DeSean Jackson’s 14 Seconds To Glory

Eagles defensive tackle Trevor Laws had sacked Giants quarterback Eli Manning to force New York to punt.  The Giants had let the play clock run down to one second before calling a time out.

They had already sent their punt team out onto the field, so they just stood and waited for the time out.  The Eagles punt return team was on the field as well.  DeSean Jackson seemed to talking to himself as he waved his hands in a circular motion as if to say, “kick it to me, I want it”.

Jackson hadn’t returned punts for the most of the afternoon, but he went deep for the last punt with Jeremy Maclin.  That punt was kicked to Maclin who called for a fair catch.

The former Pro Bowl punt returner had been put into the lineup by head coach Andy Reid.  According to Jackson, Reid would get his attention by whistling.  Right after Laws’ sack, Reid whistled at Jackson and told him to “get his butt in there” as the punt returner.  The little wide out said, Reid kept whistling at him even after he went on the field and was waiting for the punt.

“Big Red” was having some fun with Jackson, who seems to do something to allow Reid to let his hair down a bit.  There’s something about Jackson and this team which has allowed Reid to become less stoic and more animated like the guys say he is at times behind close doors.

The refs put two seconds back on the clock, so that there were 14 seconds left when Zak DeOssie snapped the ball to the Giants punter.  On the telecast, Joe Buck made a point to mention that DeSean Jackson hadn’t returned a punt for a touchdown all year just before DeOssie snapped the ball to punter Matt Dodge.

Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman talked about Giants head coach Tom Coughlin and his discomfort with asking Dodge to kick directional punts.  Buck also mentioned Dodge had had a punt blocked early this season and had gone to wearing a glove on his left hand to help with catching the snap.

Aikman said he thought Jackson was going to get the chance to return the ball because of Coughlin’s discomfort with asking Dodge to make directional punts.

It was a bad snap which was high and it probably made Dodge panic because he had to take his eyes off the rushers.  The youngster surely didn’t want to get the punt blocked.  I think it caused him to rush the punt which turned it into a line drive.

Eagles wide receiver Jason Avant came off the ball and got upfield to Dodge’s right.  The sight of Avant in Dodge’s peripheral vision and the high snap seemed to put Dodge in a panic.  He rushed to get the ball off, as if Avant was in a position to block it, which he wasn’t.

Head coach Tom Coughlin said afterwards that he didn’t want the ball to be kicked to Jackson, but that’s just what he got.

The speedy punt returner took his eye off the ball as he waited for it because he was anxious to see what the coverage unit was doing.  He was looking at the coverage when the ball hit off his hands and fell on the turf.  Jackson looked up then looked down and hurried to pick up the football.

The bobble was a mistake on his part, but it setup the return perfectly.  Seeing the ball on the ground had gotten the New York coverage unit to pursue all out to the ball with the anticipation that they might get a turnover.  Unfortunately for them, a turnover wasn’t in the cards, but a big play was.

Dimitri Patterson was Jackson’s personal protector on the play and his job was to pick up the most dangerous Giants defender.  He originally looked to block backup wide receiver, number 84 Duke Calhoun, who was a hawk coming down on the left side, but Patterson changed his mind and picked up a defender on the right.

Calhoun had beaten Joselio Hanson and Colt Anderson but wisely they decided not to pursue him and block him in the back.  It was up to Jackson now to take care of Calhoun.

Jackson took care of Calhoun on his own as he started to retreat to his right, when he gave him a step and head fake to his left.  It froze the big receiver and caused him to dive and extend his arm as Jackson headed back up the gut where he had seem some daylight.

The bobble of the football had drawn all of the Giants coverage unit to Jackson, so you could see that they were going to be in trouble if they let him split the first line of the coverage.

For a split second there were six Giants within five yards of Jackson but they were all going in the wrong way.  He had seen a seam in the middle of the coverage and he was intent on getting through it before door closed.

Within two or three steps Jackson had shifted into overdrive and it seemed like time stood still for a moment.  Joe Buck went silent as he searched for the right words and looked on in disbelief.

This game was over and Jackson was gone.  He was like a blur when he put on the after burners.

Jackson was now clear of all the defenders who had a chance of tackling him and he had the ball raised high above his head, but Buck couldn’t get the words or the excitement out of his mouth.

Jason Avant, who had put pressure on the punter at the start of the play, was not peeling back and looking for would be victims.  He spotted one who had the last shot at Jackson.  It was the guy who started the play, Giants long snapper Zack DeOssie.

Avant came out of the ground on DeOssie and exploded through his legs with his helmet up under the chin of the backup linebacker.   The 212 pound receiver leaped into the chin of the 250 pound linebacker and took him off and his feet and onto his back.

There would be no catching Jackson as he headed towards the end zone.

Like the long touchdown pass a week ago against Dallas, Jackson wasn’t one with just going into the end zone.  He had to stretch things out this time in order to make sure all the time on the clock had expired.  The clock read 00:00, so Jackson went into the end zone and threw the football into the stands.

The game was finished, the Giants were finished and the comeback was complete.

The entire Eagles team ran towards Jackson and mobbed him in the end zone.  Jackson’s helmet was knocked off as he teammates celebrated with pure exhilaration.

Giants head coach Tom Coughlin threw down his head phones and rushed onto the field and started having it out with young punter Matt Dodge.  The young punter tried to ignore him and look the other way, but Coughlin persisted.  How and why had he kicked the ball directly at Jackson?

“Somebody told me that coach Coughlin ran on the field and tried to get his kicker because he was just so pissed that his kicker punted the ball to me,” said Jackson in his post-game news conference. “That just shows how mad he was at that punter.”

After celebrating the return, Jackson and his teammates had to get off the field so that David Akers and the extra-point team could kick the extra-point.  It was anticlimactic but it gave everybody a chance to savor what they had just seen.

The comeback in and of itself was too much to swallow all at once, but to top it off with a punt return for a touchdown with no time left.  Eagles fans were trying to swallow it all night but having trouble believing that something so amazing had taken place.

In a blink, DeSean Jackson had returned a punt 65-yards for touchdown and for all intents and purposes the Eagles had just won the NFC East division championship and secured a first round bye and a home game in the second round of this year’s NFC Playoffs.

Many of the Giants players sat on their bench with a look of disbelief on their faces.  Tight end Kevin Boss and a number of their offensive linemen just sat there as the Eagles celebrated and eventually walked off the field.

Here are some tidbits courtesy of the Philadelphia Eagles:

Triple Threat … Jackson’s punt return touchdown was the fourth of his career. He has now scored a rushing, receiving, and punt return touchdown in each of his first three seasons, becoming just the second player in NFL history to do so (Washington’s Dick Todd – 1939-41) … With 1,112 career punt return yards, Jackson surpassed Larry Marshall (1,086) for third place in team history.

10 Grand … Jackson also became the fourth Eagle ever to have back-to-back 1,000-yard campaigns and the first since Irving Fryar in 1996-97. Mike Quick (1983-85) and Tommy McDonald (1961-62) also did so. Quick is the only Eagle to do so three straight times. Jackson’s 169 receptions are the second-most ever by an Eagle in his first three seasons, trailing only Keith Jackson’s 194 from 1988-90.