Those 10 hours on an American Airlines Boeing 777 would have seemed like 10 days if the Eagles had lost this one.
Thanks to three Saquon Barkley touchdowns, 119 yards and a long touchdown from A.J. Brown and some timely red-zone defense, the Eagles escaped Brazil with a 34-29 season-opening win over the Packers at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo.
Whew.
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They’re now 4-0 in season openers under Nick Sirianni.
Thanks no doubt to the brutal travel, lots of new pieces in new places and a slippery field unfit for NFL play, it was an ugly game at times. But the Eagles found a way and battled for 60 minutes in a way that they were unable to do when last year ended.
Here’s our 10 Instant Observations from a heart-stopper 5,000 miles from Philly.
1. There were so many points in this game where the Packers seemed to have all the momentum and looked like they were on the brink of putting the game away, and every single time the Eagles showed tremendous resilience and either got a clutch 3rd-down stop or a big offensive play to regain momentum. Those two early red-zone stops, Barkley’s circus TD catch, Reed Blankenship’s clutch interception, more terrific red-zone defense midway through the fourth quarter after the Packers drove down to the 8. This was one of those games where things just kept going wrong, but it’s such an encouraging sign that the Eagles still found a way to win when they committed three turnovers, were called for seven penalties, gave up touchdowns of 33 and 70 yards and didn’t get a sack from their edge rushers and fell behind four separate times. This is one of the better teams the Eagles will face this year. To get out of there with a win is truly impressive.
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2. Reed Blankenship doesn’t get enough credit for what a ball hawk he is. That 3rd-quarter interception off Jordan Love – a guy who rarely throws interceptions – was his fifth career interception in just 26 games – including 20 starts. He’s the first Eagles defensive back with five INTs in his first 26 career games since Ben Smith, whose fifth career INT ended Bernie Kosar’s NFL-record streak of passes without an interception at 308. Smith suffered a torn ACL later in that same game. The only other Eagle – at any position – with at least five INTs in his first 26 games was linebacker Jordan Hicks, who had seven. On a team that hasn’t gotten many takeaways in recent years, Blankenship is quite a playmaker. That interception came when the Eagles really needed a big play and led to Saquon Barkley’s third TD of the day, the go-ahead score late in the third quarter.
3. I’ve said all summer I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from Saquon Barkley. He’s really only had one elite season since 2019 and that was 2022. So you wondered about his career arc. But he also never had anywhere near this kind of talent around him with the Giants. In any case, man, I loved what I saw Friday night. That TD catch in the first quarter was the kind of play you just don’t see from a running back – the longest by an Eagles running back since Miles Sanders had a 32-yarder from Carson Wentz in 2019. Barkley showed tremendous body control to make the catch and terrific coordination getting both feet down in bounds. Barkley played 43 games with Daniel Jones and had two TD catches of at least 18 yards. He played one quarter with Jalen Hurts and had one. As a runner, he looked fast and explosive on that 11-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and on that 34-yard run right after Packers kicker Brayden Narveson missed a 43-yard field goal at the end of the third quarter. Equally impressive was his three straight runs after the Blankenship interception. From 2nd-and-2 on the Packers’ 16-yard-line, he ran, five yards to the 11, nine yards to the 2 and then two yards for the go-ahead touchdown. That’s what you want from your running back, those tough, grind-it-out, late-in-the-game yards, and he delivered. And I love the play calling. Go with the hot hand. Overall, Barkley was 24-for-109 rushing but take away the five-yard loss on his first carry when he slipped on the lame excuse for an NFL field, and he averaged 5.0 yards per carry. He's the first Eagles running back with a three-TD game since Boston Scott vs. the Giants (who else) in 2019) and the first with three TDs on opening day since Terrell Owens in 2004 – also in his first game as an Eagle. He looked like a star.
4. Was fun watching A.J. Brown battling Jaire Alexander, who’s a two-time Pro Bowl cornerback. There was an incomplete pass in the second quarter where Alexander got the better of Brown and as they got untangled on the ground Alexander was clearly trash talking to A.J., who pushed Alexander – just not enough to get a flag. Trash talking Brown, not a smart idea. Brown had a 1st-down catch a moment later and then beat Alexander on a spectacular 67-yard catch and run in the third quarter to temporarily give the Eagles a 24-19 lead. That was the 2nd-longest TD pass of Hurts’ career – he had an 81-yarder to DeSean Jackson in Dallas as a rookie in 2020. Brown finished with four catches for 108 yards
5. Jalen Hurts did some good things, threw for 278 yards, nice TDs to A.J. Brown and Saquon Barkley, made some really nice plays, especially on that last clinching drive. But, dang, he’s really got to stop throwing interceptions. Every quarterback is going to throw some. It’s going to happen. But both INTs Friday night were just pointless throws and way too closely resembled the forced INTs of last year, when he shared the NFL lead with 15 interceptions. Just throws into traffic with no chance of succeeding. The first one he just lofted up into a crowd of four Packers. The second one at the Packers’ 14 – with the Eagles needing a field goal for an eight-point lead – he tried to force to A.J. Brown in the end zone, where everything is condensed and guys don’t stay open very long. This is Year 5 for Hurts, and he’s now got 17 interceptions in 18 games since opening day last year after throwing just six in 2022. I get that it’s a new offense that he’s still learning, but this is just basic Quarterback 101 stuff. He’s got to be smarter with the football.
6. His 7-for-84 will probably go largely unnoticed, but I thought DeVonta Smith was huge Friday. He made so many big catches, including a 16-yarder on a 2nd-and-13 and 11-yarder on a 2nd-and-8 on the final clinching drive. He’s just so good and so smooth and so tough and so clutch and when you’re A.J. Brown’s teammate maybe you won’t get the attention you deserve, but Smith is a special player.
7. I really believe that the Eagles had already excised the demons of last year. They changed so much this offseason as far as personnel, coaches, schemes, and had such a positive training camp it really seemed like the unprecedented collapse was ancient history. Nobody talked it all summer. But these guys are human. The players – and coaches – who were here last year had to have last year at least somewhere in the back of their mind and for this team to respond to adversity the way they did and win this game after trailing four different times, for me, that is overwhelming evidence that the team that finished last year in such disarray is long gone. Lot of credit to Howie Roseman for making enough changes – changes from an 11-win playoff team – to change the character of this team so fundamentally. New team. New era.
8. The stats say the Eagles only had two sacks – both by Zach Baun, one on the play Jordan Love got hurt with five seconds left – but I thought they actually pressured pretty well much of the game, especially the inside guys. The numbers might not agree but it looked like Love had pressure in his face much of the game and had to rush a lot of throws. Jalen Carter didn’t get a sack but had some quality pressures and was doubled much of the game. He’s as advertised. Baun was a beast, with the two sacks, two QB hits, two hurries along with 15 tackles. Bottom line is the Eagles need more from their edge guys – Bryce Huff, Josh Sweat, Nolan Smith and Brandon Graham combined for no sacks and one hurry (by Sweat) and they’re going to have to be better.
9. It’s kind of weird to evaluate the defense because they allowed 414 yards, 29 points, 163 rushing yards, a couple long touchdowns, six plays of 25 yards or more ... but they actually played well at some key moments. They held the Packers to field goals on three red-zone possessions – down to the 13, 8 and 5 – and also a missed field goal on a drive down to the 25. And Blankenship’s INT was absolutely huge and a fantastic individual effort by the undrafted safety. They’ve got a lot of work to do. There were miscommunications, blown coverages, missed tackles. But there were so many big plays, big tackles, big pressures on key Packers snaps that really decided the game. Green Bay’s last five drives: Punt, interception, missed field goal, field goal, end of game. You’ve got to love how they came together so well late in the game with the game in the balance. Statistically, pretty ugly. In real life? A huge win.
10A. Reason No. 117 playing in Brazil on opening day is a bad idea: Maybe the long flight isn’t the only reason the game was sloppy, but there were eight flags in the first quarter – four on the Packers, two on the Eagles and two that offset. There’s always a little sloppiness on opening day, but eight penalties in the first quarter says a lot. Both teams were so far out of their comfort zone and it showed. In all there were 26 penalties called, including four that offset and four that were declined. I just don’t think that happens if this game is at Lambeau or the Linc.
10B. Reason No. 118 is that the field was a disaster. Somebody was slipping on just about every play and their were divots everywhere. Seemed as bad as Super Bowl LVII on that awful turf at State Farm Stadium. This game should never have been played in that stadium. Or in that country. Or in that hemisphere.
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