Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 10/9/23.

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Roob’s Observations: Goedert, Brown have big days as Eagles improve to 5-0 - NBCSP
9. If there were still any lingering questions about Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ passing game after Sunday, there can’t be anymore. The inconsistency, the mistakes, the lack of cohesion we saw the first few weeks of the season have disappeared, and Jalen Hurts and Company are back in that 2022 mode where you just expected them to score on every drive. Or every play. Hurts was spectacular Sunday and he’s now put together back-to-back 300-yard games. Hurts finished 25-for-38 303 yards with a TD pass to Goedert, one interception he probably shouldn’t have thrown and another rushing TD. And a 75-yard TD drive in 32 seconds? How is that even possible? And he looked like the Jalen of old running the ball too. The Eagles needed it and he delivered with 72 rushing yards. The numbers are staggering: Hurts is now 28-11 in his career, and only seven QBs – including Dan Marino, Kurt Warner and Patrick Mahomes – have won more games in their first 39 starts. He’s 25-3 since Nick Sirianni’s Roots Underground speech in late October 2021, and most importantly he once again looks unstoppable. And we’ve seen what can happen when Hurts looks unstoppable.

Eagles vs. Rams: The good, the bad, and the ugly - BGN
For the first time this season, Jalen Hurts ran with abandon. For the first time this season, the Eagles’ quarterback was not looking for the softest green to slide on as he had done frequently. He cut up the field with the intention of taking the ball as far as he could, before someone took him down. It was pleasantly reminiscent of the way Hurts ran during his MVP-caliber 2022 season and it translated into a 23-14 Eagles’ victory over the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

BGN Instant Reaction Show - Week 5: Eagles beat Rams, 23-14 - BGN Radio
Jess Taylor, Shane Haff and Chris Deibler share their initial reactions to the Eagles Week 5 win against the Rams.

Eagles QB Jalen Hurts authors season-best game in win - ESPN
Quarterback Jalen Hurts set season highs in both rushing attempts (15) and rushing yards (72) to power the Philadelphia Eagles to a 23-14 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. It was his most complete game of the season — a performance reminiscent of last season’s near-MVP campaign. He also threw for over 300 yards and a touchdown with one interception on 25-of-38 passing. It was his fifth career game with 300 passing yards and a rushing TD, passing Michael Vick for most in Eagles history, per ESPN Stats & Information research.

Spadaro: 13 takeaways from a dominant road win against the Rams - PE.com
7. He has gotten better every week this season, and on Sunday, Hurts was just outstanding. He threw the one interception in the end zone, but give credit to cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon for making a terrific catch and getting both feet inbounds. Hurts completed 25 of 38 passes for 303 yards and the touchdown throw to Goedert. Hurts also ran 15 times for 72 yards, his season high and a game high, and he ran tough, broke tackles, and made big plays with gains of 17, 12, 10, 9, and 9 yards. The 17-yard gain was particularly great, with Hurts breaking a tackle, moving forward, and converting a third-and-7 play at the Philadelphia 38-yard line in the midst of a 17-play, 83-yard drive that led to three points.

2023 NFL season, Week 5: What We Learned from Sunday’s games - NFL.com
Eagles hang on with gutsy, hard-nosed football. Jalen Hurts was fantastic as always, accounting for 375 total yards (303 passing, 72 rushing) and two scores, but much of Philadelphia’s fifth victory of the season came thanks to trench domination and a little daring. The Eagles simply wore down the Rams throughout the game, opening holes for 159 rushing yards and keeping Los Angeles’ pass rush at bay by surrendering only one sack. Philly’s unstoppable “Brotherly Shove” was again on display, most notably on a bold QB sneak drawn up to take the lead, 17-14, with two seconds remaining in the first half. The safe play was a field goal, but the right play for a line as strong as Philadelphia’s was going for pay dirt. The Eagles’ defense also played the bully, holding the Rams scoreless in the second half and bringing down Matthew Stafford four times. Jalen Carter had two sacks, bursting through the middle for the first multi-sack game of his career, and Haason Reddick had two in a row on third and fourth down late in the game to snuff out any hopes of a Rams comeback.

Handing out 10 awards from the Eagles-Rams game - PhillyVoice
The Eagles only scored 23 points, but their offensive attack looked a lot like it did in 2022. They racked up 454 yards, and hit on a bunch of explosive plays in the passing game. Hurts was 25 of 38 for 303 yards, a TD, and an INT. He also ran 15 times for 72 yards and a TD along the way. In recent games, when a defender was in the same zip code as Hurts, he was sliding, which makes sense given his importance to the team and the $50 million/year contract he signed. On Sunday, there was no sliding.

Eagles Stifle the Rams - Iggles Blitz
None of this happens without the Eagles OL having an outstanding performance. They made Aaron Donald a non-factor. He still doesn’t have a sack against the Eagles in his career. Crazy. The Eagles ran for 159 yards and Hurts had plenty of time to throw on most of his attempts. The big guys up front controlled the line of scrimmage, even without RG Cam Jurgens. Sua Opeta started in his absence and played well. The only real complaint with the Eagles offense is them bogging down in the red zone. They finished 2 for 6, but one of those was intentionally conservative to work the clock so it is really 2 for 5. The failure to score TDs kept the Rams in it. This was a one-score game until the 4:06 mark. One mistake could have turned a good game into a disaster. Thankfully the Eagles never made that huge mistake. But they must improve in the red zone. Kicking field goals won’t beat good teams. Give the Rams credit for playing hard and really battling. The Eagles just had too much talent and played a cleaner game. They are now 5-0 for the second straight season. They aren’t perfect to be sure, but they just keep winning.

Week 5: Brock Purdy is your new MVP frontrunner, and remembering Dick Butkus - FMIA
1. I think, if you have read this column, you know that I am not a big fan of ball carriers getting pushed from behind to advance the ball downfield. This doesn’t mean that I don’t think the Eagles, or any team, should run a quarterback sneak this way, because, obviously, it is within the rules to do so, and why not take advantage of a play that is in the rules? But I thought Eagles coach Nick Sirianni summed up his team’s use of the play superbly Sunday after Philadelphia beat the Rams in Los Angeles. Hard to argue with Sirianni when he says: “So we watched our evolution of the play and the growth of that play; it’s just a great example of what we want to be as a team. If we stayed the same in our quarterback sneaks from 2021 until now, defenses would have caught up to it. But we’ve grown in the areas, and we’ve grown in our fundamentals. Jalen, I don’t know if he squats any more than 600 now, but he’s grown in the weight room. Then we watch the rest of the league, and quite frankly, they can’t do it like we can. We’ll play by the rules of what they say to do. It’s a good play for us. The [NFL] Competition Committee can look at it, but until then, people have to stop it.”

Stop whining about Eagles’ ‘Brotherly Shove.’ It’s beautiful. Put it in the Louvre. - USA Today
Rarely in the history of the NFL has such a simple and smart play caused so much consternation, examination and whining. Seriously, it’s time for everyone to shut up and stop complaining about the Brotherly Shove. Yes, I’m telling you to shut up as I write about it. What I mainly mean is there seems to a large swath of the league ecosystem looking down its nose at the play. Like it’s that uncle who comes to the barbecue and drinks too much. Or, others in the NFL who want it banned, only because they can’t stop it. The play is actually a genius coaching tactic that takes advantage of the best offensive line in football and a brilliant quarterback who can bench small cars. Check that. Big cars.

Eagles fan infiltrated locker room after Sunday’s game - PFT
Via Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer, a fan of Philly’s football team somehow snuck into the locker room along with reporters. The fan approached receiver A.J. Brown, who did not recognize the person and alerted the team. “I feared for my life,” Brown joked about the situation.

Jets open as 6.5 point underdogs vs Eagles - Gang Green Nation
According to DraftKings Sportsbook, the Jets open as 6.5 point home underdogs against the Eagles on Sunday. This marks the sixth straight game the Jets have been underdogs to begin the 2023 season. I think the spread is fair. I expect the Jets to struggle and lose against an excellent Eagles team.

Winners & Losers: Rams offense goes ice cold in second half yet again - Turf Show Times
Sean McVay, Head coach. McVay punted late against the Cincinnati Bengals a couple of weeks when the game was within two possessions. Trey Hendrickson was dominating the backup left tackle and Stafford was taking hit after hit. It seemed like the head coach was waiving the white flag. But then down six points with ten minutes to play, McVay again decided to punt on fourth-and-five despite going for it being the better analytical decision. The Eagles quickly marched down the field and kicked a field goal to extend their lead to two possessions. After watching the Eagles offense move the chains with ease, I hated this decision at the time and effectively it was the end of the game.

Dallas Cowboys at San Francisco 49ers stock report: Dak Prescott, Mike McCarthy lead poor performance - Blogging The Boys
Stock Down: Mike McCarthy. This will be a theme throughout our conversation here so let’s get it out of the way now. It is often unfair to overreact to one game, but as mentioned above, this was not just one game. This was a game that the Cowboys themselves said was not just one game. That being said, Mike McCarthy took over offensive play-calling in an effort to put his personal fingerprints on things. He took over to help lead the resistance and help the team realize potential that was left untapped in the past. Sunday night was an embarrassment for the Cowboys in every way. They were out-prepared, out-played, out-coached and at the end they were run out of the building. The fingerprints here only point to a suspect and not a savior. Whatever benefit of the doubt that Dallas had got burned up in San Francisco. [...] Stock Down: Dak Prescott. Even without overreacting to the interceptions, especially one off of a tipped ball, it was a horrible showing from QB1. Heavy is the head that wears the crown and Dak Prescott, fair or not, has to rise to these kind of occasions. The great Bob Sturm often refers to quarterbacks as needing to be thermostats as opposed to thermometers, and in these sort of situations you have to have a thermostat. Dallas did not have one on Sunday night and saw an offensive outing in the first half that put them all the way behind the eight ball. There are of course many reasons for this, but the play of the quarterback is one of the most important things you can have in an NFL game and Dak in no way lived up to the challenge.

Daily Slop - 8 Oct 23: Eagles CB Darius Slay offers encouragement to Washington rookie Forbes: ‘Keep your head up” - Hogs Haven
Hail: Darius Slay. The Eagles cornerback shared some encouraging words for Commanders rookie cornerback and fellow former Mississippi State bulldog Emmanuel Forbes Jr. after Forbes’ second consecutive ugly game prompted Washington to bench him in the fourth quarter. Slay, a second-round pick of the Lions in 2013, told Forbes to keep his head up and that he was also benched as a rookie. “Keep working u go be great!” Slay wrote on social media.

Giants-Dolphins ‘things I think’: The inevitable Daniel Jones’ injury has finally happened - Big Blue View
Jones has taken about as brutal a beating this season as a quarterback can take under the current rules. The sack that knocked him out of the game was the sixth he suffered on Sunday and the 28th he had taken in less than five full games. Jones also took several big hits while escaping the pocket or on designed runs. Is he a good quarterback? A bad quarterback? That’s up to you to decide. I know he is a tough, competitive man. Sometimes the hits are his own fault for holding the ball too long or not getting down or out of bounds quickly enough. Mostly, though, a porous offensive line has allowed teams to turn Jones into a piñata all season.

Jets troll Broncos, Sean Payton after winning the Hackett Bowl - SB Nation
After a long offseason filled with a war of words between the New York Jets and the Denver Broncos — over former Denver head coach Nathaniel Hackett, now in New York as the Jets offensive coordinator — the Hackett Bowl finally arrived. It was the Jets who emerged victorious, going into Denver and coming away with a 31-21 victory. And after the game, the Jets’ social media team fired off a post that you just know they had saved in the drafts, ready to roll.

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