Eagles TE Celek on tear since Week 9

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It happened almost overnight. Going into Week 6, Brent Celek was just an afterthought in the passing game. Since then, hes played like an All-Pro.

Celek, the Eagles fifth-year tight end, continued his late-season resurgance Sunday with five catches for a career-high 156 yards and a touchdown in the Eagles 45-19 win over the Jets at the Linc (see story).

Celek gave the Eagles a 14-0 lead with a 26-yard touchdown, and his 73-yard catch-and-run down to the one-yard-line set up LeSean McCoys second TD of the game, which extended the lead to 35-13 early in the third quarter.

Vintage Celek.

Hes been playing excellent, said LeSean McCoy, who ran for 102 yards and three TDs (see blog). His yards after the catch, after the contactits unbelievable. Just the way hes been playing lately. Coach (Andy) Reid always tells me that when we get myself going and we get Brent Celek going, were hard to deal with.

There are so many guys youve got to worry about now. The run game. Or it might be the deep threatall the fast guys we got. You got Celek going, making things happen across the middle. Its energythe way he plays with energy, breaking tackles, the extra effortit kind of gets everybody going.

In the first five games this year, Celek had nine receptions for 73 yards and no TDs.

The last nine games, he has 45 catches for 600 yards and three TDs.

What happened?

I dont know, Celek said. Sometimes, things happen. I think early on, they called my number a few times and we just were real unlucky coverages. For whatever reason, time after time after time, things just kept happening. Sometimes you just go through stretches like that.

Whatever the reason, Celek is back playing the kind of football he played in 2009, when he fell just 29 yards short of 1,000.

Getting huge yards after the catch. Running over linebackers. Trampling safeties.

The more me and Mike (Vick) play together, the more we understand what each other is doing, Celek said. Michael is getting to know how I run, and I think were developing a pretty good rapport.

Celeks 156 yards are the most by any Eagles tight end since 1965, when Pete Retzlaff had 204 yards against the Redskins.

His 73-yarder from Vick was the longest pass play to an Eagles tight end since Jim McMahons 73-yarder to Keith Jackson against the Giants in 1991.

Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said the Eagles went into the game Sunday planning to get Celek the football.

This game yes, this particular game, Mornhinweg said. But there have been other games where its a little bit cyclic. There were many earlier in the year where it was designed for him and the ball went elsewhere because of coverage, typically.

This game, there were a couple more, and we got the right coverage, and Mike was able to get the football to him.

On his 26-yard TD, Celek batted the ball to himself before plowing into the end zone.

It was a good throw by Mike, but I couldnt quite dig for it, he said. I was able to tip it to myself.

Celek is as popular as any Eagle simply because of the way he plays the game. He never lets the first guy tackle him. Or the second guy. He battles for every yard, every foot, every inch, and thats been the case since he got here as a rookie backing up L.J. Smith in 2007.

Celek said he grew up admiring Jerome Bettis and tried to model himself after the former Steelers running back.

He never let one guy tackle him, he said. I try to put that in my game. I think it fires guys up. When youre getting extra yards, fighting for it, not letting one guy bring you down, it gets the team going and crowd going. Thats what I want to doI want to energize this team, get em going.

E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com

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