Another game, another win for the Eagles. Sort of a weird one yet again, helped in that regard by the crummy conditions (hot and humid with intermittent rain) and two strong defenses playing uneven quarterbacks. Let's do a few quick hitters on the game's biggest stories:
Philly is 3-0. As critical as I've been of this team, they've outperformed my expectations on the year. I had believed that 2-1 would be the most likely start through three games and they're already out ahead of that. Their +25 point differential is probably better than most would have expected too. Tonight's win was easily their most dominant on the box score (27-12 FD, 472-174 yards, 39-21 TOP). The Birds also had two red zone opportunities that turned into field goals, and two more that resulted in no points; this margin could easily have been twice as large. Some work on RZ offense is needed.
Jalen Hurts questions continue to swirl. Two more picks (and Tampa got their hands on a couple others) do not inspire confidence. Similarly to last week, the YAC ability of his receivers (in this case, AJ Brown) made up a larger portion of the pass offense than usual. There were several off target balls, beyond that. Aikman seemed to think that some of that was receivers running the wrong routes, which is possible but hard to tell from the outside. He wasn't shut down on the Tush Push plays and on the passes to Zaccheaus, his toughness in the pocket really made the plays. His final numbers would have looked better had Brown not dropped a couple touchdowns. By TYP, this was his best game of the young season, although it isn't saying much. Hopefully things move in the right direction.
AJ Brown gets going at last. Brown's 131 total yards exceeded his total from the previous two games combined (108). As mentioned above, his YAC exploits made the difference in the passing game tonight. The two drops (although both were really tough catches) are pretty much the only flaw in an other wise excellent game.
Reddick still without any stats but his presence felt frequently. I noted that he was constantly flying around the backfield creating havoc, but the fact remains that Reddick has been without a sack for the last three games, his longest streak since 2020 in Arizona. The three straight games without a solo tackle is the longest such streak of his career.
D'Andre Swift continues to impress. No scores but his 138 total yards led the team. His 8.1 yards/touch is an impressive figure. Despite basically not playing in the opener, his 322 yards leads the team by a mile.
Up and down evening for the secondary. I thought that both Slay and Blankenship had good games. Slay in particular really limited Mike Evans until the game was largely out of hand, and of course Reed had that pick. Sydney Brown had a couple nice moments in the first half. On the other hand, Josh Jobe landed in my notebook with a lot of negative mentions, and James Bradberry is not a great slot corner (yet). I think they need to find another solution there.
Special teams seem to be stabilizing. The coverage units played well, Jake Elliott remains solid and Britain Covey has average 18.8 yards on his six punt returns so far this year. Time to make him a fixture on this roster for the year.
A few quick hitters. I thought the coaching staff called a really solid game overall... Nick Morrow's safety was all heart on his part, I'm glad he's back on the active roster... The UGA defensive tackles were both rock solid again... It's possible that some of Jalen's earl struggles can partially be explained by some of the situational factors (three straight solid defensive coordinators, two of three on the road in bad conditions)... The Eagles OL deserves a lot of credit as always for their run blocking, but the ridiculous explosiveness of Swift really accentuates the opportunities they get on those plays... Lane Johnson needs to cool it with the early start he's been getting on these plays, that one uncalled false start was painfully obvious (he got at least two steps in before the snap and somehow didn't get caught)... Still waiting on Goedert to get going, they need to throw the ball downfield to him more often... It was good to see big Marlon T get a sack, he's turned into a good player.
Looking ahead: the Eagles have five games before the bye (Commanders, @Rams, @Jets, Dolphins, @Commanders, Cowboys). The Miami and Dallas games are easly the toughest of that stretch, and those are both at home. Philly could easily be 6-2 or 7-1 at the break, assuming the stay healthy and Hurts gets his feet under him. Stay tuned...
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