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The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Buffalo Bills on Sunday by a final score of 23 to 20. The Eagles are now 6-7 on the 2015 NFL season.
The Eagles won the opening coin toss but elected to defer. The Bills started out with the ball on offense first. LeSean McCoy received his fair share of boos as Buffalo took the field. Fletcher Cox sacked Tyrod Taylor on third down to force the punt.
Sam Bradford actually aired it out deep on first down and Riley Cooper actually caught it! Or not. Too good to be true. Rex Ryan challenged the play and it turned out Cooper dropped it. Ryan Mathews got the start at running back but DeMarco Murray came in for a few snaps. Bradford hit Zach Ertz with a nice throw to put Philadelphia in the red zone, and then Darren Sproles capped the drive off with a one-yard touchdown run. Strong start for the Birds.
DeMeco Ryans in coverage on Robert Woods over the middle went about as poorly as you would have expected. A few plays later, Taylor hit Sammy Watkins over the top for a touchdown. Byron Maxwell got burned in coverage and safety Ed Reynolds was too late to get in position to make a play on the ball. Just bad defense.
Nelson Agholor dropped a pass on third down that would have surely moved the chains. The Bills took over and Watkins almost scored another touchdown. The wide receiver was wide open over the middle by Taylor's pass was overthrown. Maxwell broke up a pass intended for Watkins on third down in order to force a punt.
After Bradford's pass for Huff over the middle went incomplete, the Eagles had to punt. The Bills' returner muffed the return, however, and Bryan Braman jumped on it for a recovery. Philadelphia couldn't capitalize at first. Jason Peters left the game and Dennis Kelly had to come in at left tackle. Kelly committed two straight holding penalties. Then Bradford hit Agholor deep with a really good throw for a touchdown. That was the first of the rookie receiver's career. What a quick turnaround.
Buffalo's next scoring drive was highlighted by a 28 yard run from McCoy. The Bills moved into the red zone but had to settle for a short field goal.
The Eagles answered with a field goal of their own right before the end of the first half. Caleb Sturgis drilled a kick from 45 yards out to give Philadelphia a seven point lead.
The Birds got the ball on offense to start the second half. The Eagles moved into scoring range but Ertz dropped an easy pass on third down to force another Sturgis field goal.
Maxwell got beat by Robert Woods to allow a big Buffalo gain. The Bills moved into field goal range and had to settle for a kick. Buffalo took over again after an Eagles three-and-out. An unnecessary roughness penalty on Riley Cooper gave the Bills good field position. A Taylor run on third-and-long, while Vinny Curry was being tackled, put the Bills in the red zone. From there, Mike Gillislie scored on a 19-yard touchdown run. Tie game.
Bradford threw his first interception in a long time early in the fourth quarter. He hit Brent Celek perfectly in the hands along the sideline but Leodis McKelvin stripped it away as they were going to the ground. Just an incredible play by the defender. Not Bradford's fault at all. The play was reviewed and it looked like the ball might have been loose but the officials upheld the call.
The Eagles defense got a stop and Darren Sproles returned a punt 28 yards to put the offense in a good spot. And then the offense couldn't do anything with it. Three and out.
Chip Kelly burned a challenge and wasted a timeout on a catch made by Watkins along the sideline. Bad decision, but the Eagles defense came up with another stop anyway.
Bradford hit Ertz for a big catch and run down the sideline. Josh Huff got hurt on the play after running into Corey Graham. The Eagles moved into the red zone and had a chance to convert on 3rd-and-4 but Agholor dropped it. Sturgis nailed the short field goal to give the Eagles a narrow lead.
Philadelphia's defense came up big by forcing the Bills to go three and out. The Eagles offense responded with a three and out of their own. Bradford took a sack for a big loss on 3rd-and-6 instead of throwing it away. Really dumb play.
The Bills got the ball back with one timeout. They didn't do much. Taylor threw a deep ball but it was picked off by Reynolds. Great redemption play to end the game.
After the game, McCoy was the first player to run off the field. He received loud boos from Philadelphia fans.
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Stay tuned for much more Eagles-Bills postgame coverage.