Jake Elliott was in the middle of explaining how he figures out his range on the sideline when Jalen Hurts walked behind him in the Eagles’ locker room.
Hurts made sure to pat Elliott on the back.
“Big-time f— play,” Hurts said.
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It was a tough play too from the Eagles’ 167-pound placekicker. Elliott drilled a 43-yard kick in the third quarter to extend the Eagles’ lead but was hit hard by cornerback Tyson Campbell, who was flagged for roughing the kicker.
The always-aggressive Nick Sirianni accepted the half-the-distance-to-the-goal penalty and took points off the board in an attempt to score another touchdown as Elliott hobbled off the field.
When the Eagles’ offense failed to get in the end zone to start the fourth quarter, Elliott had to hobble back out on the field and attempt a 28-yard field goal on the same end of the field where a point-after attempt earlier in the game got caught in the wind and took a right turn.
This time, he nailed it.
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That put the Eagles up by nine points in their eventual 29-21 win. It was a gutty performance from Elliott.
“It was big,” Fletcher Cox said. “It was really big actually, especially after he got hit and was banged up. Jake told me, he said, ‘I’m going to fight through this.’ To hear that from your kicker, it’s really big and it really gets you pumped up.”
After the game, Elliott said he felt “good” but acknowledged he still needed to get checked out.
Following the roughing the kicker penalty, Elliott was clearly in some pain but immediately began to test out his leg on the sideline. Based on his kicks into the net, he was able to calculate what type of range he’d be comfortable with and shared that with his coaches.
The 28-yarder was obviously within his adjusted range. But that doesn’t mean it was an easy kick, especially not in the gusty winds at the Linc on Sunday afternoon.
“I mean, it wasn’t easy but we just kind of made do with what we had and just tried to make good contact,” Elliott said. “Knew we probably weren’t going to have a ton of range but just tried to make it good.”
For the season, Elliott is now 4-for-5 on field goal attempts with his only miss coming off a clean block. Elliott was a Pro Bowler last season and he's proven himself to be really reliable. On Sunday, he proved how tough he was.
Eagles punter Arryn Siposs said he thinks it was really just a matter of Elliott keeping his leg warm and loose in the chilly conditions.
Siposs was ready to take over kickoff responsibilities if needed. He doesn’t get a ton of work at that during the week of practice but he’s always ready to go.
He didn’t need to on Sunday because Elliott toughed it out.
“He’s a tough little guy so he’s always going to persevere,” Siposs said. “And when the team needs him he’s always going to be there. Obviously, it was big for us to get that [penalty] but obviously it wasn’t ideal for him coming back out there and kicking another field goal. I’m sure he’ll get treatment during the week and we’ll see how it goes.”
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