He did almost everything: touchdown receptions, short grabs, long ones, and catches for first down. There was more. Maclin had a few key downfield blocks on LeSean McCoy carries, and he showed gruff as he continually mixed it up with Falcons defenders.
And then he took a blow to the head on a helmet-to-helmet collision in the third quarter. Maclin had just caught a 16-yard pass from Michael Vick when Atlanta cornerback Dunta Robinson led with his helmet. The collision drew a personal foul penalty.
If the name "Robinson" and the words "collision with an Eagles receiver" sound familiar it's because last season he knocked Jackson out cold with a legal blow. Unlike Jackson, Maclin got up from this hit, although he looked dazed. He went to the sideline and was administered a concussion test, apparently passed and missed only a play.
Before the collision, however, it was Maclin that took a floundering Eagles offense and injected some life into it. With the Eagles down, 21-10, early in the third quarter, Maclin pulled in a short pass from Vick and zoomed 36 yards through a minefield of Falcons defenders and into the corner of the end zone.
It was his second touchdown of the game and was the fifth time in Maclin's short career - 33 games to be exact - that he had a multi-TD game.
The first touchdown was almost as important. Trailing by 7-3 in the first quarter, the Eagles should have had a touchdown when Vick threw to Jackson in the end zone. But the pass was slightly low and Jackson couldn't hang onto it.
He was saved by a Falcons offsides penalty and then by Maclin, who two plays later, made a nifty catch on a pass tossed behind him. The 5-yard score was just another example of Vick looking to his No. 1-A receiver early and often.
