The Philadelphia Eagles came away with the late victory this time around, but they had a frightening moment with their star receiver, DeVonta Smith, that resulted in his helmet flying off and being ruled out with a concussion.
Smith caught a pass from Jalen Hurts in the second half when multiple New Orleans Saints players met him for the tackle, but they initially weren’t able to bring him down.
As they continued to try to get him to the ground, Smith was still churning his legs when defensive lineman Kristian Boyd blindside hit him in a helmet-to-helmet scene that popped Smith’s helmet off his head.
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It was a scary situation that didn’t see a flag on the field for helmet-to-helmet contact, which led to ire from fans on social media, who believed it was a “dirty” hit. Some also believed Smith shouldn’t have been in that incident to begin with, as forward progress was achieved with him running backward with the other Saints trying to tackle him.
Smith was seen lying on the turf after getting drilled in the head, and he would remain there for several minutes as players and coaches hoped everything would be fine as they knelt on the field.
Smith walked to the sideline under his own power and later evaluated for a concussion.
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The “Slim Reaper,” as he’s known to Eagles fans, left the game with 79 yards on seven catches.
This is a significant injury for Philadelphia, which already went into this game without A.J. Brown at receiver for the second straight week as he deals with a hamstring injury.
It’s too early to tell if Smith will clear the NFL’s concussion protocol to be ready for next week’s contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team that beat them in last year’s wild card game.
With Smith out, Hurts leaned on other receivers like tight end Dallas Goedert, who led the game with 170 yards on 10 catches, and Jahan Dotson to finally find some points in the fourth quarter.
The game-winning score came on a two-minute warning play in which Hurts connected with Goedert on a 61-yard catch-and-run to New Orleans’ 4-yard line on 3rd-and-16 after the tight end was left all alone across the field.
Saquon Barkley, who had the critical dropped pass for the Eagles on Monday against the Atlanta Falcons, who shocked Philly on the road, busted into the end zone on the next play to give the Eagles the lead. He would add two more points on a conversion as well.
The Eagles are 2-1 on the season but will be monitoring Brown and Smith heading into Week 4.
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