PAT SHURMUR said that when the Eagles went into halftime down 17 points and looking lifeless, "the message was, 'Let's go put a fish in the box. Let's get a score, and then get it going.' "
Several large, shiny fish had wriggled off the offensive coordinator's hook in the course of the worst half of football Nick Foles has ever played as an Eagle; last season's Pro Bowl quarterback turned the ball over three times in the first 20 minutes, one under his grand total for 2013. Foles moved and made decisions like he was playing underwater, or under sedation.
Then the Eagles got the ball to start the second half, and they pieced together nine plays, though the pace was herky-jerky and the longest pass went for 9 yards. On fourth-and-1 from the Jacksonville Jaguars' 49, the Eagles hurried to the line, as they have been known to do. The Jaguars, perhaps unsure if the punt team was coming on, or what, had to scramble to get set.
Watching live, it was stunning to see Eagles center Jason Kelce getting to the second level in a blink, blowing up linebacker J.T. Thomas III, the only Jag standing between Darren Sproles and the 49-yard touchdown run that began the Eagles' turnaround.
Replay revealed what Kelce noted afterward in the locker room. Jacksonville defensive linemen Sen'Derrick Marks and Tyson Alualu scurried to line up across from guards Todd Herremans and David Molk, Marks settling on Herremans' outside shoulder. Nobody was in a position to even touch Kelce. On fourth-and-1. He just snapped the ball and sprinted into the secondary.
"I think maybe they got their wires crossed," Shurmur said, noting there was no safety behind the linebacker Kelce took out.
"We had some miscommunication . . . our front [alignment] didn't match the back end, and they got a 49-yard run," Jacksonville coach Gus Bradley said.
"It absolutely caught them off guard," Kelce said. "Once we broke through the hole, it was smooth sailing."
The game shifted right there. Shifted? It did a 180-degree spin toward an eventual 34-17 Eagles' victory, one of the strangest in recent memory. The Eagles' defense, which as head coach Chip Kelly noted, played well all day except for a few bad early pass-coverage adventures, never let the Jags get more than 4 yards into Eagles' territory the entire second half. The Eagles scored again on their next drive, Foles hitting tight end Zach Ertz over the middle from 25 yards. After that, the avalanche toward 34 Eagles points in a row was underway.
So. What do we make of this most entertaining but bizarre season opener? The Eagles hadn't come back from this big a halftime deficit since Dec. 19, 2010, the day of the DeSean Jackson walkoff punt return at the Giants.
Does the fact that Foles emerged from his funk to complete 27 of 45 passes for 322 yards, two touchdowns and an 87.5 passer rating, mean that all's well that ends well? Or did Kelly walk into the halftime locker room thinking, "Jeez, if I had Marcus Mariota I wouldn't be trying to dig my way out of a canyon here."
"We just weren't hitting open receivers. We weren't putting the ball on people," Kelly said. "We weren't running the ball like we normally run the ball. It was everything. Run game wasn't working, pass game wasn't working. Guy calling plays wasn't working. We got it straightened out in the second half, though."
And what of the fact that in the second quarter, the Eagles lost their starting right tackle, Allen Barbre, to an right ankle injury, and Pro Bowl left guard Evan Mathis to a left knee injury? Sources close to the situation indicated an MCL sprain for Mathis, which might indicate about a 4- to 6-week absence. There was no word on Barbre, who was only playing because Lane Johnson is in Texas, sitting out a four-game suspension for using a performance-enhancing substance. This a test for the offensive-line depth that is both early and severe.
Molk, a former San Diego Charger, is here as the backup center. He hadn't played guard in a game since early in his Michigan career. The Eagles have practiced him there a bit, since Kelly generally only dresses seven o-linemen. You have to allow for the possibility two guys might get hurt in a game, though it never happened last season.
"I saw Al on the ground," Molk said.
Then Molk pantomimed looking up and down the sideline: "I'm the only one left. It's just me over here. Then I heard, 'Molk!' I threw my helmet on and went out . . . The first series was atrocious. But we figured it out."
There might be only about three things we can really say for sure after yesterday's long, strange climb to 1-0.
1. Sproles really looks like everything he was advertised to be. He also helped set up the second TD with the first of his two 22-yard punt returns. His quick-hit style was a good fit on a day when there didn't seem to be a lot of the cutback lanes LeSean McCoy thrives upon.
2. The Eagles' defensive front seven looks really, really good, keeping in mind the Jags do not look like a budding offensive juggernaut. Jacksonville managed two rushing first downs and converted one of its first 11 third-down situations. Fletcher Cox managed half a dozen solo tackles and scooped up a Chad Henne fumble for the final touchdown, in what might have been his best game as an Eagle. Mychal Kendricks also notched six solos, a sack and a tipped pass. Henne seemed to have to aim most of his passes around Connor Barwin's upraised hand.
3. Special teams looked darned good, as well. For his first NFL field-goal try, fate dealt Cody Parkey a 51-yarder to tie the score, a minute and 57 seconds into the fourth quarter. He nailed it. Parkey added a 28-yarder, and managed touchbacks on five of seven kickoffs. There were no coverage issues. Brandon Bair, making his NFL debut a few months short of his 30th birthday, blocked a 36-yard field-goal attempt.
"Oh, God no," Kelly replied, when a reporter jokingly asked if that was how he drew up the opener. He said defense and special teams "kept us in it, because it could have been a lot worse."
For a half, it sure seemed like we were going to test exactly how invested the Eagles and their fan base are in Foles. Had events continued along the early path, we'd be listening to talk-radio calls for Mark Sanchez this morning, and hearing a lot of helpful braying from the ranks of the folks who KNEW ALL ALONG Foles wasn't for real. (Even if they would have flayed you for suggesting that a week ago.)
That might be the biggest riddle Kelly has to solve going into next Monday night at Indianapolis: What happened to Foles in that first half yesterday, and how does Kelly keep it from happening again, against a less pliable opponent?
"[Quarterbacks coach Bill] Musgrave talked to him a few times. I talked to him a few times. I can see why he was frustrated. I was frustrated. I think everybody was frustrated," Kelly said. "I heard a few fans that were frustrated, too. Go figure. But they had every right. I was booing myself."
Kelly said he and his staff "weren't throwing chairs or anything during halftime. It was just 'Hey, settle down.' [The Jags] did exactly what we practiced, exactly what we trained for."
Foles couldn't explain himself.
"I just made mistakes," he said. "I really have to get the ball out a little faster. It's as simple as that. It's on me."
Asked what we can take from this game, Foles said: "I think you take a lot. There are going to be a lot of corrections. When you face adversity, what are you going to do? How are you going to respond? There was a lot in the first half. There was a ton. But the big thing I take from this is that I have a great team, great teammates and great coaches. We're going to stick together throughout it and we're going to finish this game . . . We just kept grinding."
Foles was sacked five times, all in the first half, fumbling the ball away twice. He also tossed an interception on first-and-goal from the Jacksonville 5, underthrowing Brent Celek.
"You just have to stick to your fundamentals," Foles said. "You just have to trust yourself. You're your own worst enemy in those times."
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