Saquan Barkley outplayed Derrick Henry, Philly's defense played bend-don't-break to perfection and the Eagles took down Baltimore for the first time since 2012! Here's a few of the main talking points:
Eagles' D clamps down hard. The Ravens gashed the Birds for scores on their first two drives and got up 9-0. After that, the Birds limited the Ravens to three total points until the game's meaningless final drive. That's 169 yards and three points on EIGHT drives. That's the offense that some were comparing to the Greatest Show on Turf. That's without key starters in Graham and Slay, not to mention the injury to Blankenship. Obviously Justin Ticker getting the yips helps out (seven points off the board) but even so, the only other team to keep Baltimore below 20 has been Pittsburgh. Baltimore's 372 total yards is their second lowest output of the season, and again, that included 70 yards gained in garbage time. Hats off to Fangio.
Eagles' offense does just enough. I really can't remember too many special plays on offense (Philly as a whole only gained 252 yards) but they did just enough, and more importantly, finished drives (not counting the final drive, Philly finished with three touchdown drives to Baltimore's one). Perhaps most importantly, no turnovers.
Braden Mann was arguably the team's MVP. With Barkley mania at fever pitch, no one is going to want to hear that the punter may have had the most important effort, but Mann's two punts pinned down inside the five may have rescued the defense, which at the time seemed about to teeter. Between that and Tucker's struggles, the Bird's special teams advantage may have won us this game.
Speaking of Barkley... Saquan's record setting pace took a hit today, but in some ways today's effort (107 yards and a score) should be held in greater regard than some of the monster games he's had earlier this season. Baltimore came into today with the league's second best run defense (77.9 YPG) and Barkley still got over the century mark, the first player to do that against the Ravens this season. He outgained his main rival for OPOY (Henry), who was held without a score by the Eagles' D.
The breaks go both ways. Much will be made of Barkley's fumble that was recovered on the final drive as a lucky break for Philly. The same will be said of Tucker's meltdown. Frankly, I don't think I want to hear about it. What's lost in the fumble conversation is that Baltimore fumbled FOUR times and recovered all of them (a statistical improbability). We could also talk about the officiating, which I will charitably call "biased". I think Jalen Carter was held on nearly every passing play and Baltimore was never flagged for it. Speaking of Carter...
Jalen Carter may be the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year. That's the post. He likely won't win the award (not enough counting stats), but few players have elevated their team's play more than Carter so far. The remarkable stat CBS showed of Carter's 114 consecutive snaps played speaks to his conditioning issues being in the rear view mirror, and while we need to wait to see what his snap count was for today but my guess is that it was high.
Philly is in a better spot than they were last year. Last season's twelfth game was a nightmare, the 42-19 loss to SF. Today was another matchup against a physical Super Bowl contender on the first Sunday of December, and it went a little better.
Injury alert. This is more good news that bad, to be honest. As mentioned above, Philly didn't have Graham or Slay. Devonta Smith tried to play but couldn't go either, and Blankenship left with a concussion. Covey, Goedert and Mitchell all were nicked up at one point or another. Why is this good news? Because Philly prevailed in spite of it all. The replacements all played well (Isaiah Rodgers especially made a few nice plays). I haven't heard if any of the new injuries from today are serious but there's no reason as of now to think they are.
Beware the trap game. I'm a little concerned about the possibility of an upset against the Panthers this coming week. Their last four games have been remarkably competitive (wins over the Giants and Saints, and pushing the Chiefs and Bucs to the limit). Hopefully Philly can stay focused and won't be caught looking ahead to the Steelers.
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