Beast of the East

The Philadelphia Eagles are NFC East champs. Most people predicted them to win the division so that’s hardly a surprise. I just don’t think many people expected Boston Scott to run for three TDs in the clinching game. Or for him to do that behind RT Halaopoulivaati Vaitai and RG Matt Pryor.

The Eagles insane rash of injuries continued on Sunday. Miles Sanders sprained an ankle and missed most of the game. That left Boston Scott as the only RB. Jordan Howard was active, but reportedly was only going to play in an emergency situation.

RG Brandon Brooks had to be carted off with an arm or shoulder injury that looked serious. A slew of other players left the game, but were able to come back in. The Eagles really do feel like a MASH unit. I’ve never seen anything quite like this with a winning team.

Give Doug Pederson, his staff and all the players a lot of credit for getting the job done. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t easy. But this remarkable group of people kept finding ways to succeed. This is why we talk about the importance of culture, chemistry and teamwork.

I expected the Eagles to win this game, but the Sanders injury made me have some doubts. He was the workhorse and the X-factor for the offense. Without him and Zach Ertz, I just wasn’t sure if the Eagles could score enough to win the game.

Luckily Jim Schwartz and the Eagles defense came ready to play. The stat sheet shows them giving up 397 yards, but 106 of them came with the Eagles protecting a big lead and more worried about the clock than anything else. For most of the game, the Eagles shut the Giants down.

Saquon Barkley ran for 92 yards, but that is very deceiving. There was a 68-yard TD run, but the other 16 carries netted just 24 yards. The Giants couldn’t sustain drives. Barkley is supposed to be the foundation of their offense. The Eagles shut him down, over and over. He was tackled for a loss four times and had three other carries that didn’t gain a yard. That put the offense in tough situations.

With Sanders out and Saquon bottled up, the one RB who did deliver was Boston Scott. He was 19-54-3 on the ground and 4-84 as a receiver. Scott made clutch play after clutch play. Scott will be one tired, sore man tonight and tomorrow. He played a ton of snaps and took a pounding.

Imagine being a Giants fan and seeing your elite RB being out-gained and out-scored by some dude who was a 6th round pick. To be fair, Scott didn’t have to face the Eagles defense.

Schwartz was aggressive all game. He loaded up the box and dared Daniel Jones to beat the Eagles. Jones had some good moments, but did not play well enough for his team to win.

This game wasn’t all about backups. Carson Wentz threw for 289 yards in less than ideal conditions. He made some terrific throws and got the most out of his young playmakers. Anyone who doubts how special this guy is has some weird agenda. Wentz isn’t just playing well, he’s carrying the team to big wins.

Brandon Graham had a sack and multiple TFLs. He was highly disruptive. Malcolm Jenkins played really well. He had 8 tackles and a forced fumble that changed the game. Dallas Goedert only had 4 catches, but one of them was a great grab on third down that kept a scoring drive alive.

Everyone showed up. This was a team win.

The Eagles can celebrate their amazing accomplishment for a night. Then it is right back to work. Being division champs is a stop, but not the final destination. This team has won playoff games in each of the past two seasons. They want to keep that going.

It would help if the team could get some good news on the injury front. Jordan Howard will practice this week and should be ready to play next weekend. Hopefully Sanders can get back on the field. He is key for this offense. It would also be nice to see Jalen Mills and Lane Johnson return.

No matter who makes it back or not, the Eagles will go out there and compete. Next man up. After what we’ve seen for the past month, nothing this team does should surprise you.

*****

Kudos to the Dallas Cowboys for coming up with a clutch win in Week 17. They beat the Skins 44-16.

I hope Jerry Jones appreciates this win. Jason Garrett got that team to step up in a must-win game. Give him a contract extension!!!

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