How do you fully appreciate 60 minutes of great Eagles football at a single glance? You don’t. You go back and review the game again, and then maybe do it a third time, and then you step back, and you start at the top: The Eagles played their best football game of the season – maybe the best in a couple of seasons – in the 37-17 win over Cincinnati on Sunday.
Before we jump ahead and focus on Sunday’s game against the 2-6 Jacksonville Jaguars, let’s clean out the notebook and address some of the best of the best things that helped push the Eagles to 5-2 for the season …
1. Jalen Hurts: A brilliant performance
Hurts accounted for four touchdowns – 3 on the ground and one on a 45-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith that, according to Next Gen Stats, traveled a career-long 59.3 yards in the air – was extremely accurate throwing the football, ran when he had chances, and was just … about … perfect. His level of comfort in the offense clearly is rising as it all evolves together. He has gone three games without a giveaway and the Eagles are 3-0 in those games, during which Hurts has completed 42 of 59 passes (71.2 percent) for 614 yards, 4 touchdowns, and zero interceptions. He has also rushed for 92 yards and scored 5 touchdowns in those wins over Cleveland, New York, and Cincinnati.
“Jalen puts the work in. That’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough – how much he loves football, how much time he puts into this game, and that’s what you want from one of your leaders on this team,” Head Coach Nick Sirianni said. “We were able to look at some of the things we were inefficient at, things that we’re good at. He just puts so much work into it. You’re the product of how you practice. I know you guys only get to see a portion of practice, but he’s been practicing his butt off. I don’t know if the ball on Thursday – the long practice – I’m not sure the ball hit the ground. It’s the work. There is no secret to success. It’s your habits, it’s your work ethic. Same things it took to win this game is the same thing it takes next game. It takes what it takes.”
One noticeable difference with the scheme of the offense is the increase in Hurts taking snaps under center the last two weeks. Hurts said it is something he is comfortable doing and that it makes a difference in the offense.
“I think it does a lot. I think we’re able to be the imposers,” he said. “I think that says a lot about what you are offensively. There are multiple ways to impose. You can do that from a gun (shotgun formation). You can do that in the pass game. You can do that in the run game, in the action game – whatever it is – as long as you’re in full control. So I think that’s more so mentality that we’re trying to develop and push. It’s about what we do, not about what anyone else does. It’s easy to do that when you go out there and everybody’s on the same page and having a like-minded vision. I think it was a great showing on the road.”
2. 12 plays, 85 yards, more than 7 minutes off the clock late
You may have already been celebrating a big lead on the way to a 20-point victory, but the Eagles put together a terrific late-game drive after coming up with a spectacular tip-drill interception from safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson to give the Eagles possession at their 15-yard line and Philadelphia scored a touchdown on the drive to make it a three-score game. They demonstrated an impressive, physically punishing approach to the drive, using linebacker Ben VanSumeren as a fullback to spring Saquon Barkley for two runs of 11 yards and 5 yards and the Eagles were on a roll. Barkley carried 7 times for 57 yards on the drive, Hurts went to Smith twice for 16 yards and once to tight end Grant Calcaterra for 11 yards and then Hurts scored from 1 yard out to increase the lead. It was brutal perfection.
“I think we have a physical football team,” Sirianni said. “And the team that we just played, they’re a really good football team. They’ve won a lot of games. That was awesome to be able to do that and be able to get points off of that and take the time off the clock. Well executed. That was a great job by (offensive coordinator) Kellen (Moore) and Jalen executing. It’s not the easiest thing. We were taking off the clock and an unbelievable job by our run game, and we threw the ball where we needed to. Good job there.”
3. Isaiah Rodgers steps in and steps up
Darius Slay went out of the game with a groin injury and Isaiah Rodgers stepped in and made the play of the game to set up that great offensive drive. He tipped a deep pass down the right sideline intended for wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase into the field of play right at Gardner-Johnson, who made the interception for the takeaway. It was spectacular and a huge play for Rodgers, who was signed by the Eagles after being suspended by the NFL and subsequently released by Indianapolis for violating the league’s gambling policy prior to the 2023 season.
For Rodgers, the play was a huge welcome back.
“We just have to keep on going,” he said. “You know we’re going to go into the film room. We’re going to see what we did wrong. Because it wasn’t a perfect game out there. So, we are definitely going to celebrate this moment just for the day and keep on going forward.”
4. Saquon Barkley: Some perspective
Barkley had 22 carries for 108 rushing yards, and registered his second consecutive game with 100-plus rushing yards. Barkley has recorded 100 or more scrimmage yards in six of the first seven games of the season for the second time in his career, having previously done so in 2018. In the process, he became the third Eagle to produce 100-plus scrimmage yards in six of the first seven games of the season, joining LeSean McCoy (2011) and Wilbert Montgomery (1979). McCoy, by the way, will be inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame at halftime of Sunday’s game against Jacksonville.
5. Miscellaneous stats that mean something
- The Eagles were 3-of-5 offensively in the red zone and 3-for-3 in goal-to-go situations. There has been a steady improvement in this category for the offense this season.
- Philadelphia committed just 4 penalties for 40 lost yards, again, a hidden number that means a lot.
- Missing left tackle Jordan Mailata and right guard Mekhi Becton, along with tight end Dallas Goedert, the Eagles did not allow a quarterback sack and Hurts took advantage with his huge game.
- The offense averaged a healthy 6.7 yards per offensive play and Hurts averaged a nice, fat 11.8 yards per pass attempt. The offense didn’t have any fumbles and didn’t give the football away and the result was scores on 7 of 8 possessions and a lot of momentum heading into Sunday’s Hall of Fame (and Kelly Green) game against the Jaguars.
