The Bills’ offense was on the field against the Eagles’ defense for 95 plays on Sunday, the most plays any team has run in any game all season — and an exhausting day for the 10 players who were on the field for every single one of those plays.
But Eagles safety Reed Blankenship did a lot more than the rest.
Blankenship was also on the field for 21 special teams snaps, giving him a total of 116 plays on Sunday, the most any NFL player has played in one game in more than a decade.
“It’s a lot of snaps, but if my name is called upon, whatever it is, however many snaps, I’m up for it,” Blankenship said, via NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com. “I know they trust me as a player and as a person. It doesn’t matter what I’m asked to do. I love the game so much, I’m up for anything.”
The Eagles were coming off a short week after their Monday night win over the Chiefs — and Blankenship played 90 snaps in that game. Blankenship often plays every defensive snap, but the Eagles have recently increased his special teams workload.
“I can’t speak enough great things about Reed Blankenship,” special teams coach Michael Clay said. “Going into the game, we weren’t anticipating him playing all those special teams plays, but talking to him on Saturday night, saying, ‘Hey, you may have to play these,’ he didn’t bat an eye. Ready to go. That just shows the determination that Reed Blankenship has. It shows the level of endurance he has to play at such a high level, not just on defense but also on punt and on kickoff. He’s our captain of our punt team. It’s just something that you’re in awe of as a coach.”
It was an awesome display of toughness from Blankenship, playing 206 snaps in a week.
