A fantastic afternoon of football that was!

The Birds beat the absolute stuffing out of the Giants on the road, Dallas struggled to dispatch the one-win Texans, and Minnesota lost to Detroit. The Eagles clinched a playoff spot in the process and their path to the #1 seed looks rather linear.

It was more or less an ass whupping in the Meadowlands. The offense looked like 2019 LSU in the first half and the defense we’re gonna say only gave up seven real points, because the first touchdown was the result of a blocked punt and short field and the third score was DEEP into garbage time. Put a big, fat asterisk on that. Plus, outside of the goofy Arryn Siposs sequence, special teams was good, so that’s two straight weeks now that the offense, defense, and ST units all clicked at the same time.

Watch out! The Eagles are starting to put it all together.

 


1) “If Jonathan Gannon was 10% more aggressive, they would have won 48-13 instead of 48-22.” – Seth Joyner, probably

2) Jalen Hurts had a really nice zone read pull on that opening drive, the play where Miles Sanders and Kenneth Gainwell were lined up as split backs. I’d love to see someone go back through the film and log whether or not Hurts made the best/correct decision on those RPOs and zone reads, because I’m willing to be it’s above 95% at this point. He had a couple of mis-reads in the Colts game, but I can’t remember much else off the top of my head. He’s just so good with his decision making.

3) 14 plays, 84 yards, 8:05 off the clock on the opening drive, which put seven points on the board.  They ran it four times and threw it 10 times, with a screen in there and some read plays. A really nice, balanced drive that saw seven different players catch the ball.

4) Not sure what the zebra was doing here:

Just pick it up and toss it one of the sidelines? Put it in your pocket? He did literally nothing beneficial there.

5) They didn’t explain this on the broadcast, but on the Miles Sanders sideline non-catch, the ball moved while he was going to ground. Looked like the nose hit the turf, so apparently that’s what the refs ruled. We should have gotten a better replay angle though.

6) Rare drop from DeVonta Smith on the second drive. It was a little out in front him, but that’s a catch he’ll normally make.

7) Julian Love with a horrendous play on that second Eagles touchdown. If not an interception, he could have destroyed Smitty legally and broken up the pass. No clue what dude was doing, trying to just look the ball in instead of going up and attacking it.

8) FOX playing “Shake it Off” while showing the replay of the Giants’ punter flubbing an accidental drop kick was hilarious.

9) The MetLife turf got Reed Blankenship. Just brutal. Lane Johnson had to leave the game also. Don’t need a Pyrrhic victory here.

10) The Arryn Siposs play had a lot going on there. First of all, that scoop and run was pretty impressive. Second, he got injured and had to come out, which meant Britain Covey was holding on field goals and extra points. Third, that looked like a late hit to me. I would have died if they threw the flag there and the Birds ended up benefiting from it. Two amazing punter plays in this game.

11) Sucks they’re gonna lose Sanders next season, who went over 1,000 yards on Sunday. First Eagle to do it since Shady in 2014. He’s having a career year but they have too many free agents and Jalen Hurts needs to be paid. Such is life as a running back in the modern-day NFL, but at least he’s gonna get paid by someone else.

12) Daniel Jones absolutely stinks.

13) Early down defense wasn’t good on the Giants’ second touchdown drive. They went 11 plays for 75 yards but only faced third down once before punching it in on 3rd and goal. Too many yards conceded on 1st and 2nd down, a little too passive there from Jonathan Gannon.

14) Minor gripe here, but Smith probably could have shown some better awareness to get his feet in bounds near the goal line.

15) The return game is finally effective. Covey on punts, Boston Scott on kicks, the latter of whom with returns of 35, 16, and 66 yards in this one.

16) Loved the 3rd and 1 quick pitch. Why not? You’re coming out of the fugazi fake injury stoppage, so hit ’em with a wrinkle instead, get the edge, and run behind the tight ends.

17) Jalen Hurts anytime touchdown has hit in four of the last five weeks. It’s usually +110 or something like that.

18) Moose Johnson with a nice screw up in the fourth quarter. Got his teams mixed up and thought Zech McPhearson played for the Giants.

19) The Birds put on a run blocking clinic in this game. Beautiful schemes, great pulling and second-level stuff too. The tight ends in particular did a nice job.

20) When you’re hammering a division rival on the road but you’re not surprised:

21) What else is there to say about Hurts at this point? He didn’t even play the whole game but threw for 217 and two touchdowns while adding 77 yards on the ground with a score. Hurts is the MVP, fuck Mahomes.

22) LOUD Eagles chants in the fourth quarter. You love to hear that.

23) Eagles defense: seven sacks, nine tackles for loss, three passes defended, 11 QB hits.

24) Why did the chicken cross the road?

“That’s none of your business. He shouldn’t have to explain himself. Leave the chicken alone.” – some idiot on Twitter

25) Hard to disagree with Gronk here: