Eagles Notebook: Jordan Hicks steps up in sub role

JORDAN HICKS, the third-round rookie linebacker from Texas, didn't really picture himself chasing down and sacking Tony Romo with 9 minutes and 44 seconds remaining in the third quarter of yesterday's Eagles loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

Hicks had played strictly on special teams in the season opener in Atlanta. With DeMeco Ryans, Kiko Alonso and Mychal Kendricks manning the two inside linebacking positions, there weren't any snaps for the rookie. Until Alonso suffered an injury to his repaired left knee, and Kendricks pulled up lame with a left hamstring strain, within a few minutes of the first half yesterday.

Suddenly, Hicks and Ryans, the 31-year-old vet who had been easing back from Achilles' surgery, were the inside-linebacking corps, for the rest of the day.

"He got matched up with some tough receivers and backs, but he held his own," Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said of Hicks. "He wasn't nervous, and we didn't have to make any checks or adjustments because of him, and that's good for a rookie . . . He got put in the advanced-course class really early, and he did well."

Hicks, credited with seven solo tackles, gave up a 39-yard catch to running back Lance Dunbar, but that was his only noticeable glitch. Romo fumbled as Hicks slammed him to the ground, the 35-year-old quarterback suffering a broken left clavicle that probably will sideline him for a few months.

"It was a pretty simple blitz. I just came through free, went for Romo," Hicks said. "Next thing I knew, the ball was out," recovered by Fletcher Cox. "I got up and celebrated with DeMeco. (Romo being injured) was the last thing that I was thinking about. I just saw the ball out . . . I was off-the-charts excited. I had no clue."

"I felt it," Romo said. "It has a little bit of a pop to it. Obviously, I've felt it before," in 2010 against the Giants, when he went down Oct. 25 and was unable to return that season. "Your body kind of goes into a little bit of shock and you just have to wait it out for a second, to kind of come back and go get X-rayed, and it is what it is."

Romo said he'll find out today if he broke it in the same spot as in 2010.

"It just usually times up perfectly with body weight hitting you in a certain angle, and your shoulder goes into the ground," Romo said.

Asked about the Cowboys losing Dez Bryant last week to a foot injury, probably for about as long as Romo will be sidelined, then losing him in the next game, Romo said: "I don't think about it like that. Stuff happens. It's the NFL. Things are going to come up."

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was less circumspect.

Asked how he felt when Romo went down, Jones said: "Just about as low as a crippled cricket's ass."

Dallas linebacker Sean Lee, from Penn State, was everything Chip Kelly feared he would be when Kelly warned of his dominance during the week. Lee was credited with nine solo tackles, five assists and a key interception.

"Just a damn good player," Dallas coach Jason Garrett said of Lee, who missed last season with a knee injury. "He's leading our football team."

Of course, as with Julio Jones in Atlanta, Eagles fans might be left wondering why, if you know a guy is dominant, you can't do a better job of scheming to limit his impact. Throwing the ball right at Lee in the end zone would have been one thing the Eagles might have tried harder to avoid.

Outside linebacker Marcus Smith, the Eagles' 2014 first-round pick, was healthy but inactive against Dallas. Might be all linebackers on deck this week for the Jets, though, with swingman Brad Jones moving exclusively inside . . . Sam Bradford was the Eagles' leading rusher, with 9 yards on two carries . . . Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles carried once apiece, for a cumulative minus-4 yards . . . Jordan Matthewscaught six passes for 80 yards and a touchdown but also had a couple of costly drops . . . The Eagles' only first down of the first half was awarded on pass interference. Their first two runs of the second half, after they spent halftime making adjustments, lost a total of 11 yards . . .

The Eagles seemed to have scored a rushing touchdown on the first play following the 2-minute warning, but left guard Allen Barbre, Evan Mathis' replacement, was caught holding . . . Dallas kicker Dan Bailey was flagged for grabbing former teammate DeMarco Murray on the Cowboys' sideline, as Murray turned to return to the field after going out of bounds, but given the way the day went, that was maybe the 20th-most bizarre thing that happened.

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