The game was far from over but the Eagles ended it anyway.
When the Buccaneers scored a touchdown and added a 2-point conversion early in the fourth quarter on Monday night, the game wasn’t out of reach. They were down 14 points — not an easy comeback but far from impossible.
But they never got the ball back again.
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The Eagles got the ball from their own 25 yard line with 9:22 left in the game and went on a 15-play, 68-yard drive to bleed the clock completely and end the game with a 25-11 win.
“Man, it was pretty crazy, that 9-minute drive — 9 minuted and 22 seconds, I think we got on there,” Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert said. “I don’t think anybody thought that we were going to end the game with the ball in our hands. That’s kind of a ridiculously long drive.”
This was the longest game-ending drive in the NFL since the Saints went on a 15-play drive in 10:25 to finish off Washington 43-19 in 2018.
And this was the Eagles’ longest-game ending drive since they played the Chargers in Week 4 of the 2017 season at the StubHub Center in front of 25,000 people at the soccer stadium. That game ended with a 13-play, 59-yard drive in 6:44 to clinch a 26-24 win.
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Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was on the losing side of that one. He was the receivers coach for the Chargers in 2017.
“It was nice to be on the other side of that for sure,” Sirianni said. “Great job by the O-line, by Kenny (Gainwell), by Jalen (Hurts), big third-down conversion by A.J. (Brown) and Jalen. Dallas (Goedert) had a couple catches in that.
“So, it was being able to run and pass in this scenario. Leaning more on the run, but good job by everybody.”
Sirianni always stresses situational football and this was a big win in that category. Of those 15 plays, 10 were runs and 5 were passes, including a 3rd-and-13 conversion on the eighth play of the drive.
The ProFootballReference drive finder dates back to the 2001 season and this is the second-longest game-ending drive the Eagles have had in that span. The longest was a 9:32 drive to finish off the Packers 27-13 in November of 2013.
“We went out there knowing we were going to use the clock, snap the ball when the shot clock was pretty low,” Goedert said. “You know, it just turned into a 4-minute drive late. O-line did a great job, Jalen did a great job. We ran the ball, passed the ball, everybody stayed in bounds. It was good situational ball by us and it’s always good to end the game with the ball in your hands.”
Here’s a complete recap of the 15-play drive:
1. (1-10, PHI 25) Gainwell up middle for 1
2. (2-9, PHI 26) Hurts pass middle to Goedert for 11, first down
3. (1-10, PHI 37) Gainwell up middle for 6
4. (2-4, PHI 43) Gainwell up middle for 3
5. (3-1, PHI 46) Hurts up middle for 2, first down
6. (1-10, PHI 48) Gainwell left tackle -3
7. (2-13, PHI 45) Hurts pass incomplete deep right to Gainwell
8. (3-13, PHI 45) Hurts pass short left to Brown for 25, first down
9. (1-10, TB 30) Gainwell up middle for 6
10. (2-4, TB 24) Gainwell up middle for no gain
11. (3-4, TB 24) Hurts pass short right to Smith for 5, first down
12. (1-10, TB 19) Hurts left end for 2
13. (2-8, TB 17) Gainwell up middle for 2
14. (3-6, TB 15) Gainwell up middle for 2
15. (4-2, TB 11 Hurts pass short Brown for 7, first down
“I know that is depleting for an opposing team to hold the ball for that long and run it like we did and be efficient and convert on 1st downs and whatnot,” Hurts said.
“Obviously, I’d like to not be in a 4-minute situation at the end of the game and just open it up earlier but we executed well when we had to in that situation.”
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