MILES SANDERS

‘Something Special': Eagles Run All Over Packers in All-Time Rushing Performance

Eagles run all over Packers in all-time rushing performance originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Miles Sanders seemed legitimately surprised to find out he set a career high in rushing yards on Sunday night.

“I did?” Sanders asked. “I didn’t know that.”

He probably could have guessed it, though.

Because the Eagles didn’t just have a good rushing game on Sunday night. They had an all-time performance against the Packers in their 40-33 win.

The Eagles rushed for an astounding 363 yards, the second most in franchise history and the most since they had 376 yards in 1948 against Washington.

That was 74 years ago.

“I give all the credit to the O-line today,” Sanders said. “We almost broke the franchise record. We were shy about 20 yards. It shows that we can do this day in and day out. The guys up front are something special.”

Sanders became the first Eagle since Shady McCoy in the Snow Bowl of 2013 to have 140+ rushing yards and 2+ touchdowns.

While Sanders had a career day with 143 yards on 21 carries, surpassing his previous career high of 134 set earlier this season, he wasn’t even the Eagles’ leading rusher. That honor went to Jalen Hurts, who had 157 yards on 17 carries. Hurts set the record for rushing yards by an Eagles QB, crushing the previous mark of 130 set by Michael Vick.

Hurts and Sanders becomes the first pair of Eagles teammates to each have 130+ rushing yards in the same game.

Sure, some of Hurts’ rushing yards came on scrambles but there were plenty of designed runs. And even if you subtract his 157 yards, the Eagles still rushed for over 200 in this game. That’s insane.

Sanders had 143, Kenny Gainwell had 39 and Boston Scott chipped in with 24. The Eagles averaged 7.4 yards per rushing attempt on Sunday against the Packers.

This is the kind of game offensive linemen dream about.

“So much fun,” left tackle Jordan Mailata said. “So much fun.”

What makes it so much fun?

“Imposing your will on others,” Mailata said. “The simple saying of moving a man against his will from Point A to Point B. In the trenches, that’s a real thing and we love that.”

The Packers played tough until the end of the game but it was clear that the Eagles running attack wore them out. The Eagles held the ball for over 35 minutes and ran 79 plays to the Packers’ 49.

As Jason Kelce spoke to reporters at his locker after the game, he sported a green Stoutland University t-shirt in honor of Eagles offensive line coach/run game coordinator Jeff Stoutland, who deserves a ton of credit for the all-time rushing performance.

Sanders said the work the offensive line puts in during the week is apparent and he can sometimes hear the ever-animated Stoutland yelling from the adjacent meeting room.

“We’ve been with Stout for a while, me and Miles, man,” Boston Scott said. “And I know Miles shares the same sentiment. Stout, we’d run through a brick wall for that dude.

“He is such a technician and his attention to detail. He will study every single clip, every single play for the pass protection the run game and he’ll put us in the best situation to be successful. I can’t say enough about that dude. He is one of the best coaches I’ve been around.”

Packers head coach Matt LaFleur was asked about all the rushing yards his team gave up in the game and first pointed at missed tackles. But then he allowed that the Eagles have one of the best offensive lines in the league to go along with a “great scheme” and “great players.”

What makes the Eagles such a dangerous team — and what makes Hurts such a dangerous player — is that they can beat you in different ways. There will be games when Hurts throws the ball all over the field and A.J. Brown goes off. But there will also be games where they’re happy to ground-and-pound their opponent into submission.

There’s no question the Eagles did that to perfection on Sunday night.

“That’s one of the things you really appreciate and I appreciate about a strong running performance is that it’s usually a very (big) team effort,” Kelce said. “It takes everybody in sync and everybody doing their job and being focused and locked it. Great performance. Happy to be a piece of it.”

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