Crossing Broad
Was that the best Eagles win of the season? Sure felt like it.
They went on the road, scored 37 points, and didn’t turn the ball over. They made timely defensive plays, picked off Joe Burrow, and stuffed the Bengals on 4th and 1. Jalen Hurts was clean and effective both throwing and running, the offense hit on explosive plays, then they iced it with a bulldozer of a drive that went 85 yards and took 7:37 off the clock.
Don’t look now, but the Eagles have won three games in a row and are 3-0 in the shaved-head Nick Sirianni era. The offense is starting to hum and the defense has shown enough through seven games to know that the ceiling is relatively high for the unit, and oh yeah, Jake Elliott was perfect once again. To the observations:
1) The Bengals’ all-white combo is pretty sick. Not sure how effective the fan white out was during a day game, but some of those crowd shots close to the end zones were cool. You’d never be able to get Eagles fans to wear the same color to anything. They probably would not even entertain the idea.
2) Ian Eagle must have only watched the Giants game in preparation, because he introduced the Birds’ defense as a unit “loaded with pass rushers who have been getting to the quarterback.”
3) First Cincy drive: 17 plays, 70 yards, 10:04 off the clock. The Eagles allowed five third conversions on that drive and had Nolan Smith on Ja’Marr Chase on the final play, which, if we’re being honest, not even the best DBs in the world are staying with a receiver when the quarterback has 30 seconds to throw the ball.
4) Ironic: the Eagles again did not score in the first quarter, and remain the only NFL team with no first quarter points. BUT – they did score on their opening drive. Cincy’s first score took so damn long that the Birds’ first drive didn’t even finish until the second quarter.
5) That second Bengals drive was a rollercoaster. Nolan Smith with a monster sack to push the Bengals back into their own half of the field, then Burrow converts a 3rd and 22 before Mike Gesicki makes a great one-handed catch to move the sticks. Big Play Slay’s PBU then ended up being the difference between three points and 7 points.
6) Much respect to Jennifer Coolidge for her immaculate work playing Stifler’s mom, but the Discover Card commercials have jumped the shark.
7) 3rd and 3 near midfield – Hurts has no business throwing that check down/swing pass to Kenny Gainwell. That had pick-6 written all over it and was the only bad decision he made all game long.
8) Didn’t like the penalty on Tyler Steen before halftime. If you watch that play back you can’t hear a whistle until he’s already begun the motion to ram that pile forward. It’s possible that it was blown on the...
