Latest Birds blowout causes spike in players’ confidence
PHILADELPHIA » The good news for Eagles fans is their team always wins a championship in some form when they start the season with an 8-1 record, as they did Sunday thanks to a runaway 5123 triumph over the Denver Broncos.
The bad news is, have you seen the price of those hotel rooms in Minneapolis, the site of Super Bowl LII, the weekend of Feb. 4? They’re asking $300 a night for a Motel 6 in Saint Paul. And you better act fast; six people were checking it out when we viewed it.
While we may be getting a little ahead of ourselves, there are just seven games remaining. Looking at the schedule, if the Eagles stay relatively healthy down the homestretch, just imagine the havoc they can wreak on the opposition.
That was the NFL’s topranked defense the Eagles savaged. The Broncos were allowing only 261 yards overall, and 72.9 yards rushing. The Birds gashed them for 419 yards, including 197 rushing.
Carson Wentz threw four touchdown passes, two to Alshon Jeffery and none to the injured Zach Ertz. Wentz has 23 scoring passes on the season, and 17 over the last five games, both unprecedented at this point in a season in club history.
And Wentz “absolutely” thinks the Eagles can improve as they get more comfortable with themselves and Jay Ajayi who, after three practices, knew little more than the snap count and still contributed eight rushes for 77 yards, including a 46-yard TD run in which he leaped and reached his hand over the goal line.
Rookie running back Corey Clement, who wasn’t drafted, rushed for 51 yards and two TDs and took a screen pass to the house. Backup tight end Trey Burton hauled in a scoring pass.
The Eagles are that good and figure to be better with a little more familiarity.
The defense intimidated the Broncos, limiting them to 226 yards, a lot of it in garbage time.
It would surprise no one if Brock Osweiler, who was picked off by Rodney McLeod and Patrick Robinson, is released in a week or two. Not that he had a chance.
“This week we had a little extra motivation with their defense,” Birds linebacker Nigel Bradham said. “Everybody was moreso talking about their defense the whole week coming into this game and how they were coming to Philly. We pretty much wanted to make our own statement and continue to put the league on notice.”
Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. sure noticed, but not the defense. After Harris and his teammates were torched for all of those points and yardage, he said the Eagles play a college offense. The last time we remember anything so ridiculous, the late Buddy Ryan was bashing the Rams coached by John Robinson for running “a junior high defense.” That was after the Rams beat Buddy in the playoffs.
Harris is a fiery talk-first, consider-the-consequences later guy. And it was almost comical when he attached the college label to the Eagles because, we all know, they run the North Dakota State scheme with Wentz.
“Like I said, they run this college offense,” Harris said. “They kind of run what the Chiefs do. They have the option to run, option to pass, they run the read option, they run the real option. (Wentz) is checking into a lot of things. I mean, it’s just a college offense, he is just executing it very well.”
So there you have it. This top-ranked, playoff-caliber Broncos defense cannot stop a well-executing college offense.
Now that the Eagles’ coaches have seen Ajayi in action, they’re not going to be able to get away from noting all the different ways they can fit him into the offense over the bye week. The play possibilities are endless with this 221-pound grinder.
No one wants to admit it but this Eagles season has 2004 written all over it, and then some. Rewind to that Super Bowl season. The Eagles were so much better than the rest of the NFC it was ridiculous. Their only loss before resting starters for the playoffs was to the Steelers. They were the only good team the Eagles played in that run.
Now, the Eagles not only are dominating every team they play, they’re playing teams that pretty much ask to be dominated. The Carolina Panthers are the exception. You would think the Seahawks will be formidable in Seattle in early December. The Rams with Jared Goff and Todd Gurley could be tough, too. But in all seriousness, how can they expect to score enough points against this Eagles defense to keep up with Wentz?
The Eagles lost to the Chiefs, who are this year’s version of those 2004 Steelers. And they beat the Panthers, who at least have a winning record. But the rest of the Eagles’ wins have come at the expense of losers like the Broncos.
The schedule isn’t the Eagles’ fault. Remember, they’re the first NFL team in the 16-game schedule era to play four of their first six games on the road. And they went 5-1 in the stretch.
This is an Eagles team, Bradham explained, that wants to stay late to go over the film and then spend time together away from the facility building trust. That includes going out and eating together. And no McDonald’s food, Bradham told a young teammate on the hook for the Sunday night repast.
Bradham laughed when asked what the Eagles ate together to fuel their epic blowout of the Broncos.
“Broncos!” Bradham said. “It was great, man. It was everybody working together and you could see us hitting on all cylinders. Special teams, offense, defense. Everybody is just rallying around each other and getting energy off each other. We just love to see each other play.”
Bradham paused, smiled and nodded his head for effect.
“We’re like fans of each other,” Bradham said. “We love to see each other play.”
By the way, if you’re uncomfortable with the motel there’s a beautiful remodeled three-bedroom home that sleeps 14 in Bohannon Park, not too far of a drive from Minneapolis. You can have it for $2,200 a night.