Weird game! You could have proclaimed it over at 13-0 with the Birds rolling early, then Jake Elliott missed an extra point and by the time you got back from the toilet it was 14-13, Green Bay in front, followed by a comedy of errors.

It really was a rollercoaster ride during that first half, and then for most of the fourth, but the Eagles did what good teams do, which is find a way to win. They largely cut down on the mistakes in the third quarter, rebuilt their two-score lead twice, and buckled down in the fourth to settle for a seven-point win, covering the 6.5 point spread in the process.

It’s not going to look pretty all the time, and this one certainly was not. We’d all be naive to think the Eagles are going to go out and boatrace everyone en route to 17-0, or 16-1 in this case, yet even in a game where they turned the ball over and made plenty of mistakes, they still scored a season-high 40 points and eclipsed 300 yards rushing in just three quarters. Last week the defense was good and offense shit, and then it got flipped a bit this week, so they just need to pull all of the units together and put together a complete game to get people believing again. Believing that they’re a Super Bowl contender.

 

1) Boston Scott was in on the first play of the game, then on the second play they bring in Miles Sanders and line him up as a receiver in an empty set, followed by Kenneth Gainwell in on the third play. Plays four and five? Sanders runs for 13 yards on two carries. I don’t know why it’s suddenly become so hard for them to just give the ball to their RB1 and let him do his thing. Sometimes it feels like they’re over-thinking things with the back rotation, when it’s clear that Sanders is a guy you can ride for at least 20 carries a game, as you saw on Sunday night.

2) I loved the 3rd down conversion on the opening drive. How could you not? They put a nice little wrinkle into the same QB draw that killed Indy last week, lining up again in 11 personnel, but instead putting the back in orbit motion to move the middle linebacker out of the way and open up a huge gap in the middle of the field:

3) Shout out to NBC for showing Reading Terminal Market before the ubiquitous cheesesteak shot. We’ll call that progress.

4) You talk about getting the ball to bounce your way. Perfect example is Javon Hargrave being unable to complete that first quarter sack, only for the play to continue and result in an interception. These types of sequences have happened multiple times this year, where they’ve been close to a good outcome and instead benefited from an even better one.

5) I decided to mix it up this week and go with the Tostitos salsa con queso. Big mistake! It just doesn’t hit like the cheesey enchilada dip.

6) The refs missed a facemask on the 30-yard screen pass that set up Green Bay’s first touchdown:

7) Looks like Britain Covey lost his kick returning job. Took long enough.

8) The sneak sequence on the 3rd drive was goofy as shit. The refs had a terrible spot on the 3rd down, then totally missed a false start on the 4th down, which would have negated the play and forced a punt. The Eagles didn’t do a good job getting push on either one of those plays, but the zebras did a shite job.

9) CJGJ going out forced undrafted free agent Reed Blankenship into the game. Gotta be honest, whenever I see a white dude in the secondary, I get nervous, but that interception was sick. Good for him. He had some ups and some downs playing his first real significant minutes back there.

10) Jalen Hurts finished 157 running yards and broke the Eagles’ single-game QB rushing record, which was held previously by Michael Vick. He actually ran for more yards than he threw for, but tossed two pretty touchdowns as well, so once again another beast of a game from him in both phases. 

11) “fucking motherfucker”

12) A.J. Brown – another backbreaking fumble. That was the difference between going up 23-14 vs. Green Bay pulling even at 20-all.

13) What was Cris Collinsworth talking about here?

“I can’t see it, but I’m sure, you can see the grab of the jersey”

???? what?

14) Hurts needed to do a better job on that 3rd and 8 where he took off backwards and just chucked it out of bounds. He struggled with that same look in Arizona – bunch of guys up on the line, and then trying to react to which players rushed and which dropped back into coverage. Green Bay only sent five on that play and he was running for his life.

15) What is it with Jason Garrett always looking like a smarmy motherfucker?

This might sound kind of weird, but Maria Taylor towering over both him and Tony Dungy freaks me out. They gotta get these guys on boxes or something. She’s only 6’2″ but must have been wearing Gene Simmons platform shoes or 7-inch heels.

16) 9 plays, 71 yards, 2:03 off the clock on that tasty drive right before halftime. That was super-important right there.

17) Hopefully this video will put an end to the soccer flopping conversation:

They flop in soccer, they flop in the NBA, and they flop in the NFL to stop momentum and keep teams from subbing. Flopping and faking is a big problem in basically every team sport except hockey and baseball.

18) Special teams coverage and tackling was terrible on the evening. Michael Clay might not be long for this world.

19) Two ghost penalties on the Packer drive that cut the lead to 34-23.

20) Bad angle from Blankenship on that Christian Watson touchdown. Marcus Epps was on him in “coverage.”

21) It was pretty funny when Collinsworth was talking about Jordan Love being a running threat. Dude was a gun slinger at Utah State. He ran for something like 400 yards in three total seasons.

22) I’m a little surprised they tried that 54-yard field goal at the end there. Elliott made it to essentially put the game out of reach, but they ran on 3rd and 7 prior to the attempt and I thought for sure that play call was predicated on the idea of going for it on fourth.

23) Gannon played some soft shit when Love came in. Common knowledge would be the pressure the backup, which they didn’t do. It was bend-but-don’t-break at the end there. His D was put in a couple of tough spots in the first half by the offense, but they did enough bad things on their own that he’s gonna get ripped again this week in the media and on sports talk radio.