On paper, Sunday was a dominating win. 10 sacks for the Eagles defense, an interception returned for TD, and a fumble returned for TD. It was a great performance by the defense against a hapless NY Jets offense. While the Jets may be pretty bad, this was still a heck of a performance by an Eagles defense that has struggled with the pass rush this season. Even more impressive is that they played with a secondary who only had one player, Rasul Douglas, that was even on the active roster since Week 3. Sidney Jones dressed, however he did not play, which was probably a smart move considering they're going to need him fully healthy when the team travels to Minnesota for their next match-up.
There's no two ways about it though, this offense misses Desean Jackson immensely. He's their only true deep threat, and as long as that is missing, the Eagles are going to continue to struggle to stretch the field. Outside of the opening drive, the offense never seemed to really find their footing. Carson Wentz took what the defense gave him and they were able to move the ball at times, but couldn't seem to get in the groove. I think Doug Pederson seemed to get away from the run pretty early as well, which was surprising considering how well it worked from the get go.
The Eagles are right in the thick of the NFC East after theDallas Cowboys lost to the Green Bay Packers, but this stretch of road games, which includes one with the Cowboys, is going to be very telling as far as if this team is for real or not. Make no mistake about it, the Vikings are not the Jets. They're going to have to play a lot better to come out of U.S. Bank Stadium with a win. Then it's down to Big D, and up to Buffalo after that. Hopefully we can some healthy bodies back, particularly in the secondary, during this time.
Nothing is given in the NFL, so it really has to be a "one game at a time" mentality. The Eagles took care of business, as they should, against the Jets. Now it's time to get ready for the Vikings. Go Birds!
