It was one of the greatest drives you’ll ever see, and the Eagles didn’t even score.
The Eagles closed Sunday’s 27-13 win over the Steelers with a monster 21-play, 10 ½-minute drive that started at their own 2-yard-line, finished at the Steelers’ 9-yard-line and most importantly ended with all zeros on the clock.
That single drive took up 18 percent of the entire game.
“We’ve been able to do that a couple of times this year,” Jalen Hurts said. “It was crucial. Hats off to Saquon, being able to do that all year in those moments. Kenny (Gainwell) stepping up and making some of the plays he made tonight, not foreign to that at all. And just putting it all together.”
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The Eagles took a 27-13 lead on Hurts’ keeper 43 seconds into the fourth quarter, then the defense forced a Steelers punt with 10:40 left. The Steelers downed it at the 6 and then a personal foul on Jalen Carter backed the Eagles up to the 3-yard-line. A penalty on A.J. Brown moved the ball back to the 2-yard-line.
And that’s where the Eagles started with 10:29 remaining and 98 yards of field in front of them.
“We had 10 minutes at the end of the game right there,” Kenny Gainwell said. “So it's just us playing situational ball and (saying), ‘Let's go out there and end the game.’”
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The drive was a masterpiece.
The Eagles converted four out of five third downs and the one they didn’t convert they got the first down on fourth down.
Hurts was brilliant on the drive, completing five of seven passes for 79 yards, but the biggest play came on a pivotal 3rd-and-6 from the Eagles’ 7-yard-line when he fired a 21-yard completion to A.J. Brown to get the Eagles out of the soup.
He also had completions of 12 and 22 yards to DeVonta Smith and 19 yards to Brown just on that one possession.
Barkley was just 6-for-9 rushing against a stacked box on the drive, but he did have a seven-yard run for a first down, and with Barkley banged up Gainwell took over at the end of the drive and converted the crucial final third down just before the two-minute warning, which clinched the win.
“I remember ending games in that fashion, I can't say specifically (I remember) one that matched it,” Lane Johnson said. “I know it started at the freaking 6-yard line (then) the 3-yard line, and it wasn't pretty, but we ended up making plays and keeping the drive alive. But yeah, I mean, I'm exhausted.”
The NFL has only been tracking drive information since 2001, but during that 24-year period the longest previous non-scoring game-ending drive was 17 plays, which the Patriots did against the Lions in 2002 and the Bengals matched in 2022 against the Falcons.
Officially, it was an 88-yard drive because it technically started at the 3 and ended at the Steelers’ 9 after three Hurts kneel downs. That makes it the 5th-longest non-scoring drive by any NFL team since 2001 in terms of yards.
But the Eagles netted 99 yards of offense on the drive, their most on any drive since they somehow gained 120 yards on a touchdown drive in Atlanta in the 2015 season opener. Their longest previous non-scoring end-of-game drive on record was a 75-yarder in Green Bay in 2013 in a game they won by the same 27-13 score.
And the 21 plays? That’s the most plays the Eagles have had on any drive since at least 2001. The only drive with more plays by any NFL team since 2001 was the Saints’ 24-yard drive against the Panthers in 2007 that ended with Julius Peppers blocking an Olindo Mare field goal.
You know there’s something special happening when the Eagles make history on a drive when they weren’t even trying to score.
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