Philadelphia Eagles stun defending champion New England Patriots, 35-28

November 2nd, 2014: Houston Texans Running Back Arian Foster (23) gets tackled for loss by Philadelphia Eagles Nose Tackle Bennie Logan (96) during the National Football League game, Houston Texans vs Philadelphia Eagles at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX.

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly says that his players must now start believing in themselves after they came from behind to beat New England Patriots on Sunday.

But that would be their last score until a frantic final five minutes, and it was tied up at 14-14 by half-time with Sam Bradford linking up with Zach Ertz for a five-yard touchdown and Najee Goode blocking a punt and returning it 24 yards for another score.

Lavonte David sealed the fourth win in six games for the Bucs (6-6), intercepting Matt Ryan’s pass intended for Julio Jones on Atlanta’s final possession.

That’s when the Patriots receivers dropped three passes in a row to turn the ball over on downs.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick was asked repeatedly about the decision afterwards, but he didn’t want to get into it. “You lose about 98 percent of those games”. For about half of the game – from the middle of the second quarter through the middle of the fourth – the Eagles outscored the Patriots, 35-0, starting with the drive after the drop-kick.

Just eight days removed from talk of an undefeated season, the Patriots’ injuries began to take their toll.

“I just don’t think we’ve found the rhythm that everyone’s grown accustomed to seeing”, Brady said of the offense, which lacks playmakers Julian Edelman (foot), Rob Gronkowski (knee) and Dion Lewis (knee) due to injury.

“We’d love to have everybody healthy”.

“Everything that people said we can’t do — we’ve done before”, safety Jenkins said. “It’s just not the reality at this point”. They gave us a line drive and they gave us space.

But late in the second quarter, the Pats got the ball back and had the chance to march down for a late score and then double dip while getting the ball to start the third quarter.

Quarterback Cam Newton threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to receiver Jerricho Cotchery with 1:05 left to lift the unbeaten Panthers to a 41-38 comeback victory over the Saints on Sunday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. They may be alive in the race for the NFC East title, but, in reality, this team simply isn’t good enough for postseason play. “Of course you’re aware of that”, Kelly said.

The Eagles started one series with a delay of game, having spent too much time huddling on the sideline with Kelly.

Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford threw for only 120 yards, but had two TD tosses without an interception.

White’s 115 receiving yards are the fourth most in Patriots history by a running back in a game, and are the second-highest such total for the Patriots since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, trailing only Shane Vereen’s team-record 153 receiving yards vs. Cleveland on December 8, 2013.

“They just executed so well in everything they were doing”, Patriots special teams specialist Nate Ebner said. “They try to get a quick run and catch you off guard, no matter what the personnel is, and so we were prepared for that”.

But — after opening a big lead — they had to hang on after Kenjon Barner fumbled at the New England 25-yard line with 62 seconds to play. “I think especially after the past couple weeks, I think to go down there and score and keep it close, and then obviously to get the punt return right before halftime or the punt block, that was huge”.

Sproles ran a punt back 83 yards for a score.

The Patriots took a 7-0 lead on a 4-yard pass from Brady to James White on the first play of the second quarter and made it 14-0 when Brady hit Danny Amendola from 11 yards with about 5 minutes left in the half. The very next play, Tom Brady overthrew Brandon LaFell in the end zone and was picked off for the second time of the afternoon. There was absolutely no reason to attempt an onside kick at the early juncture of the game and his team up 14 points. Ebner, who has played rugby in his past, tried a drop kick that didn’t work out and then delivered an onside kick late that was batted out of bounds by Philadelphia.

NOTES: Brady had never in four previous games against the Eagles thrown an interception…. The Patriots had only lost consecutive post-Thanksgiving games twice before in the Brady era, most recently in 2009.

He is now third on the NFL’s all-time touchdown list, trailing Peyton Manning (539) and Brett Favre (508). It was Brady’s first multi-interception game since the Super Bowl.