6 Numbers That Show The Philadelphia Eagles Are Still An Elite Team

There has been a lot of negative talk about the Philadelphia Eagles this year. We were a bit spoiled by how close to perfect they were last season. There were only a handful of weeks there was any turmoil and two of those featured Gardner Minshew at QB. So the Eagles coming out of the gates a bit slow, caught people off guard. Especially when we can look and see the 49ers and Dolphins dominating teams the way the Eagles did last season.

But despite the Eagles not being perfect, their record still is. And they have improved each and every week. Yeah, week 1 was ugly altogether. But week 2 was a bit better, despite missing most of their secondary. Week 3 was even better than that, with the defense looking like a force to be reckoned with. The Eagles' interior Defensive Line continued to wreak havoc, and the secondary stepped up and had a big game too. And on offense, the running game had another 200-yard game, while Hurts and the passing game took big strides.

Could Hurts still play better? Sure. Could Brian Johnson call a better game? Yes. But they have each gotten better every week. And The Bucs game was as close to a complete game as they have had yet.

The Eagles are still an elite team in the NFL. Just because they have not clicked on all cylinders yet, does not mean they are not still as good as the Niners or Dolphins. And this team has done what those teams have not done, perform in the playoffs. And in case you don't quite believe me, let's look at how even in their "struggles" they are still playing at a high level.

The Eagles put up 201 yards on the ground against the Bucs. Their second straight game with over 200 rushing yards. They averaged 5 yards per carry, and that is dragged down by Hurts running several QB sneaks, which are designed to get just 1 yard. D’Andre Swift averaged 8.1 yards per carry. The only thing more impressive than all of that is who they did it against.  

The Bucs came into the game as one of the best-run defenses in the league. They were giving up just 54 yards per game, and 3.3 yards per carry. Yet even they could not stop the Eagles. You never heard Vita Vea’s name, because the Eagles' interior blockers created massive holes every single play.

Last season, no team in the NFL was better at killing time. If you gave them the ball back late in the game, there was always a chance you would not get it back. And the Eagles needed a drive like that last night when the Bucs made it a two-TD game with 9:22 left on the clock. They never got the ball back. The Eagles put together a 9-minute and 22-second drive to ice the game. That is the type of drive every coach wishes their team could pull off. If you can run like that, most leads should be safe. And as we will get into in a bit, they have led for most of this season. 

Jalen Carter is in very rare company. Only 2 players have 15 QB pressures, and 2 forced fumbles, through 3 games. One of them is T.J. Watt. The other is Jalen Carter. Carter is a rookie who plays half of the snaps. Watt is the best defensive player in the league. Yet Carter is already putting up production like Watt. By the way, 6 of those 15 pressures came against double teams. Only Micah Parsons has generated more pressure when being double-teamed, per Next-Gen Stats  

There has been a lot of talk about the Eagles not looking at their best so far this season. And that is true. But they are also 3-0. And more than that, they have barely trailed in any game. In fact, they have only trailed for 7 minutes and 55 seconds this entire season. They had the lead for the entirety of game 1. Against the Bucs, the game was briefly tied, but they took the lead back in the very next drive, which took 5 minutes and 1 second. And then they trailed once in the Vikings game. But after the Vikings went up, they scored a TD 7:55 later to take the lead back.  

For not playing well, it has never shown on the scoreboard. They have constantly been ahead in games, and only the Patriots game had real moments of worry that a late lead may be blown. 

This stat comes courtesy of Hembo from ESPN’s Get UP, but I love it so much I had to share it. The Eagles have 460 rushing yards. 343 of those came before contact. The Eagles' 0-Line is generating bus-sized holes for the RBs to run through, and Swift is smart and fast enough to hit those holes and explode. Swift deserves a ton of credit, but don’t forget what this O-Line is doing too. 

Only 3 teams made it to 3-0 this season. The 49ers, the Dolphins, and the Eagles. Really good news for them, because in the Super Bowl era 74% of teams that started 3-0, made it to the playoffs. Obviously just getting to the playoffs is not the goal, but the Eagles have put themselves in a very good position to be one of the leaders of the NFL once again. They aren't even playing at their best, but they are undefeated. Imagine what happens when the passing game fully clicks.