Huge Win

After the first two weeks, the Saints looked like the best team in the league. The Eagles were highly erratic. Advantage Saints. And that is why they play the games.

The Eagles defense was dreadful on Monday night, but played inspired football in New Orleans and shut down the Saints. The Saints had three punts on the season coming into Sunday. The Eagles forced them to punt four times. The Saints lived on explosive plays the first two weeks. They only had two plays longer than 16 yards on Sunday.

The Saints did Vic Fangio a big favor by playing limited WR sets. By going with two RBs or two TEs, the Eagles were able to counter with more base personnel, using 5-2 and 6-1 looks. That allowed them to control the line of scrimmage and shut down the New Orleans run game. The Saints averaged 185 rushing yards the first two weeks. The Eagles held them to 89 yards on 29 carries.

Jalen Carter was dominant.

Jalen Carter was a game wrecker against the Saints pic.twitter.com/nJ9P1TNDf0

— Shawn Syed (@SyedSchemes) September 22, 2024

The Saints averaged 45.5 points per game coming in. The Eagles held them to 12. That is incredibly impressive. The Eagles played great team defense. Give credit to Fangio and his players.

The Eagles offense scored a season low 15 points, but still played well. They piled up 460 yards, despite missing multiple players. AJ Brown was out for the whole game. Mekhi Becton and Lane Johnson missed most of the game. Britain Covey and DeVonta Smith got hurt during the game.

Jalen Hurts and the other starters raised their game. Hurts went 29-38-311 and made some clutch throws. He didn’t have his usual weapons to work with, but fed the ball to Dallas Goedert, who had the best game of his career, going 10-170.

Saquon Barkley could make an argument for league MVP right now. He was 17-147-2, including a 65-yard TD run that came right after DeVonta was knocked out of the game. Barkley’s long run was a jolt of electricity that the team desperately needed. It gave them a 7-3 lead and suddenly the game felt winnable.

We have to talk about the O-line. Those guys played really well. Tyler Steen took over at RG and Fred Johnson took over at RT. The line got movement in the run game. Barkley’s go-ahead TD was beautiful blocking. The OL pushed the defense backward and Barkley ran right up the middle for the score.

.@saquon Blew Bayou pic.twitter.com/8b91mBwEDe

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 22, 2024

No hesitation. They did the same thing on the 2-point conversion.

The line also gave Hurts time to throw the ball. He needed that with his star receivers out of the game. Hurts had to give time to his guys to get open. This was a game where someone had to step up. Goedert filled that role. He had catches of 61, 43, 30 and 22 yards.

The Eagles took the lead at the 1:01 mark. That gave the Saints time to drive the field and kick a tying FG. The defense got a chance for redemption after last week’s meltdown.

The Saints got 6 yards on first down. Derek Carr dropped back on second down, but was under heavy pressure from Brandon Graham. He put the ball up for grabs (sound familiar?) and Reed Blankenship picked it off to seal the game.

Exhale.

The Eagles out-gained the Saints 460-219. They dominated this game. A loss would have been devastating.

Why was the game close at all? Too many mistakes. Hurts threw an INT in the end zone. Hurts fumbled the ball while scrambling. The Eagles had two drives end on fourth down stops. Jake Elliott missed a long FG. The Saints blocked a punt. The Eagles had 7 penalties.

The Eagles did not handle adversity well at all last year. Monday’s loss to Atlanta was troubling. The Eagles could have fallen apart. Instead they responded with a terrific game on the road in a challenging place to play against a hot team. The Eagles had all kinds of potential excuses.

Instead, they played well and found a way to win.

This was only Week 3, but this is the kind of win that could have a huge impact on the season.

*****

Both DAL and SF lost, dropping them to 1-2. It is too early to think much about the standings, but it is nice for a couple of key rivals to be getting off to slow starts. The Cowboys defense is especially troubling.

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