Roob’s Observations: Eagles pull off incredible win in New Orleans originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
They were without 40 percent of their offensive line, including pro Lane Johnson. DeVonta Smith was out, as was AJ Brown. Nick Sirianni was making one bizarre decision after another.
And then Saquon Barkley and Dallas Goedert — really, 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 reception to the 4-yard line late in the fourth quarter helped the Eagles beat the Saints 15-12 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 instant observations from a huge away conference win:
1. Turnovers remain a concern, but Jalen Hurts really came up big on Sunday and helped the Eagles win a game they could have easily lost. And he did it with almost half the offense out. Hurts completed 76 percent of his passes for 311 yards and on a day when he didn’t throw a touchdown, he made some huge passes under pressure and did it all behind an offensive line without Mekhi Becton and Lane Johnson, with Smith and Brown both out. The Superdome is a loud and tough place to play, and this was a game the Eagles really needed to win and a game Hurts needed to win. I still think he’s an elite quarterback, but it was natural to question him after the first two games and I understand the doubts. He hasn’t been great in some key moments. But this was vintage Jalen Hurts, making key passes at key moments, remaining confident in the face of adversity and rallying the Eagles to a win when things looked really bleak. If this Jalen Hurts keeps showing up, the Eagles are going to win a lot of games.
2. Okay, how good is Saquon Barkley? My goodness. And you have to love the way he responded six days after that devastating fall that cost the Eagles a win over the Falcons. He’s a total pro. The guy has that crazy combination of speed, power, balance and vision, and any questions about how the last few years with the Giants have gone have been answered as far as I’m concerned. After three games, he’s a beast. He rushed 17 times Sunday for 147 more yards, and after three games, he has 63 carries for 351 yards on the ground with three touchdowns and 10 receptions for 53 more yards and another TD. That’s 404 scrimmage yards in three games, the most scrimmage yards by an Eagle through Week 3 since 2013, when LeSean McCoy had 514. Aside from 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 like about Saquon is how tough he is late in games. He’s so physically strong that he’s as good on his 25th touch as he is on his first. And that’s rare. Keep feeding him, and he’s going to make a huge play, and on Sunday, he made a bunch of them.
3. Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter in action today: No sacks, no tackles for loss, no pass deflections, no hits on the quarterback. Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter vs. Saints: One sack, two tackles for loss, two pass deflections, one hit on the quarterback. It was really encouraging to see such monster performances from both of Georgia’s interior linemen. Especially Davis, who hadn’t played a game like that since early last year. This defense can’t be elite without both Davis and Carter playing at a high level, and that’s something we haven’t seen in quite 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 round? We all saw on Sunday what kind of defense this can be when Davis and Carter play inspired football. Now they just have to keep it up.
4. Can someone explain to me what Nick Sirianni was thinking on a 4th-and-1 with 15 seconds left in the first half and the ball on the Saints 14-yard line? Saquon Barkley got run over trying to find space on the left end, the Saints got the ball back and knelt, and the Eagles went to the locker room without a point. You’re down 3-0? You kick the field goal because if you get the first down, the chances of you getting more than a field goal anyway are slim. So what are you taking that 4th-down risk for? Even if you get the first down, you now have 10 seconds left with the ball on the 13-yard line, and I’m sure Sirianni will say they wanted another set of downs to get a shot in the end zone before kicking a field goal if they didn’t get a touchdown. In reality, the way this game was going, points were few and far between and you had to take three to have anything positive going into the locker room after an offensively miserable first half. While we’re at it… 4th-and-5 from the Saints’ 35-yard line midway through the third quarter… still down 3-0… Jake Elliott has made seven of his last eight field goal attempts from 53 yards or more… they go for it and Hurts gets tackled. On this field, a 53-yard field goal is a layup. Being aggressive is good. Being wrong is not. And Sirianni’s in-game decisions are increasingly confusing.
5. We’re all wondering when we’re going to see Dallas Goedert become a big part of the offense, and wow, 10 receptions for 170 yards isn’t bad. Goedert was a big part of the offense early on, but once DeVonta Smith came out and joined AJ Brown on the bench, he was just huge. He had receptions of 22, 30, 43 and 61 yards and it’s crazy. He’s been in the league for eight years and had two of the four longest receptions of his career on Sunday. Those 170 yards are the most yards by an Eagles tight end in 59 years – since Pete Retzlaff had 204 in a 1965 game at Franklin Field. Even Zach Ertz has never had a 170-yard game. It was a big-time performance from a guy the Eagles desperately needed. The bottom line is that when the Eagles are back at full strength, Goedert will need to remain a big part of this offense. He rushed for 69 yards in the first two games and is just too good to be such a minor part of this team. He’s still a stud, and when he had to make plays, he made them. A huge, decisive performance.
6. Reed Blankenship is a true ball-hugger, and on a team that doesn’t force a lot of turnovers, if he’s around the ball, he’s going to find a way to make a play. And they’re not easy interceptions. He makes circus interceptions, diving interceptions like the one he made Sunday, high-leverage interceptions at key moments in games. It started in his first game, when he intercepted Aaron Rodgers, and he’s now the first Eagles defensive back with six interceptions in his first 28 career games since Eric Allen, who had 12 in his first 28 games in 1988 and ’89. And he’s a kid who went undrafted. Blankenship is the first undrafted Eagle to have six interceptions in his first 28 games since Brenard Wilson in 1979 and 1980. The Eagles have 11 interceptions since opening day 2023. Blankenship has five. Point guard.
Subscribe to Eagle Eye wherever you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music | Spotify | seamstress | Art19 | RSS | Watch on YouTube
