Lions vs Eagles, Week 11 By Will Weir
The Eagles can win another defensive game against an NFC North opponent. The defense for the Eagles over the last two games has been flat-out amazing. They have allowed 7 points to the Packers and 9 points to the Lions, who were the second-highest-scoring offense in the league.
The defensive line made play after play against one of the top offensive lines in the NFL. The defensive line today was led by Jalen Carter, the new addition to the game in Jaelan Phillips, and Jordan Davis. Jalen Carter had five tackles and two pass deflections. He made plays when the Eagles needed him. Jaelan Phillips has been excellent since joining the Eagles from the Miami Dolphins. In this game, he recorded his first sack with the team. He also had 5 tackles and two quarterback hits. Jordan Davis also made plays in the passing game. Davis had three pass deflections. He got double-teamed a lot, which freed up someone else to make the play in the run game. One of Davis’s pass deflections led to an interception by Cooper DeJean, his first in the regular season.
Zach Baun led the team in tackles with seven, and one of them was a tackle for loss. Nakobe Dean also had a good game. He had a sack and also played good coverage on routes in space against Jahmyr Gibbs and Jameson Williams, forcing incompletions.
The Eagles’ defensive backs also played well. Adoree’ Jackson had a pass deflection. Jackson was lined up against Jameson Williams for most of the game. Cooper DeJean deflected two passes and caught an interception. Quinyon Mitchell did not allow a reception on any of his six targets in this game. Mitchell has been fantastic this season, allowing only a 41.9% completion percentage. This is the lowest by any player since 2018 per Next Gen Stats. Mitchell and DeJean were able to hold Amon-Ra St. Brown to only two catches on twelve targets for 42 yards.
The Eagles did a good job in the run game, holding the Lions to 3.5 yards per carry. Gibbs was able to hurt the Eagles in the passing game, where he had 107 yards through the air. The defense held the Lions to 3-for-13 on 3rd down and 0-for-5 on 4th down. The defense has been amazing and looks like one of the best in the NFL; however, the offense has not played the same way and has struggled since coming off the bye week.
Jalen Hurts only had 135 yards and 14 completions on 28 attempts. Hurts did not put the ball in harm’s way, but it was not very successful. Hurts did have more designed run plays and they worked.
The running game was ok in this game. They ran for 148 yards as a team. Saquon Barkley had 83 yards but only 3.2 per carry. Tank Bigsby gave the offense some juice, running for 34 yards on only four carries.
The pass catchers were not that good in this game. They were not getting open at times against man coverage. They also had a few drops that could have helped the drives keep going and establish a rhythm.
The Eagles are not playing their best team ball, but they are still finding ways to win. I don’t know if that is just how the Eagles are going to be this year or if they’ll get better on offense. The Eagles’ next game is at Dallas, going up against a good offense again, but if there is a game to figure it out on offense, that is the game.
