"Everybody that was called upon stepped up and made the plays on that drive," offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said yesterday. "There were a lot of big plays in that drive, a lot of important plays."
Mornhinweg said he didn't begin the series, which started after the Giants kicked off following their first touchdown of the day, tying the score at 10, with any grand thoughts.
"Just score," he said, when asked what was going through his mind.
Mornhinweg didn't even plan to be as incremental and time-consuming as he ended up being - "there were three plays called that could have gone down the field," Mornhinweg said, had Young been able to hook up with receivers deep. Mornhinweg said he thought that despite the three earlier interceptions, Young was making the right reads and the right decisions all evening, even if the ball sometimes didn't go where he wanted it.
The Eagles tend to forget the run in times of stress, but Mornhinweg called nine runs on the drive, including a Young quarterback draw in which there was a bunch of room inside, it seemed, but Young tried to turn outside and gained just 3 yards.
That left a third-and-4 on from the Giants' 20 on which Mornhinweg said Young saw Jackson, one-on-one against Corey Webster, with room to maneuver, and wisely tossed the ball over there, even though Jackson did not have the first down when he caught it.
"He had a little air on 23," Mornhinweg said. But Webster almost made the tackle, pulling Jackson backward by the shoulders, until Jackson shook him off and jetted down the sideline 10 yards.
As the Eagles got closer to the end zone, Mornhinweg said, he was cognizant that Giants quarterback Eli Manning has led five fourth-quarter comebacks for victories this season. Mornhinweg said he felt he had to score a touchdown, and he wanted to either scrub some time off the clock or force the Giants to use timeouts.
