Once again, we’re wondering if the Eagles’ offense is good enough to take them where they want to go.
And once again, it was good enough to get them a win because winning is the thing the Eagles know how to do so well.
“That’s the main object — come out here and get a win," wide receiver DeVonta Smith told NBC Sports Philadelphia after scoring the Eagles’ only touchdown during their 10-7 win over the Green Bay Packers Monday night at Lambeau Field. “It was ugly. Offensively we struggled, but we came out on top.”
That was the prevailing opinion in the visiting locker room after the Eagles improved to 7-2 and maintained their status as the top seed in the NFC through 10 weeks.
It had been a while since we had seen Jalen Hurts and company, but when the players went their separate ways for the bye week following their Week 8 win over the Giants, it appeared as if the Eagles had figured some things out offensively.
The passing game came alive in a Week 7 win over Minnesota when Hurts threw for a season-high 326 yards and three touchdowns while posting a perfect 158.3 passer rating. Smith had a career-high 183 yards receiving and A.J. Brown caught two touchdowns.
That was followed by a dominating ground game in a win over the Giants with Saquon Barkley torching his former team for season-high 150 yards on just 14 carries.
After failing to put up 300 yards of offense in three of their first four games and then managing just 17 points each in losses to Denver and the Giants, the Eagles scored 66 points and averaged 394 yards in Weeks 7 and 8 against the Giants and Vikings.
They had 14 days off to build on those performances and it looked like they had when they got the ball for the first time Monday night against the Packers at frigid Lambeau Field.
Facing the team that proposed getting rid of the tush push last season, the Eagles were able to make their signature short-yardage call just three plays into the game and, thanks to a missed false-start call by the officials, Hurts converted a third-and-one with a three-yard run.
That was the first of five first downs on a 77-yard drive that started on the Eagles’ nine-yard line. Hurts completed four of six passes for 32 yards and the Eagles ran 10 times for 50 yards.
But the last of those 10 runs — a designed play for Hurts that went for 10 yards and a first down — ended in disaster when Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper punched the football loose and cornerback Keisean Nixon returned the fumble 22 yards.
“For me to start the game off and give the ball away after a long drive, that stops the flow of what we’re doing,” Hurts said after finishing the night 15 of 26 for 183 yards and one touchdown. “That was a big mistake in the game that own. It was a good play by him punching it out, but those are things I can control and as a group we’ve got to control the things we can control and that starts with me doing that.”
The turnover was his third of the year.
Ugliness ensued.
The Eagles managed just one first down the rest of the first half while twice going three-and-out. ESPN’s Joe Buck mentioned more than once that the Eagles lead the league in that dubious department.
The pretty part of the offensive evening for the Eagles came in a couple of short bursts. They managed to score first on their opening drive of the second half when they put together a 10-play, 55-yard drive that resulted in a 39-yard field goal by Jake Elliott.
But even that drive had its moments of ineptness, including a delay-of-game penalty that turned a third-and-seven situation into a third-and-10.
Offensive brilliance did surface for the Eagles briefly in the fourth quarter when Barkley turned a short safety-valve pass in the flat from Hurts into a 41-yard gain with a sensational spin move at the first-down marker.
The Eagles took a deep shot on the next play and it paid off as Smith pulled in a 41-yard touchdown pass from Hurts with 10:35 remaining. That made it 10-0 and the defense, with its most impressive performance of the year, albeit against a banged-up Packers team, made that lead hold up.
Afterward, Hurts had a rare moment of reflection about how special it was to win in an historic venue like Lambeau Field. He said he had talked to owner Jeffrey Lurie about that before the game.
“When I think about how historic a venue it is and finding a way to win here as a collective group and in this environment on Monday Night Football, that’s a big-time win and a big testament to our team,” he said. “The defense played lights out. Lights out. They showed up at the end of the game when we could have avoided putting them in that position.”
The defense, which had its own share of issues during the first eight games of the season, looked more like the unit that finished first in the NFL last season and there’s reason to believe defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s unit is going to get even better down the stretch.
The offense, on the other hand, created doubt again, but Hurts did have a point to make about the Packers.
“I’m proud of how we competed,” the quarterback and team leader said. “I’m proud of how we weathered through and persevered and showed great resilience throughout this game. That’s a hell of a team we played. The best defense we’ve played all year and with the talent that they have and their ability to rush the passer, it’s a really good group.”
The Eagles have actually played four of the top nine NFL scoring defenses this season (the Packers are seventh) and they’ll play the seventh-ranked defense in yards allowed Sunday when the 6-3 Detroit Lions come to Lincoln Financial Field.
All we know for sure about the Eagles’ offense after Monday night is that it needs to be better.
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