Jarvis Landry's wacky TD caps big letdown drive for Eagles' D

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Call it a case of dramatic irony.

Most of the 69,596 fans in the Linc on Sunday probably saw the football fluttering high above the field as it made its descent into the south end zone but the one guy the Eagles needed to see it didn’t.

Malcolm Jenkins had no idea.

“No,” Jenkins said shortly after the Eagles’ 20-19 loss to the Dolphins (see Instant Replay). “I kind of turned and looked to where [Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill] was trying to throw it. He was trying to throw it to the guy that [Byron] Maxwell was covering in the back of the end zone and I realized Maxwell was running at me. I turned around and [Dolphins receiver Jarvis] Landry had already located the ball. So then it was just trying to get the ball out.”

The touchdown occurred early in the fourth quarter. Tannehill’s pass was deflected high into the air by the helmet of a charging Connor Barwin. Tannehill was looking for Rishard Matthews in the back of the end zone but once the ball was tipped, it was up for grabs.  

Landry was the one to pull it down.

“It was exactly how we drew it up. The play was supposed to work that way,” Landry joked. “But no, seriously, I do not even know what happened.”

It was pretty clear Jenkins, who had coverage on Landry on the play, didn’t see the ball fluttering down until it was too late (see 10 observations). He tried to strip Landry as soon as Landry caught the ball, but the wideout held on.

"That's kind of how the day went,” Barwin said. “I think it was up in the air for four seconds. It's got to be a pick. But obviously there were a couple plays there where the ball rolled their way. That's football."

That touchdown gave the Dolphins a 20-16 lead, their first of the game.

And they never trailed again (see story).

The wacky score was unfortunate for the Eagles but it came at the end of a seven-play, 87-yard touchdown drive. The touchdown came on the ensuing drive after Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford was knocked out with a shoulder injury and concussion (see story).

A stop would have been big, but instead, the Dolphins charged down the field to take a lead.  

“It’s huge,” Jenkins said of the drive. “Especially [because] the momentum kind of swung right there. They got the big hit on the quarterback, a big stop and we come back out. They get an explosive play. They kind of knew we were going to be in man coverage, they kind of picked somebody on the inside, next thing you know, the guy’s running.

“But even right there, I thought we did a decent enough job to where we were going to hold them to a field goal, had the look that we wanted and then all of a sudden, the ball gets kicked up in the air and they make a play.” 

After Mark Sanchez entered the game for an injured Bradford (see story), the Eagles got a quick first down before the drive stalled. Then, a good punt from Donnie Jones backed the Dolphins up to their own 13-yard line.

The biggest play of the 87-yard drive came on a 43-yard pass from Tannehill to Matthews from near midfield that gave the Dolphins a 1st-and-goal from the Eagles' 8-yard line.

After a defensive penalty, the Dolphins scored the wild touchdown on the next play.

“I think at that point as a team, you see the adversity kind of setting up and you have to settle down and make some stops,” Jenkins said. “And I thought we did that defensively. We just needed a field goal to win it and couldn’t get that done. When you lose close games like that, you start to look back at every little thing that changed the outcome.

"And I think nobody’s probably leaving this locker room feeling like they did all they could do. I think everybody feels like one play here that they missed or could have made, obviously, could have been the difference.”

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