Why Eagles OC Frank Reich Found Rough Night ‘exciting'

By now, you know all the ugly stats.

The Eagles were 1 for 14 on third down.

They had just 37 yards on nine drives in the second half.

They managed just one first down after halftime.

They rushed for just 25 yards after the first quarter.

They turned the ball over twice.

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The Eagles' offense was putrid Monday night against the Raiders. Beyond putrid.

It was so ugly it's easy to forget the Eagles actually won the football game.

And ultimately, all that matters is the W.

Offensive coordinator Frank Reich spoke Wednesday about that lackluster performance and what actually impressed him about the way the Eagles handled it.

"Been there, been through games like that before," Reich said. "The exciting thing is when things aren't clicking, I just know from a lot of years in this business, it always is going to feel like it's the quarterback, but I just always know it's all of us.

"We talk a lot the whole year about (head coach Doug Pederson's) mantra has been ownership. We own the good and the bad. There's been a lot of good to own this year, and we own it together. Sunday wasn't a good offensive performance, and we own that. Coaches, players - we own that.

"But here's the exciting thing to me. I've been on sidelines when things aren't going well, and you think, ‘Oh, geez, here we go again.' But the positive thing about the culture that has been created, the confidence and the swagger that our players have and that our coaches have, is as bad as things were offensively in that game, there was always a sense we were going to find a way to win.

"I didn't care if the defense had to win it for us or if we had to get a return … I don't know, there's something about this team right now that we just feel like we're going to win, and it's not always pretty."

As bad as the offense was Monday night in that 19-10 win over the Raiders, as bad as Nick Foles was, when they needed to make plays, they did.

Foles completed four straight passes on the Eagles' final drive of the game to get into position for Jake Elliott's game-winning field goal.

"I walked over to Nick [before the last drive], and I said, ‘This is it, this is how it works, just be clutch right here,' and he was," Reich said. "It wasn't a great performance. But he goes down and makes three or four perfect throws to maximize the yardage on every throw.

"It's got to be good ball placement on the crossing route, so Nelson (Agholor) doesn't have to slow down for it. Zach (Ertz) is going to the sideline. You need all those five yards on those catches. You don't need three. You don't need the throw to be down or behind him. You need them to be perfect, and he was when we needed him to be. [Then] make a kick.

"That's the fun part about where we're at right now."

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