What a strange game that was; those looking for a complete turnaround tonight from week 1 are likely disappointed. Last season, the Birds struggled to put away Detroit on opening day but routed Minnesota in week 2. This year, that script was followed completely... except for the rout. Let's talk about the game's biggest stories:
Fumble luck. I'm not sure how much play this will get in the media, but you have to admit some good fortune for the Birds in the fumble department; counting Jefferson's fumble-turned-touchback, the Birds recovered all five of tonight's fumbles, a statistical improbability that unquestionably swung this game. Turn two or three of those around and this is likely a different result.
Jalen Hurts is not impressing so far. As with last week, it's difficult to know how much of the conservative passing is just the game situation, but there's been a notable lack of deep shots this year, especially early in games. He made that dreadful pass that was picked and had another pick dropped in the second half. The two big passes to Smith inflate the numbers, but even there, the first one was underthrown and Smith bailed him out by working back to the ball. Hurts' running seems off as well; there were at least three moments tonight that 2022 Hurts would have run away from the defender but 2023 Hurts got nailed from behind. All told, I'm not sure what's going on here but the early returns are not good (TYP for these first two games: a lousy 4.82). Plenty of time to get things right, and Jalen is definitely better than what he's showed so far. Let's keep our eyes on this.
Youth in the secondary really shows. Much was made (understandably so) of the players Minnesota was missing on their OL, but Philly's DB group missed James Bradberry and Reed Blankenship just as much. Josh Jobe and Mario Goodrich were more bad than good tonight, and contributed directly to a couple of scores.
Eagles' run game was DOMINENT. 48 carries, 259 yards, 3 scores. 'Nuff said. Much will be made of DeAndre Swift's career night, which is fair, but I have to think that some of those holes were due to the Vikings clearly determining that Hurts would not beat them on designed runs. Philly had a couple of those soul-stealing drives that they perfected last year, where they just ran it down the opponent's throat, the defense can't stop it, and they just grind the clock.
It's a small thing in hindsight, but can anyone explain this coaching decision: why did Nick Sirianni pass on the two point conversion after the final touchdown? Quick recap of the setting: the Birds score to go up 33-21 with a little over four minutes to go. A successful two point play gives the Birds a solid 14 point advantage, while the XP would have allowed Minnesota the win, had they scored twice. Even a failed two point play doesn't hurt you at all, considering a 12 point margin isn't any different at all than the 13 point margin they played for. Again, it ended up not mattering, but it might have in a different scenario.
Jake Elliott might win NFL MVP if he keeps this up. Elliott's long kick heroics have meant a lot to this team. Tonight he became just the sixth player in league history with multiple 60+ yards field goals, and has hit seven from 50+ over his last four regular season games going back to last season.
The better team won. I've complained about several things tonight, but Philly still deserved this game. The box score spoke to it with clear edges in yards (430-374), first downs (24-19), plays (75-55) and time of possession (39:28-20:32). I've made the case that the game may well have been different had the fumble situation been different, but the opposite case could be made regarding that bizarre sequence where AJ Brown scored but it was called back on a tacky holding penalty, and then another Philly score was prevented by an uncalled hold perpetrated against Brown on the very next play. For the second straight week, the pass rush didn't rack up huge sack totals (two sacks), but they were in Cousins' face the whole night.
Up next, we have a trip to Tampa that will be tougher than people are currently thinking. I think Philly will need to put these extra rest days to good use to polish up the offense, but Sirianni's staff has generally done a good job polishing up issues as the season rolls along.
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