This year, Eagles' Halapoulivaati Vaitai makes left tackle debut at FedEx, and survives

LANDOVER, Md. — Unbelievable. Here he was again, trotting onto the field emblazoned with those maroon-and-gold logos, the scene of the greatest humiliation of his professional life, and again, Halapoulivaati Vaitai was going to have to try to do something he had never done in a regular-season NFL game.

Vaitai was an Eagles rookie last Oct. 16, when he started against the Washington Redskins at right tackle for the first installment of Lane Johnson's 10-game suspension.  Vaitai thought he was ready for his first NFL action. He'd had then-teammate Bryan Braman working with him all week, mimicking the pass rush moves of Redskins defensive end Ryan Kerrigan, but FedEx Field was loud and Kerrigan turned out to be a lot bigger and faster than Braman. Four series in, Kerrigan had two sacks of Carson Wentz. Eventually, coaches slowed the carnage with chip block help, but not in time to stop Washington from winning, 27-20.

Sunday, nearly a year later, Johnson was back at right tackle and Vaitai was dressed as a backup. He'd been in the game several times as a third or fourth tight end in power formations when, late in the second quarter, nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Jason Peters raised his hand and shuffled toward the sideline.

In 2016, an extensive stretching routine helped Peters play 97 percent of the offensive snaps. At 35, he still is among the team's three or four most irreplaceable players, so seeing him exit, minutes after top Eagles cornerback Ronald Darby left the field on a cart after gruesomely dislocating his right ankle, was disconcerting.

Last season, if this had happened in a game in which Johnson wasn't suspended, Johnson probably would have moved over to the left side and Vaitai would have gone in on the right, the only tackle position he'd ever played. But this year Vaitai is the "swing" tackle, the guy who fills in on either side for emergencies, after getting left-side work in training camp.

"It's a different ballgame than right tackle," Vaitai said. "It wasn't pretty, but at least we got the win."

Peters returned for one snap at the start of the second half, then came out for the rest of the game, but said afterward he'd merely tweaked his groin and would play next Sunday at Kansas City.

Overall, how would Vaitai compare this outing with last October's?

"Better. Way better," Vaitai said after the Eagles' 30-17 victory Sunday. "I tried not to let [last year's game] get in my head."

One thing Vaitai noticed, right away: While road games are tough for the entire o-line, the right tackle can see the right guard tap the center to initiate the silent count snap. The left tackle can't see diddly.

"Little challenging for a left tackle to time it up," Vaitai said. "As the game progressed, I started to calm down a little bit. But, yeah, there's a lot of things I need to work on."

He was not alone. This was, as center Jason Kelce termed it, a "sloppy" debut for the offensive line. The stat sheet says Wentz was sacked just twice for 9 yards in the opener, but, if you saw the game, you know that isn't even close to the whole story.

"Ups and downs when it came to pass pro; we threw it a lot," right guard Brandon Brooks said, after Wentz dipped and dodged and shrugged aside rushers to complete 26 of 39 passes for 307 yards, two touchdowns and a deflected pick-six interception.

The first touchdown, on third-and-12 from the Eagles' 42 on their first drive, was a case in point. Wentz shucked Jonathan Allen, then dodged Preston Smith, then was hit just after lofting a 58-yard touchdown pass to an all-alone Nelson Agholor. Amazing play. Kind of a train wreck for the o-line.

"The last guy I played with who was able to avoid people like that was Michael Vick," Kelce said.

"He kept that play alive; he's a magician," said Agholor, who began his redemption tour with a career-high six catches for 86 yards.

"There were a couple of blitzes and schemes that we hadn't seen on film," Brooks said.

"We got away with a win. It wasn't pretty. Definitely a lot to improve on," Johnson said.

The Eagles might have missed Peters the most in the run game. Not counting Wentz runs, they gained 35 yards on 11 first-half carries, which isn't real good, but is better than the nine yards on 17 carries runners who weren't Wentz managed in the second half. Overall, including Wentz's four runs for six yards, the Eagles rushed 24 times for 58 yards, 2.4 yards per carry. Their longest run of the day was seven yards by LeGarrette Blount, who lumbered through a hole that looked as if it should have sprung him for 30.

Kelce said the breakdowns were "one guy here, one guy there."

He said Peters is "a hard guy to replace."

"When you have to, you have to, but it's not ideal," Kelce said.

Peters said he probably could have continued, but only at the risk of making the injury worse.

"I didn't want to hurt it too bad the first game of the year," he said.