Another week down and the Philadelphia Eagles are 2-0! On top of being 2-0 they have now beaten Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in three straight games including the Super Bowl.
It was a hard fought, grind it out game that the Eagles found a way to win. There were plenty of positives to take away from this game, BUT there are still plenty of negatives as well. Let’s start with the good things…
The Defense:
After a rough first half of the game against the Dallas Cowboys the Eagles defense locked in during the 2nd half. Since the 2nd half of the Dallas game the defense has looked much better and that continued yesterday.
Yes, the Chiefs are shorthanded on the offensive side of the ball but Patrick Mahomes is still their QB. The Eagles were able to hold Mahomes and the Chiefs offense in check for the entire game.
You could tell how much better the defensive line is when Jalen Carter isn’t sitting out for spitting on someone. They were able to get pressure on Mahomes and sacked him a few times. They also held their run game in check.
Andrew Makuba was the standout for me in this game. This dude absolutely was on fire yesterday and was able to get his first career NFL interception. We might be looking at another steal by Howie Roseman.
One of the surprising things we saw was the amount of blitzing the defense did. Vic Fangio changed things up for this game and brought the heat to Mahomes. It was a nice change to see with the defense and it alter the Chiefs gameplan. They’ve seen this Eagles defense a lot over the last few seasons and they rarely have seen them blitz. It worked and the defense seems to be coming into their own early on in the season after a tough first half of game one.
The Offense:
First things first Jalen Hurts did have 100 yards so Chris Jones is an idiot. That being said, the offense still doesn’t look the way it should with all the weapons the Eagles have.
AJ Brown did see more targets, and we did have a nice Devonta Smith bomb that setup a touchdown. Again, new offensive coordinator so it’s not going to look perfect right away but it needs to be better. The important thing is that they won the game but the offense needs to start looking more in sync.
One of the problems it seems is the offensive line when it comes to the pass protection. The Oline hasn’t looked like they usually do at times when it comes to protecting Hurts.
Look, I’m not a huge ESP guy but he does bring up a good point here. The protection seems to be more of the issue rather than the play call and this is just one example. It’s still early obviously so there is plenty of time to get this right but it is a little concerning to start the season. At the same time we have also seen them dominate when it comes to the run game and the Tush Push has been working like a charm.
Special Teams:
Going to keep this part short… Jake Elliott is back.
Also, the Eagles need a better kick returner. I know they just traded for Tank Bigsby and they are trying him out back there but John Metchie was the guy taking the returns and honestly didn’t look great.
Overall:
At the end of the day the Philadelphia Eagles are 2-0 and sitting pretty at the top of the NFC East. While it hasn’t been the most impressive two games to start the season, the important thing is they are finding ways to win.
These type of grind it out gritty wins are going to be so beneficial come the end of the year and in the playoffs. You need experience in close games and these first two weeks have been so valuable to the Eagles already. Patience everyone, the offense is going to come together and start exploding but it’s going to take some time. The Eagles are 2-0 and that is all that matters.
Next up for the Birds is a rematch of the NFC divisional game against the Los Angeles Rams at the Linc.
-Walsh
The Philly Phan Cave 
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