Darius Slay was so far out of position he’s barely in the frame when you watch the TV replay.
Slay, the Eagles’ six-time Pro Bowl cornerback, gave up the game-winning touchdown catch to Drake London that capped an unthinkable 70-yard, 65-second game-winning drive engineered by 36-year-old Kirk Cousins.
Ballgame.
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“Very disappointed,” Slay said. “I'm definitely (blaming) myself (for) the end of that game. Bleep. I'm hurt with that one, man. That's my guy. That's sure my fault. Eyes in the backfield. I was trying to do more than I should have been.”
The Eagles took a 21-15 lead on Jake Elliot’s short field goal after Saquon Barkley’s drop with 1:39 left.
It took Cousins just four plays in 51 seconds to get down to the Eagles’ 7-yard-line, and on a 3rd-and-5, London – a one-time top-10 pick who scored only six touchdowns in his first two seasons – ran a simple out route to the right.
By the time Slay realized where London was, he was nowhere in the vicinity.
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It was Cousins’s 273rd career touchdown pass and probably the easiest one ever.
According to Stathead analytics, it was the first touchdown Slay has allowed since Week 3 of last year, when Mike Evans got him in the first Tampa game when the Eagles led 25-3.
It’s also the first 4th-quarter game-winner he’s allowed in his 12-year career, according to Stathead.
If Slay makes a play there, the Falcons are faced with a 4th-and-5 and who knows?
“I jumped inside too fast, I had my eyes in the backfield and he broke out,” Slay said. “I bleeped that up bad. That play right there for sure is on me.”
Slay even took the unusual step of posting an apology to Eagles fans on social media soon after the game ended:
Slay doesn’t give up a lot of touchdowns.
He’s played 67 games as an Eagle and allowed 12 now. This was only the fourth he’s allowed at the Linc since joining the Eagles in 2020, the first since Kenny Golladay beat him late for a 25-yarder from Davis Webb in the final seconds of a win over the Giants on the last day of the 2022 regular season with the Eagles up 22-9. That was Webb’s only career TD pass and Golladay’s last career TD catch.
In any case, it was a devastating end to a crushing loss. Cousins went 5-for-6 for 70 yards on that final drive in engineering the fifth come-from-behind win in the final minute in his 13-year career.
One of the previous ones came in 2015 against the Eagles, when his four-yard TD pass to Pierre Garcon with 26 seconds left gave Washington a 23-20 win at FedEx Field after the Eagles took a late lead on a touchdown pass from Sam Bradford to Miles Austin.
Cousins joins Drew Lock, Kyler Murray and Zach Wilson as quarterbacks who’ve engineered comeback wins over the Eagles in the final two minutes during the past 12 months.
“Kirk was making great throws,” Slay said. “Shoot, we’ve got to give your hat to him. He made a lot of great, great throws.”
But the game-winner was just a routine toss to a wide-open receiver.
The kind of play that can't ever happen. But especially in the final seconds with the game on the line.
“Darius Slay is a great corner, very, very savvy,” London said. “Caught him on what he thought it was, and then able to get out there and Kirk put it on the money.”
Slay wanted to make it clear that defensive coordinator Vic Fangio wasn’t to blame for the touchdown.
It was all on him.
“That last play for sure coach put us in a great position for us to make that play,” he said. “I really just bleeped that up. I’ve got to be better on that because I should have made the play.”