Eagles Postgame Report: Birds Win Again In Baltimore

The Eagles may be on a seven-game winning streak, but this game appeared to start no different than the others. The offense came out flat and spent multiple drives looking terrible. Saquon only got one touch on each of the first two drives, there was a play attempting to use Parris Campbell as a lead blocker, and Hurts looked bad. His first four plays were an open deep pass that he threw uncatchable, a forced attempt into double coverage, a forced attempt into triple coverage and then a throwaway (which was not a bad play).

The defense came out a bit weak but somehow the same refs showed up, ignoring two different holds that allowed a 40-yard pass to gift a Ravens touchdown (after Avonte Maddox made an unneeded hold to negate a sack and three-and-out). Then they allowed a touchdown as the refs continued to move them down the field and ignore the penalties the Ravens offense committed.

It dug a hole but a punt to pin the Ravens at their own 1-yard line switched things up for the Birds. They moved the ball on two straight drives as the defense stepped up to get a 14-point swing. This culminated in a tush push that was obviously botched but Hurts was cool under pressure and converted it anyway after recovering what appeared to be a fumble, even if it doesn’t show that way on the stat sheet.

The Ravens closed out the half with a Lamar Jackson run that was opened up by a hold (that went uncalled) and that gifted the Ravens another field goal before the half.

The Eagles defense came out after the half looking a bit slow again, but benefitted from a missed field goal. That setup the offense with a short field, but the offense did absolute jack with that, managing -1 yards on three plays (but the refs managed to call their first hold of the game on the Eagles after ignoring the previous 35 infractions the Ravens committed on basically every positive play they had).

It was an Agholor drop that bailed out Avonte Maddox on a play that would have setup the Ravens at the two-yard line at worst. That is what forced the end of the Ravens next drive and Justin Tucker once again missed the field goal attempt (53-yards this time), again handing the Eagles offense good field position. After spending 12 of the first 13.5 minutes of the half on the field, the defense could have use for a break and the offense needed to get something going to pull away with their lead.

Instead, they started off with a -1 yard Hurts run. The Saquon screen for 5 yards was not helped by Hurts throwing right into the arms of a DL for a quick batted pass and immediately handing the ball back to the Ravens. Luckily, a nice punt (again) pinned the Ravens inside their own five to attempt some relief for the defense. The defense could have come up with a three-and-out, but the offensive line held once again to free up enough time for a lateral that converted the play 0 and to add insult to injury, the refs threw a flag for holding: on the defense, actively ignoring the penalty that created the play and calling one that had no effect on it. Still, they kept their heads high and forced a punt after that to maintain the lead.

Finally, the Eagles offense woke up and punched back. It took some time, but the coaches realized they had Saquon Barkley on the team and started handing it off to him on half the plays. That gained the Birds 46 of their 71 yards as Barkley punched it into the end zone to push the lead back to nine in the fourth quarter. The Ravens went to feeding their own MVP candidate in Derrick Henry, but a Tristin McCollum (in for injury to Blankenship) PBU on fourth down turned the ball back over with excellent field position.

Two Saquon rushed and two tush pushes (the second one shouldn’t have been necessary, but there was a bad spot), moved the chains and burned two Ravens timeouts. They chugged along, burning nearly five minutes of clock and the Ravens final timeout before putting up a field goal to push the lead to 12.

The Ravens had just 1:03 to make up that deficit with no ability to stop the clock, so the game was all but over at that point. The Ravens kept playing, but seemingly not to win as they burned over half the clock to go 20 yards. Jackson burned a ton of clock on a huge scramble for 40 yards that setup first and 10 at the 11-yard line with seven seconds left. They netted the garbage time touchdown to make it seem closer and end the second half shutout, but a recovery by the Eagles on the kick officially ended the game.

The Eagles advance to 10-2 to stay second in the NFC, still in play for a potential first-round bye. They host the Panthers next week and then are at the Steelers the following week before they finish with three straight divisional games. 

Offensive MVP: AJ Brown

Saquon may have closed the game for the Birds, but the offensive explosion in the second half wouldn’t have been possible without Brown. Brown did not have much space to work with in this game as the Ravens put anywhere from 2-4 people on his coverage for much of the game. He produced anyway with 66 yards as the leading receiver for the team. He was the leading receiver for the Birds and, although he didn’t personally register a touchdown, it was the midrange to deep passes to him that made the run game more effective against a top rushing defense and allowed short passes and screens like the touchdown to Goedert so effective.

Defensive MVP: Zack Baun

Cleaning up plays and clean tackles are what was needed in this one against a team featuring Derrick Henry and his power. Not just against the runs, but also against the screen after he pops out of blocking. Baun did just that with 13 tackles in this one to lead the team. He was in on a sack and had a huge hit for a tackle for loss that helped keep one of the league’s top offenses in check.

Game Notes

• For the second week in a row, the Eagles played the most penalized team in the league. The Ravens, were called for ONE single penalty in the first half. That’s the same amount of legitimate flags the referees picked up for them for no good reason. Meanwhile, the Eagles had 7 penalties accepted against them in the first half alone, many of which didn’t impact plays at all aside from gifting the Ravens free yards, perhaps as a gift for committing so many uncalled penalties.
• This is getting to the point of a legitimate conspiracy. There is not a team in the league that gets held more and there is no player as held as Jalen Carter, who is being held on basically every single replay you’ll see that has him in frame. Yet, somehow the Eagles are statistically last in penalties called against opponents with 4.5 per game. Riddle me how the entire league is holding the same guy every single play but still has yet to call a single hold on anyone covering the guy? That’s actual conspiracy levels because you could have a guy just watch Carter the entire game and he’d throw about three times more flags than the 4.5 average Eagles opponents are getting currently.
• I am almost convinced at this point that the Eagles don’t watch any film on offense. It’s like they pick plays at random to start every game just to take the first third of the game to try and figure out what defense they are playing each week before they decide to make and intelligent play calls.
• Avonte Maddox was burned several times in this game. It’s increasingly hard to see why he is ever on the field at all in any packages they play. I’m not sure if I can remember a single play he has made all year.
• The obsession the coaches on the Eagles offense have with Hurts running is unhealthy. Not only do they get him hit more, but it is not nearly as effective as Barkley running. They waste so many drives getting Hurts smacked and losing yards to punt instead of utilizing the dude on their team who is in the MVP discussion.
• Saquon definitely won the head-to-head battle with Henry. Barkley had 107 yards rushing (with a TD) and 10 yards receiving while Henry managed only 82 rush yards with 29 receiving while being held out of the end zone.
• Vic Fangio’s defense was shaky at times, but rounded into form again as the game went on. If he can do anything at all to get at least some of the holds called against opposing offensive lines, he might just have the league’s top defense.
• Cooper DeJean had clinic level tape with some of the wrap-ups he had in this one, including on Henry who is by no means easy to take down.

Injury Notes

• Quinyon Mitchell exited at the start of the second half and was replaced by Kelee Ringo. He returned on the ensuing drive.
• Reed Blankenship exited in the third quarter with a concussion. McCollum replaced him.

Philadelphia Eagles @ Baltimore Ravens – December 1, 2024