Cooper DeJean’s last playoff win made him a ‘folk hero’ in his tiny hometown

Even when Larry Allen can’t find something to watch on TV, the high school football coach knows that one of his favorite shows is always a click away.

“My wife makes fun of me when I put it on,” Allen said.

Here it comes again: Cooper DeJean — the Eagles rookie — breaking tackles in November of 2020, running laterally across the field, and weaving his way into the end zone to win the state title for an Iowa high school with an enrollment of 300 students.

DeJean blocked an extra point, scored the tying touchdown, and then bounced off almost every defender for the winner. It all happened in a dizzying two-minute span. The kind of YouTube video that never gets old.

“It’s just something to see,” said Allen, the coach at OABCIG High. “It’s so special.”

DeJean, if he starts on Sunday for the Eagles against Green Bay in the wild-card round, will be the youngest Birds defender to start a playoff game in 30 years. He doesn’t turn 22 until Super Bowl Sunday.

» READ MORE: The Eagles’ defense is the best reason to believe they can win the Super Bowl

But he has not looked this season like one of the NFL’s youngest players. If his rewatchable high school championship — DeJean’s most recent postseason win — is any evidence, the rookie will be ready for the spotlight of the postseason.

“You just see the kids on the other team and you wonder how he didn’t get tackled,” Allen said. “I bet they’re watching the same video and thinking ‘Gosh, I should’ve done this or that.’ He just did some things there that I don’t think anyone was anticipating he could do.”

Nick Sirianni was asked this week how some of his young defensive players would handle the pressure of playing in the postseason. The head coach said they played in big games before and pointed to DeJean’s experience playing for Iowa against rival Iowa State.

“These guys have been playing in these their entire lives,” Sirianni said.

DeJean played in front of nearly 70,000 people in college with Iowa but those games weren’t any bigger for his no-stoplight hometown of Odebolt (population roughly 1,000) than that state final against Van Meter.

The movie theater aired the game as did the bars and restaurants in the five rural towns — Odebolt, Arthur, Battle Creek, and Ida Grove — that feed OABCIG High School. The pandemic caused DeJean’s team to play in an empty stadium 155 miles away but they knew everyone back home was tuned in.

“It’s the kind of thing that brings small towns together,” Allen said.

» READ MORE: How Cooper DeJean’s ‘first love’ of basketball helped set him on a path to the Eagles

And DeJean’s performance that afternoon — practically willing the Falcons to their second straight state crown — is the kind that turns teenagers into small-town celebrities.

“There aren’t too many kids walking around our communities who don’t have a Cooper DeJean jersey from Santa from Christmas this year. Myself, included,” Allen said. “It’s just pretty special. He’s kind of that folk hero for everyone. It’s hard to even fathom that that kid played for us here and now he’s doing the things he’s doing.”

The Eagles didn’t draft DeJean to play quarterback, which he did for OABCIG. But they did trade up in the second round last year to grab DeJean because of his natural ability to make plays. And that’s what he’s done as a rookie, impacting games the same way he did in high school.

“He just plays with such intelligence,” Allen said. “I think that’s something that can’t be understated. How much he understands the game. He takes his God-given ability, which is pretty darn good, and then combines that with his intelligence and it makes him so much better.”

» READ MORE: Eagles-Packers film breakdown: What Vic Fangio’s defense can expect from Matt LaFleur in playoff opener

He’s been excellent against the run, went viral for tackling Derrick Henry, and held his own against Ja’Marr Chase. DeJean and fellow rookie Quinyon Mitchell helped solidify the NFL’s No. 1 defense. He missed most of training camp with a hamstring injury, played sparingly in Week 1 against Green Bay, but soon assumed an important role as the team’s nickel corner.

“I almost cringe at thinking back to where I was as a player earlier in the season,” DeJean said. “Just how much I’ve grown as a player. I’ve started to understand things more and be more comfortable on the field. That first game, I had so many things going through my mind. I’m a lot calmer now.”

He did not allow a TD this season when targeted and received the highest grade among NFC corners from Pro Football Focus. The quarterback from OABCIG sure looks like an NFL cornerback. Not bad for a 21-year-old.

“He’s in the big leagues,” Darius Slay said.

Van Meter’s extra point would have put DeJean’s team down nine points with a few minutes left, seemingly a death knell for OABCIG. But they weren’t done yet.

“He just came off the edge,” Allen said as DeJean blocked Van Meter’s extra point. “He claims that he didn’t even think about it. It’s one of those deals where Cooper was just being Cooper. He’s just doing his own thing sometimes and we allowed him to do that. My assistant told him on the sidelines that he kept it an eight-point game and that’s when it hit me that we had a shot.”

OABCIG got the ball back and DeJean scored on a 4-yard TD to tie the game. Van Meter fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Cooper scored the go-ahead touchdown with an incredible 19-yard touchdown that was compared that day by the Des Moines Register to Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl.

“It was supposed to be a running back play to the right,” Allen said. “He decided that he liked his chances better, I guess. I think if he hands the ball off, the kid scores himself but we trusted that most of his decisions ended up positive for you. You just had to trust him.”

The touchdown is so unlikely that it’s worth re-watching time and again, allowing yourself to think that maybe this will be the time DeJean gets tackled. Nope. He jukes a defender, fools another, breaks a tackle, runs to the opposite side of the field, and sprints into the end zone. It’s better than flipping through the channels.

“It made everyone understand that he’s a pretty special athlete,” Allen said. “When he comes back in the offseason, people are just going to flock to him. Everyone in Northwest Iowa knows where Cooper is from.”