The Philadelphia Eagles are 5-0 after handling their business on the west coast against the Los Angeles Rams. As always, win, lose, or tie, we hand out 10 awards.
1) The 'Oh Hey, That Looked Familiar' Award 👀: Jalen Hurts, and the Eagles' offense
The Eagles only scored 23 points, but their offensive attack looked a lot like it did in 2022. They racked up 454 yards, and hit on a bunch of explosive plays in the passing game. Hurts was 25 of 38 for 303 yards, a TD, and an INT. He also ran 15 times for 72 yards and a TD along the way.
In recent games, when a defender was in the same zip code as Hurts, he was sliding, which makes sense given his importance to the team and the $50 million/year contract he signed. On Sunday, there was no sliding.
2) The 'He's On Fire' Award 🔥: A.J. Brown
A.J. Brown's last three games:
• At Buccaneers: 9 catches, 131 yards
• Commanders: 9 catches, 175 yards, 2 TDs
• At Rams: 6 catches, 125 yards
His one-handed grab while in full sprint:
Special player.
3) The 'Momentum Swing' Award 📈: The Eagles' drive at the end of the first half
With 32 second left at the end of the first half, after the Rams had just scored a go-ahead touchdown, the offense went to work.
- MORE EAGLES
- Eagles future headlines: 'Tush Push' forever and a troubling secondary
- Final observations: Eagles 23, Rams 14
- Eagles game ball: Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown rip all momentum away from the Rams
• Hurts scramble for 9, out of bounds.
• Hurts incomplete pass to DeVonta Smith.
• Hurts 38-yard pass to Brown, with 14 yards (half the distance to the goal) tacked on for a horse collar tackle (shown above).
• Derion Kendrick pass interference on Brown in the end zone, Eagles ball at the 1.
• "Brotherly Shove" TD.
32 seconds, 75 yards, 7 points. Killer drive.
4) The 'No One Likes It, They Don't Care' Award 🍑👐: The Brotherly Shove
Early this morning, water carrier Adam Schefter tweeted that "the NFL and the NFLPA plan to study all the injury data related to the [Brotherly Shove] this offseason," in the wake of two Giants players being injured on their crappy version of it last Monday night.
On that Giants play, TE Daniel Bellinger wasn't really even part of the play, and he certainly wasn't being pushed on it. Rookie center John Michael Schmitz injured his shoulder, but he is expected to return to the lineup soon. (He was not placed on injured reserve or anything like that.)
To correct Schefter's tweet, it is most certainly not "customary" for the NFL to thoroughly investigate injury data on a play the first time a guy gets a minor injury while running it. G. T. F. O. H. Call it what it is. One team is great at it, and the rest of the NFL doesn't want to defend it so they're trying to legislate it out of the game.
Anyway, the Eagles converted four Brotherly Shoves on Sunday. They did fail on two of them in garbage time, but whatever.
5) The 'Young Beast' Award 👹: Jalen Carter
Carter had two sacks, bringing his total on the season to 3.5. I mean, dude:
6) The 'Closer' Award 🙅♂️: Haason Reddick
Reddick made a string of huge plays late in the game against the Commanders Week 4, and he saved his best for the Rams late in the game once again in Week 5. He had back-to-back sacks to effectively put an end to the game.
On the play shown above, backup Warren McClendon entered the game for staring RT Rob Havenstein. Reddick was ready with a plan.
"We watch film on everybody," Reddick said. "We watch everybody, whether they're starters, backups, even third stringers, we watch film on everybody... I knew he struggled a little bit around the edge, and they tried to help him with the running back. They brought the running back up to try to chip me. But I seen that, and I just figured that if I could get the running back off of me I could use my speed."7) The 'Breakout Game' Award 💫: Dallas Goedert
Goedert's first four games: 13 catches, 88 yards, 0 TD.
Goedert's game on Sunday: 8 catches, 117 yards, 1 TD.
Goedert is a great player, and it was only a matter of time before he had a big game. He did get trucked by D'Andre Swift, though.
8) The 'Tale of Two Halves' Award 📖: The Eagles' pass defense
In the first half, the Eagles couldn't cover Cooper Kupp, and the Rams' passing offense shredded the Eagles' secondary. In the second half, the Eagles' defense adjusted, and the Rams' passing offense... (fart noise).
9) The 'Nitpick' Award 😟: The Eagles' red zone offense
The Eagles were 2 for 6 on Sunday in the red zone. They were 1 for 2 against the Commanders, and 1 for 5 against the Buccaneers. That's 4 for 13 in their last three games. "Execution," said Jalen Hurts, when asked why the Eagles were having difficulty in close.
The bet here is that the Eagles will get that fixed. They have an elite offensive line. They have contested catch heroes at receiver. They have a dual threat quarterback. They should dominate in the red zone. They're just not right now, and they're winning anyway.
10) The 'Eagles Win Either Way' Award 🤷♂️: The Cowboys-49ers game on Sunday Night Football
Barring a tie between the Cowboys and 49ers on Sunday Night Football (it's 21-7 Niners in the second quarter as of this writing), the Eagles will either be the lone undefeated team in the NFL or they’ll have a two-game lead in the NFC East. Both are pretty good options!
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