December 01, 2024
Saquon Barkley broke the game open again, the defense held strong with more havoc-wreaking performances from Zack Baun and Jalen Carter, and the Eagles put away the AFC juggernaut Baltimore Ravens, 24-19, to make it eight straight victories for the Birds and quite possibly their most impressive win yet.
The Eagles are 10-2 now, still well atop the NFC East, and in the MVP-level faceoff between Barkley and Baltimore's Derrick Henry, another 100-plus yard rushing day from Philadelphia's biggest star may have just swung the conversation well in his favor.
Here's how Barkley and the Birds got the job done on Sunday down in Baltimore...
The Eagles had that crucial first stop.
Josh Sweat shed his blocker and wrapped up Lamar Jackosn for the third-down sack at the Baltimore 38, but then the flag flew in.
Avonte Maddox held Ravens receiver Zay Flowers across the middle of the field in coverage, and the refs saw it right away.
Josh Sweat gets the sack that should have ended the first drive but Avonte Maddox gets flagged for holding. pic.twitter.com/BoTjscO46B
— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) December 1, 2024
Baltimore got a fresh set of downs, and on the very next play, Jackson took a broken play and flipped it into a 40-yard completion down into the red zone.
The Ravens' star QB stepped up then scrambled out of the pocket, spinning off an attempted tackle from Milton Williams before launching a pass up for Flowers cutting back.
No one else was there, leaving Flowers free to jump up for the ball, then cut and run for a few more yards after coming down with it in the game's first major offensive play.
LAMAR TO ZAY MAGIC.
— NFL (@NFL) December 1, 2024
📺: #PHIvsBAL on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/h2wbjKaYv0
Because when things aren't going right, careless penalties will make life that much harder.
Kelee Ringo hit the punt returner on a fair catch right off the bat, then got tagged again on special teams later on for running back into the play from out of bounds.
Long snapper Rick Lovato got flagged for holding on the Eagles' first punt as well, Nolan Smith was caught for illegal use of the hands at the line, and A.J. Brown made a false start on the Eagles' third possession, which added up to six penalties in total before the first quarter was even over.
Credit to the Eagles: They cleaned themselves up and only had one more penalty called on them the rest of the half for an illegal man downfield, but in another slow offensive start, and against one of the AFC's juggernauts, those our controllable setbacks that any team can ill afford – even more so when it puts the ball in the hands of Jackson and big star running back Derrick Henry.
After all, sooner or later, Jackson and Henry are going to get theirs.
The Ravens put together an eight-play, 82-yard scoring drive that ran late into the first quarter, sparked by a Henry checkdown that he took for 16 yards and then another Jackson-to-Flowers connection for 20 more that brought Baltimore down into Eagles territory.
Smith's illegal use of the hands call struck to push the Ravens up five more, then Henry broke for a 19-yard run to the Philadelphia 9, which set up a touchdown pass from Jackson to Mark Andrews, on a play where Jackson had all the time in the world to sit in the pocket and where Andrews powered through double coverage to hold onto the ball.
Mark Andrews! Strong hands.
— NFL (@NFL) December 1, 2024
📺: #PHIvsBAL on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/8cTELJgPry
They had to wait a bit longer.
The next two Philadelphia drives following the Ravens' first touchdown: a three-and-out that ended on a Jalen Hurts sack in tight pass coverage and nowhere for him to go, then another where Baltimore's second-ranked run defense stood Saquon Barkley up at the line.
Back-to-back Ravens three-and-outs, marked by a fumbled snap from Jackson on the first and then a stop of Henry by Nakobe Dean for no gain on the second, prevented any further damage and gave the Philadelphia offense that bit of extra time to finally get in business.
They got in business.
Hurts worked a short pass to Jahan Dotson and started running, fed the ball to Barkley, and hit A.J. Brown on those near-unstoppable slants over the middle to push the Eagles into the red zone.
Then, on the ensuing 1st and 10, an RPO and a quick out to Dallas Goedert left the tight end with an open corner to turn into and a clear path straight across the goal line. The Eagles were on the board.
DALLASSSSSSS [GOEDERT] TD IN BALTIMORE 😤@goedert33 | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/zEv1PQwwPq
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) December 1, 2024
Zack Baun cracked down and sent Henry four yards back on a 3rd and 2 to hand the Ravens another three-and-out.
That’s All-Pro LB Zack Baun to you pic.twitter.com/vi7z14tLzE
— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) December 1, 2024
📁 Things We Love
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) December 1, 2024
📁 Tush Push Touchdowns pic.twitter.com/vgots9Erxq
MORE: The Eagles have a winning gameplan — when they stick to it
On came the second half and an arduous 22 minutes of game time of holding your breath.
Neither the Eagles' nor the Ravens' offense went anywhere through the third quarter.
Baltimore got the ball first coming back from the break and pushed down to the Philadelphia 15, but Baun and Jalyx Hunt crashed the pocket and dragged Jackson down a whole 14 yards backward for a vital third-down stop, which led to a missed Tucker field goal attempt from 47 yards away to preserve the narrow Eagles lead.
WE <3 ZACK BAUN@zackbizzaun | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/fU14nk6SQk
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) December 1, 2024
On the Eagles' end, they hit a wall with back-to-back three-and-outs, though at no consequence, because the Ravens pushed into field-goal range again, only for Tucker to sail it wide a second time from 53 yards out.
The Ravens took the ball into the fourth quarter, but the Eagles' defense held strong and forced them to punt after seven plays.
The offense took back over and started chipping away toward midfield.
Once there, the call went to Barkley, who ran it 14 yards into Baltimore territory, though he got tripped up and sprung right back up lamenting that he was just a step shy of fully breaking free.
He made the same reaction last week against the Rams, too, and throughout the season, and whenever he does, usually, it's a sign that he's about to break the game open.
Right on cue, with just over eight minutes left, Barkley hit the gamebreaker.
Hurts ran into the open for 11 yards to take the quick first down to the Baltimore 25, then Barkley took the hand-off, hit the open hole, split through the second-layer defenders and was gone. Touchdown Eagles, and after the extra point kick from Jake Elliott, a 21-12 lead halfway through the fourth.
It's not Thanksgiving anymore, but Saquon is still eating today 😮💨@saquon | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/iN0zg8Tnei
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) December 2, 2024
The defense responded with an emphatic turnover on downs.
Rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean went barreling down toward Henry on third down and speared the power runner straight into the grass well short of the marker to send the whole Philadelphia sideline into hysterics.
Cooper DeJean takes down Derrick Henry 💪
— NFL (@NFL) December 2, 2024
📺: #PHIvsBAL on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/Lwq9S0PfZo
Then Tristin McCollum, who subbed in for an injured Reed Blankenship, broke up the desperation pass to Flowers over the middle to give the Eagles the ball back fully in the driver's seat.
Tristian McCollum wisely knocks down the 4th down pass to force a turnover on downs!
— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) December 2, 2024
Sure… well go with that… pic.twitter.com/MfVr33vR0e
That was pretty much game.
Hurts and the offense took back over at the Baltimore 42 and took their time, moving only 25 yards but draining 5:08 off the clock to tack on an Elliott field goal with just 1:03 left.
There was little the Ravens could do to dig out of that 12-point hole that late. They drove down and scored one more touchdown with three seconds left to make it 24-19, but it didn't make a difference with only a few ticks to run out.
MORE: Saquon Barkley is the ultimate closer
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