The 5 Numbers That Tell The Story of the Eagles Win Over The Bears
It was not pretty, but as the cliche goes, a win is a win. The Eagles pulled out a win over the Bears in Chicago on Sunday. They trailed at times and the offense never really got fully going. But by the end of the game, they led the Bears 25-20 and improved to 13-1. How did they pull out the win? What have the Eagles been doing so well this season to get them to 13-1? Here are 5 numbers that help tell that story.
30
The Eagles dont just lead the league in sacks with 55, but also in 3rd down sacks. Jonathan Gannon takes a lot of heat for “not being aggressive enough.” And I am just as guilty of that complaint at times. But when 3rd down and especially third and long is when Gannon likes to get aggressive. After 4 more on Sunday, the Eagles now have 30 3rd down sacks. 54.5% of their sacks this season have come on first down.
Haason Reddick, Josh Sweat, Javon Hargrave, Brandon Graham, and Fletcher Cox can get after the QB. Two of them, Reddick and Hargrave, are already at double-digit sacks. Another two, Graham and Sweat, are very close to double-digits. The Eagles haven’t had a single player with double digits sacks since Cox in 2018. Now they may have 4. Which would be the most any team has ever had. The Eagles’ deep rotation of rushers not only makes them dangerous game to game. But it means their top guys will be fresher in the playoffs because they don’t need to play every snap.
Eagles sacks:
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) December 18, 2022
Haason Reddick: 12
Javon Hargrave: 10
Josh Sweat: 9.5
Brandon Graham: 8.5
No NFL team has ever had four players collect 10 sacks each in a single season.
172.4
The Eagles have the best secondary in the league. Well, at least the best Cornerbacks. And that is not an exaggeration. They gave up just 152 yards through the air vs the Bears. And you may say that it’s the Bears and they have no one for Justin Fields to throw to. But this is nothing new. They give up just 172.4 passing yards per game. Which is tops in the whole NFL. And per Reuben Frank, they are the only team that has not given up 250 yards to any opposing QB all year. The run defense has been hit or miss at times, though they have improved a lot there of late. But you can’t question how good this secondary is. Darius Slay, James Bradberry, Avonte Maddox, and CJ Gardner-Johnson once he is healthy make for a fantastic group.
8.2
The Eagles are just 11th in passing yards. If you were to only look at that, you would say they do not have one of the best passing attacks in the NFL. But what that completely ignores is context. Like how they are just 26th in passing attempts. Most weeks, this is still a run-first team. And they spend so much time ahead of teams, that they end up not passing all that much. But we saw Sunday that when they need to pass, they can do say at a high level. They are 2nd in the NFL at 8.2 passing yards per attempt. If they threw it more, there is little doubt they’d be up there in pure passing stats with the Bills, Chiefs, and Dolphins.
But unlike those teams, they don’t need to sling it up and down the field. And while there were some mistakes this week vs the Bears, 2 interceptions, they still managed to pick apart the Bears’ secondary for the most part. Devonta Smith and AJ Brown both went off. And they each did it mostly on deep shots, with them both averaging over 20 yards per catch.
35
Jalen Hurts is 2nd in the NFL in rushing touchdowns. Not among QBs, among all NFL players. Only Jamaal Williams has run into the endzone more times than he has. He scored 3 more times on Sunday, to give him 13 on the season. And no one has more than 12 receiving touchdowns. Hurts has a real chance to have the most touchdowns of anyone in the NFL, excluding passing touchdowns. But if you do factor those in, his 22 passing touchdowns gives him 35 total. Only Mahomes (38), Joe Burrow (36), and Josh Allen (36) have more. Hurts is among the elite of the elite when it comes to producing scores for his team. Not bad for a guy who is a “system Qb.”
MVP chants for Jalen Hurts leaving Soldier Field
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) December 18, 2022
Jalen has 35 total TDs this year
That matches Eagles great Randall Cunningham for most in a season in Eagles history
He is youngest QB in NFL history to lead his team to 13-1 start pic.twitter.com/Cktc1YEyki
1
The Eagles’ magic number is down to 1. 1 more win, or Cowboys and Vikings loss, and they have the number 1 seed locked up. The Cowboys at 10-4 would need to rely on having the tiebreaker over the Eagles even if they win out and the Eagles lose out. The Eagles already have the tiebreaker over the Vikings, so the Vikings need to have a better record, and with 3 losses they can only do that by once again the Eagles losing out, and them winning out. Basically, they just need to beat either the Cowboys, Saints, or Giants to clinch this thing. It would take a Mets-level regular season collapse for the Eagles to lose the first-round bye and home field throughout at this point. You can probably go ahead and make your plans for the first weekend of the NFL playoffs, it doesn’t look like the Eagles will be playing.
