Last week, pass rusher Jaelan Phillips recorded three solo tackles as the Miami Dolphins lost 28-6 to the Baltimore Ravens.
Week 10 was a little different for the defender.
Traded to the Philadelphia Eagles before the NFL trade deadline, Phillips wasted no time acclimating to his new team. The pass rusher had a pair of standout defensive plays as the Eagles won a hard-fought 10-7 game against the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football. The win moved the Eagles back to the top spot in the conference, giving Philadelphia an inside track to the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
For Phillips, it was an emotional night.
“I just felt super grateful,” said Phillips after the win. “This is the first time in a while that I’ve gotten a little emotional before a game. Obviously, this stage, and coming here. It’s my first time at Lambeau [Field], walking out through that tunnel. I mean it doesn’t get better than that. Definitely grateful. Felt amazing energy from the guys.
“It was just an air of confidence and everybody played together. We had a great game, honestly, it was super gritty. Grateful to be here for sure.”
Phillips found a way to contribute early in the game, pressuring Jordan Love on this play early in the first quarter. Phillips drove right tackle Zach Tom into the quarterback’s lap, forcing Love into scramble mode. While Phillips did not get home on the play, fellow pass rusher Jalyx Hunt did off the opposite edge:
It was one of his seven pressures on the night, leading all Philadelphia defenders.
But his biggest play came late in the contest.
With the score 10-7, Green Bay faced a pivotal 4th-and-1 situation with under two minutes remaining. With the ball on the Packers’ 44-yard line, Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur kept his offense on the field, and they tested Phillips and the rest of the Eagles’ run defense.
They were ready:
Quite literally, the Eagles were ready. As the brilliant Justis Mosqueda at Acme Packing Company noted, the Philadelphia defense was calling out the inside zone running play before the snap. Interior pressure from the Eagles’ defensive line forced Josh Jacobs to try and bounce the run to the edge, where Phillips was waiting to punch the ball out, and the Packers turned the ball over on downs.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni pointed to that play when speaking after the game:
“Obviously, you guys saw it. It felt like he was very disruptive,” said Sirianni. “The rush was active all game from all parts. We did a good job of rushing as a unit.
“That fourth-down play, I think, signifies that physicality that the man has. I think about his week of practice and how he goes about his business. Man, he loves football. He loves working. You can just see the way he was running around at practice, his motor is constantly, constantly running, just pushing to get better. It was a really big impact that he made tonight for his first game as an Eagle.
“I’ve got to look at the tape, but he did a lot of good things that you could see.”
Philadelphia general manager Howie Roseman was looking for a big impact when he traded for Phillips prior to the deadline. It was one of a few moves Roseman made to try and improve the Eagles defense, along with trades for cornerbacks Jaire Alexander and Michael Carter II, and coaxing Brandon Graham out of retirement.
But Phillips was the cornerstone of those moves, and last night, he showed exactly why.
