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Domo: Eagles' Mathews carries the load vs. Browns

THE QUESTION with Ryan Mathews isn't ability. It never has been. The 6-foot, 220-pound Eagles running back is an impressive combination of speed and power who has averaged 4.5 yards per carry in his career and has had two 1,000-yard seasons.

Eagles running back Ryan Mathews.
Eagles running back Ryan Mathews.Read moreClem Murray / Staff Photographer

THE QUESTION with Ryan Mathews isn't ability. It never has been.

The 6-foot, 220-pound Eagles running back is an impressive combination of speed and power who has averaged 4.5 yards per carry in his career and has had two 1,000-yard seasons.

No, the question with Mathews is, was and always has been DURability.

The man the Eagles are counting on to be their workhorse running back this season has managed to play a full season just once in his six years in the NFL.

He missed 10 games in 2014 with a knee injury and sat out three games last year with a concussion.

He opened training camp this summer on the Eagles' active/non-football injury list after injuring his ankle before camp even opened.

But there he was Sunday, lugging the ball 22 times in the Eagles' season-opening, 29-10 win over Cleveland at the Linc.

And there he was an hour after the game in the Eagles' locker room still in one piece, still feeling pretty good.

Yeah, he was walking a little slowly. But that comes with the territory in this league. Especially after a 22-carry game.

"I feel fine," he said with a smile. "I feel great."

It was just the 18th time in 74 NFL games that Mathews has had 20 or more carries. He finished with just 77 yards and didn't have a run longer than 7 yards. But he was able to move the chains, notching five of the Eagles' seven rushing first downs. He also had a 1-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown run.

The Eagles finished with 133 rushing yards on 34 carries, including an impressive 42 on four carries by Kenjon Barner. That was more than enough to take the pressure off quarterback Carson Wentz in his NFL debut.

"Running the ball in this league takes pressure off of any quarterback," Barner said. "It doesn't have anything to do with Carson being a rookie. Whether we had Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, if we're running the ball and moving the sticks like we were able to do today, it takes pressure off of any quarterback."

Wentz completed 22 of 37 passes for 278 yards and two touchdowns. He didn't have a turnover.

Mathews signed with the Eagles last year after five injury-interrupted seasons with the Chargers.

He averaged 5.1 yards per carry last year, but had just 106 rushing attempts in 13 games, playing second fiddle to DeMarco Murray, who averaged a yard-and-a-half less per carry than Mathews.

The Eagles traded Murray to Tennessee in the offseason, which opened the door for Mathews to be the team's primary running back.

If he can stay healthy.

"Ryan's a strong runner," right tackle Lane Johnson said after the game. "He's physical. He can handle workloads like today and take beatings. He'll be fine."

"He's a guy, if you're blocking a guy and he tries to make a reaching arm tackle (on Mathews), he's going to run right through that," center Jason Kelce said. "It's tough to bring him down with an arm tackle. You always love seeing a running back run as hard as he does."

Don't get too carried away with Sunday's win or the Eagles' ability to run the ball. The Browns are a bad football team. Maybe the worst in the league.

They have 17 rookies on their 53-man roster. They finished 30th in the league against the run last year. And the Eagles still only managed to average 3.9 yards per carry. So there is plenty of room for improvement.

"We wanted to take the pressure off Carson as much as we could," Johnson said. "We had a decent game (running the ball). It wasn't anything exceptional. We obviously can improve."

Said Kelce: "I thought we did a decent job today. It could've been better. We can always improve. But it was good enough today."

Last year, under Chip Kelly, the Eagles were just 18th in the league in run-play percentage. They ran the ball on just 40.2 percent of their offensive plays.

New head coach Doug Pederson is striving for a better run-pass balance. Last year, when he was Andy Reid's offensive coordinator in Kansas City, the Chiefs finished sixth in run-play percentage (46.0).

"When you run the ball it opens things up in the passing game," tight end Brent Celek said. "Our goal every week is to be able to run the ball. I love that we stuck with it today.

"There were times where they did a great job scheming against us. There were times where we just got beat man to man. Ultimately, we did OK. It wasn't great. But we'll get better."

The Eagles scored on their first possession, driving 75 yards on nine plays, with Wentz hitting wide receiver Jordan Matthews with a 19-yard touchdown pass. Wentz threw the ball five times on the drive and the Eagles ran it four times.

On the Eagles' final touchdown drive, they gave the ball to Mathews five straight times.

"We have a lot of good running backs," Mathews said. "We're all ready when our number's called. But it's nice to get in there and start to get a rhythm going.

"You saw (the commitment to the run) down near the goal line. We kept running it, even when they stopped us a couple of times. If we can have success running it, it's going to take a little pressure off of Carson."

"Ryan's a workhorse," said the 5-9, 190-pound Barner, who came into the game with just 34 career carries. "We joked about it with him all week. But that's what he is. He's a big back. He's a big guy who can take the hits and he's explosive."

@Pdomo Blog: philly.com/Eaglesblog