EAGLES OFFENSE FINDS ITS WINGS IN WIN OVER VIKINGS
- Al Thompson
- 2 minutes ago
- 7 min read
MINNEAPOLIS: At the 13:35 mark of the second quarter of the Philadelphia Eagles match-up against its NFC rival, the Minnesota Vikings, Eagles edge rusher Jaylx Hunt stepped in front of a Carson Wentz pass meant for Justin Jefferson at the Vikings 42 yard line for a pick six that gave the Birds a 14-3 lead.
The Birds would go one to post a28-22 win and improve to 5-2 on the season.
There wasn't a Vikings player in the same zip code of Hunt from the 30-yard line on as he raced the end zone.
I asked Hunt if while he was running free to the end zone, if he had any flashes of Adonai Mitchell of the Indianapolis Colts and Emari Demercado of the Arizona Cardinals dropping the ball before entering the end zone resulting in a touchback.
In the case of Demercado, his brain fart helped his team lose that day.
“Letters and logos,” Hunt snapped back, an apparent 'yes' to my question. “I don't want people making fun of me for the rest of my life.”
A few minutes later, at his locker, linebacker Nakobe Dean, who saw his first action on defense since he tore patellar tendon in his knee during last year's playoff run, was asked about players getting too excited during a touchdown run.
“Letters and logos,” said Dean right away. “Every two weeks, Nick Sirianni will show a video of a player dropping a ball before he gets into the end zone, so we don't forget.”
In a piece for NFL.com, quarterback Jalen Hurts said he respects Sirianni for his constant reminder to his players about being good at things that don't require talent.
"Run through the letters and the logos so I'm not dropping the ball before I run to the endzone," was one part of Hurts' recollection of his coach's message.
The Eagles got their fundamentals right for most of this day. The Birds did get hit with eight penalties for 64 yards, but the back breaking mistakes didn't happen.
Hurts completed 19 of 23 passes for 326 yards and three touchdown passes including a highlight reel 79-yard bomb to DeVonta Smith who finished with nine receptions for 183 yards.
When asked about his big day, Hurts deferred praise.
“You don't have a game like that without the guys around you,” Hurts said at his post game press conference. “I give a lot of credit to them. I give a credit to the collective of everyone hanging in there, enduring the game. It's team football in the end. That's a really good team and a really good defense. I'm happy to get out of here with a win.”
Vikings won the toss and deferred. The Eagle ran as fearless a first drive that included going for it on fourth down twice.
The first “Tush Push” on the Eagles 45-yard line resulted in a first down. The second quarterback sneak was thwarted by an off-sides penalty – no doubt caused an extraordinarily loud stadium-that made it fourth and four from the Vikings 37.
Hurts hit A.J. Brown, who lost his defender five yards into the route, with a 37-yard touchdown pass to go up 7-0.
Jihaad Campbell, who finished with three solo tackles, has played in front of monstrous SEC crowds, said of the indoor U.S. Bank Stadium “It wasn't much different, but it was loud.”
Landon Dickerson, who said he was still hurting, ““It felt terrible today, but it is what it is,” talked about the opening drive and how the team reflected on its recent level of play. He was asked if the fearlessness was intentional.
“I think that's our mindset going into every game,” Dickerson said. “We've had some time to reflect after the past couple weeks...we just want to go our there and execute...whatever play was called, we want to make it good.”
Cam Jurgens left the game in the second quarter with a knee injury. He was replaced by veteran backup Brett Toth, who played well in the second half. Toth replaced Dickerson over the last two games at left
“Now it was time to play center,” Toth said at his locker after the game.
DEFENSE GETS INTO THE ACTHunt made it 14-3 early in the second quarter. Dean said Hunt missed an opportunity for an interception against the Giants.
“The week for that, he kind of missed one,” Dean said. “Nick Sirianni put him in a catch practice we have every Friday. You can see it paid off for him. He's gonna gonna be in there every Friday from now on”
Jalen Carter was credited with two quarterback hits, both played a part in both of Wentz' interceptions.
“I didn't see what routes they ran, I just seen when Wentz hit his backfoot, [Carter] had already hit him. He definitely had a fire rush there. He had a good game.”
Eagles fans who were there in serious numbers got real loud after the Andrew Mukuba's interception. They let out an E-A-G-L-E-S chant, it was impressive.
Vikings mistakes including intentional grounding, holding and fumble cost the Vikings touchdown opportunities. Will Reichard booted five field goal. Three of those drives stalled because of mistakes.
Wentz caused a stir online with his comment, “I gotta not throw the ball to the other team. That would be great.” Vikings fans didn't like what they perceived as dark humor after the loss.
Wentz, who helped the Eagles get the No. 1 seed in 2017/18 playoffs before getting hurt, a performance not forgotten by the Eagles organization and most Eagles fans was 26 of 42 for 313 yards, no TD passes and two interception. He was sacked twice.
Dean said the defense was much more loose that the first six games of the season.
“We're getting' there, we're getting it back a little bit,” Dean said at his locker after the game. “We had a little bit more fun on the field and on the sideline. It wasn't so tight out there.”
Jake Elliott's missed 42-yard field could have been huge with 14:15 left in the fourth and the Eagles only leading by five. But is was quickly forgotten after the game.
EAGLES PILE UP RECORDS FOR RECEIVING – RUSHING GAME STILL STALLED
According to stats provided by the Eagles, Hurts completed 19-of-23 (82.6 percent) attempts for 326 yards (career-high 14.2 avg.), 3 Tds, all longer than 25 yards, 0 INTs and a perfect 158.3 passer rating. Hurts is the third player in Eagles history to post a perfect passer rating, joining Nick Foles (11/3/13 at Oakland) and Donovan McNabb (9/23/07 vs. Detroit). Hurts logged his most passing yards since 12/4/22 vs. Tennessee (380).
DeVonta Smith (career-high 183 yards with 1 TD on 9 receptions) and A.J. Brown (season-high 121 yards with 2 TDs on 4 receptions) combined for 304 yards and 3 TDs on 13 catches today.
It was the first time both receivers had 100-plus yards in the same game since 12/15/24 vs. Pittsburgh.
Smith said teams are stacking the line to stop the Eagles from running the ball – mostly Saquan Barkley and Hurts.
The Eagle recorded an awful 45 yards on the ground on 23 carries (2.0 average). Smith said today's air attack could change that.
”I think it's only a matter of time,” Smith said at his locker after the game. “Today we showed some things, play action, things like that...things that we don't normally do. Now they they can pay if they sell out to stop the run. We'll take it week-by-week and build on it.”
Saquon Barkley was held to 44 yards on 18 carries. His total was hurt by some negative yardage runs. He talked about it.
"Give credit to those guys over there," Barkley said at his locker after the game. "I've got to do a better job of not taking negative run.
" I keep saying that - sounds like a broken record, but it's what I've got to do. But at the end of the day, we won the football game. It feels good to win the game."
INJURIES
Other players who left the game with injuries were edge rusher Azeez Ojulari and linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
All were out of the game with injuries, at first their return was questionable, now they are all ruled out.
Starting corner Adoree' Jackson just left the field with an injury with 5:53 left in the third.
MORE DICKESON
Brown finished with four receptions for 121 yards and two touchdowns. He caught an arching 45-yard bomb from Hurts that ended up at the Vikings eleven-yard line that effectively ended the game.
Most of the offensive lineman will tell you they don't get to see the touchdowns because they are blocking for the quarterback.
Dickerson walked back that notion, then seemed to walk back this comment.
“I don't see the ones when we run the ball on touchdowns, I think I might have been misquoted,” Dickerson said with a smile at his locker after the game. “Hurts made some really nice throws, the one to Smitty was awesome to see. He his A.J. Early on which was great. Yeah, execution of plays that were called.”
The play to Brown that ended the game, Dickerson said he did not see, but looked forward to seeing on film. The 6-foot-6, 332-pounder said there was a reason for missing the play.
“I don't really see that,” Dickerson said, setting up a wisecrack. “I'll see it on film. Usually, there's a really big guy trying to go hit him in front of me, I try not to just turn around and look at him and see the ball. That wouldn't go very well.” *
It was all smiles in the Eagles locker room after the win.
These Birds are starting to look like they mean business. *
Email Al Thompson at al.thompson@footballstories.com
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