SUNBURY-ON-THAMES, England - Corey Clement said he felt like a zombie. Zach Ertz said he was delirious. Malcolm Jenkins said the whole team was sleepwalking. And then slowly, gradually, a field full of zombies in shoulder pads turned into a bunch of football players.
The Eagles flew from Philly to London overnight Thursday into Friday, held team meetings at the hotel and then bused to the Hazelwood Center rugby grounds for an early afternoon two-hour practice.
"Today's a little rough, but once we got here and got moving it's like any other day," Malcolm Jenkins said.
"To get off the plane and go straight to meetings and go straight to practice is a little rough. Couple periods go by you feel a little better, get your legs back.
"Everybody's out here sleepwalking, to be honest. Everybody's still asleep. But the little bit of energy we had I'll credit the DJ. Had a nice little playlist of old-school hip-hop. That gave us a little life."
Whatever it takes.
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The Eagles practiced in Philly on Thursday and in suburban London less than 24 hours later.
They face the Jaguars Sunday at Wembley Stadium in the first non-U.S. regular-season game in franchise history.
Sounds like Friday was as much a mental challenge as a physical one.
"Just ignore it," Wendell Smallwood said. "Tell your mind what you've got to do. You've got to come out here and practice and ignore being tired and being tight and just suck it up.
"If you just make up your mind that you're going to do it, it's easy."
Zach Ertz didn't want to hear about London, didn't want to talk about London.
Not with the Eagles 3-4 with three losses in their last four games and in desperate need of a win.
Once Sunday comes around there's no excuses for whether you're tired or not. You've got to go out there and execute and put everything behind you, everything you've gone through during the week. We're facing a really good red-zone defense. It won't be easy. The Jaguars are a phenomenal defense on all three levels. They're probably the best defense we'll face all year.
There's time tomorrow to tour the city if guys want to do that but at the end of the day this is a business trip, the way I'm viewing it. We've got to win Sunday. I don't have time to go out there and be having a great time in London and seeing Big Ben and all the sights. I'm here to win a football game because we're in desperate need right now.
By all accounts, the practice picked up once everybody woke up and turned into a pretty good session.
"It was a great practice," Smallwood said. "Doug (Pederson) said, ‘I don't know why you guys think you're tired, this might be the most energy you've had all year.' We were just out here having fun."
It just took a while.
"Getting off the bus, everyone looked tired, but once we got out here, it looked like everyone was revitalized, re-energized and ready to go," Carson Wentz said. "I'm sure in the next couple hours guys are going to crash pretty good but energy was pretty good at practice."
This is a veteran team with a bunch of guys who were part of the Super Bowl run last year.
They know the situation. They're 3-4. They're running out of chances. They know this week can't be about being in London.
It has to be about beating the Jaguars.
"There were a lot of built-in excuses that guys could have made but the guys battled through everything," Ertz said. "It wasn't easy, but we did it.
"We might have all been a little bit delirious at first, but we turned that fake energy into real energy by the end of practice. I don't think anybody was dragging.
"Guys understanding what's at stake right now. All the external factors, it's not going to matter Sunday."
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