The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Detroit Lions 16-9 in a very attritional game on Sunday. But if fans are to be asked, they were merely lucky to do so based on one call.
With under two minutes to go, Jalen Hurts failed to connect with AJ Brown on a 3rd and 8. However, Rock Ya-sin was called for pass interference, granting the defending Super Bowl champions a new set of downs.
Cris Collinsworth had one succinct word for it – “terrible”, even arguing that it should have been called against the other side:
•
Looking to predict NFL playoff Scenarios? Try our NFL Playoff Predictor for real-time simulations and stay ahead of the game!
And many fans agreed with him:
The game was eventually sealed when Saquon Barkley rushed into Lions territory on a 3rd and 8 from the 47.
Hurts was not exemplary in the air, covering only 135 yards on fourteen completions and not throwing a touchdown. However, he had a rushing touchdown on 10 carries.
The Eagles’ highest-scoring player would turn out to be kicker Jake Elliott, who was perfect on three field goal attempts and one extra point attempt.
For the Lions, Jared Goff was much more prolific, covering 255 yards on fourteen completions and scoring a touchdown to Jameson Williams. However, he also threw an interception to Cooper DeJean.
Jahmyr Gibbs was the only offensive weapon on either side to hit triple-digit scrimmage yards, rushing 12 times for 39 yards and catching five targets for another 107.
Nick Sirianni speaks after Eagles’ win vs. Lions
After the game, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni addressed the media. One of the first things he did was to praise the defense, which had five fourth-down stops – all in the middle quarters:
“Awesome. Those are turnovers in our mind.”
The team themselves committed a turnover on downs once – with three minutes left in the game. They were punished for it with a field goal to to reduce their lead to one possession, and Sirianni himself admitted to erring in his decision:
“Any time it doesn’t work on a 4th down situation I’m going to be hyper critical of myself. I’m sitting here, now thinking I should have punted it. … It’s 100% on me.”
Notably, that stop occurred on a “tush push”, which the Lions had voted to keep during the spring league meetings:
“Respect. They did a good job stopping it.”
The Eagles’ next game will be at the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday. Kickoff is at 4:25 pm ET on Fox.
Edited by Andre Castillo
