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Eagles start game in a Huff

He sets Eagles’ record for opening kickoff with 107-yard run for TD

Josh Huff. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)
Josh Huff. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)Read more

THE BALL sat atop a small black duffel bag in Josh Huff's locker-room stall as players showered, packed their belongings and readied to leave. Four hours earlier, Huff had mimicked spiking that same ball into the Lincoln Financial Field grass, only to gently drop it behind him as he sauntered through the end zone.

"Finally," he later said were his thoughts at that moment.

By Huff's own admission, the first few months of his first NFL season had not gone as he envisioned. Any positives found in his performances were far outweighed by the negatives, the maddening rookie mistakes that had the speedy receiver in the headlines for the wrong reasons.

There was the costly red-zone fumble in the four-point loss at Arizona. The tipped pass that led to an interception at Houston. Last week's whiff on Green Bay punt returner Micah Hyde, followed by the puzzling postgame explanation of the miscue in which he seemed to call out his coaches. Up until yesterday, not much had gone right for the third-round pick out of Oregon.

But 107 yards in 13 seconds pushed all that to the back burner. That was the distance Huff traveled on yesterday's opening kickoff, setting a franchise record and kick-starting the Eagles' 43-24 win over the hapless Tennessee Titans.

"Obviously, we talk about starting fast," coach Chip Kelly said, "but I don't think you can get a faster start than that."

Even before Titans kicker Ryan Succop booted the ball toward the north end zone, Huff said he had his mind made up the game wouldn't start with a touchback. Eagles special-teams coach Dave Fipp, according to several players, had recognized a return scheme that other teams had run on Tennessee, only to come up just short of breaking it. At 1:02 p.m. yesterday, the Eagles employed something similar.

Huff caught the ball 7 yards deep, standing between the "E" and the "A" of the Eagles logo in the end zone. As he charged forward, Brad Smith and James Casey blocked one man, Zach Ertz another and an inside lane opened. Trey Burton sealed off his man and Huff took to the right sideline. He stymied Succop's tackle attempt and laid an impressive stiff arm on safety Brandon Ghee before running the final 20 yards untouched for the score.

Huff's first NFL touchdown broke the franchise mark for longest kickoff return of 105 yards set in 1961 by Timmy Brown. It was the Eagles' 10th non-offensive touchdown of the season, their second of the kickoff-return variety. Those two scores made the Eagles the first team since the 1970 Packers with a pair of 100-yard-plus kickoff returns from different returners, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Eagles' first this season came from Chris Polk, a 102-yard return Week 3 against Washington.

You'd have to go back to Brian Mitchell on Nov. 4, 2001, at Arizona to find the last time the Eagles opened a game with a kickoff return for a score.

And the stiff arm? That was a throwback to Huff's days as a running back, he said.

"Man, that was nasty, wasn't it?" Burton said.

When Huff returned to the sideline following the score, he was embraced by Kelly, also his coach his first three seasons at Oregon. It has become a pregame tradition since his freshman year in Eugene that before every game, Huff said, Kelly asks him if he's scared, to which Huff always responds he is not.

The coach forgot to ask yesterday.

"He was just like, 'Obviously you weren't scared,' " Huff said of his coach's message after the touchdown. " 'You made a play and now that you know you can make that play, continue to make those plays.' I've just got to continue to get better as the season goes along and hope for the best."

Huff, set back earlier in the season by a preseason shoulder injury that cost him the first four regular-season games, still could stand to get more involved in the offense as the season wears on. In seven games, he has just six receptions for 48 yards. He played a considerable number of snaps on offense yesterday, often subbing for Riley Cooper as the No. 2 outside receiver opposite Jeremy Maclin, but was not one of nine Eagles to catch a pass from Mark Sanchez in the game.

Oddly enough, the touchdown was Huff's only kickoff return of the game. Polk handled the other two - Ertz recovered Tennessee's late onside-kick attempt - and amassed 49 yards. Huff and Polk have split the duties this season. The returner is dependent on which kickoff return scheme Fipp calls for, Kelly said. Huff, who also returned a kick for a score in the preseason opener at Chicago, called himself and Polk a "two-headed monster."

"I think [this touchdown] definitely boosts confidence, just to know that I can make those plays on this level, and that my teammates have faith in me to continue to make those plays," Huff said. "Even if I mess up, those guys still have faith in me. I just continue to look forward to getting better."