Eagles Hold Off Feisty Lions

The Eagles won their season opener, beating the Lions 38-35. It was far from a thing of beauty, but more went right than wrong and there is a lot to build on. Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense piled up 455 yards and scored 31 points (the other TD came on a pick-six). If this year is as much about Hurts as anything, he helped himself in a big way.

Detroit coach Dan Campbell said the big difference in the game was Jalen Hurts ability to run. Hurts ran 17 times for 90 yards and a TD. That is too many carries to really want from your QB, but Hurts made it work. He converted on third downs and kept the Eagles from being in bad situations on other plays. His ability to run out of sacks had to drive Detroit crazy.

Hurts wasn’t alone in shining for the Eagles on offense. AJ Brown had a spectacular debut, going 10-155. He didn’t catch a TD pass, but he did everything else you could want. Brown was a man among boys. You can see his catches below.

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— PhillyVids (@philly_vids) September 11, 2022

What a stud. Thank you Tennessee Titans.

The Eagles ran the ball really well. Miles Sanders was 13-96-1 and had some big plays. His 24-yard run on 3rd-and-1 was a crucial moment in the game and set the Eagles up to seal the win. Boston Scott and Kenny Gainwell both ran for TDs. The Eagles had four players run for TDs, the first time that has happened since 1961. Obviously the ground game doesn’t work if the big guys up front aren’t doing their job. The Eagles OL seemed to have a strong game.

All that running helped to get the pass game going. Hurts finished 18-32-243. He started 0 for 5 so those numbers look even better when you think about that. Dallas Goedert had 3 catches for 60 yards and showed his playmaking ability. The only real issue with the passing game is that DeVonta Smith didn’t catch any passes. He had one drop and was targeted a couple of other times.

The offense was good.

The defense was not.

Detroit marched down the field on their opening drive and went up 7-0. Their run game gave the Eagles fits. Missed tackles were a big problem. The Lions then had three straight 3 & outs. The defense seemed like it had figured things out. The next series was a pick-six.

James Bradberry with his first Pick 6 with the Eagles.
Kyzir White with the assist

Jared Goff got destroyed on that

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— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) September 11, 2022

The Eagles were up 21-7 and life was good.

Unfortunately, Detroit did not fall apart as they did a year ago. They started trading scores with the Eagles and eventually cut the lead down to just three points. Jonathan Gannon has a lot of things to clean up.

Tackling was a real issue. This can be true for all teams in the opener. That’s what happens when you don’t do much tackling in the summer. Guys are sloppy for the first week or two. The trade-off is that you reduce the chances of your players getting hurt so coaches are willing to live with the erratic tackling.

I was frustrated with the lack of pressure. To be fair, the Lions have one of the best OLs in the NFL. Gannon mixed in blitzes, trying to generate pressure creatively. That worked at times, but the Eagles only had one sack and Goff had time to throw for much of the second half.

In the Eagles postgame show, Fran Duffy said the Lions rushing attack did different things than last year. The runs worked well by forcing DBs to make plays. James Bradberry failed to make a tackle early on and that led to a 50-yard run. Things like that have to be addressed. We also have to give credit to D’Andre Swift. He was 15-144-1 and that’s the best I’ve ever seen him play. He set a career high in yards and looked like a top shelf NFL RB. Swift was drafted 35th overall in 2020 so this is what the Lions expected to see from him.

Special teams weren’t a huge factor in the game. Britain Covey made his NFL debut and handled four punts. He had two returns and two fair-catches. Covey looked good at catching the punts. His long return was 11 yards. The Lions tried a surprise onside kick. Zech McPhearson fielded it cleanly. The Lions tried nine onside kicks last year so give credit to STs coordinator Michael Clay for having his guys prepared.

When the Eagles were up 38-21, I was hoping Detroit would fall apart and make the game easy. The Lions actually did the Eagles a favor by playing hard and never giving up. That should help the Eagles to be ready for other games. You need to be pushed. You need to be tested. Blowouts are a lot of fun, but they rarely carry over to the next week in a good way. The Eagles went 0-2 after their two biggest margins of victory last year.

The coaches will have plenty of items to address with their players. There is a lot of room for improvement. But the Eagles are 1-0 and pretty healthy so that’s a great way to start the season.

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