The Eagles didn’t play good football in the season opener, but they did play winning football, doing just enough to get by a fired up Commanders football team. The Eagles defense was outstanding for most of the game, but got sloppy late and let Washington make it closer than it probably should have been. The Philly offense delivered big plays, but struggled to sustain drives.
Give the Eagles credit for making a couple of more plays than Washington. That proved to be the difference in the game. Week 1 is more about survival than playing high level football. These starters don’t play in the preseason anymore so the first game involves shaking off rust and getting your initial game action of the year. The Eagles survived and got their W to start 1-0.
COACHING
Nick Sirianni is now 6-0 in season openers. That’s not an accident. He doesn’t have any magical formula, but his teams do a good job of not beating themselves. The Eagles didn’t have any turnovers. They had fewer penalties and were better on third downs. They also won the explosive play battle. It wasn’t great, but it was good enough.
I thought WAS played with more urgency and was the more physical team. The Eagles won because of talent. I think one of the problems last year was the team not being physical enough. I hope this team gets their stuff together in the coming weeks. WAS defenders got by or blew up blockers all game long. This offense requires skill players to block well. That didn’t happen on Sunday. It better get fixed or the playbook will have to change.
It was hard to get a feel for Sean Mannion in this game. The OL play was sloppy and that led the Eagles to a lot of 2nd and 3rd and longs. You aren’t calling what you want in those situations. There weren’t many overly creative plays. WAS blitzed at the second highest rate in the league so that also presented a challenge for Mannion. The Eagles kept extra blockers in on a lot of pass plays. We’ll get a better feel for the new scheme over time. There was at least one notable difference.
The Eagles used motion on 62% of their plays in Week 1, their highest rate in the past 10 seasons
Jalen Hurts avg 10.2 YPA with motion and 3.8 without
He also threw 2 Pass TD specifically to the player used in pre-snap motion, matching his total from all of 2025
Vic Fangio had his guys ready to play and they kept WAS under control for most of the game. There were some coverage breakdowns, especially late. Those need to be fixed. Fangio blitzed more than usual. Some coaches do that vs mobile QBs to keep them from being able to run like they usually do. the red zone defense needs work. WAS was 3 for 3. Can’t let teams convert like that.
OFFENSE
QB –Â Jalen Hurts had a good game. He went 14-25-203 with 3 TDs and no turnovers. He made some terrific throws and had some critical runs as well. He finished 7-46 on the ground. Hurts hit DG for a pair of TDs. Both featured good throws into traffic. He hit Wicks for a gain of 64 with a good deep ball. His best throw was a pass down the right sideline to DeVonta.
The highlight run was a 22-yard scramble on 3rd & 18. That moved the chains and kept a scoring drive alive. Good things tend to happen when Hurts runs. It was good to see him use his legs when needed. Hurts is a winner because he can make critical plays when needed. He did what was needed to lead a sputtering offense to victory.
Decision-making remains an issue Hurts needs to work on. There was a play where Lemon was wide open for an easy first down. Hurts threw to DeVonta who was well-covered. That was an incompletion. On the first TD to Goedert, Lemon was again wide open. That would have been the easier throw. There were some plays in the second half where Hurts fell into his old habit of drifting right and throwing the ball away. Let’s hope that trend doesn’t continue. Read the rest of this entry »
“Honestly, I played like s*** yesterday. I was a complete liability. It was my fault. I should not be out there until I feel healthy. A few weeks ago, someone rolled up on me in practice. We got some imaging on it today. Really the best plan going forward is to put me on IR so I… pic.twitter.com/AtVN6g4VLL
This means Drew Kendall becomes the LG. Willie Lampkin is now the top backup interior OL. Jake Majors or John Ojukwu could be promoted from the practice squad for depth. Ojukwu has more experience. Both guys are good scheme fits. Rookie Micah Morris is talented, but I think he’s more of a long term solution than someone they would play right away.
Howie Roseman talked this summer about how his big concern in the offseason was interior OL depth. The Eagles had several guys step up and perform well. Now comes the real test. I’m happy that Dickerson and the team took decisive action. If you know he’s not healthy, get him out of there. Give Kendall a chance to show what he can do.
Is this the end of Dickerson’s career? It very well could be. Hopefully some time off will help him to heal and he can get back on the field one more time. No one wants to go out on a bad game.
*****
The Eagles now have two open roster spots. I anticipate them adding a TE and an OL. We’ve talked about Zach Ertz being the TE, but no news yet on that front. Howie might be talking to other teams about trades.
They could sign an OL from another team or make a trade for one. I don’t think that is likely because so many teams are desperate for OL help. I think the internal move is more likely.
*****
The Eagles got a W on Sunday, but they sure didn’t get any style points. Thee beat a mediocre Commanders team 24-22. Some people have serious concerns based on what we saw in the opener. It certainly is fair to have questions, but you should never make too much of what you see in the opener, good or bad. Weird things tend to happen in Week 1.
Let’s look around the league to start with. We were all surprised to see the Rams get beat by 20 points. Not many people had them losing, but I sure don’t recall any neutral observer predicting a blowout. The Rams won’t be going 0-17. They also aren’t likely to lose another game by 20 points.
If the Rams were the talk of the offseason, the Cowboys were a close second.
Dallas did not live up to the hype in their opener, losing to the Giants 28-20. The dynamic Dallas offense only put up 244 yards. They had several pass interference penalties that would have added another 80 or so yards. Still, that group wasn’t the juggernaut we saw last year. As for the revamped defense that was going to make the Cowboys a Super Bowl contender…
Based on EPA/drive, the Cowboys had the worst defensive performance by any team in Week 1.
It was worse than all but one of their defensive games last year.
Among 574 games since the start of last season, it ranked 571st.
New on @AthlonSports: The @dallascowboys fired Matt Eberflus and hired Christian Parker to re-do last season’s historically crap defense. So how was it, in Week 1, that Dallas’ historically crap defense looked even worse… and even more out of date? https://t.co/ageAmYS40b
I never bought into all the hype with that defense suddenly being a Top 15 unit. Christian Parker was a terrific position coach. He could become a great defensive coordinator in time, but he’s never run an NFL defense before. He might know X’s and O’s thoroughly. He’s got to learn how to call a game and how to teach his system so that players can execute it properly. And Parker has a bunch of new faces on the D. The guys have to learn the scheme and how to play with each other. That defense might be really good in 2027, but will be erratic this year.
I was shocked to see the Chargers lose to the Cardinals. That’s a loss you would prefer not to have. We heard all summer how dynamic the Chargers would be with Mike McDaniel calling plays for Justin Herbert. Apparently a genius play-caller and freaky QB don’t matter if the interior OL can’t block and the best WR gets hurt.
We heard a lot of talk this summer about how some defenses were going to be really good. The Texans were being compared to the 2000 Ravens. And then Josh Allen came to town. Houston gave up 36 points and 409 yards. Both figures were higher than anything they allowed last year.
Per @NextGenStats, Texans CB Kamari Lassiter and S Reed Blankenship combined to allow this against the Bills in yesterday’s 36-31 loss:
– 11 receptions – 223 yards – 2 TD’s – Average passer rating of 155.8 – Average catch rate of 85.7%
Some experts thought the Panthers might have a Top 5 defense. They gave up 59 points to the Bears on Sunday. No bueno. Some Colts players thought they could be a Top 10 defense this year. The Ravens lit them up for 506 yards and 41 points. Sunday was a big day for offenses around the league. Defenses struggled to handle them.
The Eagles didn’t play well overall, but they made key plays and won the game. That’s not ideal, but it is good enough for Week 1. The coaches now have game tape to use for teaching the scheme and fixing mistakes. Tape from TC and joint practices has some value, but isn’t the same as game tape. Gameplans make a difference. The pressure of real game situations makes a difference. The wear and tear of a real game makes a difference.
The OL and secondary both have a lot to discuss. Missed blocks and blown coverages were costly vs WAS. Those mistakes need to be identified and corrected.