The Eagles played one of their best halves of the season to open the game against New Orleans, and the Eagles are nursing a comfortable 17-0 lead heading into the half in Jalen Hurts' first career start. Not a whole lot of controversy anymore.
Here's what I saw during the first 30 minutes.
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The Good
• One reason to feel optimistic about the Eagles' chances in this game? Taysom Hill is not a very dangerous man behind center, and you can anticipate a lot of the Saints calls as a result. Philly's defense was plenty prepared for the Saints to lean on the screen game, and when New Orleans tried to set up screens on 2-of-3 plays in the first series, they swarmed on the ball, forcing the Saints into a quick three-and-out.
It wouldn't matter if Jalen Hurts is the future GOAT, you need your defense to step up in order to win games behind a rookie QB. All throughout the first half, they lived up to the challenge. Javon Hargrave continued a hot stretch of play, Fletcher Cox got into the backfield for a big play late in the half, and the young defensive ends continued to flash, with Derek Barnett continuing to develop in front of our eyes.
This is oversimplifying things, but opposing units on a team feed off of each other. The defense set the tone, then the offense came in looking crisp, and one hand kept feeding the other as the half wore on.
• There were a lot of exasperated takes on social media in the early stages of this game suggesting Doug Pederson looked like a totally different coach. I vehemently disagree — Philadelphia's early scripting has been mostly fine, and I didn't think the playcalling was particularly good early on Sunday in any case. They called an empty backfield shotgun draw on fourth and one on that opening series (come on!!!), they just happened to be fortunate Jalen Hurts converted it.
This is just what it looks like when you get competent quarterback play out of the gate instead of waiting several quarters for it. Jalen Hurts did not light the world on fire in the first half, he just made the simple plays and avoided big mistakes. The Eagles looked like a totally normal NFL offense, and that's a compliment when you've watched them all year. Hurts hit quick outs near the sideline, did less dancing in the pocket, and connected with Miles Sanders in the screen game, an underrated reason for Philadelphia's offensive futility this season.
We'll see if Pederson actually turns him loose at some point because as we've discussed in previous weeks, an offense focused strictly on short and intermediate throws is tough to win with.
• Working under pressure is the reality of playing behind this offensive line, and Jalen Hurts faced a stiff test on fourth-and-short on Philly's second possession. New Orleans sent a blitz at the rookie, who ended up getting crunched for a roughing-the-passer penalty in the process. No matter, he completed a back-shoulder throw to Alshon Jeffery anyway, giving the Eagles an early lead over the Saints.
Honestly, the bigger surprise here is Jeffery making that play, not Hurts getting the throw off. Jeffery has looked terrible in limited action this year, and his playing time coming at the expense of reps for Travis Fulgham has angered a lot of people in both the fanbase and the media since his return. Apparently, there's a little bit of juice left in the tank, which we should all file away when reflecting after the season ends about the impact of quarterback play on the rest of the roster.
• If we're looking for reasons Hurts had a strong first half that aren't directly connected to his play, I would look first at the offensive line. Outside of the fourth-down blitz mentioned above, the Eagles were able to buy a decent amount of time for Hurts in the pocket, making his life easier than it might have been in, well, almost any other week this season. He didn't have to do a whole lot of stepping up or manipulating the pocket, and that allowed him to focus on his progressions downfield to sustain drives.
That being said, I think you also have to consider how differently he operated behind center. Hurts didn't run himself into any pressure or trouble, using his wheels to get out of the pocket when necessary but otherwise making quick decisions and letting the ball go when he found a man open. Hesitation is the death of offense at this level, and with a quick decisionmaker at QB, everything else looked cleaner.
• Duke Riley was having a heck of a half before he came up with an interception midway through the second quarter, but the turnover really put the cherry on top of a strong performance. We've watched Eagles players squander turnovers repeatedly because of poor hands this season, so it's refreshing to see a guy make a nice instinctual play.
If not for a shaky call from the officials on the offensive series that followed, it would have been an even more meaningful snag from Riley, but his work wasn't done there. With New Orleans trying to pick up just a yard late in the second quarter, Riley was part of the Eagles blockade that stopped Hill short of the line, providing Hurts and Co. with an opportunity to go up three scores before the halftime whistle had sounded. He appeared to be everywhere during the first half, which is something I can't recall thinking about an Eagles linebacker in quite some time.
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• Can't ask for much more than Hurts offered in the first half, the deep miss (and a slight miss!) to Reagor aside. He took care of the football, made quick decisions, made his offensive line look better, and he used his legs effectively, not leaning on them too much and still keeping his eyes downfield when he was flushed out of the pocket. It will get underrated in the end, but his read-option keeper to kick off Philadelphia's second-to-last drive of the half was a major, major pickup, even if he made a mistake not getting out of bounds. Away from their own endzone, the playbook opened up for the Eagles, and it wasn't long until they hit on a homerun with a Miles Sanders handoff.
There are still 30 minutes to go, but it's a heck of a start for the Hurts-led Eagles. He pulled all the right strings and has this looking like a totally different team.
• it's hard to draw up an end to the half better than the Eagles did. Sanders got near immaculate blocking on his monster touchdown run late in the first half, and basically only had to break one tackle to hit pay dirt. Consider that job done.
This looked like a total mismatch coming into the game, and it has been, just not in the way anyone expected. The Eagles are absolutely hammering an elite New Orleans defense, and the Saints have no answers on the other side of the ball.
The Bad
• You can switch the QB, but that switch (even if it's the biggest one Pederson can make) can't erase the systemic problems with the Eagles this season. Their baseline is sloppy football, which they proved once again at the end of a promising first series with Hurts at the helm.
On third-and-one, Sanders picked up what appeared to be an easy first down to keep the chains moving, but an illegal shift penalty on Zach Ertz forced them to convert again. Before they could even snap the ball, Greg Ward picked up a false start penalty of his own, taking the Eagles all the way back to third-and-11, a much tougher spot for the offense to work from.
You all saw the ugly fourth-down play that ensued after that, so I won't describe it in detail for you to get mad all over again.
• One downside of Hurts tucking and running a bit quicker than Carson Wentz? You're potentially missing out on big plays in service of small gains and sack avoidance. Through the first 30 minutes of football, it felt like Hurts' decision-making was well-founded, but you always have to worry about where the line is drawn. As was pointed out on the broadcast in the second quarter, roll-outs inherently cut down your options, which can lead to poor decisions and added risk on any throw.
That being said, I'm being nitpicky here, because Hurts' decision-making allowed the Eagles to avoid sacks for an entire half of football. That's a massive change, and when you're asked to convert third-and-four instead of third-and-13, you've got a much better chance to put together long scoring drives.
• Greg Ward should just not be fielding punts for the Eagles at this point. The Eagles lost about 15 yards of field position because of his mistake late in the half, and that's a reflection of his broader struggles to make an impact on special teams. He has been almost a complete zero back there, most often calling for a fair catch but sometimes providing much worse, with poor awareness of when to catch the punt or not.
Before you point out that Jalen Reagor was dinged up in the first half, it was Ward who took the first punt of the game while both guys were still ostensibly healthy, and that came a week after the rookie took a punt to the house. Strange decisionmaking continues in Philly.
The Ugly
• What is Jake Elliott's deal, man?
• Jalen Hurts and Reagor connected for a 39-yard completion to close out the second quarter, the longest toss from a Philadelphia QB to a wide receiver in over a month. Reagor immediately went to the blue medical tent afterward. It has been that kind of season for the Eagles.
• Trying to figure out how the officials concluded Zach Ertz's sideline grab was incomplete, and even as someone who believes they're not ever going to overturn much, it felt like an egregious miss. Ertz never bobbled the ball, appeared to drag both feet expertly before falling out of bounds, and secured it all the way through the process of the catch. It should have been a successful challenge and a nice play from both the QB and the tight end, and instead, it becomes one of many baffling officiating decisions made during an NFL season.
While we're on the subject, I love this challenge from Pederson regardless of the end result. High leverage play, looked to anyone with working eyes like a call that would go in their favor, and it was a big momentum spot, with Philly trying to go up as much as two touchdowns on the series. You make that challenge every time, regardless of how bad the refs screwed it up.
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