Crossing Broad
For the first time since 2004, the NFC East has a repeat winner.
The Eagles took care of business in the swamp on Saturday evening, defeating the Commies 29-18 to claim the division for a second straight year. The last time that happened, Artis Hicks was playing left guard and Mike Bartrum was the long snapper. Jevon Kearse led the Birds in sacks and Derrick Burgess was lining up on the other side of the defensive front. George W. Bush was president while Usher topped the Billboard charts with Lil Jon and Ludacris.
So it’s been a minute since anybody has been able to win a historically-competitive division in consecutive seasons.
That being said, this game wasn’t exactly an instant classic. The Birds didn’t pull away until the fourth quarter, and benefited from playing Washington’s 2nd and 3rd-string quarterbacks. Jake Elliott couldn’t kick a field goal to save his life and Will Shipley committed a couple of big mistakes that made this game closer than it had to be. But even with those road blocks in the way, Jalen Hurts had another super-efficient passing performance, Saquon Barkley went over 100 yards and found the end zone, and the defense once again looked good enough to win another Super Bowl.
The 2025 Eagles haven’t been the 2024 Eagles, but is this a team you want to play in Philadelphia when the postseason begins?
To the observations:
1) Can’t engineer a worse start than fumbling the opening kickoff. They had only one first-quarter giveaway all season long before that.
2) Washington should have gone for it on 4th and goal of their opening drive. You’ve got four wins, nothing to lose, and you’re on the two yard line. Why kick the field goal?
3) First Eagles drive was derailed by a zero-yard run on first down. You could see Dallas Goedert put his arms out in confusion, thinking that someone else was supposed to block Jacob Martin, who went untouched into the backfield. The Birds entered the game with a 12.5 stuffed run percentage, which is third-worst in the NFL, behind only the Raiders and Dolphins.
4) There was a lot to like about the second Eagles drive, in which they came out showing five-wide with no huddle. It started with a DeVonta Smith sit down completion against zone, then a 14-yard Hurts scramble and A.J. Brown catch-and-run. They almost got Smitty on a pylon shot with the fourth play, then brought Saquon back into the backfield and got DeVonta on a play-action pass from under center. Good stuff.
5) The only thing that was kind of a head scratcher on that drive was the tush push false start. What happened to just lining up and running it? Either get up to the line and do it, or take it out of the playbook. They had similar issues in the third quarter with the shove.
6) It was pretty funny to hear the ref announce that the overturned Saquon TD was going...
