Nolan Smith spoke to reporters before Eagles practice on Thursday and discussed his improved production over the past two weeks.
Looking for greatness from Jalen Hurts, an NFL record the Eagles don't want and a scary Eagles-Bengals matchup.
That's a small sample of what's in store for you in this weekend's edition of Roob's 10 Random Eagles Observations.
1. The Eagles beat the Packers despite three Jalen Hurts turnovers. They beat the Saints despite not scoring a point until the fourth quarter. They beat the Browns with their defense and beat the Giants with defense and lots of Saquon. Hurts has played well at times this year and poorly at times. Most of this year, he's been just OK. And one thing he hasn’t done is carry the Eagles to a win over a good team. And elite quarterbacks need to do that. We’ve seen some encouraging signs from Hurts lately. Three straight games without an interception, two straight without a turnover, some nice deep balls late in games when the Eagles really needed them. The next step is for Hurts to make big-time plays to win a game when the running game isn’t operating at peak efficiency, the defense isn’t shutting down a 2nd-rate offense and the Eagles desperately need Hurts to be great. The last time we probably saw that was the first Dallas game last year, when he completed 74 percent of his passes, ran for a touchdown, threw TDs to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in a big third quarter and beat Dak Prescott for the first and only time so far. That was almost a year ago. You never know how games are going to go, but with Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Chase Brown, that Cincinnati offense is capable of scoring a lot of points, and there’s a very good chance the Eagles will need Hurts to be great Sunday to win the game. That’s the next step for Hurts. This isn’t the Browns or Giants. He’s got to be elite when the Eagles need him to be.
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2. The Eagles are approaching an NFL record that they don’t want. They’ve now gone 14 consecutive games without forcing multiple turnovers. That’s tied for the 2nd-longest streak in NFL history behind a 16-game streak by the Saints over the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Last time the Eagles had two takeaways in a game was Week 12 last year in their 21-17 win over the Chiefs at Arrowhead. Kevin Byard intercepted Patrick Mahomes in the second quarter, and in the fourth quarter Bradley Roby forced a fumble by Travis Kelce after a short pass that Nicholas Morrow recovered. The Eagles have gone 10 straight home games without forcing two turnovers, tied the 9th-longest streak ever. The Browns went 15 straight in 2016 and 2017.
3A. The fact that Ben VanSumeren – a 2nd-year undrafted linebacker – is becoming a viable fullback is a truly remarkable turn of events. VanSumeren played five snaps on offense against the Giants and had a legit block on linebacker Bobby Okereke that helped spring Saquon Barkley on his 41-yard run in the third quarter. Not only that, he sprinted down the field behind Barkley looking for more victims. VanSumeren has always been a plus athlete – he was a big-time baseball recruit as well as football out of high school – but the combination of speed, power and instincts he’s shown in his brief run as a fullback has been impressive, and it won’t be surprising if the Eagles use him more and more in that role. I still think VanSumeren will be a capable linebacker at some point, but right now the Eagles need him more on offense, and he’s just thrilled to get on the field any way possible.
3B. Interesting that the last four homegrown players the Eagles have used on both sides of the ball – Bruce Hector in 2018 and 2019, T.J. Edwards from 2019 through 2022 and current Eagles Reed Blankenship and VanSumeren – are all undrafted.
4. None of the Eagles’ last 23 sacks has resulted in a strip-sack turnover.
Philadelphia Eagles
5. The Eagles have run 82 plays on third down this year and 70 of them have been either Jalen Hurts pass plays or runs. Hurts has a 53.7 passer rating on third down – 22-for-41 for 288 yards with one TD and three interceptions plus eight sacks. He’s run 21 times for 12 first downs (and two kneel downs) and the Eagles have had two aborted snaps. That leaves only 10 rushing plays by running backs – Saquon Barkley is 6-for-22 on third down (3.7 yards per carry), Will Shipley 3-for-10 at the end of the game Sunday and Kenny Gainwell has a nine-yard run. So in actual competitive situations the Eagles have really only run the ball with a running back seven times all year on 82 third downs.
6. Nakobe Dean is the first linebacker drafted by the Eagles with two sacks in a game for the Eagles since Mychal Kendricks against the Bears in 2013. Before that? Matt McCoy in 2006, Jeremiah Trotter in 2000 and then William Thomas and Seth Joyner several times in the 1990s.
7. The Eagles have had more winning seasons since 1991 than before 1991. The franchise has had 43 winning seasons since its inception in 1933. They had 21 from 1933 through 1990 and 22 from 1991 through 2023.
8A. The Eagles may be scoreless in the first quarter this year, but they’re averaging 22.3 points after the first quarter, the 6th-highest scoring average in the league over the last three quarters. They trail the Lions (26.3), Commanders (25.9), Ravens (24.9), Bills (23.7) and Bears (23.0). If they scored at the same pace in the first quarter as the three others, they’d be averaging 29.7 points per game and rank 5thin the NFL in scoring behind the Ravens (31.1), Commanders (31.1), Lions (30.3) and Bucs (29.9).
8B. Conversely, the Eagles’ streak of eight consecutive scoreless first quarters going back to last year is 14th-longest in NFL history. The record is 13 straight scoreless first quarters by the 1976 and 1977 Falcons. The streak began in 1976 under Falcons head coach Marion Campbell, who was fired after the season and became Dick Vermeil’s defensive coordinator in 1977 and eventually replaced Vermeil as Eagles head coach in 1983. Only five teams have opened a season with a longer streak of scoreless first quarters. The Eagles’ six-game streak is longest since the 1991 Packers opened with a seven-game streak. The NFL record is shared by those 1976 and 1977 Falcons, who both opened the season with nine straight games without a 1st-quarter point.
8C. The Eagles have run 112 plays in the first quarter since they last scored on Jalen Hurts’ 12-yard touchdown pass to Julio Jones with 42 seconds left against the Cards at the Linc on New Year’s Eve.
9A. The Eagles have never had fewer than five players in a season with at least one interception. Through six games this year, only Reed Blankenship has an interception. In 1977, 2011 and 2012 the Eagles had only five players with an INT: Bill Bergey, Herm Edwards, Randy Logan, John Outlaw and John Sanders in 1977, Nate Allen, Nnamdi Asomugha, Jamar Chaney, Kurt Coleman and Asante Samuel in 2011 and Colt Anderson, Asomugha, Coleman, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and DeMeco Ryans in 2012. The most Eagles players with an INT in a season is 16 in 1944. Two NFL teams have gone through an entire NFL season with two players picking off a pass – the 2004 Cards and 2018 49ers (including former Eagle Jaquiski Tartt).
9B. Darius Slay’s current streak of 13 games without an interception is only two off the Eagles record for a starting cornerback of 15 straight games without an INT set by Sheldon Brown in 2008.
10. That matchup between Fred Johnson and Trey Hendrickson scares me. Big Fred is a high-effort guy and a decent run blocker, but he’s not an elite pass blocker. I wrote when Jordan Mailata first got hurt I would put Mekhi Becton out at left tackle and Tyler Steen at right guard to get your strongest five out there. But with Becton out with a concussion that’s not an option right now, so the Eagles have to go with Johnson at left tackle unless they decided to stick Jack Driscoll out there. Pro Football Focus pass block grades have Johnson at 36.2, which ranks him 76th out of 80 offensive tackles who’ve played at least 100 snaps this year. And Hendrickson is a machine. He had 17 ½ sacks last year and has seven already this year. Over the last five years, his 60 sacks are 3rd-most in the league, behind only T.J. Watt (66 ½) and Myles Garrett (62). Pretty good company. So far this year, Hendrickson has lined up on the defensive right side – which would be opposite Johnson – on 97 percent of his snaps. It’s not in Jeff Stoutland’s nature to give help to his tackles because of what it takes away from the offense, but in this case he has to give Johnson some help or Hendrickson could wreck the game. That’s also Jalen Hurts’ blind side and he spoke this week of how the pocket is different when Mailata isn’t out there, and he has to be hyper-aware of Hendrickson Sunday or it could be a tough day for the offense. Another reason it’ll be important for Hurts to get rid of the ball quickly and use the mid-range game and for the Eagles to have success running the ball.
