5 Bright spots in an ugly Week 1 loss for the Philadelphia Eagles
By Hunter Doyle
Big play Slay did his job in his Philadelphia Eagles debut.
There weren’t any interceptions from Darius Slay, but he limited Terry McLaurin, and that’s all that you can ask for from your top cover guy. Last year, McLaurin put up 125 yards and a touchdown in each of his two matchups versus the Eagles secondary.
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On Sunday, he was held to five catches and 61 yards. That isn’t a bad day, but it isn’t anything crazy either. Some of those catches came when Slay wasn’t in coverage or when ’24’ was playing off-coverage.
When Jim Schwartz went with man coverage, ‘Big-Play’ Slay locked up McLaurin. The secondary as a whole had an impressive day, but Slay easily had the toughest task of any of the defensive backs and for the most part, he did what was expected of him.
The Birds are obviously going to need this from Slay every week and it appears he’s ready to do that. By adding him, the Eagles don’t have to sit in zone coverage every down and give receivers cushion like they had to do for the past few years with below average corners.
Next week, Slay will be put to the test once again and will likely be asked to follow either Robert Woods or Cooper Kupp. This was an encouraging start but it will get tougher from here on out.