Eagles' Defensive Star Turns Hustle Into Opportunity

PHILADELPHIA - There's a turning point to every NFL game.

On Thursday night in Philadelphia, it took Zack Baun pushing himself to 20.68 miles per hour to generate it for the Eagles in what turned into a 24-20 division win over the Dallas Cowboys.

Per NextGen Stats, that's how far the needle was pushed by the 6-foot-3, 225-pound All-Pro linebacker to run down ex-Eagles running back Miles Sanders to turn what looked like it was going to be a 60-yard touchdown run to put the Cowboys back in front with just over six minutes left in the third quarter.

The relentless pursuit and hustle by Baun stopped Sanders at the 11-yard line, and four plays later, defensive tackle Byron Young and rookie linebacker Jihaad Campbell combined to strip Sanders of the football before cornerback Quinyon Mitchell recovered.

Neither team scored again before or after a 64-minute lightning delay, and the Eagles escaped with the 1-0 record.

Relentless Effort

"I think what an effort played by Zack Baun on Miles' long run," Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. "That was our message all week, relentless effort. When you're more susceptible to miss tackles or the ball being on the ground, you need your teammates back. Zack had our team’s back right there. I mean that's a seven-point tackle, really at the end of the day, is what it is, because then a couple plays go by and we force the fumble after that.

"So great effort."

“It was hustle,” Baun said. “That's something taught at practice every day. Running to the ball. That’s been my game: hustle to the football."

Baun has done nothing but make plays since arriving from New Orleans with the reputation as a core special-teamer and occasional edge rusher. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio saw much more than that and Baun ultimately developed into one of the NFL's best defenders last season en route to a Super Bowl LIX championship.

The start to the sequel lived up to the original with Baun recording a team-high nine tackles, and a brilliant pass breakup in coverage down the field on talented Dallas tight end Jake Feguson that may have saved another TD.

“It’s something I really worked on in the offseason,” Baun said of his coverage abilities. “I had a couple of those opportunities. For a linebacker, it’s few and far between that we’re carrying receivers, tight ends and running backs down the field like that. Last year, I felt like that was a part of my game that I needed to get better at. I did that.

"And it was cool to showcase that in a game.”

The cooler moment was when the Defensive Player of the Year finalist chased down Sanders, who topped out at 19.29 mph. Baun was even able to give himself some time to try to punch the football out from Sanders before finally bringing the veteran RB down.

"Hell yeah," Campbell said when he was asked if he expected Baun to run down Sanders. "... He does it in practice. Run to the ball. Even if the whistles blow. ...And even a running back like Saquon [Barkley], he's running down the field. Z is still chasing him just to get that conditioning, to get that muscle memory in his brain and that's something that I admire what he does in the game."

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