Eagles Are Looking More Like Their Former Selves

No one will deny that the Eagles' season has been rocky. Between the offensive struggles on the field and some drama off of it, they have been a bit of a mess despite the strong record. 3 straight losses sent them to their lowest point. But despite it all, the Eagles are NFC East Champions after beating the Commanders 29-18. More importantly, they might have figured out their identity on offense.

Yes, it is the Commanders, just like it was the Raiders last week. But even if you go back to the disastrous Chargers game where they turned it over 5 times, this offense has looked different the past 3 weeks.

Go back to that Chargers game. Yes they were a turnover machine, including the OT Interception that sealed the loss. But even on that game-ending drive, the Eagles were moving the ball better than they had all season. In fact, they moved the ball all game long. The Eagles outgained the Chargers 365 to 275. Saquon Barkley averaged 6.1 yards per carry and gained 100 yards on the ground for just the second time all season.

He made that 3 times this season vs the Commanders. And who knows, maybe there would have been a 4th if they hadn't pulled all the Starters vs the Raiders.

Today looked a bit more like what we saw last year from the Eagles offense. An efficient passing game and a run game that eventually woke up and took over after they had effectively worn the Commanders' offense out.

Jalen Hurts had a nightmare vs the Chargers. But in the two games since he has 5 TD passes and just 11 incompletions. The passing yards are low, but they might always be low for Jalen Hurts in his career. Hurts is not a volume QB, he is a QB who makes thr right plays when he has too. He is also running a bit more. Today in particular he picked up big yards at key moments with his legs.

You might say it is just the Raiders and the Commanders. And that is a fair counterpoint. I will point out this is a team that beat the Rams, beat the Packers, and beat the Lions. They also beat the Chiefs and Bucs but those wins look less impressive in retrospect.

Beating good teams has not been the issue for them. The question has been, why does this offense look nothing like they did last year? How is this team so bad at running the ball? Well, now they are running it well. Something they struggled to do even vs bad run defenses earlier in the season.

This team still has issues. Jake Elliott is a big one. An issue that has gotten bad enough that they may need to ditch the best kicker in franchise history. He missed two more FGs, and a 3rd one that didn't count, putting him down around 70% on FGs this season. It got so bad that they deliberately avoided kicking later in the game.

They also shot themselves in the foot a few times, something that they have made a habit of far too often. Bonheaded penalties, a fumble on the opening kickoff. These types of mistakes will hurt them vs better teams.

But what is important is that we are seeing glimmers of the hyper-efficient team that ran through the league last year. There is a reason for hope. They have a lot to prove after their struggles this season, but this team might just be worth getting behind, because they are starting to wake up, and if you look around the NFL, there are a lot of teams with issues.

The Eagles have earned the benefit of the doubt, and unlike most teams out there, they have proven they can step up when it counts.