5. The Eagles moved the ball well the entire game, even though it took them until the fourth quarter to put their first points on the board. Hurts threw an interception in the end zone. He fumbled the ball away at the New Orleans 46-yard line later in the first half. The Eagles went for it on fourth down twice when they were in field goal position and failed to convert, and early in the fourth quarter, they needed a big play. They got it from Barkley, who burst through a hole between the tackles and outran the New Orleans defense for a 65-yard touchdown to give the Eagles the lead, finally. Chunk plays – the Eagles are looking for them any way they can get them and Barkley delivered. He finished with 147 yards and the two touchdowns on 17 carries.
“The game wasn’t going our way, but we just never, never gave up,” Barkley said. We just kept trusting each other, kept grinding. We see our teammate (Smith) go down with a late hit, which I believe, and we rallied. We rallied behind him to go out there and grind out for Smitty. All phases, especially defense, played lights out and we found a way to win.”
6. This was a game of attrition and some young players stepped up on the offensive line. Right tackle Lane Johnson (concussion) and right guard Mekhi Becton (finger) left the game in the first half, and Fred Johnson stepped in at right tackle and Tyler Steen replaced Becton at right guard and both more than held their own. Credit goes to both players and to the coaching staff for getting both players ready to go, and now the Eagles know a lot more about their depth along the offensive line. Really, the Eagles never skipped a beat there. The depth along the offensive line showed and that is great to know moving forward.
“Next-up mentality,” Goedert said. “We lost a couple of O-linemen before halftime and Fred and Steen played incredible. Fred had a great block on Saquon’s long touchdown run, being able to cut the guy off, we were able to hit a gap. That just shows how good our coaching staff is and how much we believe in everybody. It doesn’t matter who’s in there, it’s next-man-up mentality, and it’s all we got, it’s all we need, so just shoutout to everybody that was able to step up. Parris (Campbell) made some big plays when we needed him. It really takes a team. It doesn’t always go the way people want it to, but when their number’s called, it seems they’re able to do what they need to do.”
7. A big shoutout to Hurts, who made some mistakes (two turnovers) but then was great in the fourth quarter with a lot of pressure on him and backups throughout the offense. Hurts completed 29 of 38 passes for 311 yards and he gained another 25 yards on the ground. The Eagles rolled up 460 total yards of offense against a very strong New Orleans defense.
“This guy is a freakin’ winner,” Sirianni said of Hurts. “He won at Alabama. He won at Oklahoma. He’s been winning here over and over and over and over. You know what, we’re the Philadelphia Eagles, so we understand that we’re going to get criticism, but this dude’s a freaking winner. Jalen Hurts is a winner and he won today.”
“It’s a team effort that’s full trust on everybody’s part,” Hurts said. “I’m just proud that we learned from the situation last week. … Everybody stepped up today. Everybody stepped up today and we responded to adversity. We communicated well and there was never a doubt.”
