Eagles Turn the Page Quickly to Thursday Night Date with Texans
PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles are up when it comes to "Thursday Night Football."
Philadelphia's short week is on the road as well and it's not exactly a simple bus trip up or down I-95 either.
It's a 1,500-mile trip to South Texas and a homecoming for star quarterback Jalen Hurts, who starred under his father at Channelview High School, which is about 20 minutes outside of the city of Houston where the unbeaten Eagles will face off with the reeling Texans.
"Let’s do it again. Quick turnaround," receiver A.J. Brown said after a 35-13 drubbing of Pittsburgh on Sunday in which he set career-highs in receiving yards (156) and touchdowns (3).
"We gotta do what’s necessary to get your body prepared. We’re starting it now in the locker room, doing stuff that we have to do to get our bodies ready for Thursday."
Instead of the typical celebratory mood in that winning locker room, it was indeed down to business. Ted Rath, the Eagles' VP of Player Performance, yelled toward one player "recovery starts now."
In the vestibule of the Eagles' locker room cornerback James Bradberry, fresh off another lockdown performance in which he allowed three receptions for 14 yards on nine targets, was in the midst of a massage.
As the double doors swung open a host of Eagles, including Brandon Graham, who is dealing with a sore hamstring, were on stationary bikes peddling away. To the left were several portable back stimulators with Boston Scott loosening up.
"I think we’ve definitely transitioned fairly quickly," Hurts said after tossing a career-high four touchdowns. "We talk about having a 24-hour rule and enjoy it for 24 hours where we don’t have that much time in having a Thursday night game.
"I think the team is going to enjoy it for, I’ll give them like 8 o’clock [Sunday night] or so, after they eat dinner or something like that. But come back [Monday] when we go to the facility, we lock in and attack the opponent that’s in front of us.”
At 7-0 and the only team in the NFL without a blemish, the Eagles are massive 13-point favorites against the 1-5-1 Texans, who are last in the AFC South.
Philadelphia prides itself in winning outside the margins and after Sunday's game, it was a rare opportunity to see that attention to detail in living color.
"It's all about recovery," Sirianni said. "Those guys are in there right now. Because we just have such an unbelievable training staff, strength staff, the trainers, and the doctors, they're in there getting massages right now, eating the right things.
"That quick turnaround is what are we going to do to make sure our bodies are ready to go. Coaches have a short turnaround as well, so we have to make sure that we get the plan together for our guys on a short week and that our guys can go out and execute."
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
