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Three in a Row – 20 Immediate Observations from Eagles 37, Bengals 17
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Was that the best Eagles win of the season? Sure felt like it.
They went on the road, scored 37 points, and didn’t turn the ball over. They made timely defensive plays, picked off Joe Burrow, and stuffed the Bengals on 4th and 1. Jalen Hurts was clean and effective both throwing and running, the offense hit on explosive plays, then they iced it with a bulldozer of a drive that went 85 yards and took 7:37 off the clock.
Don’t look now, but the Eagles have won three games in a row and are 3-0 in the shaved-head Nick Sirianni era. The offense is starting to hum and the defense has shown enough through seven games to know that the ceiling is relatively high for the unit, and oh yeah, Jake Elliott was perfect once again. To the observations:
1) The Bengals’ all-white combo is pretty sick. Not sure how effective the fan white out was during a day game, but some of those crowd shots close to the end zones were cool. You’d never be able to get Eagles fans to wear the same color to anything. They probably would not even entertain the idea.
2) Ian Eagle must have only watched the Giants game in preparation, because he introduced the Birds’ defense as a unit “loaded with pass rushers who have been getting to the quarterback.”
3) First Cincy drive: 17 plays, 70 yards, 10:04 off the clock. The Eagles allowed five third conversions on that drive and had Nolan Smith on Ja’Marr Chase on the final play, which, if we’re being honest, not even the best DBs in the world are staying with a receiver when the quarterback has 30 seconds to throw the ball.
4) Ironic: the Eagles again did not score in the first quarter, and remain the only NFL team with no first quarter points. BUT – they did score on their opening drive. Cincy’s first score took so damn long that the Birds’ first drive didn’t even finish until the second quarter.
5) That second Bengals drive was a rollercoaster. Nolan Smith with a monster sack to push the Bengals back into their own half of the field, then Burrow converts a 3rd and 22 before Mike Gesicki makes a great one-handed catch to move the sticks. Big Play Slay’s PBU then ended up being the difference between three points and 7 points.
6) Much respect to Jennifer Coolidge for her immaculate work playing Stifler’s mom, but the Discover Card commercials have jumped the shark.
7) 3rd and 3 near midfield – Hurts has no business throwing that check down/swing pass to Kenny Gainwell. That had pick-6 written all over it and was the only bad decision he made all game long.
8) Didn’t like the penalty on Tyler Steen before halftime. If you watch that play back you can’t hear a whistle until he’s already begun the motion to ram that pile forward. It’s possible that it was blown on the field and we didn’t hear it on TV, but it sure looked like the players were still playing. The refs gotta be quicker to the whistle if you don’t want people doing what Steen did.
9) Good Freudian Slip from Charles Davis, who called A.J. Brown A.J. “Green.” The latter, of course, a seven-time Pro Bowler for the Bungles.
10) You can’t stop the tush push. Just run it down their throats over, and over, and over again. It never gets old. It’s beyond satisfying.
11) Smitty is the last guy you want lowering the shoulder, but that sideline catch and hit on D.J. Turner was aesthetically pleasing.
12) Not only did the Eagles run a successful zone read, but they scored a touchdown with it. Incredible. That play had been so poor over the last year-plus, but Hurts audibled into that call at the line of scrimmage and executed it perfectly:
THAT’S OUR QB1 ❗️@jalenhurts | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/CbPw0NUFms
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 27, 2024
13) Good challenge by Nick Sirianni on the dropped pass, but if the ref was in the right position he would have seen that live.
14) How much would you pay to remove the political commercials? Id pay $100 easily, with the money going towards the establishment of a legitimate third party.
15) Nothing better in football than a deep bomb for a touchdown. That Smitty TD was a good snapshot of what the Eagles offense has been this year. You nibble a bit, run the ball, throw for 5-6 yards, then BOOM! Tough actin’ Tinactin. Sorry, I mean BOOM – explosive play. Between Smith, Brown, and Saquon Barkley, they’ve got three home run hitters and always seem to get something big out of them. It’s part of their identity at this point.
16) GREAT play by Cooper DeJean to stuff Ja’Marr chase on 4th and 1, but the person on the Bengals staff who decided to throw sideways in that situation is an idiot.
17) Sick play from Isaiah Rodgers on the interception. He’s now atoned for not knowing the punt return rules.
18) Three weeks in a row now without a Hurts turnover.
19) After that first drive, which took 10 minutes off the clock, the Bengals only had the ball for 16 more minutes.
20) Garbage time included, the Eagles ran the ball 39 times and threw it 20 times. That’s a Philly-preferred run/pass ratio.
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