The Philadelphia Eagles are 5-2 after beating the Cincinnati Bengals!
Three wins in a row! Dare I say, the Eagles are … back?!
Sure feels that way after that kind of complete performance going up against a quality team on the road. The quarterback played great, the offense had rhythm, and the defense made big plays.
Multiple games this season have frustratingly felt like the 2023 Eagles all over again. Last week’s run-heavy approach was reminiscent of the 2021 Eagles. Beating the Bengals had more of a 2022 feel and makes one wonder if the 2024 Eagles might truly be for real.
Time to hand out some winners, losers, and IDKs.
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WINNERS
JALEN HURTS
Now THIS is the Hurts the Eagles need to see more often to be considered legitimate Super Bowl contenders.
The box score numbers: 16/20 (80% completion), 236 yards (11.8 average), 1 TD, 0 INT, 132.5 passer rating … 10 carries, 37 rushing yards, 3 rushing TD.
Hurts had two throws that stood out in a bad way from his first two drives. The first was when he overthrew A.J. Brown on third down to not even give the star receiver a chance at making a play and forcing the offense to settle for a field goal. The second was when he checked down to Kenny Gainwell short of the sticks on third down and it looked like the pass could’ve been in jeopardy of getting picked off by a defender who looked ready to step in front of the ball but ultimately couldn’t get there.
Following that incompletion, however, Hurts was literally perfect:
Very impressive.
And it’s not just the results that made this performance so encouraging. It’s how Hurts was able to be successful. Simply put, he played the quarterback position at a high level.
Oh, and Hurts avoided turning the ball over for the third game in a row. He absolutely outshined a top-tier quarterback in Joe Burrow.
It’s unrealistic to expect Hurts to look this good week in and week out. But, again, they could afford to see this version a bit more often. The Eagles will really have something cooking if Hurts is able to stack high-quality performances.
THE EAGLES’ OFFENSIVE LINE
I’m looping Jeff Stoutland in here.
Despite missing starting left tackle Jordan Mailata and starting right guard Mekhi Becton, the Eagles surrendered zero sacks and one quarterback hit in addition to paving the way for 39 carries that resulted in 161 rushing yards (4.1 average) and three touchdowns. The Brotherly Shove being as unstoppable as it is doesn’t happen without these big dudes.
This kind of blocking success shouldn’t be taken for granted. Plenty of other teams can’t even field a competent starting offensive line when full healthy, let alone deal with multiple injuries.
Fred Johnson deserves a special shout out here. Given his previous struggles in pass protection, there was serious concern about his ability to hold up against his former teammate Trey Hendrickson, who has the third-most sacks in the NFL since 2020 (only behind Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt). Johnson answered the bell in a big way:
Last week was the Saquon Barkley revenge game. This week was the Fred Johnson revenge game.
DEVONTA SMITH
After only logging one catch for negative two yards last week, DeVonta led the Eagles in receiving this week. His seven targets resulted in six catches for 85 yards (14.2 average) and one score. He made a leaping 45-yard over-the-shoulder touchdown catch look a lot easier than I imagine it really is.
Smith also notably had two clutch first down catches on the Eagles’ penultimate drive that put Philly up by 17 points with 4:39 left in the game.
SAQUON BARKLEY
Speaking of that penultimate drive, Barkley played a major role as well. Looking to put a stranglehold on the game, the offense managed to drive 85 yards in 12 plays to take 7:27 off the clock. Serving as the Eagles’ closer in an example of the passing game setting up the run, Barkley took seven carries for 57 yards. The Bengals couldn’t really do anything to stop him from running through their tackles.
Barkley finished the game with 22 carries for 108 yards in addition to a three-yard reception. He’s up to 872 yards from scrimmage in seven games played this season. That’s 124.6 per game. For perspective, Christian McCaffrey led the NFL with 126.4 yards from scrimmage per game last season.
Saquon has been elite.
A.J. BROWN
The biggest compliment I can pay Brown is that he’s so good that it’s boring. His six targets resulted in five catches for 84 yards, his lowest receiving total in a game so far this year. A good game and yet not even all that impressive for his standards!
GRANT CALCATERRA
Calcaterra has done a nice job stepping up in Dallas Goedert’s absence. He caught all three of his targets in this game for 58 yards. He also made an important block on Hurts’ seven-yard touchdown run. The Eagles should keep him involved more often than never even after Goedert returns.
JACK STOLL
Stoll only had one catch for six yards but he played a good amount and did a lot of the dirty work as a blocker. He actually got a shout out from Nick Sirianni during the coach’s postgame locker room speech due to his effort blocking Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard one-on-one during Hurts’ touchdown throw to DeVonta.
Hubbard isn’t a star but he’s not a scrub, either, as a player averaging 5.5 sacks per season over his seven-year career. Pretty good to have a tight end who can single block a quality edge rusher when necessary.
NICK SIRIANNI
Over the past two weeks, Sirianni has managed to STAY OUT OF THE WAY. And that’s huge!
Don’t be the story. Don’t make the team worse.
It’s a low bar to clear, for sure. And ideally you’d like the head coach to give the team an edge. But, at the very least, don’t mess things up.
Sirianni has managed to do that much. And a bit more, really!
Sirianni deserves credit for being aggressive on 4th-and-1 from the Eagles’ own 39-yard line on their second drive, opting for a Brotherly Shove that gave them a first down. Of course, there’s a case to be made he should’ve gone for it again later on 4th-and-3 from the plus-48 instead of punting. But not all coaches go for that first one.
Sirianni also deserves credit for a successful challenge on a Burrow ball that clearly wasn’t caught cleanly by Andrei Iosivas. He managed to get his red flag out before the Bengals’ no-huddle approach got a snap off. The Bengals scored on this drive anyway but Sirianni did his part to make them work harder for it.
From a culture and vibes perspective, Sirianni seems to be pushing the right buttons. The Eagles are playing with confidence and swagger. Maybe his surprise buzz cut and yelling at the fans incident was his new flowers speech; a totally unexpected turning point.
KELLEN MOORE
With the Eagles scoring points on seven of their eight drives, this was their best offensive performances in quite some time:
As we said with Hurts, it’s not just the final results that make this performance impressive. It’s how the Eagles were able to have success. Whereas the offense has previously lacked rhythm and been over-reliant on star players making plays out of structure, the scheme actually aided the talent in this one.
For example, the Eagles actually lined up under center at a fairly high rate!
And they used pre-snap motion! Wow! A modern offense!
Perhaps the Eagles have truly found their groove offensively. If so, there’s reason to be excited about this team’s ceiling.
VIC FANGIO
The Eagles’ defense got off to a bit of a shaky start. The Bengals’ first drives:
- 17 plays, 70 yards, TD
- 11 plays, 61 yards, FG
- 6 plays, 44 yards, missed FG
- 2 plays, -1 yard, end of half
- 13 plays, 70 yards, TD
The Birds really failed to get off the field on third down with the Bengals ultimately converting 10 of their 13 tries (one of those coming from a pass completed short of the sticks on 3rd-and-22).
But the Eagles’ ability to limit explosive plays and make the Bengals really work for their points eventually paid off. Case in point: forcing the Bengals into a 4th-and-1 at the minus 39-yard line prompted Zac Taylor to go for it, allowing Cooper DeJean to make a play for a turnover on downs. The defense really came alive after that with two straight takeaways, one interception and one fumble recovery. The Eagles were really due for some of those breaks after entering Week 8 with just two turnovers produced in their first six games. A prescient tweet from last week:
Fangio’s defense held Burrow, who entered this game with the NFL’s third-best passer rating, to his lowest mark this season at 84.7.
Fangio’s defense held Ja’Marr Chase to his second-lowest receiving total this year with just 54 yards (in fairness, Tee Higgins being a late scratch undoubtedly helped). That’s one week after Malik Nabers was held to the worst game of his rookie season.
The Eagles have allowed just two touchdowns over their last three games combined. That’s pretty good!
ISAIAH RODGERS
Filling in for an injured Darius Slay, Rodgers rose to the challenge of guarding Chase. He had great coverage on Burrow’s deep pass to the star receiver and was able to get his hand up to knock the ball into the waiting hands of C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Big-time takeaway that set the Eagles up to take a three-possession lead.
According to Pro Football Reference, Rodgers is allowing just a 56.2 passer rating when targeted this season. Really good player to have as your top backup on the outside.
C.J. GARDNER-JOHNSON
Rodgers did the heavy lifting but CJGJ deserves credit for being in position to make the catch for the interception. He was great in 2022 by being opportunistic and having a knack for getting his hands on the ball. Maybe this is the start of him getting back to those ways.
COOPER DEJEAN
Not unlike Quinyon Mitchell, DeJean looks so advanced for a rookie. In this game alone, he made two of the more impressive open field tackles I think I might’ve ever seen. The first was when he managed to bring down Trent Irwin in a spot where most defenders fly by as the receiver cuts upfield. Then he took down Chase short of the sticks on fourth down for a turnover on downs. Really impressive stuff. He’s been such an upgrade over Avonte Maddox at nickel cornerback.
DeJean also came close to having an interception in this game with the ball bouncing off his hands instead.
QUINYON MITCHELL
Mitchell is allowing a 69.3 passer rating when targeted this season. His numbers from this game:
Mitchell failed to hold onto what could’ve been his first interception. It’s going to happen sooner than later.
BRANDON GRAHAM
Anyone who watched Super Bowl LII already knows BG is clutch.
But he’s reminding everyone in what could be his final season. BG had a pressure that helped create Reed Blankenship’s game-sealing interception in Week 1. He had a third down TFL that led to a missed field goal in what was a tie game against the Cleveland Browns in Week 6. And in this game he had a big stop for no gain on third down that prompted the Bengals’ fourth down attempt that was thwarted by DeJean.
BG is crucial to the Eagles’ success.
ZACK BAUN
Baun led the Eagles in total tackles with 12 and solo tackles with eight. Pro Football Focus credited Baun with a team-high six “stops,” which are tackles that constitute a ‘failure’ for the offense. PFF also had Baun as their highest-graded linebacker from Week 8. He punched the ball out of Mike Gesicki’s control for his first career forced fumbled.
The Eagles should probably be trying to sign Baun to an extension. But he might not be in a rush to do a deal since he could hit the open market with the highest stock he’s ever had.
NAKOBE DEAN
Dean was PFF’s second-highest graded linebacker from Week 8. What world are we living in where the Eagles have good linebackers?!
Dean had four “stops,” which include him blowing up a screen for a TFL. He also aided Baun’s forced fumble by gang-tackling Gesicki and then secured the ball after it was jarred loose.
NOLAN SMITH
After having just 1.5 sacks in his first 22 games, Smith is up to 2.5 sacks over his last three games. Fangio is trusting him to play the second-most edge snaps behind Josh Sweat. It seems like the light might be going on for the 23-year-old. His development could be pretty big for this defense.
The play where he got matched up against Chase in the end zone and surrendered a touchdown was more about the Bengals outscheming the Eagles than it was anything Smith did wrong. He actually did a pretty good job of covering the receiver relative to expectation for an edge rusher.
REED BLANKENSHIP
Blankenship helped to break up a 3rd-and-7 pass to Gesicki right before the Bengals’ missed 54-yard field goal attempt. I thought that play was a good example of coaching and player working in tandem. Fangio sent pressure to force Burrow into a quick throw that wasn’t exactly on target and Blankenship did his part to contest the pass and knock it down.
JAKE ELLIOTT
Elliott made all three field goals attempts: 39, 49, 47. Also made all four XP kicks for 13 points total. Not to jinx it or anything but Elliott hasn’t missed an XP kick since some bad weather conditions last year on September 10, 2023.
ALEXIS CHASSEN and JONNY PAGE
Shout out to BGN’s own Alexis and Jonny, who do great work here and were both at Sunday’s game! The Eagles are UNDEFEATED when they both attend … so the team should probably look into getting them tickets more often.
Eagles fans seemingly did a great job of showing up in Cincy, a place where the team had never previously won.
LOSERS
AVONTE MADDOX
Maddox has been relegated to playing in dime packages after losing his starting nickel role. Despite the decrease in snaps, he’s stood out with teams going after him as the Bengals did to pick up a first down. We should probably be seeing Sydney Brown overtake Maddox’s role as the extra defender in dime.
NICK GATES
The refs were losers for throwing a flag in garbage time but Gates shouldn’t have given them reason to ruin Will Shipley’s 17-yard touchdown run. Bummer to take the rookie’s feel-good first score moment away from him.
I DON’T KNOWS
DARIUS SLAY
Slay had a great pass breakup against Jermaine Burton in the end zone on the Bengals’ second drive to save four points. But Slay also gave up a 41-yard completion to Burton and then left the game early due to a groin injury.
I don’t know if Slay is going to be available for Week 9. There seems to be a chance he won’t be able to suit up.
