Roob Observations: Eagles escape with victory over hapless Browns originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Remember when the Eagles used to be fun to watch?
It was too close, too sloppy, too scary, but the Eagles escaped the Browns on Sunday at the Linc, a game neither team looked like they wanted to win for most of the afternoon.
A fantastic drive in the final minutes after 56 minutes of uninspired football gave the Eagles a 20-16 victory over a hapless Browns team and brought the Eagles to 3-2 with the Giants’ killer row, Bengals. and the Jaguars are next.
Exhale.
1. It wasn’t exactly the explosion the Eagles were looking for. The Browns went 1-4 in their third straight road game with a quarterback who can’t throw a football, and the Eagles are coming out of a bye with all their weapons firing in their own building, and They really had to do it. fight to escape with a victory. Hey, everyone counts the same and 3-2 is better than 2-3. But the Eagles’ inability to escape this truly horrible Browns team is concerning. The Eagles have gone 16 straight games without beating anyone by two possessions, and that’s crazy. The last time they won a game by more than eight points was in Miami last October. For those of you who follow this stuff, this is the Eagles’ third-longest streak of games without a two-possession win in 40 years. So while the win is positive, it’s hard to feel too optimistic about a four-point win over one of the worst teams in the NFL. Will this team ever play well for a full game on offense, defense and special teams for 60 minutes? It’s been almost a year since they did it.
2. Pretty good stuff from the defense. They held the Browns to 244 yards, nine points, 4 of 12 on third down and had five sacks after only six in the first four games. But I’m not sure we’ve learned much about the defense because the Browns literally have one of the worst passing attacks in NFL history and until the Eagles play like that against a team with a real quarterback, nothing has really changed. . But it was encouraging to see. The coverage was tight, the pressure was tremendous, the tackling was better, the defensive line got after Deshaun Watson and any time you can keep a team out of the end zone it’s a huge plus. Awesome. But do it against a real offense and I’ll be more impressed.
3. Jalen Hurts’ 0-for-5 start didn’t bother me at all because, and I’m serious, he was throwing incomplete passes that the other team couldn’t intercept. He was making good decisions, he wasn’t putting the ball in danger, he just wasn’t connecting. And once he got going and he was excellent the rest of the way, finishing 16 of 25 for 264 yards with a 22-yard touchdown pass to AJ Brown and a 45-yarder to DeVonta Smith and that 40-yarder to Brown for finish. things off. One of their best games in quite some time. In fact, it was his first game with multiple touchdown passes and no interceptions since Week 9 of last year and the win over the Cowboys. I think Hurts made good decisions in the pocket, didn’t force the ball, showed good presence in the pocket and avoided mistakes. That’s all you ask of a quarterback. He made some big throws and some big runs and didn’t make a mistake. This was the first time in 10 games that he did not commit a turnover. Next step? Keep it up. Do this consistently.
4. This was primarily DeVonta and AJ’s show, but also awesome material from Grant Calcaterra and Jahan Dotson. With Dallas Goedert out for most of the game with a hamstring injury. Calcaterra had just 176 yards to show for his first 38 NFL games, that’s about 4 ½ yards per game. But he caught four passes for a career-high 67 yards, including a 34-yarder on the Eagles’ first touchdown drive. And Dotson, who only had 25 yards to show for his first five games, had a 13-yard gain on a pass that was technically a run and also a huge 10-yard pass for a first down just before the two-minute warning. when the eagles were running out of time. You need guys like that to make plays to be a team. And it’s huge for Hurts to throw to those guys instead of forcing things on Smith and Brown.
5. Cooper DeJean’s move to the position paid immediate dividends when he recorded a 15-yard sack on Deshaun Watson in the first quarter when the Browns had the ball at midfield (officially, he shared it with Bryce Huff, of all people). He was part of another sack in the third quarter, although that one was attributed to Milton Williams. But you could see his ability to carry and you could see how active he was around the ball and what a good tackler he is. DeJean was also good in coverage. Sometimes coaches are reluctant to make these types of changes. Avonte Maddox has been a solid NFL position for a long time and is in his seventh year with the Eagles, and DeJean had played just eight defensive snaps in his life before Sunday afternoon. But that’s why they recruited him and that’s why he’s here. Had he not missed three and a half weeks of training camp, he likely would have started the season in that position. A smart move that paid immediate dividends. With Quinyon Mitchell and DeJean, the Eagles now have two rookies in this secondary and they will be very good players for this team for a long time.
6. The Eagles’ embarrassing first-quarter scoring woes continued. This is now the first time in franchise history that they have failed to score a point in the first quarter through the first five weeks of a season. Overall, they have gone seven straight games without a point in the first quarter, dating back to Julio Jones’ 12-yard touchdown catch in a loss to Arizona last year in Week 17. It’s the first time they’ve gone seven games in a row. at any point without a point in the first quarter from Week 8 through Week 14 of 1994. Their last longest streak was an eight-game streak in 1936. Figuring out how to start faster was a bye week priority for Nick Sirianni and his staff in the process of self-exploration, but still no answers. This offense is simply not ready when games start, and until they figure it out, they will continue to make things difficult for themselves.
7. Brandon Graham can’t retire. Not able. What BG is doing at 36 years old in its fifteenth season is remarkable. He’s playing at such a high level on what was supposed to be his retirement tour that he’s actually been one of the Eagles’ best defensive players this year and almost certainly their most consistent defensive lineman. BG is never out of position. An entry never fails. He never has a negative play. That five-yard loss to Cedric Tillman on a 3rd-and-1 in the third quarter was absolutely huge. That turned what would have been a 47-yard field goal attempt into a 52-yard one that Dustin Hopkins missed. BG said he’ll come back for a 16th season if the Eagles need him, and I don’t see how they won’t. I hope he never retires.
8. I was surprised that the Eagles weren’t able to run against the Browns and their 26th-ranked run defense (Saquon Barkley finished with just 47 yards on 18 carries), but the Browns came into this game stacking the box and determined not to let Barkley win. them. One thing I’d like to see a little more of is Kenny Gainwell mixing it all up. Gainwell came on briefly and there’s so much value in a change of pace that he had a 19-yard run (the Eagles’ longest in the game) on his first carry. Sometimes just a different type of defense can keep a defense off balance, especially one focused on stopping the run. I still want Barkley to get his 22 or 23 touches per game, but there’s room within that for a little change here and there on those occasions when the Eagles just can’t get going. Gainwell is not bad and needs to continue to be a part of this offense.
9. What if Nolan Smith shows up? Probably the biggest play of what has been a disappointing career so far. The Browns had a second-and-goal at the Eagles’ 5-yard line with 4:07 left and the Eagles leading 20-13 and Deshaun Watson took off to his right with his sticks in sight. Nakobe Dean pushed him outside, where Smith, Dean’s college teammate, spiked Watson, taking him out of bounds for a two-yard gain. After a false start and an incomplete pass, the Browns had to settle for a field goal and the Eagles were able to run out the clock. It’s been a tough year and a half for Smith, the 30th pick in last year’s draft. But he had the second sack of his career on Sunday, he had a quarterback hit and he had that big tackle at the low goal line that helped keep the Browns out of the end zone. By far the best game of his career when the Eagles needed him most.
10. That whole sequence leading up to the Browns’ blocked field goal touchdown just before halftime was super ugly. The Eagles had 2nd and 1 at the Browns’ 31-yard line. Hurts threw a short pass to Saquon Barkley, who misjudged where the sticks were or took a bad angle toward the sideline, but ended up with no gain when the Eagles should have had a 1st and 10. The Eagles had timeouts, so that reaching the sticks was the priority there, not going out of bounds. Just a bad play by a great player. And then, on 3rd-and-1, Hurts let himself be sacked for a loss of eight yards. So now Jake Elliott is attempting a 57-yard field goal instead of a 51-yard field goal, and as we know, the longer a field goal attempt, the shorter the trajectory and the easier it will be to block. And it was, by Myles Garrett, and 34-year-old Rodney McLeod returned it 50 yards of all people for the Browns’ only touchdown. It’s now 10-10 instead of possibly 17-3 and at least 13-3. Bad offense and bad special teams combined to give the Browns a touchdown. That touchdown should have never happened.
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