Extra Points: Rams’ Davis knocking down his door

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Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) – Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It” serenaded the Philadelphia Eagles off the field Sunday.

That and a few boos as the Eagles captured one of the least impressive wins imaginable, nearly squandering a 27-point advantage before holding on for a razor-thin 34-28 win over the St. Louis Rams and their former third-string quarterback Austin Davis.

The musical choice was not purposeful but it perfectly summed up this Eagles team, which is 4-1 despite continued subpar play by its Pro Bowl quarterback Nick Foles and All-Pro running back LeSean McCoy.

For the Rams, while it obviously didn’t end the way Davis would have liked, it was clear that the former afterthought moved another step closer to earning his bones as a legitimate NFL signal caller.

Davis clearly outplayed Foles and nearly brought the Rams all the way back before consecutive drops by Austin Pettis in the final minute doomed what would have been one of the great comebacks in history.

The undrafted Southern Mississippi product completed 29-of-49 passes for 375 yards and three touchdowns as he led a Rams offense which outgained the Eagles’ high-powered outfit 466-352.

“I take my hat off to that guy to tell you the truth,” Rams receiver Kenny Britt said when discussing his young QB. “Coming in as a young guy, stepping up each and every day and growing every time in the huddle, you can see his confidence go up. I can tell we will have a good year with him.”

Davis and Co. were ultimately undone by three turnovers and another big play by Philadelphia’s special teams unit, a blocked punt that was brought back for a TD in the first quarter.

“We just showed that week in and week out we constantly shoot ourselves in the foot,” Rams star defensive end Robert Quinn said. “We have to eliminate those (mistakes) if we want to start putting Ws on the board. We do play hard.”

Davis wasn’t perfect by any means, especially early when he looked skittish in the pocket, lacked accuracy and failed to keep his eyes downfield when pressured. As he settled down, though, he continued to make plays and gave Philadelphia all it could handle.

“He was calm and collected and just so focused on what he needed to do,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said. “He was not flustered at all. He took some hits and we have to get that corrected but he can overcome. He knows the position is difficult to play and he can overcome a mistake. I think that’s the mark of a fine young quarterback.”

For players like Davis, if opportunity doesn’t knock they build their own doors.

NFL coaches pay a lot of lip service to the idea of opportunity and it does exist at some point for nearly every player in the league. What isn’t nearly as tangible, however, is real competition, especially when you are dealing with an undrafted player against a high-profile draft pick.

As the undrafted guy Davis was never supposed to get a chance to take a snap as the Rams starting quarterback because Sam Bradford had the pedigree as a No. 1 overall pick.

And to some degree, that’s understandable because first-round picks are selected where they are for a reason. Generally their skill sets are far superior to any undrafted free agent.

However, the NFL Draft isn’t an exact science as evidenced by the fact that there are more undrafted players in the Hall of Fame than No. 1 overall picks like Bradford.

Circumstance proved to Davis’ opportunity with the Rams and he arrived in Philadelphia this weekend as the team’s starter because of an ACL injury to Bradford and another ailment, coupled with ineffectiveness, of veteran backup Shaun Hill.

This was supposed to be the year that Bradford, the 2010 top overall pick, was going to live up to his vast potential in St. Louis although there was no real empirical evidence that was pointing in that direction.

At his height as a player in early 2013, the injury-riddled Bradford was never really anything more than serviceable at the game’s most important position but his reputation had plenty in the organization jumping on their own swords to protect him.

A torn ACL also ended Bradford’s season a year ago and the narrative became “if he can just stay healthy we will have something.”

Nearly 50 NFL starts said otherwise for the former Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma, who has compiled a 79.3 career passer rating in those efforts, a number that would have been more than acceptable if this was the 1970s but not in this pass-happy NFL era in which everything has skewed toward the offense.

When Aaron Rodgers doesn’t ring up a rating over 90.0, observers tend to ask what’s wrong with the Green Bay star, and now that Tom Brady is struggling in the same range of an average Bradford outing, some have already thrown dirt on the three-time Super Bowl winner’s legendary run with the Patriots.

Davis, 25, was actually released by the Rams last September and spent the early part of the 2013 season as a volunteer coach at a St. Louis private high school before rejoining the Rams after Bradford’s first injury.

Now that’s he’s actually gotten a chance on the field, Davis has performed admirably in his first three starts, leading the NFL in completion percentage (72.3 percent) coming into Sunday, and compiling passer ratings of 99.1 in Tampa and 98.0 against Dallas before trumping that against the Eagles by cracking the century mark at 103.7.

Granted that’s a small sample size but Bradford only matched those kinds of numbers 10 times is his 49 starts.

“For me mentally, the biggest thing is just to keep the same approach and keep going at it the way we’re doing it,” Davis said.

So why was St. Louis so high on Bradford before the second ACL injury derailed his 2014 season?

Simple, hope is a powerful emotion and it often interferes with logic.

The Rams should have been thinking about bringing in a legitimate option in an effort to push Bradford and while it’s at least conceivable they would have if he wasn’t the last big-money bonus baby under the old CBA, from talking with people in the organization, you still get the feeling the Rams really believed he was about to turn the corner.

Now that they actually have a quarterback exceeding the expectations they set for Bradford, there’s little belief he’s the answer, at least from management.

But that’s life in the NFL for the undrafted. It’s not enough to build that door, you have to knock it down.

“It’s a bit of a wild ride, but at the end of the day, this team’s looking for me to lead them,” Davis said. “I’m up for that challenge.”

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