Darius Slay earns NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors after Week 10
Well, they don’t call him Big Play for no reason. As often as we discuss the issues that we all have with the Philadelphia Eagles roster, it can, sometimes, be easy to forget that there are a few guys that this team can hang their hat on as one of its cornerstones. Throw Darius Slay in that category. Quietly, mostly because Philly hasn’t won that often, he’s been crafting a season that has the potential to result in his fourth Pro Bowl nod.
Heading into the 11th week of the NFL season, he’s added 38 total tackles, including 28 of the solo variety, two interceptions, three pass breakups, two fumble recoveries, and a defensive touchdown to his resume.
That touchdown was a beauty as he broke the game open for an Eagles team that desperately needed one at the time. Take a look.
It’s a double #TouchdownTuesday!
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) November 16, 2021
You know we couldn’t leave @bigplay24slay out of this 😉 pic.twitter.com/IdEDId95eX
Darius Slay’s big play was even bigger than it may have seemed at the time.
The best part about Darius Slay’s big plays (pun intended) is that they’re coming when his team truly needs them to happen. This was the period on a sentence that read this way. Don’t forget that, even though the Eagles had stopped the Broncos on 4th down, Denver had some momentum and was looking to put a dent in Philadelphia’s lead.
Had Slay not scored, Philly takes over at their own 22-yard line. Maybe they score. Maybe they don’t. They could have been stopped themselves and been forced to punt the ball back to Denver. We’ll never know now, but who cares?
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Slay helped put the Birds up by 14. The game was never in doubt after that. Darius gave his team a jolt of confidence, but this moment has to be seen as being something bigger. These are the types of plays that turn seasons around and begin winning streaks. Yes, he absolutely deserves the NFC Defensive Player of the Week nod after this one.
Frankly, we believe that DeVonta Smith should be the offensive player of the week after his two-touchdown performance and that K’Von Wallace should be the special teams player of the week after his blocked field goal. We may demand a recount on those two.