LeSean McCoy Almost Costs The Eagles A Victory, But Alex Smith Had A Third Turnover In Him

Given the chance to seal the game with a first down, LeSean McCoy went to the ground needlessly a few yards shy of a first down when running on a screen on a 2nd and 13 on the Eagles last meaningful drive Sunday night. It was the opposite of Brian Westbrook’s famed instance of going down on a knee shy of the goal line to keep the clock running. Had the Eagles gone on to lose, McCoy would have clearly been the goat.

Things seemed to line up that way. On the following play, Kevin Kolb’s pass to Brent Celek went incomplete and the Eagles had to give the ball back to San Francisco with about a minute and a half remaining and the 49ers holding one timeout. The narrative of the evening with all lined up: Alex Smith gets his act together after being chewed out by Mike Singletary and responds with two touchdown drives before leading the team to victory at the last minute.

It all played out that way except the last part. In position to at least tie the game with the ball near midfield and about a minute left, Smith committed his third turnover of the night, throwing an interception to Trevard Lindley on a floating desperation throw intended for Josh Morgan. With 49ers fans crying for David Carr at the start of the 4th quarter, it was an agonizing finish for Smith, who seemed close to redeeming his scattershot evening.

[Video courtesy Jose3030]