The Philadelphia Eagles are 11-1 after a sensational win against a really good NFL team, the Tennessee Titans on Sunday afternoon, 35-10. Though the cold weather is creeping in, that didn’t stop the Eagles fans from packing Lincoln Financial Field to cheer on their team.
The Eagles are putting Jalen Hurts back on the map for the MVP race who is very closely competing with Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs. Hurts had over 300 total yards rushing and passing last week and was named the NFC Player of the Week. This week, though he and the team weren’t run-heavy, he still put up great numbers and led the Birds to victory.
The game didn’t start out in the Eagles’ favor, but it’s all about how you finish. This is very reflective of how the Eagles will continue to compete in the final stretch in pursuit of playoffs.
The Eagles continue to not give up plays
DeVonta Smith‘s touchdown early in the game and the A.J. Brown touchdown-reversed-touchdown again are perfect examples of not giving up the play. The team is focused on making these great plays and they continue to execute under pressure – even if sometimes it doesn’t work in their favor.
Special teams had a quick turnaround this week
Last week, the Eagles had special teams issues big time. In just a few days they cleaned up those issues to be able to stop whatever was coming their way. The Eagles are fantastic at takeaways and turnovers, something they got back to today. I want to see the special teams continue to dominate because their presence in shortening the drives of opponents in the playoffs will be critical.
Defense vs the strong pass and run
The defense this season has been absolutely incredible. The Eagles have Jordan Davis, Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox as the Eagles big guys in addition to recent teammate additions Ndamukong Suh and Linval Joseph. We also cannot forget that James Bradberry and T.J. Edwards are flying under the radar and having fantastic seasons as well.
The Eagles need to get out of their own head
The Eagles have learned to be a very mentally disciplined team. They weren’t satisfied at 1-0, 5-0, after their first loss and even now. But, I want to see them get out of their way in some plays. The Birds are a great team this season, getting back to just going play-by-play and game-by-game, they’ll get to where they need to be.
Penalties
I could argue that the penalties today were a little outlandish on both sides of the ball, especially when it comes to the NFL’s inconsistent officiating. We know and the Eagles know penalties are something to clean up, so I won’t harp on this issue. I do want to focus on this particular play in which Andrew Adams looked to allegedly have “intent to injury” on Brown. There should be some consequences for that player for unnecessarily being on his ankle for that long.
Cute plays don’t need to happen to win
The Eagles have been known for the past two seasons to have a bag of tricks up their sleeve. It’s fun when you get to watch those fun plays, but they don’t need to happen in order to win. The Eagles took a comfortable lead but ran a trick play that ultimately got Quez Watkins banged up. Trick plays are fun to watch (thanks Philly Special) but right now, the Eagles are doing just fine with what works best.
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