Carson Wentz and Alshon Jeffery finally connected on a 50-50 ball on Sunday against the 49ers.
Only Jeffery doesn't like the term 50-50.
He calls them 80-20 balls.
"Eighty percent chance I'm gonna catch it," Jeffery said. "Twenty percent chance it's going to be incomplete."
Where did that expression come from?
"That's something I pride myself on," he answered. "That's what I live on."
This season has been somewhat disappointing for Jeffery from a statistical standpoint. He's on pace for just 832 yards receiving, but he hasn't caused a fuss or demanded the football more. He's been a pro.
So the team was pretty happy to see him come down with the ball over a defender and force his way into the end zone for a 53-yard score in the third quarter on Sunday
"Just have patience," Jeffery said. "Good things come to those who wait. I'll just continue to be patient and just keep working. We're 7-1, just have to keep going."
For the first half of the season, it has seemed at times like Wentz and Jeffery haven't been clicking fully. A lot of Jeffery's game is dependent upon chemistry with his quarterback and these two didn't have a ton of time together before the season started.
NFL
Those 50-50 balls (or 80-20 balls) take a level of trust from the quarterback. He has to be willing to take a calculated risk of throwing an interception because he trusts his receiver won't let that happen.
Maybe we'll start seeing more of these types of passes.
"Just let him play his game, I'm going to keep playing my game," Jeffery said. "I'm going to keep working. If it happens that he's throwing it up, giving me a chance, so be it. Hopefully, it'll work out like it did last time. At the end of the day, we just want to stick to our game plan and keep working."
From the time Jeffery arrived in the spring, everyone was eager to talk about his catch radius — the idea that he could catch the ball anywhere around him and even when he wasn't open, he was open.
His former head coach Adam Gase even said Jeffery was the only player he's ever coached that allowed him to tell his quarterback to just throw it up regardless of coverage (see story). He was confident Jeffery would come down with it.
On Wednesday, Wentz said that because of Jeffery's size and ball skills, they're going to give him those types of shots to come down with the ball from time to time.
"The second we got Alshon this offseason, I was like, there are going to be times where that's the case. Give him a shot, let him make a play," Wentz said. "And it was great to see that finally come out Sunday and we expect more of those. They call it a 50-50 ball and we think it's higher odds that Alshon is going to come down with the ball."
Maybe they're even as high as 80-20.