Chip Kelly, running all things of all of football for the Philadelphia Eagles has been a really bizarre experiment through five weeks of the NFL season. But sometimes things go just right, as they did during week three in an upset victory over the New York Jets, and then they did this past week as well, as the Eagles flew high over the New Orleans Saints. While much was probably made over Kelly's offensive genius and the 519 yards of offense, lost in the shuffle was the brilliant performance by Fletcher Cox.
He was in a tie for the team lead in tackles for the week with six. But most impressive is the fact that he had three sacks against Saints quarterback Drew Brees. He also had another three quarterback hits in the game as he was going through the Saints offensive line like water going through a spaghetti strainer. Quite possibly more impressive though is that he had two forced fumbles, and then was able to recover one of them for himself.
One of the fumbles was when the Saints had the ball and were going to start their two minute drill, and it led to a field goal by Caleb Sturgis. That gave the Eagles a 10-7 lead before the half and all the momentum.
The second forced fumble came in the second half, as the Saints had originally tied the game up at 10, but then the Eagles had retaken the lead by getting a touchdown by Ryan Mathews on the ground. After the ensuing touchback, Cox sacked Brees, and recovered the football at the Saints 13 yard line. It only took one offensive play as Brent Celek would catch a touchdown pass from Sam Bradford. That made the game feel out of reach early in the second half as a 10-10 tie quickly turned into a 23-10 lead for the Eagles (Sturgis missed one of the extra points).
All in all, Fletcher Cox was the one who got the Eagles defensive back flying in the game and probably helped rejuvenate the offense as well. It was incredibly smart for the writers of VAVEL USA to reward him as their Defensive Player Of Week Five.