Bell: Resilient Eagles get a win but no love from Bills' LeSean McCoy
PHILADELPHIA — When it was over, after Sam Bradford took a knee to run out the final seconds, LeSean McCoy sprinted straight to the tunnel. There was no glad-handing, no bro hugs, no idle chit chat.
Forget the NFL ritual in the name of sportsmanship. McCoy left Lincoln Financial Field without uttering another word to his former Philadelphia Eagles teammates. Maybe he’ll text them later. In the moment, though, it sure came off like a loser move by a man who could not stand to lose.
“That’s still our guy,” Eagles linebacker Brandon Graham, one of the ex-teammates who spent the afternoon trying to contain the shifty running back, said after the 23-20 victory against McCoy's Buffalo Bills.
“But we wish he would’ve stayed around at the end.”
McCoy wasn’t spectacular in his zero-touchdown return to Philly, but it was a solid performance. He extended his streak of consecutive games with at least 100 yards from scrimmage to seven and committed no glaring gaffes. And he didn’t have a single one of the 15 penalties that derailed the Bills.
But the Eagles knew. It’s a team game, but this was personal.
The Bills didn’t win, which would’ve given “Shady” a last laugh. McCoy is apparently still bitter about the manner in which he was discarded by Chip Kelly in a trade last spring. He's blasted his former coach for getting rid of a number of African-American players and in the days before the revenge game, McCoy reportedly hung up when Kelly called, a rumor Kelly denied.
To lose, too, must have been another wound to McCoy's pride. No wonder he dissed his ex-teammates after the game, just like he did in refusing to shake hands with captains after the coin toss.
“We don’t take it personal,” said Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins. “We know this is a tough game for him. He loved being an Eagle. We know that. So this whole offseason, the trade and everything, it’s been tough on him.
“During the game, I thought he played well. He looked like he was a step faster than I remember.”
As expected, it was an emotional game for McCoy.
“You could see it in his eyes,” Jenkins said. “He was fired up. He wanted to play well, specifically this week.”
Asked if there was any trash-talking with McCoy during the game, Jenkins laughed.
“Shady’s never at a loss for words,” he said. “There was plenty to talk about.”
Yet it turns out, McCoy can be tight-lipped. A media crowd waited at his locker for a post-game reaction. But after getting dressed, McCoy declared: “I ain’t got nothing to say.”
Then he bolted.
It was that type of day, replete with all sorts of messages — non-verbal and group-verbal. When McCoy came out of the tunnel before kickoff, the Eagles’ all-time leading rusher was booed. That in itself isn’t too big of a deal. Years ago, Eagles fans booed Santa Claus.
Yet there was no mistaking that on Sunday, McCoy was the enemy — and it went both ways.
Early in the game, after Fletcher Cox dumped him for a minimal gain, McCoy got up and shoved the 6-4, 300-pound defensive end. On at least a couple other occasions, Cox reached out to help McCoy up after being tackled, but McCoy refused his assistance.
“Great sportsmanship,” Cox said, referring to his intentions.
It’s understandable why Cox — he had a huge game that included eight tackles (two for losses) and a sack — had little to say about the McCoy drama. The Eagles, with a defense that not long ago surrendered 90 points in the span of five days, needed this win to stay in step with Washington and the New York Giants atop the NFC East.
Last week, before Philadelphia sprung the biggest upset of this NFL season by beating the New England Patriots on the road, owner Jeffrey Lurie told the team that he wanted them to play angry. When they arrived in the locker room Sunday, that message was amplified on the black T-shirts hanging in each player’s locker that read “53 Angry Men.”
Sunday’s game was much bigger than beating McCoy’s team. After blowing a 10-point, second-half lead, it was also about resilience and survival.
“Our confidence is through the roof now,” said tight end Zach Ertz, who set up the game-winning field goal in the final minutes with a 41-yard catch-and-run.
Ertz was one of the men of the hour. And he even stuck around to shake hands.
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Follow NFL columnist Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell
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