BOMBS away!

EAGLES 28 – Vikings 22 

   

EAGLES STATS:

Passing: QB Jalen Hurts (19/23 – 82.6% – 326 – 3 – 0)

Rushing: RB Saquon Barkley (18 – 44 – 2.4 – 0 – 0)

Receiving: WR DeVonta Smith (11 – 9 – 183 – 20.3 – 1)

Drive Killer: OLB Jaylx Hunt (TD: 1/Int: 1/ FR: 0/ 4^th down stops: 0/ FF: 0)

Sack Leader: OLB Joshua Uche (Sacks: 1.0/ FF: 0/ Tackles: 3)

Special Teams Ace: N/A

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I hear you asking, “What about all the stuff that stats don’t reveal?” Well, that’s the reason for these Four Things articles. It’s to point out what we need to address BEFORE the game. Then AFTER the game, there’s a no-bullshit assessment of whether or not the Eagles did any of what they needed to do, to ensure the win.

So how much of what I mentioned in Four Things: VIKINGS did the Eagles actually get around to doing? Well let’s see:

1) Get Barkley 18 Carries: Saquon had exactly 18 carries, and every single one of them mattered. Especially with us losing the time of possession 25 minutes to 34. More important than the 44 rushing yards, real hand-offs helped sell the play-action. The last three hand-offs were just to kill clock, and preserve players for next week.

Teams have been absolutely selling out against the run, to prevent Saquon from beating them. Too often this season the Eagles have allowed themselves to be victims of that. Today, we took massive advantage of it. As a result, I think next week, the run game will have much better production. (DONE)

2) Lead the Receivers: I said “Throw the ball to our receivers on the move.” Boy did we ever! Our WR’s averaged 23.3 yards per catch this week! Hurts had five pass plays where the ball was in the air for 20 or more yards. Strikes of 37 (TD), 79 (TD), 28, 26 (TD), and 45 yards, ALL of those passes hit receivers while they were on the move.

DeVonta Smith and WR A.J. Brown (6 – 4 – 121 – 30.3 – 2) accounted for 304 of Hurts 326 passing yards. They showed the NFL what can happen if too many resources are committed to stopping our run game, without enough respect for our passing game. Expect more room for Saquon to run, in the near future. (DONE)

3) Pinch the ‘A’ Gaps: We held Minnesota to 89 total yards rushing, but our DT’s still spent too many plays crashing directly into offensive linemen, and not the gaps beside them. As a result we really didn’t get much quick penetration. We made playing defense, harder on ourselves than it should have been. (NOT DONE)

4) Contest TE Releases: We started out doing this on the opening drive; but as the game wore on, I’m not sure if we kept doing it, or if they were just trying chip on the way out. Doesn’t matter. It resulted in few easy TE looks, poor production (10 – 7 – 52 – 7.4 – 0) and the QB reading longer. Which were exactly the tactic and goal. (DONE)

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This week’s Four Things score was 3 of 4, in a game that we controlled from the outset. Next up, we host a giants team that will be coming in with more confidence than they should. Ahhh, youth!

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Game Hero: Jalen Hurts: While the true foundation of this offensive explosion is Saquon Barkley, it was Hurts who executed and capitalized on the opportunities provided to him. There were no weird overthrows from clean pockets, or unseen receivers running wide open, this week.

Instead, Hurts put on an absolute clinic, with a completion percentage above 82, and a perfect QB rating of 158.3. If your fetish includes QBR numbers, his was 95.2 (whatever that means). I don’t get into the weeds on such metrics. I care about yards and touchdown to interception ratios. Hurts had 326 yards and a 3:0 ratio. He was HIM.

Game goat: CB’s Adoree Jackson/Kelee Ringo: All these guys do is tackle, and neither does so very reliably. Is it possible to get rookie CB Mac McWilliams some snaps?

On The Whole: We controlled the game from start to finish, and doled out gut punch after gut punch, as we went. We repeatedly rocked Minnesota, and we played keep away with the lead, from the moment we went up 7 – 0. But we never got the knockout.

Pass rush, specifically sack production, continues to be a point of worry. Allowing QB’s to constantly escape a tackle, keeps opponents in manageable down and distance situations. As a result, we’re keeping opponents in games that they shouldn’t be in.

We did the same thing again, this week. We just won a game in which we scored 4 touchdowns, over an opponent who scored only 1, and difference in the final score was just 6 points. SIX. Something is very not right with that.

Again, opposing time of possession this week, was 34 minutes them, to 25 us. Part of that is our run game not eating clock. The other part, is when third and ten becomes first and ten, after a QB scrambles away from a sack, 16 yards up the middle. That one happened TODAY!

It’s a detail, but it has a huge ripple effect. We have to start getting QB’s on the ground.