Found a way — 5 takeaways from Eagles-Saints a day later
Drew Hallowell / Philadelphia Eagles
It was a defensive struggle featuring injuries, turnovers, and poor coaching in New Orleans for the majority of Sunday’s game. No one could get anything going, until the end.
It took two of the few healthy Eagles left on offense, Saquon Barkley and Dallas Goedert, to rally the troops and lead them to a massive win over the Saints, 15-12.
Was it pretty? No. Is it ever? No.
The Eagles are yet to play a complete game, again. But they are 2-1. Someway, somehow, they pulled off a big win in NOLA. But there are still a lot of concerns.
Here are my five observations a day after the win:
Something we have not seen in a long time
It was a terrible start for the offense. Jalen Hurts was turning the ball over, they failed on multiple fourth downs, and the playcalling was hurting them.
But, in the end, the Eagles were able to overcome the early turbulence and win a ballgame. That is something the Eagles have not been able to do since the middle of last season when all they knew to do was find ways to win games. When the collapse began, they only found ways to lose, including last week against the Falcons. The Eagles allowed Kirk Cousins to go all the way down the field in 65 seconds to stun the Eagles on their home opener.
They did not happen this time around.
On the road, the banged-up Eagles, led by Hurts, Barkley, and Goedert, went down the field and got in the endzone to take the lead. Then down the stretch, the defense locked in and forced a game-winning interception, caught by Reed Blankenship, to end it.
Since the middle of last season, the Eagles have lost this game. They do not bounce back from the initial miscues, they do not go down the field and score, and they do not make the defensive stand to win.
As bad as the first half was, as bad as Nick Sirianni may be, they came back and won the game. That is my biggest takeaway.
Hurts comes up huge
Hurts’ first half flat-out sucked.
The Eagles first-half drives went: 3-and-out, interception, fumble, and a failed 4th-and-1. A goose egg in the first half.
Hurts’ interception came on a promising drive. They got all the way into the red zone, and on 3rd-and-9 from the 11-yard line, Hurts threw a strike into the endzone, intended for DeVonta Smith, but two Saints were swarming and picked it off. To me, it looked like more of a play to A.J. Brown, who missed his second straight game with a hamstring injury. Brown is a much bigger body than Smith and may have been able to bump off a defender and get to the ball. Smith is too small for that. So Hurts may not have known his personnel. Smith also did not run a great route.
And the fumble came with Hurts rolling out to his left, with Carl Granderson on his tail, Hurts left the ball unprotected, and Granderson knocked it away. It gave me a lot of Carson Wentz vibes. He would do that all the time.
These are rookie mistakes Hurts is making. It is his fifth season. He needs to figure it out.
But, he did come up huge when the Eagles needed him to most.
Hurts completed 76 percent of his throws for 311 yards without a touchdown. He made some clutch throws under pressure and did it with most of the offensive line out. Mekhi Becton (finger) and Lane Johnson (concussion) both exited early. Smith also took a dirty hit and left in the second half with a concussion. Britain Covey also reportedly suffered a broken bone in his shoulder and is expected to miss at least six weeks.
So Hurts was out there with Fred Johnson and Tyler Steen on the line, along with Parris Campbell, Johnny Wilson, and Jahan Dotson as the receivers. Not ideal, especially in the Superdome.
Hurts was not good in a few key moments, but it became vintage Hurts at the end. He made big throws at important times, stayed confident with adversity, and rallied the Eagles to a win in the darkest of moments.
How good is Barkley… and Goedert?
Barkley is unbelievable. Incredible. Where would the Eagles be without him? 0-3?
After dropping the ball on Monday night to lose the game, he responded with 17 rushes for 147 yards and two touchdowns. One a 65-yarder and the other to win the game. In his first three games as an Eagle, he has got 63 carries for 351 rushing yards with three touchdowns and 10 catches for 53 yards and another TD. That’s 404 total yards in three games. That is ridiculous.
Next Gen Stats clocked Barkley reaching a top speed of 21.66 mph on his 65-yard touchdown to get the Eagles on the board and go up 7-3. Are you kidding me?
Barkley’s first carry came with 13:43 left in the half. The Eagles need to feed him.
Also, how about Goedert? I swear it has been three years since we have seen him as a vital part of this offense. And what a return. 10 catches for 170 yards, the most of his career. He had catches of 22, 30, 43 and 61 yards
Goedert was huge when they needed him to be. With no Brown and Smith down the stretch, Goedert made a one-handed catch and had that big 61-yard catch and run, setting up Barkley’s four-yard TD to end up winning it.
It was a clutch performance, and he needs to stay a part of this offense moving forward, no matter who else is on that field.
Two bulldogs and the run defense
Just last week I was criticizing Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter on how they have done nothing this season, and very little since being very high picks in the first round out of Georgia. And, well, they deserved it. They both combined for no sacks, no tackles for loss, no pass breakups, and no quarterback hits through the first two weeks.
But, man, did they shut me up in Week 3. They combined for one sack, two tackles for loss, two pass breakups, and one quarterback hit against the Saints. Carter specifically was historically good, impacting 18 plays of his 51 snaps. He was the highest-rated defensive tackle of the week.
It was encouraging to see this out of these two. This defense is not elite without the two dogs in the interior of the line. They were huge on Sunday.
And the run defense was pretty excellent. The Saints’ game plan seemed to be to feed Alvin Kamara and get through the Eagles’ weak run defense. It made sense, this run-d stunk in the first two weeks. But they were elite on Sunday.
There was not really anything new, other than a lot less Bryce Huff. They were just more disciplined, more physical, and got to the ball. They shut down the red-hot Kamara, and they kept the offense in the game.
Sabotage from the top?
The Eagles blew their game on Monday night due to zero offensive execution and poor defensive play. However, they had the chance to be up by nine points with under two minutes left, rather than six, had Sirianni taken three points in the first half rather than go for it on fourth down and failed.
In life, when you make a mistake, you learn from it and try and improve on it. But Sirianni? No, not this time. Or ever, really.
There were two times the Eagles’ could taken the points, but they went for it both times and failed to convert.
The first came on 4th-and-1 on the 15-yard line with a timeout left and 14 seconds remaining. If the Eagles ended up getting the fourth down conversion, they would have maybe 10 seconds left to take a shot at the end zone or set up for the field goal. Not enough time. You obviously just take the points, right?
Sirianni thought otherwise, and went with a fake-tush push, trying to get Barkley to run around the line and sneak through. He got blown up. Turnover. It should have been a 3-3 game there.
Then again, the next drive, on 4th-and-3 at the Saints’ 35-yard line with 8:47 to go in the third quarter, down three. While it should have been tied at three, the Eagles could have been going to take the lead. But no. Hurts took the snap, and the pocket got diminished, and Hurts got sacked. Should have been 6-3.
Similar to last week, where Barkley should have never had needed to make a catch at the end where he dropped it and lost the game, and the call should have been to just run it, the Eagles’ offense should have never had needed to drive down the field at the end to take the lead. If they had taken the six points off of field goals, the Eagles would have led 13-12 after the Saints’ failed two-point conversion.
The talent on the Eagles’s roster is covering Sirianni’s inadequate coaching, and that may be the most concerning and biggest takeaway from this game.
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Benjamin Goldstein
Benjamin has been covering Philly Sports for Philly Sports Reports since 2017. He is a podcaster, writer, and founder of Philly Sports Reports. Benjamin is also an intern at the WBCB Sports Network on 1490AM. Through Philly Sports Reports, Benjamin has gotten the opportunity to meet Phillies owner John Middleton in his suite and be honored as the Philadelphia sports fan of the week for KYW News Radio. He hopes to be reporting on Philly sports as a full-time job in the future.
