A.J. Brown had a quiet game against the Rams in the snow. The Pro Bowl receiver was targeted 7 times but finished with just 2 catches for 14 yards and even had a couple of extraordinarily uncharacteristic drops.
But he still helped the Eagles win.
“The stats wasn’t there but I made some huge blocks,” Brown said in the winning locker room. “I had two touchdown blocks. So I’m excited.”
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Would Brown love to be more productive? Absolutely. Every wide receiver wants targets and catches and yards and touchdowns.
But it speaks to the culture the Eagles have built this season — and Brown’s buy-in to that culture — that even after a game with minimal production, he was genuinely excited about his blocking.
Brown had a key block on Jalen Hurts’ 44-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and another on Saquon Barkley’s 78-yarder in the snow late in the game. With a back like Barkley, the Eagles’ receivers know their effort on the perimeter could be the difference between a nice run and a home run.
“You never want to be that guy to miss your block,” Jahan Dotson said. “Along the way of the season, it was pretty cool because he was inching closer to the (rushing) record and everyone wanted to see it happen. Everyone was that much more, like, ‘If my block’s the block, I’m going to make it.’
NFL
“It was pretty cool to have that dynamic during the season. Anytime we get a run play called, we know our block can be the one.”
During this season, Brown, fellow star receiver DeVonta Smith and guys like Dotson, Johnny Wilson and Parris Campbell have helped spring some of those long runs. Nick Sirianni this week went out of his way to praise Smith for his stalk block on an early touchdown run against the Rams and there is technique involved to blocking as a receiver.
But it really just starts with want-to. And these Eagles receivers want to block.
“A lot of corners in this league don’t want to tackle,” Dotson said. “So a little piece of a corner or a safety, with a back like we have, can spring a touchdown.”
What has it taken to get this level of buy-in?
“Selfless people,” Sirianni said. “And I think that's exactly what we have there. I think that's the biggest part of it, is loving your teammates, selflessness, and we've had some very big time blocks down the field by our receivers to create some of those huge runs.
“Receivers have a unique ability to change a run from – when it gets through the line of scrimmage and everybody does their job on the line of scrimmage – to turn a 10-yard gain into a 40-yard gain. It's as simple as that: Selflessness.”
After Sunday’s win over the Rams, Barkley now has six runs of 60+ yards this season, which is the most in NFL history. While Barkley has six, the next closest players the NFL this season (Derrick Henry, Jonathan Taylor and Jerome Ford) are all tied with just two apiece.
Barkley has 6 of the 21 runs of 60+ yards in the NFL this season. He’s the biggest home run-hitting back in the league and he appreciates the effort from all of his teammates.
“It’s big. It’s team football,” Barkley said this week. “I’ve said it multiple times. One of my favorite quotes from Coach Sirianni is, ‘You can’t be great without the greatness of others.’ You look at any long run throughout the season, any big play throughout the season, you see multiple guys making big plays.”
The Eagles had one of the best rushing offenses in the NFL this season but that wasn’t necessarily the plan entering the year. Through the first four weeks of the year, the Eagles averaged 33 passing attempts per game.
But during the bye week, Sirianni was approached by a few offensive linemen about leaning on them and Barkley. Since then, the entire offensive approach flipped. After averaging 33 attempts before the bye, they hit 30 attempts just one more time (aside from the Week 18 game without starters) the rest of the season.
In their two playoff games, the Eagles have attempted a total of just 41 passes.
So it has taken a lot of buy-in from their receivers all year. From a selfish perspective, it’s not easy to be a star pass-catcher on an offense that had more rushing attempts than any other team in the NFL. But the formula worked and the Eagles kept winning.
Now, they’re just one win away from the Super Bowl.
Brown on Wednesday was asked if he’s taking more pride in his blocking than ever before.
“Especially around this time,” Brown said. “Because you never know when whoever’s in the backfield can take it all the way, especially Saquon. You don’t know if your block may be the deciding factor on if we score or not.
“We always work on it as a group. It’s a want-to thing. Right now, it’s now or never. It’s whatever it takes.”
Subscribe to Eagle Eye anywhere you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music | Spotify | Stitcher | Simplecast | RSS | Watch on YouTube