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'New time, new era' for DeSean

Plenty of spark, but no handshake from new Redskin

Redskins wide receiver DeSean Jackson. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)
Redskins wide receiver DeSean Jackson. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)Read more

HE CAUGHT a 6-yard pass on the game's second play and was lustily booed. A few plays later, he took exception to a late hit by Malcolm Jenkins, jumped to his feet, pushed, got pushed, drew a penalty and was lustily booed again.

The idea that there would be some sort of fan appreciation for DeSean Jackson returning to Lincoln Financial Field dressed in gold and burgundy? Well, I don't get to do this often, but . . . I told you so.

As he himself said following the Eagles' 37-34 victory yesterday: "Honestly, it's a new time, a new era. I don't see them worry about me. So I don't worry about them . . . "

That, of course, is not true. We worried like hell about him, even if he was playing with a shoulder sprain, playing at what he said later was "85 percent." Even if he refrained from inflammatory remarks in the week preceding the game, and played his first two games as a Washington player without many opportunities, and without the hint of protest or pout.

Even when Jackson was taken from the field late in the third quarter with his team facing a third-and-9 and down by 7, there was no sign of petulance, just a workmanlike jog to the sidelines. At the time, he had caught four passes for a manageable 36 yards, and one of the storylines then, with the Eagles rallying from a 17-7 hole to own a 27-20 lead, was that their defense had at least kept him contained.

But as Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins said later, and we know all too well, "He's a lightning strike waiting to happen and that's why you bring him in." So the very next time Cousins got his hands on the ball, he threw it as far as he could, and the lightning strike that Chip Kelly had no use for ran past Cary Williams and into the void Nate Allen was supposed to be in, and tied the game at 27-all with an 81-yard touchdown reception.

This time the boos were replaced mostly by gasps, as a game the Eagles seemed to finally be gaining control of once again flipped on its head. Earlier Allen had popped Jackson in the facemask during an after-play scuffle, incurring a 15-yard penalty that fueled Washington's opening scoring drive. So as he ran the final few yards into the end zone to tie the game, Jackson did so backward, presumably sharing with Allen his opinions on his coverage skills.

After a backward shuffle, he flapped his arms a few times, and finally added an extra-point kick. "I could remember when I was an Eagle playing Washington a couple years ago," he said. "Did a similar touchdown dance, running backwards into the end zone. It was a spur of the moment type thing."

Yep, spur of the moment. We don't worry about him, he don't worry about us.

Yeah, right.

As Jackson inferred when he mentioned the 3-year contract he signed with Washington, this was just the first of many referendums on the sanity of releasing your statistically best receiver after his statistically best season. And while LeSean McCoy's continued struggles as a rusher have been linked to Jackson's absence, it's hard to make that case on a day when Jeremy Maclin caught eight of 10 passes thrown his way for 154 yards and a touchdown, and would have scored on his own 80-yard touchdown pass if Jason Kelce wasn't so fast that a referee flagged him for a block from behind that didn't really happen.

In all, Eagles receivers caught 28 passes for 325 yards and three touchdowns, and it might have been more had Foles connected with Zach Ertz, Riley Cooper and Maclin on deep balls in which they had slipped behind Washington's shaky coverage.

Separation? There was plenty of separation.

Still, when the game ended and Jackson ran down the sidelines and into the tunnel without so much as a handshake, the debate remained intact. As first-year Washington coach Jay Gruden said afterward, "Anytime DeSean is out there, if you want to put another safety over the top of him it opens up a lot of things underneath for Andre and Pierre and all."

And the truth is that even before Jackson took that 81-yard stroll down memory lane, Pierre Garcon, Andre Roberts and Niles Paul were running unfettered through the Eagles secondary.

Andre Roberts? Niles Paul?

Label them Exhibit 1 and 1A for the "New Time, New Era."

"I'm just playing the game with a lot of energy and a lot of excitement," Jackson said. "I never change that. I just try to do the best I can to spark my team and have everybody else just feed off me."

philly.com/SamDonnellon