Darius Slay: Offensive decoy

A few weeks ago, Eagles’ head coach Nick Sirianni joked that Darius Slay has had so much success with snagging turnovers and running them back for touchdowns that they should try getting him some playing time on offense. Apparently that wasn’t all in jest, because they did that exact thing on Tuesday night against the Washington Football Team.

Just before halftime, Philly was back in the red zone and out came No. 2, Darius Slay into the huddle. The cornerback turned offensive decoy set out in motion and distracted the defense just enough for Miles Sanders to break away a 10-yard run.

Sure, Slay didn’t actually get targeted, but the fake play was enough to move the sticks on 3rd-and-2, and the creativity by Sirianni was definitely needed after a rocky (turnover-filled) start by the Eagles. The offense went on to score just a few plays later and tied things up 10-10 with just over a minute until halftime.

After the game, Sirianni spoke to reporters and admitted that with their extra time off — first with the bye week and then the two-day postponement — they had a lot of time to watch a lot of football and were able to implement a couple of new things, like the Slay play. Greg Ward also quipped that Slay did a pretty good job moving around in the offense, and he’s a guy that is definitely going to create distractions.