The Eagles are now 2-3 after squeaking out a win in Carolina on Sunday with a final score of 21-18. Let’s jump into the recap of the game as well as look ahead towards Philadelphia’s Week 6 matchup against Tampa Bay on Thursday night.
Recap
The Eagles traveled to Carolina to take on the Panthers in their Week 5 matchup. The game was one of the most frustrating ones to watch this season, as the offense couldn’t get anything going until the end of the 3rd quarter. The Eagles defense kept us in the game by playing well, although the Eagles were lucky that Christian McCaffrey was unavailable for Sunday’s game. The Eagles started the game in a sloppy fashion but finally tightened up enough to barely squeak by with a win.
Positive Observations
1.) Defense forced THREE Turnovers
The Eagles defense had been criticized the past few weeks for their inability to force turnovers, but boy did that change this week. Darius Slay had two interceptions and Steven Nelson also grabbed himself a pick. In addition to this, the defensive line got more pressure this week than they had all season which made Sam Darnold throw some errant passes. I’ll come out and say it: the defense is the reason why the Eagles won this game. All around incredible performance by the Eagles defense, let’s hope that they can take this momentum into their Week 6 matchup against Tampa Bay.
2.) T.J. Edwards with the blocked punt!
Say what you will about the Eagles’ linebacking group, but they at least showed up to play on special teams. T.J. Edwards blocked a Panthers punt with 4 minutes left in the 4th quarter that set the offense up in great field position. This, in my opinion, was the play of the game. This blocked punt allowed the Eagles offense to drive down a short field and take the lead. Hats off to Edwards for the heads up play.
3.) Quez Watkins
Quez Watkins is routinely getting his own section weekly in these articles, and for good reason; Watkins is a dynamic player that has really come into form during this season. He caught a deep ball from Hurts that led to a later touchdown run by Hurts. Watkins is a player that needs to be featured more in the offense; his blazing speed takes the top off of defenses & allows the offense to stretch the field.
4.) Javon Hargrave
Hargrave is a man among boys on the football field; he has exceeded expectations this year and is on his way to having a career year. He has consistently put pressure on the opposing quarterback and is currently leading all NFL defensive tackles in sacks with 6 on the year through 5 games. Hargarve is certainly a bright spot on the Eagles defense.
5.) The streaker!
The Eagles were trailing the Panthers by the score of 3-15 when a shirtless Eagles fan ran onto the field. Apparently this gave the Eagles momentum? Big props to the man who put it all on the line for the love of his team.
Negative Observations
1.) Nick Sirianni
Oh boy, here we go again. Sirianni’s refusal to run the ball both in the red zone, as well as throughout the game, is going to kill this offense. The Eagles have one of the most efficient running backs in Miles Sanders, as well as a promising rookie in Kenny Gainwell; Sirianni needs to help his young quarterback out by running the ball more often. In addition to this, Sirianni’s play calling was lackluster to say the least; it seemed as if he would only call screen passes that the Panthers defense quickly figured out. In this next game against Tampa Bay, I would love to see Sirianni call some plays that stretch the field more; he can only call so many screens and short passes before defenses start to figure them out and anticipate them.
I’m a firm believer that a head coach needs more than one year to be able to show if he deserves the role; however, Sirianni is making it extremely hard to keep him in Philly with his predictable play-calling and his refusal to run the ball. Sirianni needs to figure out how to balance his offense quickly; I’m beginning to get tired of writing about it each week.
2.) Jalen Hurts
Jalen Hurts had an “okay” game; he struggled during the majority of it but finally pulled it together to earn the win. He had some great plays, but also had some rough throws and reads. With that being said, some of the blame falls on Nick Sirianni for Hurts’ struggles during this game, as the play calling was not up to par. There are some great qualities that Hurts has; unfortunately, controversy will follow him for the next few years due to the Carson Wentz debacle. This is a year that Jalen Hurts has to prove to Lurie, Roseman, the coaching staff, and the fans that he is capable of being a franchise quarterback; Sirianni needs to help him out by being a competent play caller.
3.) Penalties (again)
The Eagles once again struggled with penalties on Sunday, although I will say that they were penalized less than they were last week. The Eagles were only called for 6 penalties for 60 yards, whereas the Panthers were penalized 9 times for 69 yards. The amount of penalties didn’t hurt the Eagles, but the timing certainly did. The Eagles had a touchdown taken off the board yet again due to a penalty; this makes 5 touchdowns taken off the board on the season and 4 touchdowns taken off the board in the last 2 weeks.
NFC East Standings
With a win against Carolina, the Eagles have now moved to 2-3 on the season. The Cowboys are still looking hot, as they trounced the Giants on Sunday. The Washington Football Team dropped to 2-3 after their loss against New Orleans. The season is still young, but it surely seems as if this division is the Cowboys’ to lose; it pains me to say this, but they look really good. The updated NFC East standings are as follows:
- Dallas Cowboys: 4-1
- Washington Football Team: 2-3
- Philadelphia Eagles: 2-3
- New York Giants: 1-4
Upcoming Game
The Eagles have a short week, hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football. The Eagles have. won their last 7 matchups on Thursday Night Football, and Tampa Bay looks to break that streak come this Thursday. The Bucs are looking hot this year, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Although every game in the NFL is winnable, I see the Eagles losing this one. I don’t believe that the Eagles have the firepower to compete with Tampa Bay’s electric offense and stacked defense. I hope that I’m dead wrong about that, but time will tell.
Final Thoughts
The Eagles won what was one of the ugliest football games that I’ve ever watched in my lifetime on Sunday. It feels odd coming out of Week 5 with a win; the Eagles certainly underperformed throughout the majority of the game. With that being said, a win is a win. The Eagles are certainly not a Super Bowl contender this year, but they do have some promising young players that I look forward to watching the next few years. Let’s all take a deep breath & remind ourselves that this is an extremely young team; they will get better as time goes on. Now is not the time to give up on a team so young. As always, Go Birds!
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Nate Eichner is a featured writer at The Birds Blitz. For more from Nate, check out his archive and read through our Eagles articles for the latest news about the Birds.
