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Damn good player when he hangs onto it

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  • Damn good player when he hangs onto it

    Mathews Leads The Way For Run Game



    Sometimes the best defense is a good offense.

    That’s not to take anything away from the Eagles’ defense, a unit that played a great game on Sunday afternoon to hold the league’s top-scoring offense to a season-low 15 points. But part of the Eagles’ game plan for slowing down Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and the rest of the Atlanta Falcons' offense was to keep them off the field by controlling the football for as long as they could.

    That's exactly what they did, holding on to the ball for 38:10 of game time.

    “That’s an explosive offense on that side. Atlanta has a great offense,” said head coach Doug Pederson after the Eagles’ 24-15 win. “I felt like coming into this football game that we were going to have to possess the ball, and in order to do that I thought the running game was going to have to be a huge factor in this game. Gut instinct, watching the film, knowing our guys and relying on our offensive line and the defense – the way they played today – but the run game was going to be a big part of my plan.”

    While the Eagles have used their full stable of running backs this season, on Sunday it was the veteran Ryan Mathews who got the call to be the Eagles’ leading back, and the Fresno State product did not disappoint. Mathews rushed for a season-high 109 yards on just 19 carries and he found the end zone twice in the Eagles’ hard-fought win.

    “The line played great today. You have to give (credit) to them, they really did all that they could to open up holes for us,” Mathews said after the game.

    “I know the linemen love run blocking too, but it’s just fun. It was hard. You have to give it to (Atlanta), they played great. We just did what we needed to do to win.”

    Mathews, like many Eagles this season, has gone through his share of ups and downs. His late-game fumble against the Detroit Lions came at the most inopportune time possible, but to Mathews' credit, he’s worked hard every day to ensure that he earned back the trust of his coaching staff.

    “I’ve always had confidence in Ryan Mathews,” said Pederson. “I think what you saw today is the guy I kept seeing and the guy we all wanted to see, and I fully had confidence in him, as I do with Darren (Sproles) and Wendell (Smallwood) and Kenjon (Barner). I put the ball in his hands and he did a nice job.”

    The Eagles totaled 429 yards on offense on Sunday, and what’s even more impressive is how balanced the offensive numbers were. The Eagles rushed for 208 yards and threw for 221, and that balance allowed the Eagles to execute their game plan exactly as they had hoped.

    “Any time you can run the ball as effective as we did today, it’s going to help any quarterback and it just opens up a little bit more of your offense with play-action pass and things like that,” Pederson said. “Give the offensive line credit. They really took the challenge to heart and did a great job up front. The tight ends blocked well.”
    "Hey Giants, who's your Daddy?"

  • #2
    I would still draft Dalvin Cook and let him be the man.

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