The defensive drive that aged Lane Johnson and Eagles fans everywhere
The defensive drive that aged Lane Johnson and Eagles fans everywhere originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
If you’re wondering what it was like for Lane Johnson to watch that final Cowboys drive on Sunday afternoon at the Linc, just know that it wasn’t all that different from your experience on the couch.
Tense.
“I tried not to watch it,” Johnson said. “I was turning away. I was head-butting (Jason) Kelce, I was head-butting Julio (Jones), I was head-butting Connor (Barwin). Yeah, we aged in dog years. I entered the game 33 (years old) but I’m probably about 42 right now.”
That about sums it up.
The Eagles beat the Cowboys on Sunday night by a final score of 28-23. The tally mark goes in the win column but this one ended up being a little too close for comfort.
Thanks to some stuck-in-the-mud offensive drives late in this game, the Eagles needed a few huge defensive stops late in this divisional matchup. And they got them.
But the whole game ended up hanging in the balance on the final snap to cap off a wild drive that included chunk plays, injuries, penalties and a whole lot of Eagles fans holding their breath.
“Football is such an unbelievable game,” head coach Nick Sirianni said. “There are highs. There are lows. Sometimes it brings you to tears of joy. Sometimes it brings you to tears. It was obviously the plays before that that led to them being in that desperation at the end. Great job by our defensive line to get pressure there at the end of the game.”
On the Cowboys second-to-last drive, the Eagles got a couple of huge sacks from Brandon Graham and Jalen Carter and were able to get a turnover on downs with just 1:17 left in the game.
But after the Eagles had their third straight 3-and-out in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys got the ball back at their own 14-yard line. They were down five points thanks to a failed 2-point conversion, with 46 seconds left to go. It just couldn’t have ended easily.
On that final drive, both Darius Slay and James Bradberry had to briefly leave with injuries, which left the Eagles with Eli Ricks, Josh Jobe and Sydney Brown at cornerback. The Cowboys were driving.
“Sh—, it was crazy,” Slay said. “I seen JB go out and then next thing you know, I had to go out for about two plays. Goddamn arm got hit. … I had to hurry up and get back in. We had to handle that.”
Bradberry said when he went into the blue medical tent to get his leg checked, he couldn’t see the action but he could still hear the fans. As long as the fans were engaged, he knew the Eagles were in a good enough spot to pull out the win.
“It was an intense drive,” Bradberry said. “It was almost like a playoff game. I was just hoping.”
The biggest play on the series came when Josh Sweat sacked Dak Prescott for a loss of 11 yards after the Cowboys had gotten the ball all the way to the Eagles’ 11-yard line.
Sweat is now up to 6 1/2 sacks on the season but none have been bigger than this one.
“No surprise, to be honest. No surprise,” Jordan Mailata said. “Sweaty doesn’t get acknowledged enough, he doesn’t get talked about enough. Hopefully after this game they can start talking about him and putting him up there with the Micah Parsons and Myles Garrett. That guys is a premier edge rusher.”
Sweat also has a premier sack celebration. He did that celebration — swiping sweat off his brow — after his sack before Nick Sirianni and the rest of the coaching staff yelled at him to get back on the line.
The clock was still running and there was a game to win.
“I had to get a celebration in. I had to get it,” Sweat said. “Everybody was like, ‘We still gotta go, we still gotta go!’”
After Sweat’s sack, there were still 11 seconds left and the Cowboys had the ball at the Eagles’ 22-yard line. Prescott threw an incompletion on the next play. Then there was a delay of game.
With 5 seconds remaining, the final pass was completed to CeeDee Lamb, who was stopped by Slay and Brown at the 4-yard line. The ball actually popped free and Reed Blankenship, who had a huge goal line tackle earlier in the fourth, fell on top of it to seal the win.
Phew.
Prescott ended up throwing for 374 yards with 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Lamb caught 11 passes for 191 yards. The Cowboys had 406 yards of offense and 27 first downs.
But when the Eagles had to get some stops? They did.
“At halftime, I thought I needed therapy. Then at full-time, I need therapy,” Mailata said. “Defense did a great job. When we needed them, they showed up and made plays. They made plays, man. Shout out to the defense.”
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