You know the paradox about the immovable object vs. the unstoppable force?

Well this one was the movable object vs. the stoppable force, at least for three quarters. Three quarters of turnovers and horrendous decision making before Saquon Barkley took one to the house from 65 yards to breathe life into an atrocity of a football game.

From there, it was a whirlwind of a fourth, and it looked like the Eagles were going to once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory despite outplaying the Saints for most of the afternoon. But the football Gods got this one right. The Birds doubled the Saints in yards. They moved the ball well. The performance from Vic Fangio’s defense was as good as it gets, and holding New Orleans to 12 points in their own house is alone deserving of the win. The offense and head coach, meantime, pulled their heads just far enough out of their rear ends to spare the team another embarrassing loss.

The Birds are 2-1 and it’s been far from perfect, but we’re talking about a W and not an L when a lot of people were predicting the latter.

To the observations:


1) Classic ‘bend but don’t break’ defense from the Eagles on the opening drive. It looked like the D we saw for most of the Green Bay game. They gave up a couple of third downs and conceded a dumb penalty, but buckled down in the red zone to force a field goal. It was good to finally see someone get through and put some kind of pressure on the quarterback, in this case Jalen Carter batting down the pass.

2) Alvin Kamara ran the ball eight times on the opening drive, but only for 18 yards. That’s 2.3 yards per carry. He finished with 3.3 YPC on the afternoon and was held mostly in check. Keep in mind, the Eagles came in conceding 6.4 per rush, the worst number in the NFL.

3) The Eagles’ first play of the game was a simple zone read that lost three yards. They should take it out of the playbook (I think we made the same observation twice already this year).

4) Good color commentary from Greg Olsen on the sack that ended the Eagles’ first drive. By the time Hurts was brought down, only one receiver was turned around. You see the alignment and call a hot route, which Hurts didn’t do.

5) Nobody was happier with the Jordan Davis sack than Seth Joyner. Pretty good d-line stunt to get him a free path to the QB. Imagine Davis bearing down on you.

6) Hell of a play by CJGJ to force an incompletion on Rashid Shaheed. Honestly kind of surprised we didn’t wind up with a lengthy review, but the ruling was that he had not completed the catch when the ball touched the ground and they were wrestling for it.

7) That Dallas Goedert 1st quarter bomb was really nice. 13 personnel, so three tight ends, and they use some misdirection to get him on a deep post. Nicely done, Kellen Moore. (and good to see designed targets for Goedert early, this play and the two screens)

8) Olsen made it sound like DeVonta Smith was responsible for the end zone interception. Certainly looked like he was loopy coming out of that break and didn’t get himself in front of Tyrann Mathieu. Disappointing, because that drive was too good to result in zero points.

9) Jalen Carter two batted balls and blew up a screen in the first half alone. Dude came to play after two quiet weeks (and a lot of double teams). It was quite easily his best game this year and one of the best he’s played in an Eagles uniform.

10) That 4th and 1 conversion early in the second quarter was pretty ballsy. They could have lined up for the tush push but instead ran almost the same pass play that Saquon Barkley dropped last week. This time, Goedert caught it and they moved the sticks.

11) If the interception was on Smith, the fumble was on Hurts. No question about it. I’m not ready to say he’s looking Wentz-ish, but others are saying it.

12) Gotta laugh/cry at CJGJ talking trash after a big tackle in which the Saints still moved the chains on 3rd and 1.

13) Not sure how much Quinyon Mitchell knew about that 3rd and 9 deep bomb, but I can say that many other Eagles cornerbacks over the last five years would have been nowhere close to Shaheed.

14) Jahan Dotson – one first half target, one reception for three yards. He finished with two catches for 8 yards on three targets.

15) Whenever Hurts gets north and south, he still looks like he has 2021 and 2022 speed. Anything lateral he appears to be stuck in molasses, and while you wouldn’t expect him to be Usain Bolt running to his left or right, it just feels extra labored and sluggish.

16) TAKE THE POINTS! It makes no sense. Even if you convert 4th and 1, you get… one low-percentage shot at the end zone? Why would you do that? You are struggling and have turned the ball over twice already. Take the points to go into halftime tied at 3 and hit the reset button. It’s like Sirianni feels the need to insert himself because he’s not calling plays, so he makes these fugazi situational decisions that don’t have to be made. Like he’s trying to force his imprint on the game because he’s been turned into a CEO coach.

17) Saquon Barkley didn’t touch the ball enough in the first half. Who is your most important skill position player with A.J. Brown out? It’s him.

18) More terrible decision making on the opening drive of the third quarter. They run the ball on 3rd and 6 and only pick up three yards. Then they choose to throw on 4th and 3 from the NOLA 39 and Hurts is sacked. You’ve got one of the league’s best kickers and you’re playing inside a dome.

19) Snapshot of the first three quarters:

20) The Saints punted from Eagles territory a couple of times. Guess they felt pretty confident about the shutout they were pitching. Talk about a weird super-conservative vs. super-aggressive battle.

21) Blocked punt! Lovely. That was after Hurts threw incomplete on 3rd and 7 after the Saints bailed out of a cover 0, against explained well by Olsen.

22) Can’t say enough about the way the defense responded, time and time again. The 4th and 1 stop on Alvin Kamara was a massive play.

23) That hit on DeVonta Smith felt unnecessary. He’s not going anywhere, he’s wrapped up, and the whistles probably should have come earlier. Yet he gets clocked anyway and ultimately leaves the game with concussion symptoms:

24) Hell of a catch from Kamara over Zack Baun. Coverage was great, the grab was better.

25) Darius Slay said he was gonna be better this week. The end zone PBU on Shaheed was a nice play.

26) Jake Elliott can hit from 60. It’s just comical to think that’s the attempt they finally try, when they could have put him out there earlier to kick from closer range. Sirianni is just so mentally twisted right now. Every bad decision is making him overcorrect on the next one. You talk about being twisted into a pretzel, well his brain right now looks the Phillly Pretzel Factory corporate headquarters.

27) Horrible penalty on the Saints lineman who blocked Slay into the bench, or so we thought. 15 yards for being a dumbass, but I guess he got the last laugh because he knocked Slay out of the game and Kelee Ringo got torched for a big gain when he entered the game. A few plays layer, NOLA touchdown. Really shitty.

28) New Orleans having to burn two timeouts by the 5 minute mark of the 4th quarter was Andy Reid-esque. Made that final drive a lot harder for them.

29) Johnny Wilson should have caught that pass with 1:16 left on the clock. It hit him in the hands. Thankfully for him, two Saints ran into each other on the next play and Goedert ripped off an improbable 61-yard gain. It looked like what the Falcons did to the Eagles last week.

30) It always feels good to beat the Saints, especially in their house. Jerk head Sean Payton is no longer there, but the fans give off “God’s gift to the Earth” kind of vibes, like they’re some football mecca with the greatest support ever. 76 East > Bourbon Street. Hope all of the traveling Eagles fans gave ’em a nice big wave on the way out.