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Get-Right Game – 20 Immediate Observations from Eagles 31, Raiders 0
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The Eagles entered Sunday afternoon on a three-game losing streak and yet found themselves a double-digit favorite for the first time this season.
That’s how bad Vegas is. Take the league’s worst offense and put a backup QB under center and you end up with a final score of Eagles 31, Raiders 0.
The pessimist would say the Birds won a game they were expected to win, and stopped the weeks-long bleeding. No doubt that’s true, though the optimist would say that the way they won amounts to good optics. It’s one thing to handle business at home, but this was a total rout. The defense pitched a shutout. The Birds’ offense stayed on schedule and moved the chains and largely avoided 3rd and long. Jalen Hurts used his legs and Kevin Patullo mixed and matched the looks. They cut down on the penalties and largely did the things we’ve been screaming for them to do all year long, now they just have to do it against better competition.
So we’ll keep the glass half full as the Eagles improve to 9-5 and inch closer to winning back-to-back division titles for the first time since 2004.
We go now, to the observations:
1) There was a bunch of “dome or no dome” chatter pregame because of the crappy weather. On one hand, the Eagles won two Super Bowls inside roofed stadiums, scoring 81 points in the process. On the other hand, they played in a roofed stadium last weekend and threw four interceptions while missing a field goal.
It’s one thing to argue that football is “supposed to be played” in the elements, but in recent seasons there’s no overwhelming data to suggest that one of these two environments creates an overwhelming competitive advantage for the Birds.
2) The first Eagles drive was a good example of why “third and manageable” wins you games. They got a 3rd and 3 DPI to move the sticks initially, then a five-wide QB draw on 3rd and 4 to keep the drive going. They converted a tush push on 3rd and 1, then, after a negative rush, DeVonta Smith laid out for a 3rd and 6 conversion and they scored a few plays later on a shovel pass.
Staying out of third and long has been a huge problem this season and that drive looked like a 2024 drive.
3) Brandon Graham has always been good when he lines up as a tackle in 3rd and long situations. That was a hallmark of the Jim Schwartz era and the 2017 defense, putting three defensive ends on the field in obvious passing downs.
4) On further review, the Cooper DeJean shove on Tyler Lockett was a total flop. Didn’t matter since DeJean was also flagged for holding on the play, but still..
5) Second drive: Smitty stumbles/trips and still runs a nicer double move than most receivers. He’s so smooth out there.
6) Any complaints about the first two DPIs on the Raiders? Don’t think so. Seemed like obvious flags.
7) Dallas Goedert only had 20 career drops (regular and post season) before he flubbed that walk-in touchdown. Once again, however, he’s open every time they run that QB pull and slide pass.
8) Kenny Pickett with a classic Donovan McNabb wormburner on the second Raiders’ drive. Threw it at the back of the receiver’s ankle. Looked like the movie Troy when they shoot the arrow into Brad Pitt’s Achilles. The Eagles were never gonna lose to a Pitt Panther with small hands.
9) Third drive was ugly. Negative rush on 2nd down, then a frenetic Hurts throwing behind Tank Bigsby on third down. He had a guy bearing down on him and wasn’t running for the sticks, but Bigsby had plenty of room if that ball was on target.
10) President Biden looked like he was enjoying himself at the game. Probably had no clue where he was, but that’s not important. What’s important is having fun and taking in the sights and sounds. That being said, can we get him a Super Bowl 52 or 59 hat? He’s wearing a Super Bowl 57 hat here. Come on, man! –
(It’s been pointed out that the Eagles are 2-0 in Super Bowls under Trump and 0-1 under Biden. Do with this information what you will.)
11) More tempo on the fourth drive. For the most part they were snapping the ball with 10+ seconds left in the play clock until they got down into the red zone. They’ve been so slow in getting plays off this season and it’s added to the predictability.
12) QB movement was the catalyst for the second touchdown drive. You have a couple of Hurts runs and a little bootleg action to get Goedert in the open field. The offense just doesn’t work without Jalen’s legs, but we knew that already. Get the zone read and RPO game going once again and good things will happen.
13) The Eagles went into halftime with three timeouts and didn’t even try to get into field goal range. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised at this point.
14) One Negadelphia thing to point out is that the Birds still logged a handful of negative or one-yard runs, five total in the first half. There was even a sequence when Grant Calcaterra was asked to block Maxx Crosby, unsurprisingly resulting in a four-yard loss.
15) 3rd and 12, empty set QB draw to move the sticks. That would have been a coward’s hand off to Saquon earlier in the season.
16) Here’s the clip of Hurts tweaking the ankle. He threw a TD to A.J. Brown on the very next play and seemed fine, though they probably didn’t have to run him while up 24-0 in the second half:
17) Nakobe Dean popped once again. When he gets downhill he makes some violent plays. I could watch him do Oklahoma drills all day long, or bear down on receivers in the flats.
18) The entire defense was great, as expected. That’s why this was never 2023 all over again, because Vic Fangio’s unit is nothing like Sean Desai’s unit. Remember the linebackers on that 2023 team? Yeah.
19) Technically, the Eagles did bench Hurts for Tanner McKee. That’s because the game was over after three quarters.
20) Do the Birds have some crap teams on the schedule to end the season? Yeah, but they had one of the league’s hardest schedules to start, and racking up those early wins went a long way into keeping this team alive through the slump.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com