The Eagles continue to lead the NFL in the category of "well, they just win."
They won again Sunday night, beating another very good team like they've done for much of the season despite not really excelling at anything on offense and allowing a truckload of chunk plays to the Detroit Lions. However, they generated some impressive third- and fourth-down stops in holding onto to their 16-9 win at the Linc and third straight victory. They even won with right tackle Lane Johnson again leaving early with an injury.
They've scored just 26 points in their last two games, but allowed just 13. Their 8-2 mark gives them a tie with the Rams for the best record in the NFC. Their Week 3 win over Los Angeles at the Linc gives them a tiebreaker.
There's still a lot of football left, and the week ahead will surely bring its standard amount of lamenting the team's offense, but the defense continues to save the day and … the Eagles just keep winning.
Let's go with the observations:
SIM pressures, not true blitzes, were Vic Fangio's saviors
For the second straight game, Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio relied more on four-man rushes than blitzes, especially on critical third and fourth downs. Last week against the Packers, in the Eagles debut for Jaelan Phillips, Fangio had the second-lowest blitz rate among NFL teams in Week 10. Against the Lions, Fangio again operated mainly from a two-high safety structure and generated many stops with four-man pressure or SIM pressures, in which a second-level player (like Nakobe Dean or Zack Baun blitzes) but a front-line player (such as Nolan Smith drops) into coverage, which feels like a blitz to the offense because the protection scheme gets messed up.
The Lions were driving in the third until they came to 3rd-and-3 at the Philadelphia 45-yard line. Jalen Carter batted down Goff's pass on a SIM pressure to force fourth down. Another SIM pressure on the next snap, with Dean blitzing and Smith dropping, hurried Goff into an incompletion for Detroit's third consecutive turnover on downs, all in the third quarter.
Another SIM on Detroit's next first down led to Goff almost getting sacked and throwing incomplete as the Lions, down 10, couldn't get ahead of the sticks and punted after four plays. Another one late in the fourth led to Dean sacking Goff to force a 3rd-and-17 that Goff had no shot to complete.
AJ Brown got 11 targets, but same old song for the pass offense
Despite the very windy conditions, the Eagles came out throwing! Well, sort of. Jalen Hurts looked for DeVonta Smith on a deep comeback on the first play of the game, but Smith couldn't handle it, and then Hurts threw again on the next snap, but Dallas Goedert dropped the ball, a foreshadow for Eagles receivers.
Brown did get more targets. He had eight at halftime, which was one less than his past two games combined, including a slant near the end of the first half that set up Jalen Hurts' QB sneak touchdown. He finished with a team-leading 11 overall. But the bigger issue than Brown getting the ball is the lack of opportunities for Brown and other Eagles receivers to create yards after the catch. Everything is a comeback, stop route, zone sit-down, etc. Brown only averaged 7.0 yards per catch and Jalen Hurts averaged 4.8 yards per attempt.
Can they keep this up on defense?
One of Brown's complaints in the week leading up was that the Eagles couldn't keep asking their defense to be the hero. Maybe not, but…maybe they can?
The Eagles have really been in a groove lately on defense, not just with the four-man pressures but also the coverage and key stops. Their past two opponents, the Giants and Packers, were a combined 10 of 25 (40%) on third down – and that improved against the Lions, who converted just 3 of 13 third downs and 0 of 5 fourth downs.
Cam Jurgens returned, but an explosive run game didn't
The return of center Cam Jurgens was not the secret recipe to unlocking the run game. Jurgens got tangled with Saquon Barkley on the last play of the first quarter, for a three yard loss. He also couldn't body up Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone on a second-quarter pass to Barkley that got the Pro Bowl running back shellacked upon catch for a -8.
In total, Barkley ran for 83 yards and averaged just 3.2 per carry, and the Eagles averaged just 3.7 yards per carry.
The Eagles didn't have a truckload of three-and-outs, but they weren't good offensively
The Lions were really banged up in the secondary, with both starting corners and a starting safety out for the game. But the Eagles just couldn't capitalize and generate any rhythm on downfield passes or sustained drives outside of a few shots here and there. As we wrote about Saturday, not only do the Eagles lead the NFL in three-and-outs but they're doing so at such a high rate that it was amazing they were 7-2.
After a six-play drive on the opening possession – no points, but hey, not a three-and-out – followed by two four-play drives (again, not three-and-out), the Eagles went three-and-out on consecutive drives and three of their next five spanning the second and third quarters. The Eagles have been bad all year on third down, and were awful again, with just 4 of 15 (27%) converted.
The QB draw is back, and working
The return of the designed QB draw has worked wonders in the past two weeks. It might be their most impactful offensive play.
On Monday against the Packers, Hurts nearly converted a 3rd-and-long with a designed draw up the middle from a spread empty formation until he fumbled after getting past the sticks. Once again, Hurts gashed a defense with a designed run when he ran up the middle from another empty backfield for 12 yards. It was initially ruled a longer run but replay showed his knee had hit the ground when he tried to spin out of a tackle. The Lions were actually ready for it on another 3rd-and-long in the fourth, and Hurts still eluded the linebacker for a first-down run.
Other than the designed runs for Hurts, there hasn't been much else to spice up the offense. The under center and jumbo packages have been nice additions over the past few weeks, but they're more of a staple now than a surprise.
Eagles iDLs were the pressure cookers
Jared Goff didn't feel as much heat from Eagles edge rushers as he did from the interior line – guys like Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter and Moro Ojomo. Goff has been great over the past three seasons but he struggles when the pocket is collapsing around him, and that's exactly what the Eagles did to him.
Carter and Davis must have combined for at least five deflected passes at scrimmage, and there were more by others. Davis made the splashier plays against the Lions, including a batted pass that turned into a Cooper DeJean interception, but Carter has played well in consecutive games after an inconsistent start to the season. He also doesn't appear to be favoring his shoulder like he was earlier in the year.
Why can't the Eagles get their best offensive players in space?
Maybe I'm beating a dead horse here since I already wrote about the pass offense's simplistic route trees, but even in a loss, the Lions were better at getting the ball to their explosive playmakers in space. Jahmyr Gibbs went over 100 receiving yards on screens and short passes. He danced around Eagles defenders. Jameson Williams went for 88 yards and took a deep over to the house on a 40-yard touchdown.
The Eagles don't have the blinding speed that Gibbs and Williams have, but Barkley, Brown and Smith are all weapons who excel in space. The Eagles just haven't made better attempts to get them there.
No major change at CB2
If you were anticipating that move of Cooper DeJean to outside corner and Michael Carter II at the nickel, you didn't get it. Despite some insinuation from Fangio during his last press conference that it could happen, nothing changed with the look of the Eagles' secondary.
For his part, Adoree' Jackson did OK at the corner spot opposite Quinyon Mitchell. Jackson got beat on Detroit's only touchdown but also defended a pass in the end zone on fourth down, and another later in the game. For one more week, Jackson stayed alive.
What's next?
The Eagles have an NFC East battle against the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Week 12. The Cowboys will be on short rest. Dallas plays the Raiders on Monday Night Football.
This will be the second game of the season between these NFC East rivals but first against the new-look Dallas defense that added Pro Bowl defensive tackle Quinnen Williams at the trade deadline along with former Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson.
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