Spurred By Sproles, Eagles Shock Colts With 30-27 Win
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (CBS) — Nick Foles remembers the times he had Darren Sproles on his Madden team. In the short time he's been with Sproles, Foles has noticed the video rendering can come to life, especially after the kind of game Sproles delivered on Monday night.
The veteran all-purpose back exploded for a career-best 152 yards receiving on seven catches, including setting up the tying and go-ahead scores, while rushing for one TD as the Eagles shocked the Indianapolis Colts, 30-27, on a 36-yard Cody Parkey field goal as time expired at Lucas Oil Stadium.
With the win, the Eagles became the first team in NFL history to begin a season 2-0 after trailing by 14 points or more in the second half of each game. It's the first time the Eagles began 2-0 since 2012. It's also the first time in three years that Andrew Luck lost consecutive games in the regular season.
Sproles saved the day.
"He's just so versatile, you see what he does out there, catching the ball out of the backfield, running out of the backfield, the screen game, special teams, he can do so many things," said Foles, who completed 21 of 37 passes for 331 yards and a touchdown, with one interception.
Foles said he was fully aware of all the amazing things Sproles could do, from a point of reference in his youth.
"I used to always play with him back in the day on video games, so yea, I know what he can do, he got me a lot of points when I played with him," Foles said of Sproles. "He's a talented guy and we just to have to make sure we keep giving him the ball where he can do the things he does."
What was so scary is that the Eagles somehow, someway still managed to stay close—despite the fact that they hadn't looked good at all. There was this underlying sense that it should have been worse. Much worse.
Yet with 1:56 to play, the Eagles had the ball at their 40 with a chance to win. They reached that juncture despite 11 penalties for 90 yards, and going 0-for-2 in the red zone in the first half on a night when Foles didn't look sharp again.
"We didn't execute in the red zone, I need to do a better job with that," Foles admitted. "It's good to have that in your arsenal [the ability to come back], to know that your team can stick together through adversity. But do you want go down like this every single week? If that's what it takes, we'll do it, but we need to play better football in the first half. There's a lot of stuff we need to improve on. I missed some throws that could have really helped us out. I need to be a little more accurate and give our guys an opportunity to catch the ball and run with it."
Foles did enough—at the right time. On the Eagles' last drive, his 24-yard completion to Zach Ertz, followed by a 17-yard connect to Sproles set up Parkey's game winner as time expired.
"He's just a special player and the first day we had him it was how many different ways can we get him the football," Chip Kelly said about Sproles. "He's a dynamic football player. He can run it, he can catch it, he can do it all. He's a complete running back who really came up huge for us tonight."
Kelly was pleased with the win, but he still sees flaws in the first half execution. The Colts pounded the Eagles for 102 yards rushing in the first half, but adjusted in the second half to allow the Colts only 67 on the ground.
The Eagles overcame a 17-6 halftime deficit and were down 20-6 in the middle of the third quarter.
The defense changed the course of the game. They forced two turnovers in big moments. Malcolm Jenkins' interception with 5:08 left was the play of the game. The Colts protested that Brandon Boykin had interfered with receiver T.Y. Hilton cutting across the field. When Hilton fell, Jenkins filled the area to haul in Luck's pass. Trailing 27-20, the Eagles then reeled off a five-play, 76-yard drive that resulted in Foles hitting Jeremy Maclin with a 6-yard TD pass with 3:25 to play.
That tied the score at 27-27.
The defense again made a stop forcing Luck into a three-and-out and getting the ball back with 1:56 left. Throughout the game, Eagles' defensive coordinator Billy Davis kept dialing up the middle blitz, making Luck move off his mark and scramble.
While Luck was growing unhinged, the Eagles never wavered.
The pressure of kicking the game winner didn't affect Parkey. Down two scores didn't affect Foles. No one seemed fazed, even behind to Luck, who completed 20 of 34 for 172 yards and three touchdowns. But it was Foles that moved his team in crunch time, and Luck didn't.
"The one thing about this team is that they're really grounded, it just means that we're 2-0, and what I also think it means is we have to execute better on both sides of the ball in the first half," Kelly said. "You're not going to make a living continuing to be down 17 in this league. We have a division opponent coming to our place on Sunday. Hopefully, we got it out of our system."
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