The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Detroit Lions on Sunday night.
The defense was awesome! The offense was not.
Time to hand out winners, losers, and I don’t knows.
Actually, just winners and one loser this week.
For even more analysis, check out my appearance on The Ringer’s Philly Special postgame podcast with Sheil Kapadia (and Ace Producer Cliff Augustin).
WINNERS
VIC FANGIO
The Lions entered Week 10 with an offense that ranked second in offensive points per game (30.4), fifth in yards per game (366.9), fifth in DVOA, fifth in EPA per play, and seventh in success rate.
The Eagles’ defense held that offense to nine points (three of which were scored after a turnover on downs gave them the ball at the plus 29-yard line) and 317 yards.
Detroit was held to 3/18 on third down (3/13) and fourth down (0/5) combined.
Just a flat out dominant performance by a unit hat shouldn’t even reasonably be expected to play this well considering it’s the youngest defense in the NFL and the Eagles rank dead last in defensive spending by a significant margin.
JORDAN DAVIS
Davis had gone a bit quiet following a strong start to the season. He really showed up big in this game with three pass deflections (one of which created an interception) to give him six total in 2025. He previously logged five pass deflections over the 55 games (including playoffs) he played before this season. Davis being over 6’6” with 78-percentile arm length and 91-percentile hand size clearly came in, well … handy.
JALEN CARTER
Feels like Carter is playing his best football coming out of the bye, which is a very positive development. He led the Eagles in “stops” (defined as tackles that constitute a failure for the offense) with five while no other defender had more than two. He seemed to have a really good read on what the Lions were doing. Carter also deflected two Goff passes and absolutely destroyed Lions starting right guard Tate Ratledge on the play where Jaelan Phillips logged a sack:
MORO OJOMO
Ojomo ranked second on the Eagles in “stops” with two, one of which came on fourth down to force the Lions’ first turnover on downs.
NAKOBE DEAN
Dean’s role has expanded each week since he’s returned from injured reserve and it’s impossible to fault Fangio for playing him at the expense of Jihaad Campbell at this point. Dean has just been so good. For the second week in a row, he generated a sack … this one by absolutely demolishing David Montgomery to knock Goff down.
Dean will be a free agent after this season. Guessing the Eagles won’t be able to pay him when they have plenty of other extensions to figure out and it’s not like Zack Baun or Campbell are going anywhere. But that’s something to figure out in the future. For now, Eagles fans can enjoy Dean playing like one of the best off-ball linebackers in the league. Pretty crazy he’s looked this good while coming off such a major injury.
ZACK BAUN
He was in on a team-high seven tackles, including one TFL. Baun is only allowing a 72.4 passer rating when targeted, which is actually down from the 80.5 mark he allowed last season. Stud.
JAELAN PHILLIPS
The new guy logged his first Eagles sack in just his second game with the Birds. Phillips was credited with a four pressures, which ranked second-most only behind Jalyx Hunt’s five. Phillips drew a tough matchup in Penei Sewell, who is the second-best right tackle in the NFL behind Lane Johnson. And he was able to beat Sewell to make life difficult for Goff. Definitely been worth a third-round pick so far. If he keeps this pace up, he might just play his way into a contract extension in Philly.
COOPER DEJEAN
DeJean’s interception (second of his career, first-ever in the regular season) was created by a Davis deflection but he still gets credit for keeping his eyes on the ball and making the catch and return. DeJean also made an important leaping pass breakup to prevent a 3rd-and-17 conversion on the Lions’ final drive where Detroit ultimately settled for a field goal. DeJean played a role in locking down Amon-Ra St. Brown, who is one of the best slot receivers in the league.
QUINYON MITCHELL
Q had a great game. He’s an All-Pro caliber player in Year 2. Entering the conversation for best cornerback in the NFL.
Via NFL Pro:
Quinyon Mitchell did not allow a reception on any of his 6 targets, tied for the most targets without allowing a reception in a game over the last two seasons.
Mitchell played 39 snaps in coverage, which was tied for the 3rd-most coverage snaps by an outside cornerback in a game this season without allowing a reception. This was Mitchell’s third game this season where he didn’t allow a reception.
Mitchell has allowed just a 41.9% completion percentage in coverage this season, the lowest by any player with 50+ targets in a season since 2018.
ADOREE’ JACKSON
Jackson wasn’t perfect; he trailed Jameson Williams on a 40-yard reception for the Lions’ sole touchdown. But he was pretty good relative to low expectations.
Surprising stat here via NFL Pro:
Amon-Ra St. Brown was limited to just 2 receptions for 42 yards on 12 targets, the 2nd-fewest receptions over expected (-4.5) by a player in a game in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016).
Adoree’ Jackson led the Eagles secondary with 11 matchups against St. Brown, allowing just 1 reception for 8 yards on 5 targets. Cooper DeJean (10 matchups) and Quinyon Mitchell (9 matchups) did not allow a reception to St. Brown, with each of them facing 3 targets in coverage.
Jackson had a really nice pass breakup on third down in the fourth quarter to force a Lions punt.
Concerns about CB2 have not been unfounded. But Jackson is allowing just a 85.1 passer rating when targeted this season. He hasn’t been a liability.
JALYX HUNT
Hunt did not have a sack in this game but he logged a team-high four quarterback hits by PFF’s charting. As such, Hunt now ranks tied for the fifth-most QB hits among all NFL edge rushers this season with 11. The only players above him? Jared Verse, Josh Hines-Allen, George Karlaftis, and Nik Bonitto. Hunt has been coming on as of late.
JAKE ELLIOTT
Despite windy conditions, Elliott made all three field goal attempts (with a long of 49) and his sole extra point kick.
LOSERS
THE EAGLES’ OFFENSE
The Eagles’ defense is a strong example of what a well-coached unit looks like.
The opposite can be said for their offense.
BGN’s Jonny Page did a great job of breaking down a lot of the issues in his film review.
I just can’t believe how inept it can be. Once again, this is the most expensive offense in the NFL by a significant margin. The difference between the Eagles in first and the Buffalo Bills in second is roughly the same difference between second and seventh.
The Eagles rank 21st in offensive points per game and 25th in yards per game. They rank 14th in EPA per play and 24th in success rate.
They’ve scored just 26 points in two games since the bye.
The Eagles scored just 10 points and gained 294 yards against the Packers at Lambeau Field last weekend. The Jameis Winston-led New York Giants put up 20 points and 336 yards on the same Packers at MetLife on Sunday.
Obviously, you prefer the Eagles’ outcome (a win) over the Giants’ outcome (a loss). And part of the reason the G-Men lost is because Winston turned it over twice, which the Eagles have been hellbent against doing. To his credit, Jalen Hurts has done a great job of taking care of the football. Nick Sirianni’s emphasis on ball protection has produced winning results:
But there’s just no way the offense MUST look as hopelessly ineffective as it does for prolonged stretches each week in order to avoid giveaways. There has to be a better balance that can be struck. There have to be tweaks that don’t necessitate more turnovers (ex: less reliance on Grant Calcaterra, who has demonstrated he’s not a good run blocker).
Unlike last week’s game where the coward’s draw was utilized way too often, the Eagles actually tried to go for it on third-and-long in this game. Refreshing to see!
But the offense still stunk. It wasn’t just one issue. It was really everything. The offensive line didn’t block well. Hurts missed too many throws, including a deep touchdown to Saquon Barkley. There were bad drops. A.J. Brown slowed down on a route that might’ve been a deep completion if he kept running. The Lions, who were fielding a very injured defense (especially in the secondary), seemed to be all over what the Eagles were doing. Poor offensive design. Uninspiring play-calling. You name it.
It feels like something has to change at some point.
Yes, the Eagles are winning. I’m aware!
But are the people who are saying “8-2 ” in response to any valid concern raised about the team also the same who said “10-1” back in 2023? Not saying the 2025 Eagles are doomed to the same fate by any means. I don’t think the offensive struggles are necessarily disqualifying, especially if the defense can continue to dominate.
The margin for error decreases with the offense looking like this, though. The Eagles could be winning more comfortably as opposed to being in all of these one-score games. Doing well in close games is nice while it lasts but regression is always lurking around the concern. Just look at the Kansas City Chiefs, who one-scored their way to an ass-kicking in Super Bowl LIX. And now they’re on the other side of luck in 2025 and they might not even make the playoffs.
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