Dallas Goedert sparks Eagles’ winning drive with a check from Jalen Hurts, an assist from Jahan Dotson
Goedert's 61-yard catch and run in career-high 170-yard performance was the key to the Eagles' late rally to win one in New Orleans. He mentioned how Jahan Dotson helped him.
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NEW ORLEANS — At the behest of A.J. Brown, Dallas Goedert put the cape on for the Eagles on Sunday afternoon.
The Eagles tight end was the lone member of the offense’s primary trio of receiving options left for the closing moments of the team’s too-close-for-comfort game against the Saints. With Brown sidelined with a hamstring injury and DeVonta Smith leaving early with a concussion, it was time for Goedert to play superhero on his own.
He did just that, delivering a 61-yard catch-and-run to set up the go-ahead touchdown in the Eagles’ 15-12 win over the Saints at the Caesars Superdome.
“I never want to let my team down,” Goedert said. “We get the ball with two minutes left and we need a touchdown, that’s situational ball that we work on all the time. We were able to get it done today.”
Goedert came into Sunday with seven catches for 69 yards over two games with a surprisingly limited role in the offense. That changed against the Saints, with Goedert receiving a team-high 11 targets and catching 10 of them for a career-high 170 yards.
“We called his number quite a bit today,” Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts said. “And he showed up. A lot of guys showed up. He had a great moment, I’m proud of him.”
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His most pivotal target came with the Eagles facing an uphill battle on third-and-16 with the game hanging in the balance. Hurts changed plays at the line of scrimmage after a pre-snap motion by Saquon Barkley tipped off that the Saints were in man coverage.
The check would send Goedert and wide receiver Jahan Dotson on a “mesh” concept running intersecting shallow crossing routes. Dotson managed to feign three Saints defenders into each other to clear plenty of space for Goedert, who caught the underneath pass and turned toward the sideline for the decisive 61-yard gain deep into Saints territory.
“I saw Jalen completely operate in chaos,” coach Nick Sirianni said. “... And they executed perfectly, and then Dallas just went. He just turned it on and just went.”
After the play, Goedert said he was slightly disappointed not to score. He was eventually forced out of bounds at the Saints’ 4-yard line, preceding a touchdown run by Saquon Barkley on the next play to give the Eagles the lead with just over a minute remaining.
”He told me if he had my speed, he would have scored, but we ended up picking it up anyway,” Hurts said.
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Goedert said he wasn’t sure at first how he was afforded so much room when he caught the ball. It wasn’t until he watched the replay on the scoreboard that he realized the significance of Dotson’s contribution.
“I looked and said, ‘Where is everybody?’” Goedert said. “And I ran as fast as I could as long as I could.”
“I was able to see it on the replay,” Goedert added when asked about Dotson’s route. “I saw three people just kind of run into each other. That’s what made it work. I try to do what I can do and Jahan got the big assist there. Shout-out to him because without him doing his job, I wouldn’t have been able to do mine.”
Finishing with two catches for 8 yards, Dotson has yet to make a sizable impact in the stat sheet since joining the Eagles via trade just before the start of the season. Still, the 24-year-old said his role in Goedert’s decisive catch is an example of how he can contribute in an offense that typically features several options ahead of him in the pecking order.
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Dotson also said his first few attempts at running the mesh route to spring Goedert in practice weren’t nearly as effective as the one Sunday afternoon.
“It’s crazy, we were running it all week because we knew they were going to play a lot of man,” Dotson said. “And I wasn’t running it right at the beginning of the week. Countless reps during practice, shout-out to [wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead], he was on me about it, and we got it right in the game for two big explosives. It’s really cool to be a helping hand in the game-winning play. That’s kind of my role here: ‘By any means necessary.’ However it has to get done, I want to contribute.”