Eagles win wild game in New Orleans – NBC Sports Philadelphia

They were missing 40 percent of their offensive players, including All-Pro Lane Johnson. DeVonta Smith was out of the game, as was AJ Brown. Nick Sirianni made one bizarre decision after another.

And then Saquon Barkley and Dallas Goedert – essentially the Eagles’ only remaining weapons – refused to let the Eagles lose.

Barkley’s 65-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter and Dallas Goedert’s 61-yard catch to the 4-yard line late in the fourth quarter helped the Eagles to a 15-12 victory over the Saints after the Saints had taken the lead moments earlier.

They haven’t played a full game yet, but the Eagles are somehow 2-1.

Wow.

It’s never easy with this team, is it?

Here are our 10 spontaneous observations on a big away win in the conference:

1. The turnovers remain a concern, but Jalen Hurts really put on a great performance Sunday, helping the Eagles win a game they very easily could’ve lost. And he did it despite missing nearly half the offense. Hurts completed 76 percent of his passes for 311 yards, and on a day when he didn’t throw a touchdown, he made some crucial throws under pressure, all behind an offensive line that was missing Mekhi Becton and Lane Johnson, with both Smith and Brown and Britain Covey out of the game. He was out there with Fred Johnson and Tyler Steen blocking and Parris Campbell, Johnny Wilson and Jahan Dotson running routes. The Superdome is a loud, difficult place to play, and this was a game the Eagles really needed to win, and a game that needed Hurts. I still believe he’s an elite quarterback, but it was natural to have second thoughts about him after the first two games, and I understand the doubts. He wasn’t very good in some key moments. But this was Jalen Hurts at his best, making crucial throws in key moments, staying confident against the odds, and leading the Eagles to victory when things looked really bleak. If this Jalen Hurts keeps this up, the Eagles are going to win a lot of games.

2. OK, how damn good is Saquon Barkley? My goodness. And you’ve got to love how he responded six days after that devastating drop that cost the Eagles a win over the Falcons. He’s a consummate pro. The guy has this crazy combination of speed, power, balance and vision, and any questions about how the last few years have gone with the Giants have been sufficiently answered, in my opinion. Through three games, he’s an absolute beast. On Sunday, he ran 17 times for another 147 yards, and through three games, he has 63 carries for 351 rushing yards with three touchdowns and 10 catches for another 53 yards and another TD. That’s 404 scrimmage yards through three games, the most by any Eagles through Week 3 since 2013, when LeSean McCoy had 514. Besides Shady, the only other Eagles running backs with at least 400 scrimmage yards in three games are Timmy Brown, Wilbert Montgomery, Duce Staley and Brian Westbrook. What I really love about Saquon is how tough he is towards the end of games. He’s so physical that he’s just as good on his 25th touch as he was on his first. And that’s rare. If you keep cheering him on, he’ll make a big play, and he made a lot of them on Sunday.

3. Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter today: No sacks, no tackles for loss, no pass breakups, no quarterback hits. Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter vs. Saints: One sack, two tackles for loss, two pass breakups, one quarterback hit. It was sure encouraging to see the monster performance from Georgia’s two interior linemen. Especially from Davis, who hasn’t had a game like this since early last year. This defense can’t be elite without Davis and Carter both playing at a high level, and that’s something we haven’t seen in a while. But when they play like that? When they dominate the line of scrimmage? When they play like the beasts the Eagles expected when they drafted them in the first half of the first round? We all saw on Sunday what kind of defense this can be when Davis and Carter play inspired football. The Eagles held the NFL’s best offense to just 219 yards, 12 first downs and 4.0 yards per play, and everyone did their part, but Davis and Carter were the heart of it all. Now they just need to keep it up.

5. We’ve all been wondering when Dallas Goedert will finally become a major part of the offense, and, wow, 10 catches for 170 yards isn’t bad. Goedert was a big focal point of the offense early on, but when DeVonta Smith came off the bench and joined AJ Brown, he was just great. He caught passes for 22, 30, 43 and 61 yards, and that’s insane. He’s been in the league for eight years, and on Sunday he had two of the four longest catches of his career. Those 170 yards are the most by an Eagles tight end in 59 years — since Pete Retzlaff managed 204 yards in a game at Franklin Field in 1965. Even Zach Ertz never managed a 170-yard game. That was a great performance from a guy the Eagles desperately needed. The most important thing is that Goedert will have to be a key part of the offense even when the Eagles are back at full strength. He rushed for 69 yards in the first two games and is just too good to play such a small role on this team. He is still a star and when he needed to play, he did. A great performance in crucial moments.

6. Reed Blankenship is a true ball-chaser, and on a team that doesn’t force many turnovers, if he’s near the ball, he’s going to find a way to make a play. And those aren’t easy interceptions. He makes circus interceptions, pike interceptions like the one on Sunday, high-profile interceptions at key moments in games. That started in his first game when he intercepted Aaron Rodgers, and now he’s the first Eagles defensive back with six interceptions in his first 28 career games since Eric Allen, who had 12 of them in his first 28 games in 1988 and 1989. And this is a kid who was undrafted. Blankenship is the first undrafted Eagle with six interceptions in his first 28 games since Brenard Wilson in 1979 and 1980. The Eagles have 11 interceptions since Opening Day in 2023. Blankenship has five of them. Playmaker.

7. Nakobe Dean stopped Alvin Kamara on the first play of the game for no gain, and already the Eagles’ run defense looked better than it had in the first two games. The Saints kept trying to get Kamara in the game. That was the game plan. And you can’t blame them after the Eagles allowed 6 ½ yards per carry in the first two games. But the Eagles did a great job of shutting down Kamara. There was nothing new in terms of the scheme, although we certainly saw a lot less Bryce Huff on running downs (or downs at all). They were just more disciplined, physical, more grabbing, and getting more players to the ball. In the first two games, the backs slipped across the first level and then the Eagles missed tackles in the second level. On Sunday, the D-line allowed very few runs beyond the first level, and when they did, the Eagles’ linebackers and D-backs tackled really well. Honestly, it looked like a completely different defense and to play like that against a running back like Kamara – who entered the game with an NFL-record 5.7 yards – was remarkable. He finished the game with 26 carries for 87 yards for a 3.3 average with a long run gain of 16 yards and was really a non-factor. The Saints kept pressing and the Eagles kept making him uncomfortable.

8. When you’re a CEO head coach like Nick Sirianni, one of your biggest challenges is leading your team through adversity. Blown leads. Bad games. Big deficits. And Sirianni has been really good at that his first two years. This team has shown so much character when it’s struggled with adversity. Think about the 2021 season and how that 2-5 start turned into a playoff berth. And what Sirianni could do in 2022. Last year, he seemed to lose his magic touch when those crushing losses and blown leads turned a promising season into a nightmare. And then came another late loss to the Falcons on Monday night. So it was fair to wonder if Sirianni’s ability to really get through to his players and lead them through the bad times had run its course. But this was a win without so many key players – both starting receivers, the right side of the offensive line, their best cornerback – and a game in which the Eagles gave up the lead in the fourth quarter. But this was the kind of game the Eagles wouldn’t have won last year. Maybe Sirianni hasn’t lost this team yet.

9. The Eagles’ bizarre streak of consecutive games in which they have failed to close the gap between turnovers and gains is now 11, which is the third-longest in franchise history, behind a 15-game streak in the 1967 and ’68 seasons and a 12-game streak in 2012. This year they’ve come away with two wins but lost the turnover battle, but you can’t have sustained success that way. It just doesn’t work. They’re minus-13 in their last 11 games, minus-4 already this year and minus-19 since Week 6 of last year. That’s a crucial stat because it measures both offense and defense in terms of ball protection and playmaking. If this team ever finds a way to stop having turnovers — and that’s mostly Jalen — and get more turnovers, they’re going to be tough to beat.

10. You have to give credit to guys like Fred Johnson, Tyler Steen, Parris Campbell, Johnny Wilson, Jahan Dotson and Kelee Ringo, who were all thrust into bigger roles than expected. The Eagles, already without AJ Brown, lost Lane Johnson, Mekhi Becton, DeVonta Smith and Darius Slay on Sunday, and each of their backups held up. I thought Johnson and Steen in particular – at right tackle and right guard – were great. They both played outstanding football, and these are two guys who haven’t played a lot of football in their careers. Campbell isn’t even on the roster. After being released and put on the practice squad, he was called up on game day and caught a couple passes. Wilson caught the first pass of his career for a first down. Those guys deserve a ton of credit, but so does their position coaches who have prepared them so they’re ready when they need to play. The Eagles wouldn’t have won that game if those backups hadn’t stepped in and held their own. A real team victory.

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