December 04, 2022
The Philadelphia Eagles had their best win of the season on Sunday when they absolutely rolled the Tennessee Titans by the final score of 35-10. As always, win, lose, or tie, we had out 10 awards.
In Week 12 against the Packers, Hurts ran 17 times for 157 yards on 9.2 yards per carry. "Jalen Hurts is a good running back," a select gaggle of morons said, despite having witnessed Hurts have an excellent season throwing the ball in plenty of other games.
Against the Titans, Hurts completed 29 of 39 passes for 380 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, for a passer rating of 130.3.
The Eagles' offense, when it is clicking, looks unstoppable. If an opposing defense has a flaw, they can exploit it. There are star players littered throughout, but the engine that drives it is Hurts, an elite running quarterback who is rapidly become one of the leagues best passers as well.
He is a legitimate MVP candidate.
Brown played it cool all week leading up to this matchup, and acted like his performance was no big deal in his postgame press conference, but it clearly meant a lot for him to play well against the team that incomprehensibly traded him away in April.
On the day, Brown had eight catches on 10 targets for 119 yards and 2 TDs. Before either of his two TD catches, Brown made a great play on a near-TD, in which his toe barely landed out of bounds. The initial signal was a touchdown, but it was correctly overruled and called incomplete. On the very next play, Brown ran over a Titans cornerback and found himself all alone for a TD.
A.J. BROWN. 41-yard TD against his former team! @1kalwaysopen_
— NFL (@NFL) December 4, 2022
šŗ: #TENvsPHI on FOX
š±: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/3GGO7Ve30A pic.twitter.com/H2xLp1MbrX
Later, Brown made a spectacular catch on a deep ball down the left sideline for a TD.
A.J. BROWN IS HAVING A DAY. @1kalwaysopen_
— NFL (@NFL) December 4, 2022
šŗ: #TENvsPHI on FOX
š±: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/3GGO7Ve30A pic.twitter.com/8aTa7WWiAc
Brown is big, and physical, and fast, and all the obvious things that are plain to see, but there are also a lot of subtle things about his game that make him great. All throughout training camp, Brown displayed the ability to not show his hands until the last possible moment so as not to tip off the defensive back that the ball was arriving. The above catch was a classic example of that, and he was able to make the play with a Titan draped all over him.
āThatās a big boy catch," Hurts said. "Thatās a grown man catch.āĀ
Smith had a very productive game as well, catching five passes on eight targets for 102 yards and a TD on a day that Nick Sirianni's kid wore his jersey:
Nick Sirianni's son is rocking the DeVonta Smith jersey... with the Jalen Hurts jersey underneath š pic.twitter.com/ckpqF4xUSp
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) December 4, 2022
Huge for his brand. Smith created separation against the Titans' corners all day.
The Eagles' defensive line sacked Ryan Tannehill six times, and pressured him all day.Ā Josh Sweat had two sacks, while Javon Hargrave, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, and Haason Reddick had one each.
I thought the most impressive sack was one split by Sweat and Reddick, in which Sweat beat LT Dennis Daley with an inside move, while Reddick dusted RT Nicholas Petit-Frere around the edge, and they met violently at the quarterback
Reddick barely gets touched and Sweat with a nice inside step. Both get to Tannehill pic.twitter.com/M3PyYhaDnX
— Laurie Fitzpatrick (@LaurieFitzptrck) December 4, 2022
The Eagles are absolutely loaded with talent and depth on the interior of their line, but if they can get Sweat to consistently affect the quarterback from the edge like he did on Sunday, the Eagles' pass rush can be devastating.
Of course, the pass rush can only really get going if they do the dirty work first, by stopping the run. And stop the run they did, as star RB Derrick Henry carried 11 times for just 30 yards (2.7 yards per carry) and long rush of six yards.
Aside from an outstanding TD by Treylon Burks in the first quarter, the Titans' offense got nothing going at all.
A deserved nitpick after the Eagles' win over the Packers last week was the poor play of the special teams. On Sunday, they were good! Practice squad call up Christian Elliss set the tone on the coverage units with a big hit, while Nakobe Dean and Andre Chachere had a few good smacks of their own.Ā
Britain Covey even had six punt returns for 105 yards (17.5 yards per return!).
The Titans are widely regarded as one of the most physical teams in the NFL. Bullies, if you will. You'd never know it by watching the Eagles kick their asses up and down the field for four quarters on Sunday. The bullies got bullied.
For the second time this season (the Week 8 game against the Steelers being the other), the Eagles had a big enough lead that they were able to play their backups in the fourth quarter.Ā
This is probably where we should note that the Eagles got important contributions from a bunch of role players who don't often get the spotlight, like Jack Stoll (three catches for 41 yards), Dean (five tackles), Elliss (three tackles), Kenny Gainwell (three catches for 38 yards), and Grant Calcaterra (19-yard reception).Ā
The point I'm trying to drive home here is that there were a lot of flags in this game. The officials are going to have to wrap their elbows in ice.
The Eagles and Cowboys seem destined to play a meaningful game Week 16 on Christmas Eve. Maybe the Eagles will win that game, and maybe they'll lose it. But ultimately, it's going to take two Eagles losses the rest of the way for the Birds to relinquish their stranglehold over the Cowboys in the NFC East, or the Vikings for the 1 seed in the NFC.
The Cowboys aside, their biggest obstacle was probably the Titans. With that win in the books, the Eagles will get to sit back and watch the Cowboys try to hold serve against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football.
The Eagles' next obstacle is the 7-4-1 New York Giants, a team that gave Hurts fits a season ago. That'll be a huge game, like, you know, they all are at this point in the season when you're a Super Bowl contender.
On the "Super Bowl contender" front, the Eagles have been "Super Bowl contenders" all season. Their win over the Titans felt different. Extra. They felt special.
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