The Philadelphia Eagles’ dominant defense keyed a narrow win over the Green Bay Packers on Monday night. But before the Packers’ last-gasp field goal went awry — and before the Eagles’ controversial fourth-down decision — Green Bay had a chance to tie or take the lead.
With less than two minutes to go, the Packers faced a fourth-and-1 at their own 44-yard line. Convert, and they would have needed 20 or so yards for a reasonable game-tying field goal.
That’s when the Eagles’ defense called its shot.
As the Packers lined up to snap the ball with the game clock ticking down to 1:30 left, you can hear the Eagles’ defensive front shouting out what was coming. Specifically, it sounded like defensive tackle Moro Ojomo pointing to his teammates and yelling out the play call.
“Inside zone this way! Inside zone this way!”
Sure enough, Green Bay ran an inside zone handoff to Josh Jacobs to the right side, where Ojomo was pointing right before the snap. And sure enough, the Eagles blew it up.
Ojomo got a great jump on the interior, and so did Jalen Carter, pushing his man into the backfield. Jacobs was forced to bounce it outside to the right.
But Jaelan Phillips, after manhandling tight end Luke Musgrave, was there to swallow him up. Jacobs tried to pitch it back to Jordan Love at the last second, and Reed Blankenship recovered it.
Phillips, who dominated after being acquired ahead of the trade deadline, capped his Eagles debut with a significant play. The Packers, meanwhile, were left frustrated.
“They called out our play,” Jacobs told reporters postgame. “We ran it like four times. They called it out. ... Whenever they know what we’re doing it don’t ever feel good because it changed my mind on how I’m going to run the ball, if we’re being honest. It makes me guess on what I’m going to do. Obviously, people are smart.”
Now, ultimately the play wouldn’t have counted if Jacobs picked up the first down. The Packers were called for an illegal formation, so they would have had a fourth-and-6 left to convert.
But in that moment in particular, Ojomo and his teammates were, indeed, smart — snuffing out a critical play before it happened and making a potentially game-saving stop.
Just another reason to credit Vic Fangio and this Eagles defense.
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