Eagles beat Bengals as Jalen Hurts outshines Joe Burrow, 37 to 17

Three wins in a row!

The Philadelphia Eagles are 5-2 after beating the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium on Sunday afternoon! Final score: 37 to 17.

Now THAT was a win that should make one feel pretty encouraged about this team’s overall outlook! There’s no “but it was only the [bad team]” caveat this week.

Jalen Hurts outshined Joe Burrow in this one, going 16/20 (80% completion) for 236 yards (11.8 average), 1 TD, 0 INT, and a 132.5 passer rating. He also ran 10 times for 37 yards and three touchdowns. Four scores and seven years ago zero turnovers! Third straight game with zero Hurts giveaways. Hurts completed all of his attempts after a bad throw decision to Kenny Gainwell that was in jeopardy of being picked on the Eagles’ second drive. He was mostly in complete control out there and the offensive output reflected as much.

Vic Fangio’s defense had a bit of a rough start but ultimately came up with two takeaways and a fourth down stop that allowed the offense to really take control of the game. Saquon Barkley, who reached 108 yards on 22 attempts, helped to ice the game with the offensive line bullying the Bengals’ defense in the fourth quarter.

All told, this was a game that had the feel of one of the Eagles’ 2022 victories as opposed to their nail-biting 2023 efforts. Maybe this team is truly for real after all?!

We’ll see if the Eagles can make it four straight wins with a home game against Doug Pederson’s Jacksonville Jaguars next weekend!

Read on for a recap and stay tuned for BGN’s postgame coverage.

FIRST QUARTER

• The Eagles won the opening coin toss and elected to defer, per usual. The Bengals started at their own 30-yard line after Braden Mann kicked it deep into the end zone to help neutralize dangerous Bengals returner Charlie Jones. Facing 3rd-and-1 after two short gains, Joe Burrow hit a leaping Mike Gesicki with Reed Blankenship trailing slightly behind for a first down. Nakobe Dean blew up a screen in the backfield for a TFL to knock the Bengals off schedule. Facing 3rd-and-8, Burrow got the ball out lightning quick to hit Ja’Marr Chase for another first down. Facing 3rd-and-6, the Bengals tried to go tempo to catch the Eagles off guard but the referees prevented Burrow from snapping the ball due to a Bengals player running on and off the field (which allowed the Eagles a chance to sub as well) ... but a Burrow checkdown picked up yet another first down anyway. Facing 3rd-and-2, a bubble screen to Chase picked up yet another first down. Jalen Carter instantly won a one-on-one to force Burrow into dirting a ball (off of Nolan Smith’s helmet). Facing 3rd-and-6, Burrow hit an open Gesicki over the middle for yet another first down to set up goal-to-go. Burrow scrambled right and hit Chase, who was being covered by Nolan Smith (who dropped into zone coverage)...