One for Frank

Posted: November 20th, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on One for Frank

The 2022 season has been a lot of fun. Not only have the Eagles been winning a lot, they have led most of the way so games have been enjoyable. On Monday, the Eagles trailed most of the game and lost. Today, the Eagles trailed almost the entire game.

The Eagles were down 16-10 with 4:37 left. They got the ball at their own 25-yard line after a touchback. Jalen Hurts needed to drive his team 75 yards for the go-ahead score. If not, the Eagles would lose their second game in a row and there would be all sorts of scrutiny.

Hurts faced 3rd-and-2 from the 33. He dropped back and couldn’t find anyone open. Hurts moved around and then launched a deep ball that felt awfully desperate. Miles Sanders had gotten behind the defense and down the sideline. LB Zaire Franklin panicked and hit Sanders well before the ball got there. That drew a flag and moved the ball 39 yards. Suddenly the Eagles were feeling good.

That play gave them the ball at the IND 28 and plenty of time to work with. The Eagles didn’t throw another pass. Sanders, Hurts and Boston Scott ran the ball the final 28 yards. Hurts got the winning TD on a designed run right up the middle. It was friggin’ beautiful. The Eagles showed a design where Hurts normally follows a pulling Jason Kelce. The defense bought that and went wide, leaving the middle wide, wide open for Hurts. He scored easily. It felt too good to be true.

Hurts biggest moment on the final drive came on 4th-and-2. The Eagles lined up in empty. Hurts ran to the left and read his blocks, fighting his way up the field to move the sticks. Smart and tough.

I was worried the Eagles might have scored too quickly. The Eagles were up 17-16, but Indy had 1:20 and a timeout to work with. They only needed about 40 yards to get into FG range.

Matt Ryan completed a 14-yard pass to get Indy up to the 39 and I started to get nervous. More nervous, I should say. The defense then clamped down and Brandon Graham came up with a sack on third down. That left Indy facing 4th-and-16 and a false start penalty made that worse. Ryan dumped the ball off and a quick tackle ended the drive.

Boom.

Comeback by the offense and close-out by the defense. That’s how you win a game that was ugly, frustrating and more than a little sloppy.

There was a sequence in the first half where a promising drive was undone by penalties. The Eagles faced 1st-and-35. They got a lot of that back, but not enough. In the first game without Dallas Goedert, all three backup TEs had penalties. Ugh. James Bradberry whiffed on a run play that turned into a 28-yard run. Ugh. Hurts and AJ Brown fumbled the ball away. Hurts turnover set up a FG, while Brown’s ended a drive that was in scoring territory.

This was an incredibly frustrating game because of mistakes like those.

Give Jonathan Gannon and the defense a lot of credit for this win. They gave up a TD on the opening drive, but only gave up 9 points the rest of the game. Once they adjusted and got locked in, the defense was outstanding.

Jonathan Taylor had 7 carries for 49 yards on the opening drive. He had 15 carries for 35 yards the rest of the way. The Colts ran for 99 yards in the game. They converted their first 3 third downs of the game and then went for 2 for 12 the rest of the way. The Eagles had 4 sacks, a takeaway and 7 TFLs. They were disruptive.

The defense came up with timely stops. Hurts fumble gave Indy the ball at the 22. The defense held them to a FG there. The Colts got the ball at their 45 and drove to the Eagles 27. A TFL and sack pushed them back and the Colts missed the ensuing FG. Late in the game the Colts drove down to the 5-yard line. The Eagles shut them down on the first two plays and then Haason Reddick came up with a huge sack on third down. That eliminated any thought of going for it and they settled for the FG.

New additions Ndamukong Suh and Linval Joseph played a lot and played well. They shared a sack and each made multiple tackles. Kudos to the front office for signing them. Kudos to teammates and coaches for getting them ready. And kudos to Suh and LJ for helping right away.

This game wasn’t fun to watch, but it was important for the team. They were behind 10 points heading into the fourth quarter. They hadn’t won a game like that since DeSean’s Miracle at the Meadowlands in 2010. And this wasn’t a fluke. The Colts had better field position. They won the turnover battle. The Eagles had to really fight to win this game. Indy didn’t give this game away. The Eagles took it.

Jalen Hurts proved he could lead a long TD drive with the Eagles losing late in the game. That has to make Hurts and his teammates feel even better about themselves. They were really clutch in Indy.

This game meant a lot to Nick Sirianni. He was returning to the city where he was the offensive coordinator. The Colts organization is critical to his success. But they also fired his mentor, Frank Reich, and you could tell this win was special to Sirianni because of that.

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The Eagles are now 9-1. The Giants lost today so the Eagles have a two-game advantage in the division. The Vikings got destroyed today so the Eagles are all alone atop the NFC standings.

The last three games haven’t been pretty, but the Eagles went 2-1 and got some valuable experience from playing in tight games and also facing teams that can run the ball. That should serve them well as they get into the second half of the season.

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