Would losing a game actually benefit the Eagles in the long run?

For three quarters on Sunday, the answer appeared to be a resounding no, then they came roaring back in the fourth to secure a 17-16 lead and finish with a STOUT defensive stop to improve to 9-1 on the season.

There are a ton questions to ask of the Eagles after that game, but the main takeaway is that they didn’t roll over and die despite the offense looking like dog shit for a large majority of the game. They really buckled down and overcame some intense adversity, which is what a lot of fans were looking for. Sure, they had the 14-point deficit against Jacksonville, and lost at home to Washington, but they’ve largely cruised in their other games, so gritting their way through a tough road win like this one definitely tells you about the mental makeup of this squad.

Bottom line, that’s a game they typically find a way to lose. Credit to the Birds for coming back and getting the job done in a big way. They are still the best team in the NFL, no matter what anybody tries to tell you.

To the observations:


1) For all the talk about Jonathan Gannon, his unit was the best of the three on the afternoon. After the opening drive, Indy didn’t score another TD the rest of the way.

2) Linval Joseph was in there on the first play of the game. Three DTs, just three yards on the carry. Then the big Jonathan Taylor run on the first drive? Four down linemen, followed by a nine-yard run also against a four-man front.

Look at the deployment on the huge Taylor gain:

It’s just 11 personnel for the Colts, nothing crazy here, but it’s a soft nickel look for the Birds and James Bradberry fails to make a play.

If they’re gonna run nickel, so be it, but when you’re down on the goal line there (after the big plays), that’s not the time to be sitting in the 4-2-5. Show that odd-man front on 1st/2nd down and ask Indy to run against it. They were much less effective for obvious reasons.

Outside of that first drive, there’s very little that needs to be said about the defense. They bounced back in a big way and really kept the offense in this game despite all of the penalties and miscues.

3) Third downs were a big story coming into this one. Too much moving the chains from Washington last week, and this time the Birds held Indy to 33% on 3rd down, just a 5-15 mark on the day.

4) No Dallas Goedert, no problem? Not exactly. Grant Calcaterra committed a brutal 3rd and 2 holding penalty on the first drive, the Birds got pushed back to 3rd and 12, and they couldn’t move the sticks, forcing a punt and putting the defense right back out on the field.

Then on the second drive, a penalty from Tyree Jackson to wipe out a massive first down gain. Just brutal penalties from the backup tight ends. Even Jack Stoll committed one, but on special teams.

5) Darius Slay showing the slightest of cracks in the armor? He’s lost some 1v1 reps these last two weeks. He got beat inside by Michael Pittman on the second drive, prior to the punt, and had a funky game against Washington. For what it’s worth, he and the rest of the secondary really buckled down and played well the rest of the way. Could have just been a blip on the radar.

6) Did you see people hashtagging the Eagles on Twitter? It kept showing a Serbian flag next to the word because the World Cup is currently taking place and Serbia’s nickname just happens to be the Eagles.

7) Another ineligible player downfield penalty on an option play. Reminder that the NFL threshold is one-yard for pass blocking, so when that ball was thrown, Jason Kelce was beyond the allowed limit (regardless of his guy detaching and letting Kelce kind of stumble forward). They followed up that with a holding penalty and all of a sudden it was 1st and 25 right around midfield. Then 1st and 35 after the Jackson penalty.

8) Jalen Hurts taking that sack on 3rd and 11 on the second drive, instead of hurling the ball to Terre Haute, was really bad. It moved them out of indoor field goal range, resulting in a punt instead. At least Arryn Siposs put it inside the 10, for what seems like the first time this season.

9) Britain Covey is a trainwreck out there. Poor guy is gonna get broken in half on one of these returns.

10) CBS missed a third down conversion because they had a Nick Sirianni graphic up on the screen. Live television isn’t easy, but I’m surprised at how often both CBS and FOX are missing things because the directors and/or producers are pulling up fullscreens or switching cameras an inopportune times.

11) Not enough from Miles Sanders in the last two games. He’s your #1. Give the guy the ball and let him do what he was doing in September and October. If Hurts is going to eat up rushing snaps, that’s fine, but then you don’t need to get Boston Scott or Kenny Gainwell involved. Just give Sanders their snaps instead.

12) On the first Eagles’ scoring drive, Indy really blew that 3rd and 8 sequence. They rushed three, dropped a linebacker as a QB spy, and then they had a blown coverage on the back end as well:

Bad situation for a bad call and then a further screw up in coverage. Advantage, Birds.

13) The Jason Kelce high snap? Another killer. Difference perhaps between 7 points and 3 points right there. Because of that, “he’s not allowed to do his podcast this week. He has to focus on football only.” You know some four-for-four dipshit is definitely thinking that.

14) That 3rd and 2 right before halftime was ugly. They went 13 personnel (3 tight ends), had Gainwell in pistol, and got stuffed. The line got no push at all, and why is Gainwell the runner there anyway? –

15) Special teams with a false start and then giving up a 17-yard punt return. Not great!

16) T.J. Edwards with a couple of big tackles for loss in this game. The Eagles didn’t do a good job last week creating negative plays, but the two he made in this one helped get the D off the field the first time and then force a 51-yard field goal the second time.

17) Horrible, atrocious, backbreaking fumble to begin the third. They just went with a roll out there looking for a Quez Watkins bomb, a slow-developing play and Yannick Ngakoue gets around Sanders for the strip sack. Why does a running back have that blocking assignment anyway? It’s the start of a new half. Move the ball, build some momentum, get guys going. That was a ridiculous way to start the half:

18) The Parris Campbell catch/no-catch? The Eagles should never have had to challenge that in the first place.

19) The 4th and 10 with Hurts eventually just running out of bounds was one of the most painful things I have watched since… since the Phillies and Union both were eliminated from championship contention on the same day. Why isn’t he just lofting the ball down the field and throwing a Hail Mary? He actually LOST YARDAGE on the play! Incredible. Also, just punt the ball there and play the field position game. That was a brutal decision to go.

20) Bad Hurts decision-making game overall. On the drive after the 4th and 10, he should have pulled the ball on that zone read and gave it to Sanders again, who was immediately swallowed up by Ngakoue.

HOWEVER – when it really mattered at the end there, he made the necessary plays with both his arm and his feet, and you know he’s a guy who’s not going to fall apart mentally. He’s got great composure out there. Good on him for shrugging off a subpar first half performance and doing what needed to be done to come home with the W.

21) My main complaint about the RB1:

https://twitter.com/kylepaganCB/status/1594418002115846144?s=20&t=scAp9ZW9v_buAH1elAl0gA

22) 2nd and 4 at the end of the third quarter – not sure why they didn’t run a play there and let the clock run out instead

23) Sometimes goofy shit happens out there, and Hurts turning two broken plays into massive gains, one on each touchdown drive, that was basically the catalyst for them battling back and ultimately winning this game.

24) Any surprise that the refs didn’t blow that play dead before the Jonathan Taylor fumble? I went back and watched it a couple of times and they did stop his forward progress about a second before it appears as though the ball comes out. Whatever. Too close to call. Birds football.

25) Two weeks, two fourth-quarter fumbles from Eagle receivers after the catch. Quez Watkins last week. A.J. Brown this week.

26) The Colts did the Birds a huge favor with that ugly-ass passing play on 2nd and goal late in the fourth. Haason Reddick then got away with a facemask, so we’ll call it even after last week’s Goedert debacle.

27) How about that time out right before the Colts kicked the field goal? Didn’t need to do that there.

28) Last drive of the game they decide to hand the ball off to Boston Scott three straight times before the two-minute warning, then you come back by trying to get Indy to jump, only to burn another timeout. What exactly was the philosophy during the most critical juncture of the game? You either have to go slow and kill clock, or go fast and hold your timeouts, and they didn’t do either one of those things, only to be bailed out by a big boy 4th down run from Hurts.

29) Shane Steichen didn’t have a great day, but that game-winning touchdown was a thing of beauty. QB draw, Jason Kelce with a bit of deception there pulling out to his right, and a huge lane to the end zone. Your grandmother and my grandmother both could have gotten through that hole for the score.

30) Brandon Graham made up for the penalty against Taylor Heinicke with that huge sack at the end there. It came off a regular four-man rush, too. No blitz on that play.

EDIT – here’s a bonus #31 for you:

Indy ran for 99 yards in this game