Kenny Britt, Kerry Collins Send Eagles Pass Defense Reeling

by David Elfin

Filed under: Eagles, Titans, AFC South, NFC East

Philadelphia had won 22 straight games when leading at halftime. But the Eagles had also blown almost all of their huge leads -- at Detroit in Week 2 and at San Francisco in Week 5 -- before holding on to win each game by a field goal.

Sunday, those two trends collided with disastrous results at Tennessee as the visiting Eagles extended their lead to nine points with less than 14 minutes to go only to have the Titans score 27 points the rest of the way to win 37-19.

"We had the game," said Eagles linebacker Ernie Sims. "Just to see us go down like that, I know we're better than that."

Maybe part of the problem is that the young Eagles (4-3) thought they were better than they were after winning four of their previous five games including a decisive 31-17 victory over previously soaring Atlanta last week.

"We learned a crucial lesson from this that can help us the rest of the season," said Eagles coach Andy Reid, whose team will return from this week's bye on Nov. 7 with Michael Vick, out the past three games with torn rib cartilage, back at quarterback. "You have the opportunities to put a team away, you have got to do it.

"You can't give good teams an opportunity to survive when you have their back against the wall and we did that."

Reid rued his team's 10 penalties and the offense having to settle for two short field goals as well as the fumble by backup quarterback Kevin Kolb at the 3-yard line late in the third quarter, but Philadelphia's real downfall was its pass defense.

The Eagles held Titans superstar running back Chris Johnson to 2.8 yards per carry, but receiver Kenny Britt burned them for seven catches, an NFL season-high 225 yards and three touchdowns, including the 80-yard bomb from backup quarterback Kerry Collins that launched the comeback.

"For a guy to continually catch the ball, over and over, I have got to do something better from a coaching standpoint and obviously the players need to do a couple of things better, too," Reid said.

Britt burned cornerback Ellis Hobbs and free safety Nate Allen on the long touchdown.

"It was a soft two(-man) coverage," Hobbs said. "I think it was a seven route. That coverage is supposed to shift over as we see that. I have to hold off the seven a little bit longer for Nate to get over the top. It was just one of those days for me ... that every time you roll the dice, you crap out. The coverages I'm normally covering right, the plays I'm usually making, it just wasn't there today."

Allen, Philadelphia's top draft choice who has been having a fine rookie year with three interceptions, blamed himself on Britt's first touchdown.

"Just got out of position and he made a play," Allen said. "That was all me. We just have to make plays when we need to and a lot of that (today) was (on) me. When they started clicking with (Britt), I'm pretty sure they just decided to keep going at him. He was hot."

 

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