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If the Philadelphia Eagles were a Rihanna song, they would be singing Jay-Z’s verse on “Run This Town” when the billionaire rapper flows: “F*** the other side! They’re jealous!” Yes, the Super Bowl hype is real. It also needs to be checked.
Following a 24-8 victory over the Washington Commanders in Week 3 – in a game billed as the Carson Wentz revenge game – there were a lot of flexing and posing for the cameras in the post-game press conferences.
Head coach Nick Sirianni came out in a No. 82 Mike Quick jersey and talked about what “good teams do.” The Eagles are 3-0 to start the 2022 season, but the work is far from over. His offense can’t close out games.
“All it means is it’s a good start,” Sirianni told reporters. “Our message is the same each and every week: enjoy this tonight, and then on to the next round. We compare this to a 17-round heavyweight boxing match.”
Philadelphia dominated the first half for a third straight week. The offense erupted for 24 points in the second quarter, highlighted by three touchdowns: a 23-yarder to Dallas Goedert, a 9-yarder to A.J. Brown, and a 2-yarder to DeVonta Smith. They were unstoppable, imposing their will on Washington’s defense. Hurts finished 22-of-35 for 340 yards and 3 touchdowns, with another 20 yards on the ground.
“We got three wins in our column,” Hurts said, “but I could care less about it because we haven’t played to our standard yet.”
Hurts was referring to the offense stalling out in the second half. The Eagles need to start putting games away before any Super Bowl talk creeps in, although Sirianni patted himself on the back for being aggressive in his play-calling.
“We were pretty aggressive, it’s probably somewhere in the middle there between the aggressiveness there and taking the foot off the gas,” Sirianni said. “And I’m always going to take responsibility for that, and we got to put a game away like that, when it is 24 to nothing, we got to be able to put a game away.”
Meanwhile, the Eagles defense made Carson Wentz look like – to channel Rihanna (the Super Bowl halftime performer) again – Man Down. They tallied nine sacks – the most in a single game so far this season – while registering 17 QB hits on Wentz. It was an eye-opening effort from a unit tasked with securing a 24-point lead after the offense took their foot off the gas.
“We just wanted to go out there as a team and just keep getting better,” said Brandon Graham who had 2.5 sacks. “Our standard is our standard. I’m just happy that we finally got one of them games where we got a nine-sack game. We were out there having fun we just wanna win because we know how hard it is in this league.”
Defense Steps Up, Another Second-Half Hangover
Prior to kickoff in Washington, Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham both walked over to wrap Carson Wentz up in a bear hug. They wanted to end any speculation of hard feelings toward their one-time franchise quarterback. Point taken.
However, they had Wentz running for his life during the game as he struggled to find any rhythm. He finished 25-of-43 for 211 yards with two fumbles, one on a strip-sack by Graham. His offensive line didn’t help the cause, but Wentz was bad in this one.
“I think when we start fast, everybody else feeds off us,” Cox said. “That was the message all week: keep the edge, start fast … and basically the message every day, every week, is to let everybody know: we’re here to play hard. We respect whoever we’re playing, and they get paid to play, too, but we just want to come out and start fast and set the tone.”
They started fast and ended fast. The Eagles were outscored 8-0 in the second half and continued a somewhat disturbing trend. They haven’t recorded a second-half touchdown since the 1:41 mark of the third quarter in Week 1. For whatever reason, the offense has gone to sleep once the big lead has been established.
Jason Kelce Exchanges Jerseys with Carson Wentz
After the game, Jason Kelce unfurled Wentz’s No. 11 Commanders jersey in front of his locker. He and the quarterback exchanged jerseys and Kelce plans to frame it and hang it up in his house.
“I’ll probably hang it up somewhere when I’m done playing,” Kelce said, “and I have a spot to hang up all the jerseys I’ve collected. But this one will definitely be going up and getting framed.”
When asked if he was going to wash the dirt stains out of it, Kelce laughed: “I don’t wash any of them. If I get ’em dirty, I keep ’em dirty.”
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