PHILADELPHIA — Finally, this incarnation of the Eagles has seemed to find an identity other than inconsistency.
Last Sunday at MetLife Stadium, they unleashed a punishing ground attack as they ran the ball 45 times for 269 yards, including 176 by Saquon Barkley against his former team.
The offensive line, even with injuries, was overpowering. The blitzing Birds defense racked up eight sacks and, for the second week in a row, didn’t allow a touchdown, holding the Giants to a measly 119 yards.
Could this style of play be a blueprint going forward?
“We do what we need to do to win each game,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “There’s going to be a game where we’re going to have to pass it a bunch. There’s going to be a game we’re going to have to run it again like that. It’s just all going to be week-to-week.
“Again, you want to stay in things that you do well, but everything is going to be week-to-week based off of what’s going right that week. We’ll see as the year progresses.”
It was also the second game in a row that quarterback Jalen Hurts didn’t commit a turnover. At times, he still held the ball too long, often looking downfield. He took four sacks, and he appeared not to see some open receivers, including Barkley in the flat and DeVonta Smith on a shallow cross.
Smith was only targeted twice. Even with the game decided by the third quarter, that’s a low number. And while the Eagles were 3-for-3 on fourth down, they were only 1-for-13 on third. Some of the issues had to do with pass pressure in Hurts’ face.
“I think (the Giants) did an excellent job of creating one-on-one opportunities up front, pushing the pocket,” Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said. “They have played multiple styles in New York. They have been an exotic pressure team and a push-the-pocket pressure team. They pushed the pocket and did an excellent job of doing that with their personnel.
“Any time you’re looking at that, you’re looking at it both schematically and then structurally, and then you feel like, how can I help get the ball out of our hands a little bit quicker in some of those situations? I think Jalen has done an excellent job over the course of this year handling a variety of different looks and different presentations and something that we’ll always continue to work on and evolve with.”
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In addition to the eight sacks against the Giants, the Eagles had five the previous week against Cleveland. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has never been known as a blitzer, but his m.o. appears to be changing.
“Everybody just stayed focused, didn’t get frustrated when things weren’t going like we wanted them to go early on (in the season) with the sacks,” defensive end Brandon Graham said. “All it takes is somebody to get it started — which was Sweaty (Josh Sweat) this week — and everybody else wanted a piece. And, man, it felt good to get that started.”
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Right guard Mekhi Becton (concussion), tight end Dallas Goedert (hamstring) and defensive tackle Byron Young (hamstring) were all still out of practice on Thursday. Cornerback Eli Ricks (groin) saw limited participation.
Left tackle Fred Johnson and guard/tackle Tyler Steen were effective filling in for Jordan Mailata (hamstring), who is on injured reserve, and Becton.
“We are fortunate that our guys have done an excellent job of stepping up, next-man-up mentality, like we always say,” Moore said. “Fred did a really good job. … He battled and fought. He was excellent getting to the second level in the run game. It’s huge. There’s a bunch of really cool examples of him just getting up to linebackers, getting in combination box, but then getting up to the linebackers and those create those big explosive runs.
“And Tyler hopping in there, again, seems like he’s done this a couple times now where he just hops in the game, and nothing changes. And that’s the beauty of it. He’s a big-time player for us and we feel fortunate to have him in that role.”
