September 22, 2024

Eagles-Saints observations: Dallas Goedert has game of his life in unlikely road win in New Orleans

It felt like a loss right until the Eagles pulled out a desperately needed win in New Orleans.

By Shamus Clancy
PhillyVoice Staff

Stephen Lew/USA Today Sports

Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert had a career day in New Orleans.

In a game that may have raised more questions that it ultimately answered, the Eagles still went on the road as underdogs and beat the Saints in New Orleans for the first time in 17 years. The Superdome has been a house of horrors for this franchise and for a team that's coming off a back-breaking, infuriating loss on Monday night, the Eagles will gladly take this 15-12 victory.

Saquon Barkley was the first player to save the day for the Eagles and, momentarily at least, took the target off Nick Sirianni's back from Eagles fans, as a 1-2 start with a meeting with the Buccaneers in Tampa next weekend felt like a doomsday scenario. The Eagles felt that a running back of Barkley's caliber on the free agent market was worth bucking their usual trend of handling the position this offseason and the organization can credit both of their wins to him.

Barkley didn't receive a handoff until the Eagles' third offensive drive, but once he got going, he didn't stop. Barkley totaled 147 yards on the ground, including 65 alone on this touchdown that had him looking like his 2018 self:

SAQUON BARKLEY 65-YARD TOUCHDOWN.

📺: #PHIvsNO on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/830L0j9R8o
— NFL (@NFL) September 22, 2024

That burst! The Eagles haven't seen anything like that in a decade since LeSean McCoy was out there.

Perhaps the Eagles shouldn't wait that long into the game to feed him in the run game!

The next guy to flip the Eagles' fortunes was Dallas Goedert, who legitimately played the best football game of his life when the Eagles season, justifiably or not, felt like it was hanging in the balance across the Delaware Valley.

With A.J. Brown sidelined, Goedert put up a monster game, totaling 170 yards on 10 catches and being the reliable target he was for Hurts earlier in their partnership. I wrote earlier this week about how Goedert's efficiency has trickled down over the last couple of seasons and how he entered Week 3 averaging a career-worst 1.15 yards per route run, the worst mark of his career. The talent is undeniable if Hurts looks his way and he's actually health, understandably a big if, he can dominate.

There may have been no bigger catch in his career than this 61-yard pickup on third and 16 on the Eagles' go-ahead scoring drive:

GOEDERT GETS 61 YARDS ON 3RD & 16!

📺: #PHIvsNO on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/EBe8TFImy9
— NFL (@NFL) September 22, 2024

Fewer tight end screens and more of that!

The pickup put the Birds in a position to allow Barkley to score another TD and punch in a two-point conversion to make it a three-point lead they wouldn't look back from.

Sunday may have been brutally annoying, Eagles fans, but the star power stepped up with Brown injured and the pass-rush now has a pulse (more on that soon!). Take solace in being 2-1 instead of 1-2 and spiraling.

Some other observations from the afternoon...

• The play that will be under the biggest microscope this week is this fourth down call for the Eagles at the end of the first half:

Not fooled.

📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/PwgFPAliTa
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) September 22, 2024

What's the move even if the Eagles convert the Tush Push variant handoff to Barkley in a 3-0 game? They'd use their final timeout and there would be about 10 seconds remaining and they wouldn't be inside the 10. You could take a shot to the end zone, and the end zone alone, on the next play, provided you don't use the remainder of the clock, and then kick a field goal. That true end zone shot isn't even guaranteed! They got the ball to begin the second half as well, an important variable. A theoretical 10-point swing was on the table.

Last week, I was fine with Sirianni's decision to go with it on fourth in the red zone in the first quarter even with a bad result. The decision to kick late in the fourth quarter was wrong to me. This wasn't a matter of aggressiveness or "analytics," a word that has lost all meaning in sports in the 21st century. It was simple clock mismanagement. As for what the "numbers" said, kicking would've actually been the decision that increased the Eagles' win probability:

The @NextGenStats model STRONGLY recommended a field goal attempt for the Eagles there on 4th down. +8.1% win probability to kick instead of going.
— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) September 22, 2024

A reminder that "analytics" doesn't automatically mean going for it on fourth down. Sirianni appears to have his own chart he relies upon, but there is no clear relying on advanced statistics for him. You're either in or you're out. Playing the percentages all the time means that, generally, things will even out in the end in spite of the that miscues arise assuming the talent is there and it certainly is for the Eagles. When there's no clear-cut rhyme or reason as to whether he's playing those percentages, the advantages they're supposed to bring get minimized.

• Despite the team's lengthy blunders, it's obviously very hard to win when Brown, DeVonta Smith, Mekhi Becton and Lane Johnson all miss major time. The Eagles did just that.

• Jalen Hurts' decision-making still leaves much to be desired to say the least with a head-scratching end zone interception that robbed the team of some early points, but, hey, the guy did the inverse of what he did this past Monday. He led a game-winning touchdown drive including that huge connection with Goedert above. Things ended on a good note at least.

• Can we chalk this up as the first time Jalen Carter truly wrecked a game in his young career? He had multiple batted passes, a huge QB hit on Derek Carr in the fourth quarter and garnered double-team after double-team. I was very much not alone in crushing the pass-rush this past week and it was well deserved for this defensive line after the first two games, but credit to both the players and Vic Fangio altering his scheme with some 6-1 fronts for changing gears on the Eagles' defensive machine.

• Fangio warrants his own mention, too. New Orleans scored 91 points combined in their first two games! He allowed 12 on the road while the offense sputtered with big-time mistakes and the head coaching of it all looming large.

• Speaking off pass-rushers stepping up, Jordan Davis had his first full sack since Week 2 of the 2023 season against the Saints:

This angle on the JD sack 🤌 pic.twitter.com/o8GhM1B7hu
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 22, 2024

That Georgia duo is doing it again in September, as they did last year. They need to do it in December and January, too.

• Kenny Gainwell in pass pro on third and long is something the offensive scheme should avoid going forward.

• No flag on the dirty-as-anything hit on Smith in the fourth quarter?

• Bryce Huff still isn't enough.

• Take the option and plays that call for Jalen Hurts to run laterally out of the playbook.

• After a strong training camp this summer, no Eagles defensive lineman has a more consistent motor during the regular season than Thomas Booker. He's taken true nose tackle reps away from Jordan Davis. A 2022 fifth-round pick out of Stanford originally for the Texans, Booker is relentless.

• 36-year-old Brandon Graham had the big hit on Derek Carr that forced the game-sealing interception from Reed Blankenship: