Assessing the Eagles

Thursday night games mean you can spend the weekend watching football and relaxing. You can watch the other games without the baggage of being in a foul mood after an Eagles loss or being giddy/delusional after an Eagles win.

My biggest takeaway is that the Eagles are good and that the Lions are the only team that is definitively better. Detroit is the most dominant team in the league. That doesn’t mean they’ll win the Super Bowl, but they look different than the other 31 teams.

KC and Buffalo played in a great game, with the Bills winning. That gave the Chiefs their first loss of the season. Those teams are a notch below Detroit, but both have flaws. Patrick Mahomes looks mortal this year, with 15 TDs and a league-leading 11 INTs. Travis Kelce is averaging a career-low 8.2 yards per reception. Josh Allen has been Superman for the Bills, but it feels like he has to do that for them to win. The supporting cast is talented, but erratic. Buffalo’s defense is 16th in yards allowed and has given up 120 or more rushing yards in 6 games this year.

The Niners blew a late lead, again, and lost to Seattle. SF is now 5-5. They are technically in last place in the NFC West since they have lost to the Cardinals, Seahawks and Rams. They blew leads in all of those games. Things are so bad in San Francisco that some fans are talking about firing Kyle Shanahan. That would be nuts. He’s an offensive guru and has gotten them to a pair of Super Bowls. He does have some flaws that have cost the Niners, but finding a better coach would be tough.

This season just feels odd for SF. They’ve had key injuries and some key mistakes really hurt them. There is still a lot of talent and DVOA still says they are one of the best teams in the league. SF could be dangerous in the postseason…if they make it to the postseason.

I don’t know what to say about the Vikings. They’re 8-2, same as the Eagles. Every week I see them battling a bad team and winning ugly. They do win, but it is hard to be confident in what you’re seeing. Sam Darnold feels like he might be regressing a bit. The Vikings haven’t scored 30 or more points since September. The defense has had some struggles against competent offenses.

The Steelers and Ravens played another tough, tense game on Sunday. Pittsburgh has proven to be far better than I anticipated this year. Russell Wilson was awful in Denver, but he’s back to playing good football. I still have trouble buying the Steelers as a title contender. The Ravens are 7-4 after their loss. They have the best offense in the league, but a highly inconsistent defense. Baltimore can be erratic within games. They love to build up big leads and then almost blow them.

The Eagles are far from perfect. The offense starts slower than any of us would like. The passing game can be very up and down. The defense struggled to take the ball away for much of the year, but has improved recently. We’ll have to see how that goes. Jake Elliott has proven to be human and missed more kicks than anyone expected.

All that said, the Eagles have shown the ability to take over games. The defense has been stifling and the offense is dangerous when it finally gets going. I know some people still are nervous because of last year’s meltdown. This team is different. Set the players and stats aside. Just look at how this team has handled adversity. Jacksonville got the benefit of a highly questionable (if not awful) call and that turned the game around. The Jags had a chance to win at the end, but the Eagles made the play that sealed the game. The Eagles had some tough luck against WAS and trailed at the end of three quarters. The team never flinched. They scored three straight TDs to take control of the game.

The 2023 Eagles found new ways to lose. The 2024 Eagles have found ways to win. The defense keeps games close and then the offense comes alive to blow them open. This is a very different team.

As it turns out, the Eagles had a great offseason. That has helped the team to get off to an 8-2 start and put itself up at the top of the league. The Lions still look special, but it would be fun to see what the Eagles could do against them. Maybe we’ll get that chance in January.

*****

Speaking of a great offseason addition…

Per @NextGenStats, Eagles LB Zack Baun now leads the NFL in stops — a stat that tracks how often a player makes a tackle that results in a negative play (EPA) for the offense.

Baun has a league-high 58 stops on the season.

— Sheil Kapadia (@SheilKapadia) November 18, 2024

*****

And another one.

This guy just locked up your WR1 pic.twitter.com/DbA3cUTKSS

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) November 15, 2024

Mitchell is now starting to get some pub as Defensive Rookie of the Year. He’s playing at a high level and is a key reason the defense has been as good as it is.

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