Some Context

Posted: September 9th, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on Some Context

The Eagles played the second game of the NFL season. Since then we’ve had a chance to watch the rest of the league play. We can now put the Eagles performance into a bit of context since we have other games to compare it to.

After watching football on Sunday and Monday, I feel better about the Eagles. Jalen Hurts threw a couple of bonehead INTs, but the team still piled up 410 yards and 34 points. The new OL played well and all the skill players looked like stars. To quote Dennis Green, “They are who we thought they are.” And that’s a good thing.

The Lions were the #5 scoring team in the league last year. They were at home and facing a very young Rams defense. The Lions struggled on offense for much of the game. They won it in overtime despite playing a very banged up Rams team.

The Falcons had high hopes entering the season. They lost to PIT 18-10 and only had 226 yards. The Steelers have a good defense, but Kirk Cousins didn’t look comfortable and that should have the Falcons worried.

Cousins is coming off an Achilles injury and doesn’t look right. He didn’t plant his foot and drive the ball. He might be okay physically and just doesn’t have his confidence back. Injuries are not easy to come back from. If Cousins struggles, the Falcons might need rookie Michael Pennix to play some this year. That’s not ideal for a team that hoped to win their division.

The Bengals played the Pats and lost 16-10. Cincy has started slow in the Joe Burrow era, but this feels a bit different with their receiver issues that weren’t there in the past. The Pats should be one of the worst teams in the league. That’s not someone you want to lose to.

The Giants lost 28-6 to the Vikings. Both teams should struggle this year. Still, the Giants have to be disappointed with such a bad showing to start the season. They weren’t even competitive. Daniel Jones was as bad as ever and they can’t really do anything about that until the offseason.

Dallas dominated the Browns. What an ugly game. Cleveland was missing both of their starting OTs. That’s not good in any game, but proved to be disastrous against the Boys. Dallas had 6 sacks and lived in the backfield. Deshaun Watson looked terrible. Browns fans have to be incredibly discouraged by that game. They hoped Watson would be improved and the defense would be the same juggernaut unit from last year. Neither of those proved to be true. And now Watson is facing new allegations.

Buffalo beat the Cardinals 34-28. The Bills defense has a pair of new starting safeties and lots of young players in the back seven. The defense could not stop Arizona in the first half. They did tighten up in the second half, but also got lucky that Kyler Murray didn’t see a wide-open Marvin Harrison Jr late in the game. Josh Allen and the offense were outstanding. The Bills could prove to be very good this year, but their defense has work to do.

The Eagles came out of their game pretty healthy. They played a tough team and won. The offense was excellent and still has room to improve. The defense did have issues, but nothing that can’t be fixed. They showed playmaking ability and made key plays to help secure the win. The next game for the Eagles is the Falcons and the immobile Kirk Cousins. You know the DL is looking forward to getting after him and playing on a good surface after slipping and sliding around Brazil.

*****

It might not have seemed like Jalen Carter did that much in the game, but he was more disruptive than you might have realized.

Carter’s ability to push the pocket could be huge vs Atlanta.

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