Photo: Eagles image by Casey Murphy on Unsplash
Eagles football is back and off to a great start. The Eagles played Friday night, Sept. 6, against the Green Bay Packers in São Paulo, Brazil, the first time the NFL has ever played a game in Brazil.
Eagles fans waited an almost eight-month period without football and were excited for the season to start, but the game didn’t exactly start out pretty for the Eagles. Their first play of the game was a toss to newly-acquired running back Saquon Barkley. Barkley caught the ball and immediately fell, losing five yards: not exactly an ideal start. A couple of plays later, Jalen Hurts threw a terrible ball which was picked off by Xavier McKinney, who in the past has had success against Hurts. On the next drive, a miscommunication from Cam Jurgens, the new center taking over for the recently retired Jason Kelce, occurred when he snapped the ball and Hurts fumbled it, which turned into a turnover. Two turnovers on the first two drives was not an ideal start.
In the second quarter, it became a bloodbath. Hurts found Barkley on a wheel route in which Barkley made an incredible 19-yard touchdown catch which gave the Eagles their first score of the game going up 7–6. The Packers answered back immediately with Jayden Reed’s 33-yard rushing touchdown to take the lead, 12–7. The Eagles were not phased, marching right down the field for another Barkley touchdown — this time a rushing touchdown. As I said, it was a bloodbath. The Packers immediately responded with Jordan Love throwing a 70-yard touchdown pass to Reed to again take the lead 19–14. The Eagles would score again, but just a field goal to make it a 19–17 game at half, with them getting the ball at halftime.
The Eagles came out of halftime with a 2-point deficit, and how would they respond? Oh, Hurts threw a 67-yard touchdown pass to AJ Brown, 51 seconds into the third quarter to take a 24–19 lead — talk about a good start after halftime. The Packers would again go downfield and score with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Christian Watson to take the lead 26-24. On the next Packers drive, Reed Blankenship would make an amazing diving interception, giving the Eagles great field position, in which Barkley would score his touchdown of the day to give the Eagles a 31–26 lead.
After a missed field goal by the Packers, it looked like the Eagles were about to put an end to the game with another touchdown, but Hurts threw a terrible cross body pass to Brown, which was intercepted by Jaire Alexander in the endzone. The Packers would go downfield again, but the Eagles defense remained strong and held them to a field goal, holding a 31–29 lead with 7:52 left in the game. The Eagles then went on their drive of the night by stalling and slowly going down the field in seven minutes and 20 seconds, kicking a field goal and extending their lead to 34–29 with only 30 seconds left. This was truly a perfect drive and amazing time management by the Eagles. The Packers would get near the 50-yard line for a hail mary attempt by Malik Willis, since Love left the play before limping off to the sideline, only for Zack Baun to make the game-winning sack, with the Eagles beating the Packers 34-29.
The Eagles were victorious, and there were several things they did well in this game, and some they did badly as well. To start with the good: Saquon Barkley. His Eagles debut made his off-season signing look like a bargain. Barkley had 132 yards and three touchdowns. He looked incredible in this game. Another bright spot was the entire defense. After back-to-back turnovers, the defense held the Packers to two field goals which could have been two touchdowns. Only scoring six points off two turnovers on your side of the field is incredible, and intercepting Love, which does not happen often, is an incredible win and boost for this defense.
Now for the bad: first off, Hurts’ decision-making. This may be harsh, but the two interceptions by Hurts were rough. His first interception was thrown basically into triple coverage and was easily picked off. His next was in the redzone, across his body and easily picked off again. Hurts must be smarter with the football; in the future these can easily be game-losing plays, and he must be better than that. Another ugly spot was not even on the Eagles — it was the field itself. It looked like the players were playing on a slippery slope out there. They were nonstop falling and playing less effectively because of that field. The NFL is lucky nobody was seriously injured because of the terrible field conditions.
Overall, the Eagles started the season with a bang and look to be 2–0 next week as they face off against the 0–1 Atlanta Falcons.
Jackson Evans is a third-year Communications major with a minor in Journalism. je1007049@wcupa.edu