Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson are toughness personified as the Eagles pulverize the Giants in the trenches
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Jason Kelce leaned back in his chair as a trainer bent over and talked to him about his quadriceps injury.
“Who needs a quad?” the center joked. “It’s not that important.”
Lane Johnson, meanwhile, wasn’t anywhere to be seen when the Eagles’ locker room opened following their 38-7 shellacking of the New York Giants in the divisional playoffs on Saturday night. The right tackle had played through a torn abductor and was receiving treatment.
Johnson never met with reporters. It didn’t matter. His teammates put into words the courage he displayed.
“He’s a true warrior,” quarterback Jalen Hurts said.
“A machine,” tackle Jordan Mailata said of Johnson, using an expletive as an adjective. “He’s built different.”
Hurts had earned the right to wear a silver medallion with the words, “A Breed of One,” to his news conference. He had played yet again through a shoulder injury. And don’t let his absence from last week’s injury report fool you. He wasn’t close to 100 percent.
Jalen Hurts is the Eagles’ answer to Michael Jordan. Just ask them. And him.
But Kelce and Johnson are in their own right rare breeds. They’ve been stalwarts on the Eagles’ offensive line for more than a decade, almost always at their respective spots, that their durability may be taken for granted.
On a night the Eagles dominated in the trenches, though, it’s only appropriate to salute the heart and soul of the offense: Kelce and Johnson. On the other side of the line it is Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox. The four of them are two wins away from doubling their Super Bowl victory from five years ago. They will at least be back at Lincoln Financial Field for the NFC championship next Sunday.
There will come a time when they are no longer Eagles, though. It’s possible all four aren’t back next season, likely only if they choose to retire.
But the accumulation of injuries, various bumps and bruises, and the grind of playing one of the more physically demanding positions in all of sports will factor heavily into when Kelce and Johnson decide to hang up their helmets. O-linemen are toughness personified.
“Every [bleeper] on that O-line is banged up,” Mailata said. “We just find a way to keep pushing for each other, man. That’s why I [bleeping] love this team.”
Despite the injuries, the Eagles rushed for 268 yards. Hurts was sacked only once in 26 drops and it wasn’t even the O-line’s fault. Giants safety Xavier McKinney blitzed and got around tight end Jack Stoll.
The Eagles weren’t facing pushovers up front, though. Dexter Lawrence is arguably the best nose tackle in the NFL – 6-foot-4, 342 pounds of granite. He anchors the Giants defensive line and Kelce was often responsible for blocking him. And despite his 50-pound disadvantage, the 6-3, 298-pound center won more than his share.
“That [bleeper] is a very good player and whenever you’re playing good players you apply attention to them,” Kelce said. “He’s big, strong, fast. I don’t know if we contained him that much, but we tried to not let him ruin the game.”
Said Lawrence of Kelce: “We had a good little fight. There’s a lot of respect for him as a player. You can watch the tape.”
Lawrence finished with six tackles, but with Hurts (nine carries for 34 yards) again a plus-one factor, the Eagles’ ground game was humming like it had been for most of the season prior to his injury.
Miles Sanders (17 carries for 90 yards) was the workhorse early on, and Kenneth Gainwell (12 carries for 112 yards and a touchdown) finished them off, with career Giants killer Boston Scott (six carries for 32 yards and a score) mixed in.
“The O-line first and foremost,” Sanders said when asked why the Eagles ran so well. “I come up here and say the same stuff, but the stuff that they do throughout the week and prepare with [offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland] is amazing to me.”
Stoutland’s charges also had defensive tackle Leonard Williams to worry about. He didn’t play back in December when the Eagles trounced the Giants and gained 253 yards on the ground. But that’s where guards Isaac Seumalo and Landon Dickerson came in.
They contained him as Johnson and Mailata often jumped to the second level to block the linebackers and create lanes for the running backs. Early on, it was clear that Johnson, who sat out the last two games of the regular season, was battling through something.
“I’ve had a similar injury and I couldn’t play through it,” Kelce said, referring to the 2014 injury that led to the last games he’s missed. “I had to get surgery. He’s playing through a very significant injury and this was the first big test. You can replicate it in practice, but the bull rushes and the anchoring and the quickness and the games — little bit higher.”
Dickerson left in the second quarter for several plays after he dinged his leg. “It’s football,” he said when asked why he was able to return so quickly. Mailata said he hyperextended his elbow when he hit Kelce’s helmet on Hurts’ 5-yard touchdown run just before the half.
He addressed the injury in the locker room and returned after the break.
“I just tucked on an elbow stay for the rest of the game and took some painkillers,” Mailata said. “I’m alright, but we’ll see tomorrow.”
‘Perfect for the city’: Jason Kelce’s greatness born of his passion for life
Kelce knocked knees with a Giants defensive back a few plays earlier. He winced, arched his back and hobbled back to the huddle. It’s become almost a ritual watching the 35-year-old work his way through pain on the field. Imagine how bad it is behind the scenes?
He sprained his ankle earlier this season and downplayed it afterward. But a glimpse at it as he took off his sock in the locker room the following Wednesday revealed a foot that was swollen and several different shades of purple.
“I think it’ll be fine,” Kelce said when asked about the quad. “It’ll be like a deep thigh bruise. You can never tell on these things until the next day.”
He’s played in 185 total games, 147 straight, including the playoffs. He’s been voted to the Pro Bowl five straight years. He’s been named first team All-Pro in five of the last six. He’s a future Hall of Famer who’s still one of the best at his job in the world.
“There’s not many like him,” said Dickerson, who was wearing one of Kelce’s “Underdog” sweatshirts. “It’s insane. I have the utmost respect for him and everything he’s done for himself, this team, this city.”
Philly, a city of underdogs, finds itself in a strange place with the Eagles as playoff favorites
Philadelphia has long shown its admiration for Kelce. Eagles fans aren’t the only ones who don’t want to think about what these last few games this season might mean for the center’s future.
“You try not to think about it, to be honest with you, at least I don’t,” Kelce said. “Three years ago, I remember being very sentimental toward the last game. But I’m still playing. You know, I don’t know when it’s going to be, but I’m just going to enjoy the time that I have while I’m doing it.”
He has at least one more game left.
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