A Winning Streak!!!

Two games in a row. The Eagles have now won two games in a row.

This is the first time all year the Eagles have won consecutive games. They beat the Skins 28-13 and got back to .500. The Eagles are now 6-6 and just a game behind Dallas in the NFC East standings.

The win was far from perfect, but it was good to see the Eagles actually build a lead and win a game comfortably. The offense piled up 435 yards. The defense limited the Skins to one huge play and that’s about it. The Eagles played with the lead for most of the game.

For the first time in what seemed like decades, the Eagles scored a TD on the opening series. A 7-0 lead in the first quarter. What a novel idea.

The offense came alive for a couple of reasons. The Eagles were able to run the ball well, 33-130-1. That gave the offense balance and opened up the whole playbook. The other big factor for the offense was Carson Wentz’s ability to make plays. The Eagles moved him around by design and there were some improvised plays as well. Wentz was at his best while throwing outside of the pocket.

The offensive line was terrific. They gave Wentz time to throw. He wasn’t sacked once. The OL got good movement in the run game. Eagles RBs were 29-134 on the ground, averaging 4.6 yards per carry. The OL also did a great job on screen passes. The Eagles won this game up front.

There were three bad moments.

The worst came when Adrian Peterson ran straight up the gut for a 90-yard TD. Colt McCoy had just been knocked out of the game. Everyone knew the Skins would run. The Eagles weren’t surprised, but they played the situation poorly. Kamu Grugier-Hill got stuck on a block and Sidney Jones missed a tackle. 90 yards later, AP had the longest TD of his career. Ugh.

The other bad moments came when the offense was in the Red Zone. The Eagles were stuffed on a fourth down run. That was a questionable call, but even worse blocking. On another RZ trip, Carson Wentz threw an INT. He forced the ball into coverage and Josh Norman made him pay.

Peterson did go 9-98 on the ground. The Eagles gave up the one long run, but shut AP down for the rest of the game…8 carries for 8 yards.

Outside of the long run, the Skins had 41 plays for 145 yards. The Eagles got regular pressure up front. The QBs were sacked three times and McCoy was knocked out of the game. A corner blitz by Sidney Jones led to a Nate Gerry INT. One of the things that stood out to me was that the Eagles tackled well. They missed a few, but generally flew to the ball and got runners/receivers on the ground.

It was great to see Darren Sproles get back on the field. He ran for a 15-yard TD and helped break the game open.

Golden Tate had his coming out party, going 7-85-1. He had a few highlight plays. For the first time, you really saw his potential in this offense.

Zach Ertz continues to produce. He was 9-83 in the game and is posting insane numbers for the season.

It wasn’t the runaway blowout we hoped it might turn into, but the Eagles were the better team and played like it for most of the game. They scored their second most points of the year and the defense really limited what the Skins could do.

The Eagles are now 6-6 and just might be getting some confidence back.

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