For nearly three quarters of action on Thursday night, Philadelphia Eagles punter Braden Mann had the best seat in the house as he watched from the sidelines waiting for his number to be called.
With the first eight drives of the game resulting in scores, and the ninth leading to a turnover, there was no reason to think that Mann would have much of an impact on this game against the Dallas Cowboys. Boy, were we wrong.
After a lightning delay that lasted nearly an hour, both offenses stalled out completely, which led to Mann being one of the unsung heroes of Philadelphia's season-opening win.
Eagles' Braden Mann Surprise Star of Philadelphia's 24-20 Win vs. Dallas
The Eagles were forced to punt three times over the final 18 minutes of game action, and Mann made sure that KaVonte Turpin had no opportunities to do what he does best: create havoc for opposing return teams.
After Philadelphia's offense stalled out three times over that final stretch of play following the weather delay, Mann punted the ball three times for 146 yards. While his average of 48.7 yards per punt was impressive, the fact that Dallas did not even have an opportunity to return one of those punts helped put the Eagles in position to come away with the win.
Of Mann's three punts, two of which forced the Cowboys to start their drive inside of their own 20-yard line. The one punt that didn't land inside the 20? That was a 51-yard boom that left Turpin with no options other than to take a fair catch at the Dallas 26-yard line.
Philadelphia's punter flipped the field when the Eagles needed him the most. This put the Cowboys in positions where they had to put together longer drives just to have the opportunity to put points on the board.
While Philadelphia had its own issues on the defensive side of things, Mann's efforts to put the defending champions' rivals back against the wall in crunch time proved significant in the end.
Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley will receive the bulk of the praise following this win, which is warranted given their respective performances. Mann's efforts should not be forgotten, though. The Eagles could have been staring at a much different outcome tonight had he not been as effective as he was.