Philly Beats Houston On Thursday Night Football

The attention of the fans in Philadelphia was split tonight, but the whole of the city was wishing ill will on the Houston sports world in either case.

As the Phillies looked to take the lead back from the Astros in the World Series, the Eagles had travelled to Houston to take on the Texans and try to remain undefeated.

The bid to remain undefeated did not start off well. Much like the Phillies ran into trouble in the first inning, the Eagles defense made some critical mistakes to allow an easy drive for a touchdown on the Texans’ opening drive.

The offense was able to answer and the Eagles defense force the Texans off the field, but after a two-play 55-yard drive, Jalen Hurts entirely missed the blitz that was setup and fumbled the ball away. Luckily, the defense was able to bail them out of the next drive and keep this from becoming a total shootout.

Unfortunately, they did nothing to stop the Texans on their final drive of the half, allowing the Texans to pull even with the Birds and burned enough clock in doing so that the offense was not able to get the yardage they needed to end the half with points.

Problems continued to strike when Jordan Mailata came out after the half looking worse than he ever has, leading to two quick sacks on three plays. The game chugged along until Chauncey Gardner-Johnson recorded an interception to set the offense up with a 20-yard field.

With two touchdowns after that and an interception by Bradberry just before the two-minute warning, this game was over with the Eagles advancing to 8-0 on the season.

Offensive MVP: Jason Kelce

This one was between either Kelce or Miles Sanders, the the ladders inability to convert on 2nd and inches with multiple attempts tips the balance in the favor of Philadelphia’s top offensive lineman. Kelce did what he does best and pulled to get blocks in the second level and springing open pretty much any runner the Eagles chose to throw in the backfield.

Defensive MVP: Javon Hargrave

The Eagles struggled mightily with the running game; that was the only thing that really kept the Texans within striking distance. Hargrave played the largest role in slowing that down, recording seven tackles and getting pressures on multiple plays. His pressures resulted in three sacks as well as the first interception of the game for the Eagles.

Game Notes

• For as good as the Eagles secondary has been, there’s something nearly every week that Avonte Maddox does that makes me shiver. This week it was yet another missed tackle on the opening drive where Maddox had Rex Burkhead dead to rights and barely made contact with the back at the line, instead giving up the conversion on third down to extend the drive and gift the Texans their first points of the game.
• On that first drive, K’Von Wallace was ready and in position to make the play and break up the touchdown. He still couldn’t stop it. With plays like that, it’s hard to imagine how he still has a roster spot if he can’t even make the play when he does everything right.
• K’Von Wallace was featured heavily in this one despite the Eagles defensive backs all still being on the field. It’s unknown why he suddenly played such a heavy role, but the Birds would likely be better off just not doing that – undrafted rookie Reed Blankenship would benefit from the snaps and probably can’t be any more detrimental to the team.
• Marvin Wilson, activated from the Eagles practice squad in the absence of Jordan Davis, has an impressive game of his own, registering four tackled by the end of the first half. There’s a pretty good likelihood that his performance earned him that open spot on the 53-man roster and the Eagles will be looking for a new practice squad player this week.
• Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, who appeared to do nothing for the first few weeks he was with the team, has acclimated incredibly well and got yet another turnover in this contest, registering his fifth in the last four weeks.
• While all the Eagles runners did well tonight, it was Miles Sanders who was the most explosive of the bunch, running for nine or more yards on five plays.
• Dallas Goedert had another 100-yard game in this one. He was the beneficiary of quite a few “broken” plays where Hurts had to scramble and get rid of the ball, even when he probably wasn’t the player who could easily gain the most yards. Still, his filling in that safety blanket role was impressive with almost an entire touchdown drive, including the touchdown itself, going through him.
• Jordan Mailata had a rough game today. This was perhaps his worst game since he first got on the field, giving up multiple sacks as well as passes batted down throughout the game.

Injury Notes

• Fletcher Cox had his legs taken out by Haason Reddick and laid on the field for quite some time before walking off under his own power and return a play later.

Philadelphia Eagles at Houston Texans – November 3, 2022