Holy shit what a game! The Eagles come back from down 7-26 to win 33-26 behind a fed up offense and the fingertips of the biggest man on the defense. Let’s get some stuff down on paper (up on your screen of choice).
Jordan Davis
There’s no where else to start other than the very end. Jordan Davis saved the game and secured the comeback today using every inch of his 6’6″ frame and 81″ wingspan to block Joshua Karty’s 43 yard field goal try. Then as some kind of karmic reward, the son of a bitch realizes that this might be his only chance to take a ball to the house and rumbles 61 yards for the spread covering TD (good teams win, great teams cover). He’s deservedly the hero today.
It’s almost a shame though that this game will always be remembered for the block and the TD because HE WAS ALREADY THE PLAYER OF THE GAME! It wouldn’t be right not to point out that he was dominant in short yardage, chased down Matt Stafford on a critical 3rd down, and he had another blocked field goal earlier in the game! It was the best all around effort of his career. For a guy who always had the talent but never had the conditioning to put it all together, he’s finally earning himself a big career.
I’m a Jordan Davis true believer so today was a little extra special for me. He was the first of the Georgia guys to get drafted and I was celebrating jumping the Ravens to get him. I was in love with that defense. Today was our finest hour.
The Offense
The offense was in there, but no one knew it. After a first half of NOTHING working, it looked like Jalen Hurts went to his offensive coordinator and said that he’s the captain now. Right after this looked to be a laugher following a Hurts’ fumble and Rams TD, the Eagles reinvented the forward pass and came alive. All of a sudden the ball was going up field, guys were open, and the offense hummed. AJ Brown went from invisible to unstoppable. It’s in there, they just needed to do it. 3 unanswered TDs later, we had the lead for good.
Kevin Patullo
K-Pat finally grew some balls. For 2.5 weeks it looked like the main priority of the offense was to simply not turn the ball over. That might work against mid level teams, but not against a legit contender like the Rams (they are, it’s true). There was no plan to get anything more than short yardage. With the run game neutralized, we basically didn’t know how to run an offense anymore. It was embarrassing.
I joked at halftime that Patullo needed to get the Bud Kilmer treatment where the players just took over for the rest of the game because they’d had it with his bullshit. I’m not sure that’s not what happened. If you told me Hurts was just freelancing the rest of the game, I’d believe it.
Of course, there’s also the matter of Lane Johnson getting hurt. The Eagles are traditionally much worse without the future Hall of Famer. When he went down with a neck injury, for some reason Matt Pryor, the back up guard, went in. It didn’t go well. After the fumble, the Eagles fixed their mistake and brought in Fred Johnson and all was right with the world again.
Bend But Don’t Break Defense
The defense played much better than those 26 points would indicate. They played much worse too. How can both be true? Well the Rams moved the ball pretty well until they got into Eagles territory. Then the handcuffs went on.
6 times the Rams were forced to kick field goals. Is that good that the team was able to stop scoring drives early when they needed to or is it bad that they kept getting into scoring range? Personally, I’ll take more from the stops when it comes to playing a good offense like this.
You also have to consider the 2 Rams TDs were pretty fluky. The bomb to Adams was a push off that wasn’t called. It was so blatant that even Greg Olsen was talking about it on the broadcast. The second was only a ten yard post fumble drive to which the D had no chance.
Those Kickoffs, WTF???
Seriously, what the hell was that? Kicker Karty has developed a way to basically knuckle kick the ball making it apparently impossible to catch. LA kicked the ball off 7 times and I don’t think the Eagles fielded it cleanly once. This led to awful field position for the entire first half and to start the second. It was a jarring thing to see happen so consistently. Considering the new kickoff rules, this is a pretty clever way to get that little bit of advantage that everyone is always looking for. Essentially, the Eagles had to go an extra 10 yards after every kickoff.
Icing on the Cake
Boy genius Sean McVey takes his 4th straight loss to the Eagles. No matter how much they praise his ingenuity in designing plays, all that offensive know how didn’t stop him from settling for 6 (!) field goals. Then there’s Jared Verse. Any one catch him celebrating too early at halftime like Jackson facing Chong Li in Bloodsport? I actually like the guy, but you NEVER celebrate early in this game, especially against the champs. PS… It looks like Verse and Carter made a bet because the Eagles DT was wearing a giant #8 gold and diamond chain after the game.
The Cowboys got their asses kicked today by a bad Bears team thanks to a career day by Caleb Williams. As I write this, the Giants are down to the Chiefs and Brian Daboll looks like a dead fan walking. You hate to see it!
The Packers played the Cleveland Browns today and lost. This is the same team everyone, including Vegas, was ready to crown as the best in the NFC. All the Eagles do is win and everyone acts like it’s nothing. This is a big reminder that winning is literally the only thing that matters. The Cleveland Browns???
Cherry on Top
The Mets lost. The Reds won. If the MLB playoffs started today, the Mets wouldn’t be invited to the party.
Intangibles
I’m all for fans doing what they have to do to win. My friend left the Carolina game last year at halftime. He’s on such an in-person losing streak that he took it upon himself to leave for the good of the team. He was right to do so.
Today, my 10 year old literally prayed for the final blocked kick. Like my dad did for me when I was his age, I rubbed his back and told him it would be okay if the Eagles lost, they played a great game. He told me it would be okay because he prayed for it. We are not a religious family.
Since karma gave me one on credit (or God thinks my son is one of the Winchester boys from Supernatural), I made sure to do my part after the game. I ran over to my in-laws house and cleaned the gutters they asked me to handle a week ago (it’s been raining!) then I went home and cleaned the bathroom that my wife asked me to do. I did my part guys.
Final Thought
All non-Eagles fans out there like to disparage Jalen Hurts and his ability to win. He showed why it’s no joke today. He consistently wins the way he needs to, not the way they want him to. He threw 3 TD passes because the team was down. He doesn’t need to do that when the running game is consistently grinding the other team to a pulp. As long as it’s for the good of the team, there’s nothing he can’t do.
It’s not just him though. Have you noticed that the Eagles only draft winners lately? All those draft picks from Alabama and Georgia were in on multiple national championships. These are players who expect to win and know how to do it. Now they are all Super Bowl champs for a reason.
Philly Front Office 
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