who they’ve been may not say that.
“But it’s a whole different ball game when you turn on the tape and watch them play, watch them fly around. The efficiency that they play with on the other side of the ball, how well coached they are.
“I have a lot of respect for Coach Saleh. It’s finally good to get him. He’s posed some great challenges, obviously, but you kind of check that off. But I think just having great focus, great focus and poise coming in and being able to maintain it throughout the game.
“That’s what it came down to. It was great execution, great mentality, great focus, and a great togetherness to be able to persevere.
"You know, I’m not one to harbor on the elements, but it was a challenge for us as a unit, collectively, and I’m happy how we weathered through that.”
ESPN announced the heat index on the field during the Eagles–Titans game reached about 106°F.
“It was hot as shit,” head coach Nick Sirianni said after the game. “I had to get an IV. I didn't play a snap and I was hot.”
Lane Johnson, who is in his 14th season in the NFL, said the conditions were one of the worst he's ever encountered.
“It was one the top five toughest games I've ever been part of,” Johnson said at his locker after the game. “It was a mental test for everyone involved. I'm proud of how we finished. We kept it close throughout the game. We'll take the win. There's a lot to clean up. It was a good win for us.
THE EAGLES MOVED THE BALL, BUT STRUGGLED WITH TURNOVERS, SACKS ON OFFENSE, MISSED TACKLES AND ASSIGNMENTS ON DEFENSE
By the end of the second quarter, the Eagles found themselves down two Pro Bowl starters on offense and a their starting tight end.
The Birds knew of course that left guard Landon Dickerson was out. He was placed on injured reserve for four games after a it was disclosed he has been suffering from a bruised knee bone.
Saquon Barkley left in the second quarter with what was described as stinger. He returned briefly after the half but could not continue.
Just a drive after Barkley was hurt, Dallas Goedert took a heavy hit to his right leg while executing a block. He did not return.
Still the Eagles were able to move the ball up and down the field.
The score was 14-7 at the half.
The only reason it wasn't 21-0, was because Hurts was intercepted trying throw a touchdown pass to the right of the end zone intended for DeVonta Smith. Safety Amani Hooker picked off the pass and ran it back for 92 yards to the ten. Four plays later, quarterback Cam Ward scored from the one yard line to take a 7-0 lead.
Jalen Hurts pass intercepted to the right. Amani Hooker intercepted Jalen Hurts for 92 yards.
The Eagles answered with a two-yard run by Tank Bigsby capping an eleven-play drive to tie the game with 12:53 left in the second quarter.
After stopping the Titans next drive, the Eagles drove 81 yards on 14 plays that ended with a 22-yard TD pass to Smith with 1:49 left in the half.
The Birds (2-0) seemed to be in control. But Ward's offense started to adjust to what Vic Vangio and the Eagles were doing.
Ward hit wide receiver Elic Ayomanor for 28 yards, then followed that with a 27-yard catch-and-run play to running back Tyjae Spears.
Joey Slye booted a 37-yard field goal as time expired the score 14-10 Eagles at the half.
The Eagles offense appeared out of sync in the third quarter. The Birds punted on their first drive and only made it to the Titans 40-yard line on the other.
Jake Elliott certainly earned back of lot of Eagles fans when he connected on a 58-yard field goal to have the Eagles a short-lived 17-14 lead with 8:08 left in the third.
Tennessee answered with a 12-play, 69-yard drive ending with Ward going in again from the one to tie the score 17-17.
The Eagles defense came up big in the fourth forcing a punt on the Titans first possession, then holding the home team to a field goal with 1:56 left in the fourth. The crucial play was a nine-yard sack of Ward by Jalen Carter on a first and goal at the nine.
The rest, as they say, is history.
STATS AND QUOTES
Hurts finished 26 of 37 for 264 yards and two touchdown passes. He was sacked twice and threw two interceptions.
The Eagles rushed 32 times for 83 yards as a team. To anyone who cares, Tank Bigsby led the Birds with 33 yards on 13 carries.
Barkley carried the ball just four times for nine yards.
Cooper, who finished two catches for 26 yards and the game winner. was asked what Hurts said before the last drive. Here is more of what Cooper shared.
“The same thing, 'hey, let's finish this',” Cooper said at his locker after the game. “'We've got them right were we want them.' It's a two minute drive, we knew what we had to do. We went out there and did it.”
“Coach Nick Sirianni does a great job with situational football,” Cooper contined. “That's what we're all about and we went out there and executed.”
Cooper was asked what it was like when the TD pass was in the air.
“It was literally like everything just stopped,” Cooper said. “It was like slow motion. I just went up to make sure I caught it. That's why I jumped for it. It was a great throw. He put it right where it needed to be and we got the win.”
Johnson talked about Eagles fans who attended Nissan Stadium. The announced attendance was 68, 567. Just a humble guess here, but it seemed like two-third of those in attendance were Eagle fans. A Titans reporter said the Eagles made up 80 percent of the stadium crowd.
“It's felt like a home game,” Johnson said. “Our fans really travel well. They really helped use out.”
With the heat as bad as it was, where did the Birds find the energy to pull off the final drive?
“There was really no explanation, backs against the wall” Johnson said. “Jalen made a great throw, Coop coming in and made a helluva catch. He had a great game last week on special teams. He's really a guy that's ascending.”
Quentin Mitchell said the players on the sideline on the Eagles final drive never had a dount Hurts would find a way.
“We've got all the faith in the world in Jalen Hurts,” Mitchell said at his locker. “We were talking on the sideline' he's going to go down there and score. We have all the fath and confidence in him even after the bad plays. We knew he was going to come back and help us win it. He's a great quarterback, he's a great leader.”
Smith finished with 10 catches for 117 yards and a TD.
Wicks hauled in five receptions for 74 yards.
Ward was 13 of 20 for 183 yards and two rushing touchdowns. He was sacked twice.
Titans running back Tony Pollard rushed 14 times for 64 yards.
On defense, Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell led the Birds with ten total tackles (six solo).
Nolan Smith recorded a sack, two tackles for loss and a QB hurry.
Titans' rookie linebacker recorded ten total tackles (six solo).
SIMMONS SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Titans' standout defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons was called out by many for his comments about Jalen Hurts in the week leading up to Sunday's game.
Simmons said he felt the best way to defend the former Super Bowl MVP was to keep him in the pocket and “make him play quarterback.”
The comment was taken as adding fuel to comments made over and over that Hurts is just a talented running back playing under center.
Certainly after the the display Hurts put on at the end of the game, pushed back dramatically on the click-bait evaluation.
Simmons offered this explanation at his locker:
Man, our job up front, especially what we talk about, is to be good on first and second down,” Simmons said. “We just got to get off the field on third down. I mean, we didn't do it enough.
“What I said early in the week, everybody taking it and running with it, that I said we need to keep Jalen Hurts in the pocket and play quarterback, that's not a shot at Jalen that he can't throw the ball down the field.
“We saw he could throw the fall down the field. He's a Super Bowl MVP. That wasn't my shot at Jalen. The thing was, if we could keep him in the pocket and eliminate him from scrambling and running, which I think we did a hell of a job of that, and making him go sideways, like, we could be successful, especially getting him to third down.
“Because we saw on the second down, where it was like G-B-O-T, Jalen was trying to find something downfield, and he'll take off running. You see that all over the tape. And that was my point of making Jalen Hurts stay in the pocket and just be a quarterback.
“It wasn't, 'Oh, he can't be a quarterback in the pocket,' but when it really mattered, we weren't at our best today, and that was the two-minute drive.”
Sirianni was asked about Simmons comments. He said the emotions from public baiting don't last long once the game starts.
“You know what? You don't get wrapped up into any of that stuff,” said Sirianni, now in his sixth season as Eagles head coach. “You don't get wrapped up in any of that stuff. Like Nolan (Smith) said, we all have phones. We all hear that.
“My information, I have a phone but it doesn't really—I don't have a lot going on it, but my information comes from when you guys ask me these questions and Bob Eagles PR boss Lange) prepares me for these questions.
“You know what? I think when you get so wrapped up into that, if I were to get so—I love our guys, so of course my natural instincts is like oh, I want to fight. But when you get wrapped into that, when you get wrapped into the battle of words or revenge or whatever it is, anger, that shit lasts about two minutes in a game.
“It does. At the end of the day, the fundamentals take over. The situational awareness takes over. You're playing together as a team. Your toughness takes over because that all fades. That's all fades. It's like, that's why it's so important that you lock into what you can control. I can't control what anybody else says.
“I can control what I focus our team on because my experience with that, I've played the other side. I've played the other side where I got so wrapped into that, and I'm emotional. It's like, I've played that side. That shit lasts for—it's such a minimal time where it lasts.
“At the end of the day, it comes back to the details. It comes back to the fundamentals, and it comes back to you having a clean mind of not letting anything else dictate anything but your best and your work.” *
Email Al Thompson at al.thompson@footballstories.com .
Comments