Three straight wins, two straight blowouts, a 5-2 record and the Eagles look like a real football team again.
The offense looked tremendous. The defense looked fantastic. And this just may be a fun season after all.
The Eagles went into Cincinnati Sunday and earned themselves a commanding 37-17 win over a dangerous Bengals team. It was impressive stuff all around.
Here’s our 10 Instant Observations as the Eagles have a three-game winning streak for the first time in almost a year.
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1. This is a win the Eagles have needed for a long time. On the road against an elite quarterback and a quality team with all phases operating at a high level. We didn’t learn much from the Browns and Giants except that the Eagles could beat terrible teams with lousy quarterbacks. This was Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Trey Hendrickson and a scary matchup that the Eagles absolutely dominated. And despite blowing the home opener vs. the Falcons and despite getting embarrassed by the Bucs the Eagles find themselves at 5-2 with a three-game winning streak, and the conversation about Nick Sirianni might soon be about a contract extension instead of when he’s getting fired. You have to love how the Eagles have bounced back from some early adversity and taken their place among the NFL’s best. And say what you want about Sirianni, he’s exceptional at getting his team prepared, getting them confident and getting them to shrug off whatever adversity hits. Getting them to believe in themselves. And a season that a few weeks ago seemed like it was in disarray now has so much promise. The Eagles are legit. How about that.
2. Very encouraging stuff from the Eagles’ defense. After the Bengals opened the game with a 17-play, 70-yard touchdown drive, they really did look unstoppable. Joe Burrow was 11-for-12 on the drive for 60 yards with a touchdown pass to Ja’Marr Chase. But one hallmark of Vic Fangio’s defense is that they figure things out along the way, and coverage tightened up, pressure improved and they held Cincinnati to 10 points and just 210 yards. The Bengals were 6-for-6 on third down in the first drive and then 4-for-7 the rest of the way. Adjustments. The Eagles even got two 4th-quarter defenses for the first time in two years – since a win over the Steelers when Chauncey Gardner-Johnson picked off Kenny Pickett and Javon Hargrave forced a Pickett fumble. Over the last three weeks, this defense has held the Browns, Giants and Bengals to 29 points – the first time since early in 2016 they’ve allowed fewer than 30 points over a three-week span. Burrow targeted Chase 11 times and he had 54 yards. That’s huge. Great coverage, great pressure, great tackling. Second half, Burrow didn’t even complete a pass longer than 13 yards. This Bengals offense is dangerous, but their last eight drives netted just 10 points. The Eagles have allowed just 640 net yards in their last three games, their 2nd-lowest total for any three-game span since 1992. In 2017 they allowed 591 in wins over the Broncos, Cowboys and Bears. Also the first time the defense has allowed 29 or fewer points in a three-game span since 2017. That’s elite defense. This is one of the youngest defenses in the league and they’re only going to get better.
3. This was the best Jalen Hurts has looked in a long, long time. Probably since the first Dallas game last year. He completed 16 of 20 passes for 236 yards with a 45-yard TD to DeVonta Smith, three rushing TDs and for the fourth straight game no interceptions. He spread the ball around, he made great decisions, he got rid of the ball fast, he just looked super engaged and it seemed like his mind was working quickly. That’s three straight games without a turnover and four straight without an interception. When a quarterback can drive the ball down the field and be aggressive while avoiding turnovers, you’re going to win almost every time. Three games since the bye, Hurts is at 71 percent with four touchdown passes, no interceptions and a 3-0 record. He’s not forcing the ball anymore. He's not rushing things. He looks as comfortable as he has since 2022 and Kellen Moore and Doug Nussmeier have a lot to do with that, but Hurts deserves a ton of credit for cleaning up the flaws in his game and getting back to doing the things he does well.
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4. We need to talk about Cooper DeJean. That 4th-and-1 play he made on Ja’Marr Chase was just enormous. This is a 21-year-old kid playing playing in his third-career game on defense in the open field against a guy who’s made the Pro Bowl every year he’s been in the league while averaging over 1,200 yards per season. DeJean diagnosed it perfectly, got to Chase before he could turn upfield and brought him down with a grip on his leg so he couldn’t escape. DeJean has made such an enormous difference since Fangio put him in the slot in place of Avonte Maddox. He’s physical, he’s tough, he’s fast and he’s a sure tackler. He’s around the ball and actually should have had his first interception in the second quarter. This is a rookie who had played eight career snaps on defense before the Browns game, and he’s giving the Eagles next-level play very early in his career. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a personnel change make such an immediate impact. DeJean is a flat-out stud.
5. I can’t give enough props to Isaiah Rodgers for that 4th-quarter pass breakup that led to Chauncey Gardner-Johnson’s interception. The Eagles led 27-17 with 12 ½ minutes left and the Bengals had a 1st-and-10 near midfield when Burrow threw deep to Chase down the right sideline. Normally, Darius Slay would be defending Chase in that spot, but he had just left the game with a groin injury and Rodgers was out there in his place. After being forced to sit out last year with his gambling suspension, he’d played only 41 snaps on defense all year. But he was ready for the moment and you’ve got to love the way he didn’t back down against one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. Rodgers had great coverage and batted the ball in the air, where Gardner-Johnson was waiting and picked up the Eagles’ first interception since Week 3. It’s a terrific play whoever makes it, but the fact that it was a guy who had just entered the game moments earlier and had played 41 snaps since 2022 makes it even more special.
6. Some days Saquon Barkley is just going to run all over the other team, and that’s awesome when he does. And then are games like this, where he just chips away, chips away, chips away, the yards don’t come so easily, and eventually he breaks through. You’ve got to give it to Kellen Moore for continuing to feed Barkley on those days when the yards aren’t coming so easily. He’s so freaking talented that just about every time it’s going to pay off. Through three quarters, Barkley had 15 carries for 51 yards for 3.4 yards per carry. Final drive in the fourth quarter? Seven carries for 57 yards. Barkley is so big and tough and powerful that he just wears down defenders. It seems like as the game goes on he gets stronger and stronger and by the fourth quarter he’s just steamrolling people. Barkley finished with 108 rushing yards despite the slow start and now has 766 rushing yards in just seven games, which is insane. He’s a beast.
7. Grant Calcaterra is really developing into quite a weapon in the receiving game, and he’s not much of a blocker – although the effort is certainly there - but he is fast and has soft hands and clearly has the trust of Hurts, who he spent a year with at Oklahoma in 2019. Calcaterra had 19- and 28-yard catches Sunday and with Dallas Goedert out since very early in the Browns game, he has seven catches for 130 the last three weeks, which is big-time production. This from a guy averaging 5.2 yards per game in his career going into the Cleveland game. Calcaterra only has 11 receptions this year, but that includes catches of 15, 19, 20, 26 and 34 yards. You’re always going to miss a guy like Goedert, who’s an elite blocker and a big-time receiver. But Calcaterra has really helped make up for his absence with a bunch of big plays. I’d like to see a role for him once Goedert does get back.
8. How about that Nolan Smith? Dude really looks like a football player lately. Smith had one sack in his first 21 career games and now has one in each of the Eagles’ wins on this three-game winning streak. The 23-year-old Smith is the Eagles’ youngest player with a sack in three straight games since Trent Cole in 2006, and it’s so encouraging to see this kind of production from a guy who a lot of people had some doubts about not too long ago. And understandably. He was the 30th pick in last year’s draft and the production just wasn’t there. But he stayed positive throughout that first year and a half and something clicked for him over the last month. He never stopped putting in the work, never got down on himself, kept learning from Brandon Graham and Josh Sweat – and Haason Reddick last year - and it’s all paying off. And it’s not just the sacks. Smith plays hard all the time and he’s quick enough that he can hang in there in coverage as well. Smith’s emergence as a legit edge rusher has been a very encouraging product of this winning streak.
9. The Eagles beat the Giants by 25 points and the Bengals by 20. How rare is it to go on the road back-to-back weeks and win by 17 or more points? Oh yeah, it’s rare. Last time the Eagles won consecutive weeks by 17 or more points was 1966, when Norm Snead and Co. beat the Steelers at old Pitt Stadium 31-14 and then beat the Giants 31-3 at Yankee Stadium. That was 58 years ago. The only other time it happened was in November of 1947 when they beat Washington 38-14 at Griffith Stadium and then the Giants 41-24 at the Polo Grounds. Three times in 92 years. It’s not easy to win on the road and it’s not easy to go on the road five of your first seven games and go 4-1 but to win by a combined 42 points in consecutive starts shows a team that’s really locked in and truly resilient.
10. Can’t finish this without acknowledging the job Fred Johnson did at left tackle against Trey Hendrickson. There aren’t many more dangerous pass rushers than Hendrickson, whose 60 sacks since 2020 are 3rd-most in the league and who already has 7.0 sacks this year. Johnson is considered a very good run blocker but he’s been uneven as a pass blocker. But he was lights out Sunday, holding his former Bengals teammate to no sacks, no hurries, no quarterback hits and no tackles for loss. It’s remarkable how well Jeff Stoutland gets his backups prepared, and Johnson’s ability to neutralize Hendrickson gave Hurts the time he needed on his blind side to get the ball exactly where he wanted and when he wanted. Jordan Mailata will be out at least two more games and you’ve got to feel a lot more confident with Big Fred after this performance. Mailata is as good as any left tackle in the business, but the Eagles’ ability to operate the offense at peak efficiency without him speaks volumes about Johnson’s ability to hang in there and play at a high level.
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