Don’t give up on this team. Don’t give up on this team. Don’t go to bed early just because they lose by 10 points against a team that never loses at home and has a Hall of Fame coach and quarterback.
The Eagles just don’t give up. sometime.
A national television audience watched the Eagles rally from a 10-point deficit late in the third quarter to beat the mighty Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
The 21-17 win didn’t avenge the Super Bowl loss, but it certainly cemented the Eagles as the best team in the NFL and a legitimate Super Bowl contender once again.
They couldn’t do anything right. Then they could do no wrong. And now they are 9-1 and 2-0 in the six game killer streak that we all know will define their season.
Bring the bills. Bring on the 49ers. Bring on the Cowboys. Bring them all. The Eagles won’t go away.
1. This win means so much in so many ways. The most obvious way is that it drives the Eagles to 9-1 on a weekend when all of their legitimate NFC contenders — the Cowboys, 49ers and Lions — are winning. And that means the Eagles are 2-0 in the six-game killer streak we all circled on the calendar when the schedule came out in April. But more than anything, it’s a statement that the Eagles won’t give up playing outside in the loudest outdoor stadium in the NFL against a team that has been to three of the last four Super Bowls and is coached and quarterbacked by a Hall of Famer and deposed Eagles in the Super Bowl just nine months ago. A lot was tipped against the Eagles on Monday night in Arrowhead, and the Eagles looked each other in the eye and earned a historic win. It’s two games in a row now that the Eagles have found a way to beat an elite team that has been giving them nightmares lately. They hadn’t beaten Dak Prescott since 2019 and they hadn’t beaten the Chiefs since 2009. It’s one thing to be 9-1, it’s another to be 9-1 with back-to-back wins over teams that were a combined 13-4. The Bills, the 49ers, the Cowboys again and the Seahawks are up next, so things don’t get any easier, but what many of us have believed for several weeks — that the Eagles are the best team in the NFL — has been proven. It doesn’t guarantee anything, but if you can beat the Cowboys and the Chiefs, you can beat anybody, and that’s a good place to be.
2. This win really highlighted what the Eagles do best, not throw the ball or stop the run or pressure the quarterback or cover wide receivers. Wins. They’ve done it all year and they’ve done it again. No matter how ugly the game gets, no matter how bad they play early on, no matter what goes wrong, no matter how it looks, this team never stops fighting and never stops fighting and there’s a very deep belief in this locker room that coming from Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts and allowing them to win games they probably have no business winning. They did it again Monday night in Kansas City against a Chiefs team that was 62-6 under Andy Reid when leading by 10 or more points at halftime and 65-8 under Reid when leading in the fourth quarter. I honestly have no idea how they did it. A few Chiefs turnovers in the final minutes didn’t hurt. But all this was in the nature of the eagles. The one thing that never lets them down.
3. Two weeks after holding the Cowboys to six points in the second half, this much-maligned defense shuts down the Chiefs in the second half on Monday night. Sean Desai knows what he’s doing. The Cowboys scored 17 before halftime, six after halftime. The Chiefs scored 17 before halftime, none after halftime. It’s against two of the most potent offenses in the NFL. To wipe out Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and the Chiefs in the second half in their own stadium is amazing. I know it’s not the old Chiefs offense, but it’s the 29th ranked pass defense in the NFL and they had a shutout against Mahomes in the 2nd half. Unreal. The Eagles got such a big boost from Bradley Roby, who played for the first time since the Jets game and was outstanding, and the other newcomer in the secondary, Kevin Bayard, was much, much better than in his first two games. Mahomes threw two TDs in the first half and threw 22 times for 99 yards after halftime. They held Travis Kelce to 44 yards, didn’t allow a pass longer than 17 yards and allowed just four passes on first downs after halftime. An incredible performance by the defense and in particular by the secondary that has come into its own this year.
4. This offensive line deserves so much credit for coming back from an almost unbelievably bad first half. The Chiefs recorded five sacks in the first half, including four within six plays in the second quarter. The Eagles had just 78 net yards before halftime and — get this — just 20 net passing yards. But when you’ve got Jeff Stoutland on your side, you’ve got it all. A few adjustments and after falling behind 17-7, the Eagles put together TD drives of 61 and 80 yards to take the lead and guess how many sacks they allowed on those two drives. This is true. None. Zip. Zero. zero. I mean the Chiefs were destroying the Eagles offensive front and it got so bad that for a while the Eagles just stopped throwing, especially on third down. They didn’t have an official 3rd down until midway through the fourth quarter, and by then the line had settled down and actually started to dominate the Chiefs. Soccer is a fun game. You can look so bad for so long, but as long as there’s time on the clock and you keep playing hard, strange things happen. After posting 78 total yards, 20 net passing yards and seven scores before halftime, the Eagles posted 160 total yards and 104 passing yards and 14 scores after halftime. Keep fighting. Keep grinding.
5. It was certainly encouraging to see D’Andre Swift look like D’Andre Swift since the first month of the season. Swift’s production had dropped from 108 yards per game and 5.8 yards per carry from Week 2 through Week 5 to 45 yards and 3.1 per carry over the last four games. But the Chiefs are the NFL’s 4th-worst defense against the run at 4.6 yards per carry, and on a cold, windy and rainy night, Swift took advantage with 12 carries for 76 yards — his best performance since Week 3 — and added 31 receiving yards. It certainly helped to have Cam Jurgens back and Jalen Hurts being healthier than before and showing the ability to run early. But Swift also looked more adept than in recent weeks at reading defenders and making cuts, and he ran with authority. He was 5-for-33 on the Eagles’ first-quarter touchdowns — nearly as many yards per game as he’s averaged since Week 6. The Eagles need to be able to run the ball better than they have if they want to and this was a great start.
6. A few special team performances that shouldn’t go unnoticed: With three minutes left and the Eagles up 21-17, Josh Jobe made a spectacular play in coverage, tackling Kadarius Toney for no gain at the 9-yard line. Toney killed the Eagles on punt returns — his three career longest punt returns came against the Eagles — but Jobe’s play forced the Chiefs to drive 91 yards for the game-winning touchdown, and they never got closer than 34. The biggest game of Job’s career. And how about punter Braden Mann putting together another huge game. After a slow start, he has been terrific of late since replacing Arryn Siposs. He averaged 47.7 on seven at-bats Monday night, and that was so tough because if you give Patrick Mahomes a short field, you’re just in trouble. And then what about Britain Covey? This little dude just keeps playing. Three returns for a 17.7 average in a game where field position was going to be huge. Great stuff from Michael Clay’s band.
7. On a day when AJ Brown caught just one pass for eight yards, DeVonta Smith came up huge. Smith caught six passes for 99 yards, including a 41-yarder down the right sideline to set up a touchdown with 6 1/2 minutes left. It’s easy for Smith to be overlooked while playing against the top three WRs in the league, but he just takes advantage of every opportunity he gets.
8. We’ve been talking all week about how the Eagles aren’t going to win without a few turnovers and without winning the turnover battle. And they got two turnovers in the red zone — Bradley Roby stripped Travis Kelce and Kevin Byard picked off Mahomes in the end zone — and without those turnovers from two of the newest Eagles, they won’t win this game. The Eagles have now won 22 straight games under Siriani when they are plus-1 or better in turnover rate. Takeaways have been an issue for the Eagles this year. They entered the weekend 31st in interceptions, 26th in sacks and 16th with a minus-2 turnover rate. If this team can actually start getting something to take home, forget it. Nobody beats them.
9. Jalen Hurts’ stats were ugly. His 64.6 passer rating is the 6th worst of his career. He only threw for 150 yards. Didn’t throw a touchdown pass. There was a fumble that he recovered and he threw an interception that probably wasn’t his fault. But Hurts has a truly rare ability to ignore any adversity he faces – mistakes, misses, penalties, injuries, double-digit deficits – and make big plays late in games. Nobody goes into Kansas City and comes back from 10 points down in the third quarter. The Chiefs dominance early in this game was frightening. Hurts took a few big hits, was sacked five times the first 12 times he dropped back and endured punts of 13, 6, 5, 3, 1, minus-3 and minus-5 yards before finally clicking into gear. Once it does, you can’t stop it. On Monday night, he rebounded against a ferocious defense in the loudest outdoor stadium in the NFL and rallied the Eagles to a stunning victory over the Super Bowl champions. Hurts is 30-4 in his last 34 regular season games. That should be impossible. He is amazing.
10. It was October 27, 2021, when Siriani gave an underground speech to his flowers and was widely mocked for it. Google “Fire Sirianni” and you’ll get a bunch of social media results from October 27, 2021. The Eagles were 2-5 at that point heading into Detroit. They won in Detroit and closed out the season 7-2 in big games. Then 14-3 last year. Then 9-1 this year. The math is insane. Since that talk with the team, the Eagles are 30-6 in meaningful regular season games. Just think about it for a while. This is literally amazing.