More Like It

Posted: October 20th, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on More Like It

The Eagles were expected to be one of the best teams in the league this year. They sure didn’t look like it after the 3-2 start, with all of the victories by five points or less. Things changed on Sunday. The Eagles dominated the Giants, winning 28-3. Beyond the score, the Eagles out-gained them 339-119. This was the Eagles team we’ve been waiting to see.

The story of the day was Saquon Barkley returning to the Jersey swamps to face his old team. Revenge might not have been on his mind, but he played one of the best games of his life, going 17-176-1. He added a pair of catches for 11 yards. The amazing thing about his performance is that he sat out most of the fourth quarter. He could have easily set a personal high for rushing yards (he needed 190 to set the mark). Instead Barkley told Nick Sirianni to let the backup RBs get the touches.

Barkley had runs of 55, 41 and 38 yards. The Eagles scored TDs on each of those drives. His runs brought energy to an offense that struggled at times. Once Barkley got going, the offense came alive. Kenny Gainwell also had a good game, running for 56 yards. He had some good runs that aided the TD drives.

Barkley had big runs inside and outside. He used speed and power. That is one special dude.

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I doubt John Mara will sleep well tonight. The QB his franchise gave a ton of money to stunk and got benched. The RB they let go looked like the kind of a superstar you build a team around. Barkley finished the game with 187 yards of offense. The Giants entire team finished with 119. To quote Jimmy Bama…oof.

Big plays doomed the Giants. The Eagles had four offensive plays of 38 yards or more. Three of those were runs by Barkley and the other was a 41-yard TD pass from Jalen Hurts to AJ Brown. The Eagles defense piled up 8 sacks and kept Daniel Jones under constant pressure. Even special teams contributed. Cooper DeJean had a punt return of 28 yards that set up a TD drive.

The Eagles defense has now played well in back-to-back weeks. They’ve looked good in 3 of 4 games. The Browns and Giants are bad offenses. Still, a defense is supposed to shut down a bad offense when they meet. That’s exactly what Vic Fangio’s unit has done. They have not allowed an offensive TD in the past two games. That’s good defense.

It was fun to watch the pass rush really come alive. They had 8 sacks, but it goes beyond that. Bryce Huff got into the backfield. Daniel Jones moved up to avoid him and Jalen Carter got the sack. We saw multiple Eagles in the backfield more than a few times. This wasn’t one guy winning or one bad OL losing a lot. The entire Eagles front was disruptive. On plays when Jones wasn’t sacked, he was still pressured and harrassed. I might feel bad for him, but I’ve got 160 million reasons not to.

Giants RBs had 43 yards on the ground. The Eagles shut that down and forced Jones to throw. The Giants long play on the day was all of 14 yards. Drew Lock came in to replace Jones and struggled just as much. The Giants offense is really struggling right now. And the Eagles defense is starting to figure things out.

This wasn’t a perfect game by any stretch. Jalen Hurts went 10-14-114 as a passer. That’s efficient, but he was sacked 4 times and missed some open receivers. The passing offense still needs work. The Giants led the league in sacks entering the week and you figured their rush would be an issue with the Eagles playing a backup LT. The Eagles offense found itself in 3rd & 10 several times and had no chance in those situations. The Eagles finished 1 for 13 on third downs. The good news is that the Eagles didn’t have any turnovers.

The offense also didn’t have any first quarter points. They moved the ball at times, but a mistake would just kill a drive. There are still issues for the coaches to fix.

The defense tackled well and that was good to see. The only real complaint with them was the lack of takeaways. They did have a strip sack, but couldn’t recover the ball.

This game could be a good launching point. The Eagles showed they can be a good team. They can dominate an opponent. We haven’t really seen that since 2022. This performance should boost their confidence. The key is to build on this and not just celebrate the good stuff.

It was good to be able to enjoy a Sunday afternoon for once. No nail-biting. No screaming at the TV. We just got to enjoy the greatness of Saquon Barkley, former NY Giant.

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