Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 10/2/23.

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

Roob’s Observations: Eagles survive OT, remain undefeated after beating Commanders - NBCSP
1. There’s a lot to be concerned with, but that can wait. I’ve got to start with what’s most impressive about this victory. It had been a quarter of a century since an NFL team that lost the Super Bowl one year opened the next season 4-0. That was the 1998 Green Bay Packers. It just doesn’t happen. It’s really hard for teams coming off the crushing disappointment of a Super Bowl loss to regroup and crank it up again starting from scratch. Nick Sirianni – and the Eagles’ veteran leaders - Fletch, B.G., Lane and Kelce – deserve so much credit for getting this team to get over that disappointment in Glendale - a game they believe they could have won and should have won – and focus on the here and now. That’s really, really hard to do. But it’s the only chance any team has of overcoming something like a Super Bowl loss. It’s so rare for a team to lose the Super Bowl and bounce back like this, and this 4-0 start speaks volumes about Sirianni’s ability to get his message across to his team and keep them motivated and determined and upbeat and positive. This team wins. That’s all they do. It’s incredible.

Eagles vs. Commanders: The good, the bad, and the ugly - BGN
The first play of the fourth quarter. Why run that third-and-11 play there, which almost wound up in disaster when Kenneth Gainwell fumbled and right tackle Lane Johnson was fortunate enough to flop on the ball at the Washington 18. Why not take a shot inside the five? Elliott’s third field goal gave the Eagles a 24-17 lead.

BGN Instant Reaction Show - Week 4: Eagles pull out close win over Commanders in OT, 34-31 - BGN Radio
That was WAY too close, but a win is a win. Shane Haff and Chris Deibs share their initial reactions to the Eagles’ ugly OT win over the Commanders, 34-31.

Handing out 10 awards from the Eagles-Commanders game - PhillyVoice
3) The ‘Back On Track?’ Award: Jalen Hurts and the passing offense. In their first three games, the Eagles faced some exotic defenses that confused and slowed the Eagles’ offense. Against a more familiar opponent, the offense looked a lot more like it did in 2022 when it routinely hit on explosive plays. Hurts finished 25 of 37 for 319 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, and a passer rating of 112.3. He hit Brown on the two big plays above as well the play, well... in the next award.4) The ‘50-50 Beast’ Award: DeVonta Smith. DeVonta Smith is pound-for-pound the best 50-50 ball artist in the NFL. He made a phenomenal catch at the end of the first half that resulted in three extremely meaningful points.

Eagles Win Wild OT Game - Iggles Blitz
Most of the frustration lies with the Eagles defense. They were going against a young QB and a bad OL. It was beyond frustrating to see them give up 17 points in the first half. Even worse was them letting WAS score the tying TD in the final minute. What’s the point of building a stud DL if they can’t come up big with the game on the line? Pass coverage was an issue. WAS was able to get players open in a lot of key situations. They would flood a zone and one would come open. That is going to happen, but they had guys wide open too many times. The Eagles have had injuries to the back seven, but they must communicate better and do a much better job with their assignments. Sean Desai has plenty to work on. He can be happy that his unit made some key plays. Nick Morrow had 11 tackles, 3 sacks and a FF. Those sacks were key plays. Blankenship’s coverage on the 3rd down pass to McLaurin in OT was huge. There were times when the defense was really good. They just came up short in some key situations.

NFL Week 4 Recap: Immediate fantasy football takeaways from Sunday’s games - PFF
The Eagles backfield remains a rotation: The Eagles started their running back rotation similar to last week, but it didn’t end the same way. D’Andre Swift started the game and played all 17 snaps on the Eagles’ first two drives. Kenneth Gainwell took over on the first drive that started in the second quarter and played all 10 snaps of the quarter. The Eagles did the same thing last week. Swift took the third quarter and Gainwell played the fourth quarter last week, but Philadelphia didn’t keep that rotation by quarter in the second half of this game. The Eagles continued to let one running back take drives for themselves, but Swift played the first drive of the half, Gainwell played the next two, and then Swift took the final three. This left Swift with more drives and ultimately more playing time. When Swift was on the field, they were more likely to give the ball to him while they spread the ball around more when Gainwell was on the field. This is generally good news for Swift’s fantasy managers, as he remains a must-start, while it’s not great news for anyone with other Eagles players. Boston Scott was active for this game but didn’t play an offensive snap while Rashaad Penny was back to being inactive.

2023 NFL season, Week 4: What We Learned from Sunday’s games - NFL.com
Once again, Jalen Hurts to A.J. Brown saves the day. The Eagles came in averaging 185.7 yards rushing, but couldn’t really get the run game going early. Brown was the Eagles’ leading receiver at halftime (4 catches, 43 yards), but his real fireworks came after that. Brown scored on a 59-yard catch and run to give the Eagles their first lead at 21-17, and then he burned rookie CB Emmanuel Forbes for a 28-yard score, giving Philly a 31-24 lead with less than two minutes to go. Time and time again, Hurts leaned on his big-play threat in key spots — and to think, a couple weeks ago it seemed like the two weren’t on the same page. Brown finished with nine catches for 175 yards and two scores. He caught only one pass on the game-winning overtime drive, but without Brown’s second-half heroics, the Eagles wouldn’t have even made it to OT.

Spadaro: 10 takeaways from thrilling win over Washington - PE.com
2. Welcome to the big-play offense, once again. The kind of impact it makes was never more evident than midway through the third quarter when Jalen Hurts threw to wide receiver A.J. Brown on the left side – Brown lined up in the slot, stutter-stepped to an opening about 30 yards down the field, caught the pass from quarterback Jalen Hurts, then cut into the middle of the field following blocks from DeVonta Smith and Olamide Zaccheaus, and found the end zone to put the Eagles ahead, 19-17, their first lead of the game. The catch-and-run covered 59 yards and helped change the momentum of the game after a first half in which the Commanders led most of the time. And it was Brown’s first touchdown of the season and part of a monster Sunday on which Brown caught 9 passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns and looked great – wearing pink cleats with neon yellow laces – doing it.

NFL Week 4: Big questions, risers, fallers and takeaways - ESPN
Just how far can the Eagles take this unbeaten streak? It wasn’t the prettiest performance — penalties nearly led to the Eagles’ first loss of the season — but they escaped their first divisional game with a win in overtime to improve to 4-0. Their next two games — at the Rams and Jets — are winnable. They’ll look to stockpile victories before a rough stretch that includes the Dolphins, Cowboys, Chiefs, Bills and 49ers. Stock up after the win: WR A.J. Brown. It was just a couple of weeks ago when a frustrated Brown was seen in a heated conversation with quarterback Jalen Hurts during a win over the Vikings in which he finished with 29 yards. Since then, his production has rocketed, eclipsing 130 receiving yards each of the past two weeks. He picked up his first two touchdowns of the season Sunday, including one with under two minutes remaining to put Philly ahead. Stock down after the win: S Terrell Edmunds. Getting the start for the injured Justin Evans, Edmunds had a pair of unnecessary roughness penalties and failed to come up with an interception of a wayward pass in the end zone by a hurried Sam Howell. For as strong as this roster is overall, safety is one of the few vulnerable spots.

The Washington Commanders lose 34-31 in overtime to the Philadelphia Eagles - Hogs Haven
Sam Howell drove Washington down to the 10 yard line with 5 second left in the game. Philly called a timeout out, setting up the last plays for Washington. Howell attempted to hit Curtis Samuel, but he was short of the goal line and dropped the pass. Howell had two seconds left and hit Jahan Dotson for the TD! Washington called tails, and won the coin toss. They got the ball first to start the overtime period. Washington went three and out, almost converting the 3rd down, but Terry McLaurin’s second foot was ruled out of bounds. The Eagles got the ball, and were in field goal range until a Jalen Hurts throwaway was ruled intentional grounding. They were able to pick up 9 yards on a pass to DeVonta Smith, and then kick the game-winning 54-yard field goal.

Los Angeles Rams vs Philadelphia Eagles opening odds: Will LA be able to stop Jalen Hurts and company? - Turf Show Times
Who do you trust more this week? Will the Eagles keep their undefeated streak alive in Los Angeles? Or can Sean McVay and company get the Rams back over .500 for the first time since Week 1? I don’t expect the Rams offense to slow down against Philadelphia but I don’t see LA shutting down a powerful Super Bowl contender despite playing at home. My pick is for the Rams to go over the spread and lose a one-score game to the Eagles

Matthew Stafford dealing with hip injury, says he’ll play next week - PFT
Though he didn’t miss a snap, quarterback Matthew Stafford was clearly dealing with an injury during the Rams’ 29-23 overtime victory — moving with a heavy limp at times while on the field in the second half. After the game, Stafford told reporters that he’d suffered a hip injury. But Stafford said his hip would’ve had to have shut all the way down for him to exit the game. And the quarterback intends to play against the Eagles next week.

Cowboys vs. Patriots Stock Report: Dallas dominates on defense, plenty of stock up - Blogging The Boys
Stock Down: Redzone Offense. The Luepke touchdown up above was a great thing to see from the Cowboys given that they sputtered in the redzone all day long before it. This “problem” does not feel like as big of a deal when the Cowboys win and especially so when they win big, but it continues to be a thing nonetheless. Hopefully Dallas settles this down all the way quickly because they have a date with the undefeated San Francisco 49ers next Sunday night and will need all of the points they can get.

Giants’ players defend defensive coordinator Wink Martindale - Big Blue View
What I think, though, doesn’t matter. In the Giants’ locker room on Friday, I asked a number of defensive players for their thoughts on Martindale. I made clear to each of them the type of questions about the defensive coordinator that had come to the Big Blue View mailbag. Here is some of what each of the players I was able to speak with one-on-one told me regarding Martindale and the performance of the defense, which is 31st in points and 24th in yards allowed so far in 2023.

Bills vs Dolphins: CB Tre’Davious White exits the game via cart, being evaluated for Achilles injury - Buffalo Rumblings
It wasn’t long before Buffalo downgraded the cornerback to out and said that he was receiving an MRI to evaluate a potential Achilles injury. [BLG Note: The Eagles play the Bills in Week 12.]

The ‘Toy Story’ broadcast of Jaguars-Falcons took us to infinity and beyond - SB Nation
NFL fans were treated to something new on Sunday morning. A Toy Story-themed broadcast of the London game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Jacksonville Jaguars set in Andy’s room. ESPN and Disney+ debuted the “Toy Story Funday Football” telecast on Sunday, an animated telecast of the game using characters from the beloved Toy Story series, set in Andy’s bedroom. Yes, there were some glitches along the way. There were moments when the broadcast simply focused on the commentating team of Drew Carter and Booger McFarland. There were moments when the broadcast simply focused on the animated football, and not any of the action. Also, given the technology involved, the broadcast was on a rather significant delay, so if you were tracking the game for ... let’s just say other reasons you might have preferred the live broadcast on ESPN+. And yet, the “Toy Story Funday Football” telecast was, when it was working, absolute magic.

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