You've likely seen the statistics, which were hard to believe until you looked them up: the Eagles had never won a game in Cincinnati. Even more strange; Philly had not beaten the Bengals since 2000, a five game winless stretch that improbably included two ties. For a franchise that's been one of the better ones in the NFL, a winless streak of that length against one of the weaker teams in the league is unquestionably strange.
Well, toss all that out: Philly stomped the struggling Bengals by a score of 37-17, and at times it didn't even feel that close. I'll confess, the frustrations I've had (and shared with so many of you) over the defensive philosophies made the first half nearly unwatchable (how many times can we give up third and long conversions because we're terrified of the big play?), but the second half effort made up for it and then some (forced more turnovers than allowed scores). The Eagles overall dominated the second half (27-7 scoring, 14-8 FD, outgained Bengals by nearly 150 yards).
A few more quick hitters:
Jalen played maybe his best game of the season, with nearly 12 yards per throw, three rushing scores, four additional first downs on the ground and no obvious turnover worthy plays.
Barkley had a relatively quite game but was consistently effective; I didn't even realize he had another 100 yard game until I checked the box score.
Good to see both Cooper DeJean and Isaiah Rodgers, who've both been largely quiet so far this year, both force momentum-changing turnovers today.
Zach Baun had the big forced fumble in the fourth quarter but a rough game on the whole; his poor tackling or bad angles led to at least three Bengal first downs by my count.
I was hard on the defense's first half effort, but on the whole you have to be happy with the final result: 17 points allowed (Bengals came into today averaging 25.4 PPG) and 280 yards allowed (averaged 332 YPG before today).
The Birds remain the king of the long, time consuming and soul crushing scoring drive. With 12+ minutes to play, taking over possession and leading by ten, the Birds needed to grind a lot of clock and put some more points on the board to lock the game up. The Eagles uncorked a 12 play, 85 yards touchdown drive that ran nearly eight minutes off the clock and featured nine running plays.
I had commented that Cincinnati was a struggling team, and that's true. Still, the Bengals lost to the Chiefs, Commanders and Ravens by a total of just nine points. Philly just won by 20.
Finally, this was yet another gut-check win while shorthanded (no Goedert and Mailata once again, both Lane Johnson and Darius Slay hobbled) and on the road. Philly has played seven games but somehow only two in their home stadium. Three of the next five are also away from home.
If you had forced me before the season to pick the most likely record for the Eagles after these seven games, I think I would have said 5-2, so we're still on target. For whatever this is worth, in my preseason picks column I had forecast the Eagles to outscore their first seven opponents by 47 points; so far they've outscored them by 41 points. Looking ahead, as long as Philly can get healthier, I struggle to find more than one game going forward that Philly may not be favored in (@Ravens). Road games to Dallas and Washington will be challenges but the chances are decent the Eagles will be road favorites in each. The preseason prediction of a 13-4 record is still within reach.
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