Today marked the third game for the Birds this season in which the Eagles dominated everywhere but the scoreboard (I'm including the Saints and Browns games on this list):
First downs: 21-14
Total plays: 73-51
Yards: 447-215
Yards/play: 6.1-4.2
Time of possession: 38:12-21:48
Philly pretty much dominated this entire game, and never REALLY looked like they were out of control until Sirianni's baffling decision to send Jake Elliott out to attempt a 58 yard FG (more on Nick in a moment). At that point I was certain we'd lose the game, and it looked very much like it would happen until Dean's end zone pick suddenly ended the game.
Jalen had a very solid game. He took good care of the ball for the fourth straight game and ran all over the Jaguars (except on Brotherly Shoves, for whatever reason). Saquan keeps on doing his thing, with another 199 all purpose yards and two more scores. He will probably take back the league lead for scrimmage yards per game from Derrick Henry after this week, and that absurd third down conversion with the juke-spin-reverse vault triple dip won't soon be forgotten. Devonta Smith had an invisible first half but one of the greatest second halves of his career. Even Jahan Dotson had one of the best catches I've ever seen to spark the Birds early.
On defense, Zack Baun and Josh Sweat terrorized the Jaguars all day. Cooper DeJean stopped another critical fourth down attempt. Jalen Carter got consistent penetration and Milton Williams busted a couple plays.
Somehow Philly has gotten to 6-2 despite Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata, Dallas Goedert, AJ Brown, Devonta Smith, Mekhi Becton and Darius Slay combining to miss some or all of 17 games combined so far.
So with all this positivity, why was the game so close? It's clear it comes down to just two factors: the officials gifting Jacksonville eight points on the fumble that really wasn't, and Nick Sirianni's inability to just take the points. Nick passed on NINE points today (three XPs and two FGs) in favor of the aggressive approach. In each moment, you could sort of see the rationale (multiple Jaguar penalties gave them the opportunity to go for two from the one yard line, for example), but my issue is less with the pure methodology and more with the specific game situation. This was shaping up to be a relatively low scoring game and with the Eagles' offense being as banged up as it was, taking easy points should have been the order of the day. My brother referred to Sirianni's reluctance to kick as "icing our own kicker" which is effectively what took place. Elliott has struggled a bit this year, which makes sense considering how little work they've given him. I thought that the choice to kick that long FG at the end was a huge mistake; in Elliott's condition he's no better than a 50-50 bet to hit the kick, and if he missed Jacksonville gets amazing field position. I also had a problem (as I think many of us did) with that hideous pass play on 4th and a foot (shades of that same mistaken decision against Atlanta). I stole the title for this piece from my article on a similar game against the Colts two years ago, another classic Eagles' game in which they had to win three times (against the opponent, the officials and their own coaching staff). Nick will get appropriately roasted in the media this week; hopefully he eventually starts rethinking his strategy for some of these decisions.
Bottom line: Philly is a worthy 6-2 team that's earned each of their wins. Watching yet another uninspiring Commanders win over a terrible Giants team (Washington's two wins over the G-men came by a grand total of eight points; we beat them by 25) has me feeling good about our chances to ultimately surpass them for the division title. Before we can seriously speculate on that, we have to get through the first Cowboys Week of the season. This will likely be the first time in some time that we'll be favored in AT&T Stadium; stay tuned.
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