After Monday night’s ugly 27-7 rout of the Giants, they matched the Giants with a 3-3 record and became the third team in the division to jump into first place through six games.
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Philadelphia got the job done despite quarterback Sam Bradford having his worst game of an awful season (24-of-38 passing, 280 yards, TD, 3 INTs, 61.3 rating). That’s because their swarming defense did the suffocating of counterpart Eli Manning, and some scoring, too. For the second straight week, they also relied on running back DeMarco Murray to play closer.
It’s time to move past the fact that Bradford will be anything more than a rarely brilliant, mostly frustrating passer in Chip Kelly’s offense. The Eagles’ identity, like many middling NFL teams with an unreliable QB and inconsistent receivers, has been forced to be forged into ground and pound.
As with those kind of teams, the results have been very mixed. They dominated the Jets, Saints and Giants in their three victories. They struggled to put it all together against the Falcons, Cowboys and Redskins in their three losses.
The Eagles appear to be back on track, with a two-game winning streak to make up for their 0-2 start. That’s before they face the 5-0 Panthers next Sunday night and get a reminder of how good they aren’t.
The Eagles’ newfound winning formula will keep succeeding against teams around or below them. But against a physical, loaded opponent such as Carolina, both with formidable defense that can stop their rushing offense and a QB who’s thoroughly outplaying Bradford, they are built to wilt.
When the Eagles have had their lows offensively, through most of the Giants game, they have been smacked around. Their goal of fast and finesse becomes slow and stalled.
There’s evidence of that with Kelly’s teams over his first two seasons. Their initial 2013 playoff trip ended quickly when the Saints took it to them up front and on the second level. During last season’s 10-6 campaign, it happened in games against the Cardinals, Packers, Seahawks and Cowboys after this time last year. Those losses ensured a 3-0 start would not come with a playoff payoff.
In terms of the NFC East, it’s still weak enough for the Eagles to exploit. Their primary competition, Dallas, even with the head-to-head win, is too injury-riddled to rediscover its stride in time without Tony Romo. Washington just isn’t that good and its wheels will fall off more with Kirk Cousins.
The Giants can be good and would have been the East favorites had they won in Philadelphia. But now they have to wait until Week 17 to get another shot at the Eagles, and their big meltdown on Monday re-raised questions about their intestinal fortitude.
In the meantime, beyond the Panthers, the Eagles face only one more team they absolutely cannot beat — the Patriots in New England to open December play. The rest of the games are winnable if they just can trust a lot more in their defense and Murray — and a lot less in Bradford.
They’re just headed to being the NFC division winners with the worst record and drawing a bad immediate matchup against a better, nastier team. If they didn’t get it done with Nick Foles and Mark Sanchez, they shouldn’t think they can go farther with Bradford playing this way.
So those who thought Philadelphia did enough with its non-QB splashy offseason moves to win the East can still feel confident. Those who thought they would add up to a Super Bowl will see a familiar ending that falls well short.