NEW ORLEANS — Drew Brees against Chandon Sullivan, De’Vante Bausby and Cre’Von LeBlanc went about as well as you’d expect.
The future Hall of Famer, in the middle of his best professional season, torched a bunch of cornerbacks who weren’t even on the Eagles’ roster a month ago.
“It’s tough,” head coach Doug Pederson said. “You put it together, we piece it together, we brought guys up off the practice squad this week to elevate their play and get them in the game. It’s hard when you’re going against a Hall of Fame player in Drew and the weapons they have on offense, it’s a difficult task, but again, we’re not going to hang our heads and we’re going to keep fighting.”
Already down Ronald Darby and Jalen Mills, the Eagles lost Rasul Douglas (knee), Avonte Maddox (knee) and Sidney Jones (hamstring) throughout the 48-7 beatdown. That meant they were down to three cornerbacks who haven’t been on the roster a month.
Here’s when the trio that ended the game arrived to the 53-man roster:
11/17: De’Vante Bausby promoted from the practice squad
11/5: Cre’Von LeBlanc claimed off waivers
10/25: Chandon Sullivan promoted from the practice squad
Of the group, LeBlanc has the most NFL experience. He played in his 33rd-career game Sunday. It was Bausby’s fifth-career game. It was Sullivan’s third. It was career game No. 259 for Brees.
NFL
To be fair, it's not like Douglas, Jones and Maddox were having good games before they left either. They were torched early before the next trio was torched late.
Brees had a passer rating of 153.3, the highest of what seems to be an MVP season. He was likely going to go off no matter what happened in the Eagles secondary … and then a decimated unit was again ravaged by more injuries.
That’s not great, especially against a guy like Brees and in a stadium like the Superdome. The Saints were off and running on that fast track.
“He’s a good quarterback. He did his thing,” Bausby said. “I ain’t gonna lie. Some plays out there we should have made. Back to the drawing board.”
Brees threw for 363 yards, four touchdowns and completed over 73 percent of his passes against the Birds, which is nearly unprecedented. He’s just the fifth player to ever put up those numbers against the Eagles. Although, Ryan Fitzpatrick did it earlier this year.
Things might not get any better in a hurry for the Eagles at corner either. Jones hurt his hamstring as he returned from a hamstring injury that kept him out three weeks. Douglas had a brace on his knee as he left the locker room. And that Maddox injury didn’t look pretty.
“It’s very unfortunate but the injury rate in this league is 100 percent,” Sullivan said. “On any given play, it can be the last play of the season. It’s just the next man up mentality. We just have to go out there and keep fighting with the guys we have and move forward.”
The guys on the roster have no choice but to move forward after all these injuries. But that doesn’t mean things are going to get any easier.
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