Domo: Eagles' Sproles back to old self

DARREN SPROLES was nowhere to be found Sunday following the Eagles' impressive 34-3 dismembering of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

As usual, he proved to be as elusive in the locker room for the reporters who wanted to talk to him as he was on the field for the Steelers' defense.

It's nothing personal. Sproles is a good man. But he has struggled with a stuttering problem his entire life and is uncomfortable talking to the media.

He prefers to have his play on the field speak for him. On Sunday, it spoke volumes.

The 33-year-old running back proved once again that, even at his advanced football age, there aren't many runners in the NFL more dangerous in space than him.

Sproles had six catches for 128 yards and a touchdown against the Steelers. His 128 receiving yards equaled the second most of his career.

All but 15 of those yards came on two spectacular plays - a 40-yard screen pass on the Eagles' first possession, and the coup de grace, a 73-yard touchdown catch-and-run two minutes into the second half that gave the Eagles a three-score lead and essentially iced his team's third straight victory.

"When I first got here (last season), it amazed me watching him," said running back Kenjon Barner, who had a pretty good afternoon himself, teaming with rookie Wendell Smallwood for 121 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

"But now that I've had the opportunity to be around him for a couple of years and be with him every single day and watch him practice, watch him work, watch how he approaches the game, you expect that (kind of performance) from him.

"They were asking me when he caught the ball (on the touchdown) whether there was any point in time during the run when I thought, 'OK, they got him.' I said, 'Absolutely not.' That guy in space, with one guy in front of him (blocking), that's a touchdown every time for him."

During his three seasons with the Saints from 2011 to '13, Sproles caught 232 passes, the most by any running back in the league during that time.

When Chip Kelly acquired him in a trade before the 2014 season, it was assumed he would pick up here where he left off in the Big Easy.

But for whatever reason, Kelly failed to maximize Sproles' pass-catching skills. Doug Pederson isn't going to make the same mistake.

Sproles had just four catches for 32 yards in the Eagles' season-opening wins over Cleveland and Chicago. But he came up big against the Steelers.

On the Eagles' third play of the game, quarterback Carson Wentz threw a misdirection screen to Sproles that, with some terrific blocking help, he turned into a 40-yard gain and a first down at the Pittsburgh 14.

The drive stalled at the 11, but Caleb Sturgis booted a 29-yard field goal that gave the Eagles a lead they would never relinquish.

"We hadn't shown any (misdirection screens) in the first two games," Pederson said. "It was an opportunity to put the ball in Darren's hands. This is a fast-flow defense and a speed defense. We showed a little misdirection off of a play-action pass that we had shown in the first couple of weeks, and it just happened to work."

Sproles got a couple of good blocks from left guard Allen Barbre and center Jason Kelce and did the rest himself.

"He found his way through (the traffic) and then Al had a great block on the first level and I got up to the safety," Kelce said. "And Darren's as good as there is on screens. He's a special, special guy once he gets in the open field."

That was apparent on his 73-yard touchdown catch-and-run. Unlike the misdirection screen pass, it wasn't scripted.

On a third-and-8 from his own 27 early in the third quarter, Wentz, the poised, unflappable rookie who completed 74 percent of his passes, was flushed from the pocket by the Steelers' pass rush.

As he scrambled to his right, Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier, who was covering Sproles, had to make a decision: stay with Sproles or come up on Wentz, who might have been able to run for a first down.

Just as he headed toward Wentz, Sproles broke down the field. The quarterback tossed the ball over Shazier's head to the running back, who weaved his way through the Steelers' defense, leaving flailing tacklers in his wake.

Sproles literally caused Steelers rookie cornerback Artie Burns to sprain his ankle with one fake as he cruised into the end zone to give the Eagles a 20-3 lead at the time.

"That was just a spectacular play," offensive coordinator Frank Reich said. "Maybe one out of 10 guys score with that ball. But that's Sproles.

"I just love him. He's so much fun to coach. You see how hard he practices. He's a dynamic player. That's the thing that sticks out to you - how hard he practices. I'm just happy for him, that he's continuing to play at a high level (at his age)."

Wentz said he was reading the other side of the field on the play when Steelers defensive end Stephon Tuitt stepped across his face. He escaped from Tuitt, saw Sproles break down the field and lobbed it to him.

"We always say that a play is never dead," Wentz said. "Any time that you can put it in the hands of (Sproles), something special can happen on any play."

"I don't think you can teach that," tight end Brent Celek said. "It's just a quarterback and a running back making a play and being on the same page. It was unbelievable. Darren basically turned that into a punt return."

"Sproles is a bad man, a dangerous man," Barner said with a smile.

Sproles also has been a excellent mentor for Smallwood, the talented fifth-round rookie who rushed for 79 yards on 17 carries against the Steelers after getting just three carries in the first two games.

"He talked to me yesterday before we went to the hotel (where the Eagles stay the night before home games)," Smallwood said. "He said, 'Make sure you're in your playbook. We might lean on you this game.' He's been constantly teaching me.

"I can't believe he's 33. He's an old guy."

Old, but still very, very valuable.

@Pdomo

Blog: philly.com/Eaglesblog