Want a big win over a quality opponent?
Does 35-10 on Titans 7-4 work?
Wow.
The Eagles improved to an 11-1 league record with an outright dismantling of the AFC South-leading Titans, and it’s three straight wins since their only loss of the season.
Jalen Hurts was brilliant, AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith each went over 100 yards, the defense blocked Derrick Henry and allowed just 209 yards, and this one was out of competition midway through the third quarter.
This team is something else.
Here are our 10 instant observations on a huge Eagles win!
1. I don’t know what Hurts has to do to prove he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, but if this performance doesn’t, I don’t know what will. It was magical. Hurts absolute magic, 24, and he’s playing at such a dazzling level that even Carson Wentz’s grumpiest, most miserable backing has to admit that this kid is a star in his own right and the Eagles have one most exciting. young quarterbacks the league has seen in years. You want 150 yards on the ground? Check. Want 380 passing yards and three touchdowns? Check. What can’t he do? Hurts was 29 for 39 for 380 yards, three passing touchdowns, one rushing, no interceptions again and a passer rating of 130.3 on Sunday. He is only the fifth QB in NFL history with 375 passing yards, 74 percent passing, three TD passes, one rushing TD and no interceptions in a game. He’s now 214 for 318 for 2,560 yards this year with 20 touchdowns and three interceptions and nine rushing touchdowns, and the team he leads so brilliantly is 11-1 and atop the NFL world. And if you don’t like that, then become a Cowboys fan or a Commanders fan or something, because if you’re not 100% on board with Hurts at this point, there’s no there’s no hope for you and you’re not a real Eagles fan and you never have been. The kid is amazing.
2. The key point of this game for me was the defensive position late in the second quarter and keeping the Titans out of the end zone when they had a 1-and-10 on the Eagles 17-yard line at seven. You had to love the game between Josh Sweat and Titans left tackle Dennis Daley, and on the 3rd-and-6 touch, Sweat passed Daley and sacked Ryan Tannehill for a five-yard loss. The Titans settled for a field goal, the Eagles walked down the field and took a 21-10 lead before halftime, and the rout was on. The Titans haven’t scored and have passed for just 47 yards in their last seven drives. It was a monster defensive performance overall. The Eagles tackled as well as they’ve done all year, they matched the physicality of the Titans, they were terrific in coverage and they pressured Tannehill all day. And get this: the Eagles defense has allowed a touchdown after halftime in its last six games.
3. That first-quarter streak where Hurts hit Brown on back-to-back 40-yard touchdowns — the first didn’t count — was a pretty powerful statement of where Hurts is and that Eagles passing game. Unstoppable is a pretty good word for that. The first, on the right sideline, looked like a touchdown and was ruled a touchdown, but Brown went a few inches out of bounds at the 1-yard line after beating Titans corner Kristian Fulton, and he been reversed to an incomplete pass. So, in the next game, Shane Steichen does the same thing on the other side of the field. This time Fulton went down (after interfering with Brown), and it was an easy 40-yard TD. This one mattered. The way it struck me was, “We can do whatever we want whenever we want, and you can’t stop us.” Which thing. As a defense, it must be overwhelming. Do you get a pause on the call and allow the same a moment later? Hurts and his receivers just have this mentality that they can hit from anywhere on the field at any time, which makes them incredibly hard to stop.
4. And how good were Brown and Smith? They became the first pair of Eagles wide receivers to go for 100 yards in the same game since DeSean Jackson and Riley Cooper at Oakland in 2013 in Nick Foles’ seven-touchdown game. Both had long touchdowns, both made tough catches, both were huge all afternoon. Obviously, this game meant a lot to Brown, but he didn’t let it become a distraction and he won his first 100-yard game since Pittsburgh. It’s been a tough time for Brown — he’s averaged 47 yards in the last four games with that bobble-turned-INT against Washington and two fumbles — but he’s an elite player and we’ve all seen that on Sunday. And for Smith, his first 100-yard game since Week 3 at Washington, and now they’re both back at 1,000 yards. Hurts is so lucky to have these guys. Brown is 25 years old. Hurts is 24 years old. Smith is 24 years old. The NFL better get used to these guys making plays everywhere.
5. A week ago, the Eagles faced a defense ranked eighth against the pass and 32nd against the run, and they ran 49 times and threw 28 times. This time they faced a defense ranked 29th against the pass and 3rd against the run. And they ran 24 times and threw 41 times. It seems like the obvious thing to do, attack a team’s weakness, but how many play calls have we seen who are too smart to do the obvious thing and are so determined to execute everything in their fancy playbook and trying to take the defense by surprise and go against the grain and all that? Last week, the Eagles ran at will against that weak Packers front, and Steichen kept dialing it up. This week, Hurts kept making plays in the passing game, and Steichen kept dialing it up. I didn’t try to outsmart anyone. I didn’t try to be cute. Just kept attacking the opponent’s weakness. I love that. This team can win in so many ways, and the last two weeks have really hammered this home.
6. I don’t know if it’s a small decrease in his reps or the presence of Ndamukong Suh and Linval Joseph or something else, but Fletcher Coz in recent weeks has really turned back the clock and played some of his best football in a long time. . Cox got off to a good start in the first two games of the season, but came back down to earth pretty quickly. But the Packers’ game was its best of the year, and it was even better Sunday against the Titans. Really made a huge impact against the run and also picked up his fifth sack of the year.
seven. Speaking of run defense, the best thing the Eagles did on Sunday was stop Henry early and then create a big enough lead that the Titans couldn’t rely on Henry and had to pass all the tries. . The Titans have a way of winning games. Stop the other team and let Henry go wild. The Eagles just wouldn’t let it. Henry ran 11 times for just 30 yards — 2.7 per carry — with a long gain of eight yards. After halftime, with the Eagles in charge, it was just 4 for 9. A total non-factor. Once Tannehill started throwing it every time, it was over. The Eagles recorded six sacks and held the Titans to 86 net passing yards. The coaches came up with a perfect plan for the Titans and the players executed it. It’s a beautiful thing.
8. I called for the Eagles to throw more behind the back. They were last in the NFL with 123 receiving yards from running backs entering the game, but Miles Sanders, Kenny Gainwell and Boston Scott can all make plays in the receiving game. The backs on Sunday combined for a season-high 57 yards, and Gainwell in particular was terrific, with a 14-yard catch and rush on the Smith TD drive and a 10-yard TD drive late in the game. the first half. As long as Dallas Goedert is out, the more guys Steichen involves in the passing game, the better.
9. They overcame it, but nine penalties in the first 20 minutes of a game? But what is going on here? The Eagles overcame most of them – Sweat’s offside on a 3rd-and-4 gave the Titans a first try on their TD drive – but that has actually been a problem for some time now. The Eagles finished with 12 penalties for 80 yards (a staggered 13th), including seven false starts, nine on the offensive line. They’ve now given 41 penalties in their last six games, and that’s way too many and something they need to clean up.
ten. A terrific all-around effort by Michael Clay’s beleaguered special teams units. The rise of the Christian Ellis practice squad began with huge success on Arryn Siposs’ first punt, Britain Covey had the three longest punt returns of his career – 21, 25 and 27 yards — and averaging 17.5 on five returns, punt and kick coverage was solid, and we never got the weekly Special Teams breakdown. It is enormous. Need more of this.
#Roobs #Obs #Magic #Hurts #Browns #Huge