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Ralph Vacchiano
NFC East Reporter
For two weeks, A.J. Brown has seemed to be in a bit of a mood. He refused to speak to the media. He wasn’t having an impact on the field. And his body language, as caught on camera in particularly disappointing moments, was a terrible array of slumped shoulders, angry looks and shaking heads.
There was nothing wrong, he insisted when he broke his silence in Philadelphia on Wednesday. He was just as frustrated as the rest of the slumping Eagles. But he finally realized that it was all becoming a very bad look.
“I felt like I was doing the right thing as a captain by not compounding the negative with the negative,” Brown said. “We were going through tough times, and I didn’t want to continue to be negative. It took me a couple days to realize my teammates are answering questions on my behalf. I can speak for myself.”
He’s right, but his silence wasn’t the real problem for his teammates. What the Eagles need from Brown right now is to remember that his actions speak much louder than his words.
Halfway through this season, Brown’s actions were huge. He was on a record pace, riding an unprecedented streak of six straight games with at least 125 yards receiving. He was so dynamic, so unstoppable that he was being mentioned as a fringe candidate in the NFL MVP race.
Since then, he’s mostly disappeared. He’s had one game with more than 100 receiving yards (114 in a 42-19 loss in San Francisco). He’s had less than 70 yards in five of his last eight games, including a one-catch, eight-yard shocker in a win at Kansas City. He hasn’t caught a touchdown pass since Nov. 26. Jalen Hurts only threw to him five times in the Eagles’ crushing, 35-31 loss to the Arizona Cardinals last Sunday.
Brown went from averaging 7.5 catches and 117.4 yards per game in the first eight games, to just 5.6 catches and 56.5 yards in the last eight.
The Eagles survived the start of that slump. But they’ve missed him a…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/dominant-a-j-brown-would-make-everyone-in-philadelphia-happy-again
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Publish date : 2024-01-05 15:46:11
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