I had a bad feeling about this game all week (questionable health, bad locker room vibes, playing a tough and well coached team); I clearly need not have worried. Philly battered the Steelers again (the home team has won the last seven in this series by 15.9 PPG), outmuscling one of the toughest teams in the league. The game wasn't even as close as the score made it look as Philly dominated the box score in a manner that nearly defied the imagination (400-163 yardage, 26-10 FD, 40-20 ToP). Let's hit the main talking points bullet-style:
Jalen Hurts gets back on track. Well, we can put the QB worries on the shelf for now; Jalen had probably his best game of the season as a passer today and that against a rock solid defense. The ball got out of his hands quickly and he was accurate throughout . Both Brown and Smith got involved, made big plays, gained 100+ yards and scored. Jalen made some big plays as a runner, none larger than his all-heart Brotherly Shove for the first down on the final drive that basically clinched it. Both thumbs way up.
Philly shows it isn't just the Saquon Barkley show. Barkley was held to "only" 74 total yards, his second lowest output of the season. It's clear that the Steelers set out to stop him, so I'm not holding the relatively low production against him. Some of that, of course, was the fact that missed some time due to what seemed like a mild injury. Hopefully that won't pop up later to haunt him. The REAL story hear is that the Eagles offense can be just fine, even if Barkley isn't running wild.
My word, that defense. I know that Pittsburgh isn't dynamic on offense and was missing its best player, but they were totally strangled today. Those 163 yards were by far their fewest of the season (226 vs. Dallas) and the 13 points were tied for the fewest scored. They didn't even get their initial first down till six minutes were gone in the second quarter. This was Philly's first win against Russell Wilson in seven tries.
Jake Elliott gets his mojo back. Chicken Little hit all three XPs and both FGs, and that didn't count the one that was canceled by penalty. Good for him; hopefully he's moving past his yips.
Another week, yet another clock-killing game-winning drive. I've lost count of how often this team has done this over the last few years, but it seems that Philly can uncork a 10+ play, 80+ yard scoring drive to kill the clock and end the game practically at will. This particular drive wasn't a scoring drive but that hardly mattered; Philly ran the last 10:29 off the clock and totally flipped the field to boot. The Birds drove from their own 3 to Pittsburgh's 8 in 18 plays that had to be excruciating for Steelers fans to watch. In my game notebook I wrote (at the start of the drive): "time for the clock crushing drive; Steelers D has to be worn out by now"; boy, was it, on both counts.
Eagles win AFC North. Last season, the AFC North was easily the NFL's best division. This year, the Birds swept that division, winning the four games by 10.75 PPG. Both Baltimore and Pittsburgh will be in the playoffs and Cincinnati is still hanging around. This was an accomplishment.
Fumble luck goes both ways. The FOX guys couldn't stop pointing out how bad the unforced fumble was for the Steelers; I'm not sure they remembered that Pittsburgh had recovered the games' first three fumbles (a one in eight shot, by the way), or that those recoveries set up both Steeler field goals. Philly needs to clean up their ball security and I'd still say they had the worst of the fumble luck today.
Injury alert. The Steelers were missing their top WR and a starting safety, but Philly was still down Goedert and Brandon Graham. Slay, Dickerson, Barkley, Johnson and Brown all came up lame at one point or another. Jalen played hurt and of course Sydney Brown got rocked pretty good. Hard to say how many if any of these were serious, but this will be a banged up team this week. Wednesday's injury report will be of great interest.
Playoff race update. Detroit's loss today sets up a potential three way tie atop the NFC with them, Philly and Minnesota (assuming the Vikings win tomorrow). The bad news: it looks like both the Lions and Vikings will have tiebreaker advantages over the Birds. The good news: they play each other again before the end of the season and both teams are dealing with even more injuries than Philly is. The tiebreaker math makes things difficult for Philly but by no means impossible; they are very much in play for the top seed. Their magic numbers for both the NFC East and the #2 seed is one, so those are near certainties. I will say one thing that concerns me a bit: we may be heading for a rematch with Tampa in round two, which might not be a good outcome for the Birds. The Bucs look like killers right about now. Still, getting them in Philly for the first time in five matchups in this series gives the Birds an immeasurable advantage. That's certainly getting ahead of ourselves; let's see how the chase for the top seed goes.
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