By Connor Donald, Sports Talk Philly Contributing Writer 
Another loss, another week of ridicule in the media and Pederson pulling the trigger on benching Wentz in favour of Jalen Hurts! Well, here we go! The New Orleans Saints coming to town as the #1 seed in the NFC to face the Eagles who have struggled immensely all season in different facets of the game and are starting their rookie quarterback. The storylines keeps growing for the Eagles.
Well colour me shocked after the first half the Eagles had an incredible first half producing 17 points to the Saints zero. The offense put up 302 total yards and the defense held the Saints offense to 98 yards. Wow! Alshon Jeffrey opened up the scoring with a touchdown grab, Jake Elliot hit a field goal and Miles Sanders burst off for an 82 yard rushing touchdown. Jalen Hurts looked good, the defense stood rock solid and even got an interception, only the fourth of the season!
The Eagles opened up with a three and out to start the second half and then the Saints came back with a 10 play, 65 yard drive that was capped off by an Alvin Kamara touchdown to make it a two possession game, 17-7. The Eagles then had a decent drive building until fourth and one when Hurts and the offensive line failed to produce the one yard needed, turning the ball back over to the Saints with a short field. Pederson’s questionable play call on fourth down, with an undersized quarterback, would turn into a 37 yard Taysom Hill to Emmanuel Sanders touchdown strike to make it a 3 point game just before the fourth quarter.
Early in the fourth quarter on fourth and short the Saints were looking to keep driving, but Josh Sweat came up with a massive strip sack to give the offense a very important and necessary short field. The offense would turn this into a Miles Sanders touchdown run to make it a two possession lead once again. The Saints would turn around a run a very slow, non-urgent drive that led them inside the two minute warning to a missed field goal. In typical Eagles fashion when working to run the clock out Jalen Hurts would have the ball punched out, allowing the Saints to recover. The Saints would quickly turn this into seven points with a Jared Cook touchdown to make a one possession game. The Saints very nearly recovered the onside kick with the famous watermelon kick, but the Eagles would come up from the bottom of the pile with the football and the victory!
The Best
The offense as a whole was humming for much of the night and looked the best they have looked all season. The offensive line allowed three quarterback hits, but did not allow a sack, which is a massive improvement over the offensive line that has allowed Carson Wentz to be the most sacked and pressured QB in the NFL for the last 13 weeks. Jalen Hurts looked really good, not taking sacks and throwing the ball away when pressured, moving out of the pocket and producing with his feet. He really helped open up the run game, Hurts produced 107 yards on 14 carries, as Miles Sanders also had a big night producing 115 yards on 14 carries with two touchdowns. The Eagles ground game produced 246 yards to 167 yards through the air, maybe an idea of the direction the offense will be leaning going forward.
The Good
The defense, which has been left out to dry on a multitude of occasions by the offense this season, again played well and stood tall. However, injuries came back to haunt the defense early in the second half as the top two cornerbacks, Avonte Maddox and Darius Slay, were both ruled out for the remainder of the game late in the third quarter. Rodney Mcleod was also ruled out, making the secondary extremely thin. This certainly doesn’t bode well for a team facing Michael Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders and Alvin Kamara.
The front four played a massive role in pressuring Taysom Hill with eleven quarterback hits, five sacks and one strip sack by Josh Sweat at a key point early in the fourth quarter. Alex Singleton continues to impress as the top linebacker in Philadelphia by a landslide with ten tackles and a QB hit, but Duke Riley also did a good job stepping up in TJ Edwards absence. The Eagles defense even with a pulverized secondary did have a weaker second half, but ultimately did just enough to keep the Eagles in the game and support the offense.
The Bad
Jake Elliot missed a chip shot 22 yard field goal to end the first half that could have put the Eagles up 20-0. Jake Elliot just got a brand new five year, $21 million contract and has struggled to live up to the dollars he’s being paid in 2020. Beyond the chip shot miss he had a decent night 3-3 on extra points and 1 for 2 on field goals, but when looking for a bad, this definitely is a bad overall especially when you look at his season. On the season he is 12 of 16 on field goals and 15 of 17 on extra points.
The Ugly
It’s been a couple weeks since injuries came to the forefront, beyond sad to say, but welcomed injuries like Jason Peters. The top two cornerbacks, Darius Slay and Avonte Maddox left the game, as well as Rodney Mcleod, really thinning out the secondary. Derek Barnett and Malik Jackson took turns going down at points in the game as well. Hopefully none of these injuries end up being serious, but the team needs to stay healthy. They got as healthy as they could, but need to stay healthy. If it wasn’t for injuries, Carson Wentz future outlook would be the ugly after the game Jalen Hurts had.
The Eagles always make a game, a game somehow no matter how much of a lead or deficit they have. Thankfully, the Eagles were able to keep the lead despite a decimated secondary and some late game attempted heroics by the Saints. The Eagles move to 4-8-1 and their slim playoff hopes remain alive. Let the wild finish to 2020 continue and the quarterback controversy really start!
