Section 215
Fansided

Eagles Armchair: Finally … The Excitement Has Come Back!

By Tucker Bagley

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The most comprehensive weekly look at the Philadelphia Eagles on the internet. 

WALK THROUGH

The Eagles dominated the Cowboys the entire second half with their uptempo attack. Dallas defenders were dropping like flies with injuries, some legitimate, some questionable. DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews were feasting on those exhausted Cowboys, so it is certainly interesting that the game ended up being won in a huddle.

“I got the call from Chip [Kelly], and I came to the huddle and said, ‘Hey, I’m coming to you for the win right here,'” Sam Bradford told reporters after the game. “And sure enough, he ran a great route and obviously the run after the catch was huge.”

“[Bradford said,] ‘Hey, get open, I’m coming to you,'” Matthews recalled during his postgame press conference. “It kind of felt like, ‘Oh, I’ve done this before. This is [just like] college, go up and make a play.’ He trusted me, he gave me a chance to catch and run, and it was game over.”

Matthews’s 41-yard, walk off catch capped off a big night for Kelly’s squad who were able to squeak out a 33-27, walk off win over the hated Dallas Cowboys.

But it wasn’t just your average win. It was a convincing win that pushed the Eagles back to .500, put the Cowboys on the brink of playoff elimination and represented a clear step in the right direction for key offensive cogs such as Bradford, Matthews and Murray.

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After being embarrassed by his former team in week two, Murray showed up in Dallas and acted like he owned the place, rushing for 83 yards and catching six passes for 78 yards, while Mathews continued to assert his dominance picking up 67 yards on 11 totes.

After the game, Murray insisted the opponent didn’t make his performance any more special, but there was a satisfaction in voice that hasn’t been present since joining the Eagles in March.

It is hard for an NFL team to compete from week one when they have as many new parts as the Eagles added in the off-season. Maybe last night’s game was just an aberration and the oft-confused, mistake-prone team that wore midnight green prior to last week’s bye will reappear. But at the very least, last night’s performance bought this team another week of holding out hope for the emergence of the Super Bowl contender fans were dreaming about in August.

It took eight games, but the Eagles finally look like they could be a good team. An exciting team. A team worth watching.

INJURY REPORT

Did Not Play – Nelson Agholor, Brandon Bair, Jason Peters, DeMeco Ryans

Riley Cooper – Cooper left the game early in the first quarter with a foot injury. His x-rays came back negative and he ended up returning before the end of the first half, but was not targeted once by Bradford.

Jordan Hicks – Hicks injured his pectoral muscle towards the end of the game while making a tackle on Cole Beasley. Hicks did not return, but said after the game that he felt all right. He is scheduled to have an MRI tomorrow and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is limited in practice early in the week.

Jerome Couplin – Couplin injured his shoulder in the first half and never returned. He has played exclusively on special teams this year and an extended absence probably wouldn’t have a major impact on the team.

MEASURABLES

6 – In all six of Kelly’s games against the Cowboys, the road team has come out on top. After getting embarrassed at the Linc in week two, the Eagles showed a lot of guts, beating a desperate rival at home in a game that was a must-win for both teams. Also, the winner of the second match up has won the division each of the last two years. So there’s something to hang your hat on.

12:27 – Despite not giving the Cowboys a possession in overtime, the Eagles still lost the time of possession battle by over 12 minutes. Unlike previous weeks, the Eagles defense’s inability to get off the field caused the huge gap in possession time, not a struggling offense. Think about this: the Eagles scored on four of their six drives that occurred after halftime and only the game-winning drive lasted more than four minutes.

92.37% – Since Sturgis’ poor Eagles debut in week four, he has connected on 12 of his 13 field goal attempts, the lone miss coming on a 50-yard attempt against the Panthers two weeks ago. What people fail to realize is that Sturgis was an All-American his senior year at Florida and a fifth-round pick in 2013. He has natural talent, but the mental side of kicking ruined his career with the Miami Dolphins. I’m not saying he should be given the kicking job in 2016 over Cody Parkey, but if Sturgis keeps making kicks, he should get a chance to battle Parkey for the position in training camp.

SECTION 140

Cole Beasley absolutely destroyed Malcolm Jenkins in man coverage last night and exposed a big flaw in the Eagles’ secondary: They have nobody who can match up against small, shifty receivers. Kelly’s infatuation with bigger, stronger players has been well-documented, but they may need a player like Brandon Boykin who can match guys like Beasley step-for-step on shallow crossing routes. It is good to have a prototype for each position group, but a little bit of diversity could help them be ready for any situation.

Considering he’s such a great leader, I’m sure he’ll be able to turn that right around.

Oops.

WEEKLY AWARDS

The Redemption Award – Jordan Matthews

It seemed fitting that the oft-criticized, second-year wide out got a chance to end the game with a walk-off touchdown. Matthews has been plagued by drops all season, but last night he made a pair of big plays at the end of the game, and finished the day with nine catches and 133 yards.

After the game, Bradford told the media Matthews dropped a ball in practice on Thursday and proceeded to play every rep with both the first-team and scout-team offenses for the rest of practice. Matthews spends more time on the JUGS machine after practice than any other player and has the type of dedication that coaches dream about.

Hopefully his struggles are behind him and he is ready to step into the spotlight for the remainder of the season, or at least until another wide receiver can step up and be a viable number two option.

The Single-Handedly Saving The Eagles 2015 Draft Class’s Value – Jordan Hicks

The Eagles made six selections in the 2015 NFL Draft. Last night, only one of them touched the field. Agholor struggled early in the year and has missed the past few weeks with a high ankle sprain. Eric Rowe played well against the New Orleans Saints, but has been unable to sniff the field since then. JaCorey Shepard is nursing a torn ACL, Randall Evans is toiling on the practice squad and Brian Mihalik is watching the games from his couch.

And then there’s Hicks. The guy who was considered a reach on draft night and played only one full year at Texas continued to haunt the Cowboys recording a pick-six in the second half. He now has two interceptions, a forced fumble, three fumble recoveries and a sack in just seven games. Oh, and he is responsible for Tony Romo missing the past six games.

Not bad for a rookie who was fourth on the depth chart heading into the regular season.

NO HUDDLE

  • For the first time in his Eagles career, Bradford won a game for the Eagles. He completed 25 of 36 passes for 295 yards and a touchdown, and consistently made good choices with the football. This was the Bradford that everyone saw in the preseason and maybe last night’s performance was just a matter of him starting to get a complete grasp on Kelly’s offense. If that is the case, his price tag will start to sky-rocket, but the Eagles need to see more than one good game before they can feel comfortable committing to the former Heisman-winner long-term.
  • Another breakout performer was Bradford’s college roommate, DeMarco Murray. Murray finished with 161 yards from scrimmage on 24 touches and picked up a rushing touchdown on fourth-and-goal. But where he really made his mark on the game was in overtime. Murray touched the ball on four of the nine plays the Eagles ran in extra time, picking up 46 yards. It was obvious he had a lot more in the tank than the Cowboys defense by the end of the game and took advantage of it.
  • After eight games, it appears Ryan Mathews is better at picking up the tougher yards, is a lot quicker and as a result can gain the edge much easier on outside runs. It would make a lot more sense if Kelly started going with Mathews at the beginning of drives to pick up the early yardage and let Murray come in later and abuse gassed defenders. But with what we’ve seen from Duce Staley‘s rotation, I doubt that ever becomes the norm.
  • The Eagles were able to get a decent push against the Cowboys’ vaunted offensive line, especially on passing downs, sacking Cassel four times. But by the end of the game, you could tell they were exhausted and Cassel had all day to throw the ball. Bill Davis does not like to send extra rushers, especially when nursing a three-point lead in the final two minutes of the game, but he will look at the tape and look to see if there are any opportunities to generate pressure later in games.
  • With Marcus Smith‘s continuing to be ineffective, it is hard for the Eagles to establish a rotation of outside linebackers to rush the edge. Expect a couple extra stunts or blitzers to get sent after quarterbacks late in future games, especially quarterbacks who are better than Matt Cassel. (Hint: there are a lot of those.)
  • However exciting the overtime ending was, it was probably unnecessary. A pair of questionable pass interference calls on Byron Maxwell helped push the Cowboys into field goal range. Both calls were questionable at best, although they proceeded an obvious holding call on Malcolm Jenkins.  Dez Bryant made a few big plays, but it was obvious his injured foot is still nagging him a bit. Maxwell was good in coverage all night, allowing just two completions on five targets and it is a shame that he will probably be remembered for a thirty-second sequence and not 59 minutes of good football.

WHO’S NEXT

The Eagles finally get to play a 1:00 on Sunday as they head home to play the Dolphins. Miami fired their head coach four weeks ago and after a pair of wins in Dan Campbell‘s first two games as interim head coach, the Dolphins have dropped their last two contests to the Patriots and Bills by an average score of 34.5-12.

Next: Five Big Picture Takeaways From Eagles' Win Over Cowboys

This game starts a stretch of three very winnable games for the Eagles before they travel to Foxborough to face-off against the undefeated Patriots. In a perfect world, Bradford will continue to improve and the defense will work out the kinks, and they will head into the final portion of the season playing their best football.

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