Skip to content
Eagles
Link copied to clipboard

Eagles Notebook: Eagles' Ertz gets 1st TD in homecoming

Rookie tight end Zack Ertz gets a key score in front of friends and family.

Eagles tight end Zach Ertz (86) celebrates with tight end James Casey after Ertz caught a 15-yard touchdown during the second quarter of an NFL football game against the Oakland Raiders in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)
Eagles tight end Zach Ertz (86) celebrates with tight end James Casey after Ertz caught a 15-yard touchdown during the second quarter of an NFL football game against the Oakland Raiders in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)Read more

OAKLAND - Zach Ertz was going to score a touchdown sooner or later, everybody sees the second-round rookie tight end's talent. It just happened to come in his ninth NFL game, with more than 20 friends and family watching from the O.co Coliseum stands, about a 20-minute drive from where Ertz grew up in Danville, Calif., and less than an hour from where he played in college, at Stanford.

"This is the first time I've been back in the Bay [Area] since I left for camp in July, so it was a lot of fun to be out there . . . Scoring here was really special," said Ertz, whose 15-yarder after a Nick Foles scramble might have been a pivotal moment in yesterday's 49-20 Eagles victory, if there can be such a thing in a blowout.

The Raiders had just scored their first touchdown, making it 21-10 midway through the second quarter. They had plenty of time to get back into the game. But Foles, whose concussion 2 weeks ago clearly left him under the impression he is Peyton Manning, led the Eagles 80 yards in eight plays. On third-and-16 from his 14, Foles hit DeSean Jackson for 17 yards, and five plays later Ertz was hugging the ball in the end zone, and Oakland wasn't coming back.

"I ran a post-corner," Ertz said, on a day when the Eagles used more two-tight-end sets than usual. "I wasn't in the initial read, actually, against that coverage, but Nick made a huge play scrambling and then finding me in the corner of the end zone."

Ertz' five catches for 42 yards were a career high.

Logan's run

With Isaac Sopoaga traded to New England, as expected, third-round rookie Bennie Logan started at nose tackle for the Eagles, Logan's first career start. The Birds got decent pressure on Terrelle Pryor without continual blitzing, and Logan was part of that.

"Going into the game, we knew that if we stopped him and the running game, we pretty much had this game," Logan said. He said chasing Pryor was "something you don't want to do every day. He was fast, and he had a long stride on him."

Mychal Kendricks shadowed Pryor and did a solid job while the score was still close. Pryor and the Raiders really racked up the yards once the score got out of hand. Pryor left late with a knee injury that apparently was not serious.

Birdseed

Tackle Jason Peters and cornerback Bradley Fletcher left the game with pectoral injuries, but both said afterward the injuries were not serious . . . Only Peyton Manning, Y.A. Tittle and Nick Foles have thrown seven touchdown passes in a game without throwing an interception . . . Safety Patrick Chung (shoulder) was active yesterday, but Earl Wolff got his fifth start in the last six games . . .

Foles' 158.3 passer rating was only the second perfect rating by an Eagle, after Donovan McNabb's 158.3 on Sept. 23, 2007, the day of the blue-and-yellow uniforms, at Lincoln Financial Field, against Detroit . . . Foles has thrown for 13 TDs and no INTs this season . . . Riley Cooper's 63-yard touchdown catch was a career long for both Cooper and Foles . . . Cooper was the first Eagle with three touchdown catches in a game since Kevin Curtis on that aforementioned day of the blue-and-yellow unis . . .

Chip Kelly said Brandon Boykin handled kickoffs and DeSean Jackson handled punts because Damaris Johnson (ankle) didn't practice all week . . . Bryce Brown's 32-yard run was the longest against the Raiders this season . . . The Eagles went 4-for-4 in the red zone.

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian