BALTIMORE: Like they have so many times during their eight-game win streak, the Philadelphia Eagles simply waited, biding their time, evaluated what their opponent was doing, then executed play after play on offense, defense, special teams, then in the process, methodically took apart the talented Baltimore Ravens 24-19 at M&T Stadium in front of 71,344 fans in a game not as close as the score may indicate.
The Eagles got off their usual slow start. It's a predicament that, for the Eagles, now seems like a tradition.
The Birds trailed the Baltimore Ravens 9-0 after the first quarter, but rebounded to outscore their hosts 14-3 in the second to lead 14-12 at the half.
Baltimore’s Justin Tucker hit a 34-yard field goal at the 9:21 mark of the first quarter.
Then Ravens tight end Mark Andrews make a remarkable 14-yard touchdown catch from a laser thrown by quarterback Lamar Jackson. Tucker missed the extra point.
The Eagles scored on a 17-yard catch-and-run pass from Jalen Hurts to tight end Dallas Goedert with 8:04 left in the second quarter and on a “Tush Push” sneak by Hurts at the two-minute mark of the second.
After a scoreless third quarter the Birds (10-2) tacked on a 25-yard TD run by Saquon Barkley with 7:56 left in the fourth quarter and a Jake Elliott 35-yard field goal with 1:03 left in the game to go up 24-12.
The Ravens scored a futile touchdown with three seconds left in the game. It was an 11-yard TD pass from Lamar Jackson to tight end Isaiah Likely.
It was a game of adjustments on both sides of the ball.
Eagles Pro Bowl guard Landon Dickerson talked about the game’s strategy. He said the player’s job is to execute the plays they get in the huddle and not worry about adjustments
“That's what you guys see from your outside perspective,” Dickerson said at his locker after the game. “For us, it's just executing plays that are called.”
The 6-foot-6, 332-pounder out of Alabama thought about his answer for a second then talked about changes that go on during the course of a game.
“Making adjustments,” Dickerson said. “Like I've said it and I'll keep saying it again...teams give us looks that we aren't expecting or we haven't seen a whole lot of...it's a game of adjustments. They give you something, you make the adjustment, then they make an adjustment and it goes back and forth. That's the game of football.”
Defensive tackle Jalen Carter, who recorded four tackles (three solo), three tackles for loss, a sack and two quarterback hits was asked about the adjustments defensive coordinator Vic Fangio made after the Birds were down 9-0.
“I can't talk about what he did exactly but I just know that when he talks through the mic and tells the coaches what to relate to us, we go out there and get it done,” Carter said. “It made a big difference in the game.”
Carter said you just need to be consistent and for him, good things will eventually happen.
“Our goal is to be physical,” Carter said. “I think the film shows that. Sometimes I was in there, I feel that I wasn't as physical…thinking too much or reading and thinking I'm seeing this and that...but guys like Jordan Davis...he was being physical. He pushed me and I'm proud of him.”
In his first game without Brandon Graham, Nolan Smith stepped with eight tackles (three solo), a sack and quarterback hit. Carter said he was watching.
“He's a hustler man,” Carter said. “One thing Nolan's gonna do since I've seen him at college and that's run. He could be 20 or 30 yards down field, you'll see him full speed running down the field. That's what I love about him.”
After the Eagles fell behind 9-0, the visitors on the board with an efficient six-play, 49-yard drive that took 2:51 off the clock and resulted in a 17-yard touchdown pass from Hurts to Goetert.
Ravens were still had the lead 9-7.
On the ensuing drive, Baltimore had a three-and-two at their own 33-yard line.
The play is a hand off to Derrick Henry.
Linebacker Zack Baun nailed Henry for a big four-yard loss, forces a punt with 6:6:10 left in the first half..
Eagles go on another dominating drive...nine plays, 68 yards taking 4:02 off the clock and ending with a one-yard sneak by Hurts (Hurts fumbled the snap but recovered the ball to score).
Eagles take a 14-9 lead with 2:00 minutes left in the half.
Baun talked about the physical nature of the Eagles defense.
“I think a lot of guys on this defense and this team have been underdogs for a long time, having a chip on their shoulder,” said Baun, who finished with a game-high 13 tackles, a half sack, a quarterback hit and a forced fumble. “I know I have, and I know Nakobe (Dean) has, and a lot of these linebackers also. And just playing aggressive. We want to grind on teams, and we want to wear them out, and that’s what we did.”
Dean, who finished with ten total tackles (five solo), was asked what the defense did to hold the Ravens under 20 points, the last seven after the game was decided. “We just played our ball, played our ball,” Dean said. “We stuck to our guns. I hate the trash-time touchdown, but it is what it is. We were able to play good ball, and we were able to pull out the win.”
The Eagles defense held Ravens standout running back Derrick Henry to 82 yards on 19 carries, over 20 yards below his per-game average in 2024.
The physicality point was made by rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean, who hit Henry on a third-and eleven with 7:05 left in the fourth for just a three yard gain.
The tackle - DeJean legally lifted Henry off the ground and slammed him to the ground- killed the Ravens last chance to win the game.
“I didn’t expect to fully pick him up and put him on the ground...it just kind of happened like that” DeJean said at his locker after the game.
SAQUON BARKLEY MADE ANOTHER CLAIM FOR MVP HONORS
The former Penn State star had another big day, this week against Baltimore. He rushed 23 times for 107 yards including a 25-yard touchdown late in the game.
He caught two passes for ten yards.
There were more than a few thousand Eagles fans in the stadium Sunday night. After Barkley scored the game-winning TD, those fans started to chant “MVP,” MVP,” “MVP.”
Barkley was asked how he felt about the chants and if winning the MVP award is something he thinks about.
“No,” Barkley said at his postgame press conference. “My mindset goes right to the locker room and enjoy the win. Come back Monday and get the work in. Rehab, get my body right, and get ready for the next game, and I believe that’s Carolina (Panthers) back home.
“I appreciate the MVP chants. It’s great. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is winning football games. And I’ve been so locked in, so focused. And my preparation, the way that I work throughout the week, and there’s a reason why I’m getting those chants.
“If I continue to take care of that, once the season is over, we’ll look and see what happens. But at the end of the day, just continue to get wins and put ourselves in a position to go deep in playoffs.”
On his touchdown run, it looked like left tackle Jordan Mailata made the key block that sprung him. Barkley talked about the play.
“It was a great call,” he said. “We have an unbelievable offensive line. I think week in, week out, you guys are able to see that. Especially our tackles, they are able to move, and how big they are, and being able to move at that size.
“I kind of saw the look, and just trusting he was going to make the block, and I just ran through it as fast as I could, pretty much with my eyes closed, and got to open field. Jahan (Dotson) and Parris (Campbell) did a really good job of running off the ‘DB’ to open up space for me and get into the end zone.”
Barkley was asked if he’s had more fun playing football in Philadelphia.
“Yeah, I’m having a blast.”
STATS AND MORE QUOTES
Justin Tucker now knows how Jake Elliott felt a few weeks ago as the eight-time All Pro missed an extra point and two field goals (47, 53 yards).
Tucker talked about his struggles in the game: “As simply as I can put it, I missed the kicks, and I’ll leave it at that,” Tucker said. “I just left the points out there. I feel like I cost us this one, but it doesn’t really do anybody any good to dwell on it.
“The only thing that we can do – that I can do – is just continue to work, move forward; take it one kick at a time. I hate that I’ve had to have this same conversation over the course of this season, but that’s something that comes with the territory in this job description.
“The kicks are either good or they’re not, and today, I did not do a good enough job to help our team win the football game.”
Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh What he saw out of those misses? Was it just him missing it or is there some operational thing?
“I just saw the misses,” Harbaugh said after the game. “We’ll go back and look at all that stuff and just do the best we can to try to figure it out. [Justin Tucker]’s definitely capable of making every kick, and we need him to make those kicks. Nobody wants to make them more than Justin, though, I’ll promise you that.”
Harbaugh was asked about his offense being so up and down. His offense started pretty fast this week, scoring on their first two possessions, then went to sleep until the game was lost. The coach was asked about what adjustments did he see that the Eagles made it so difficult to move the football.
“No adjustments,” he said. “We just didn’t really get ... Couldn't get any rhythm going. We had a couple mishaps and a couple times were behind the chains once or twice. We really couldn’t get in rhythm then at the end of the first half, and then in the second half, we really couldn’t finish with points. That was the biggest issue.”
Jackson, who finished 23 of 36 for 237 yards, two TD passes, plus eight carries for 79 yards, said he thought the offense did have rhythm…at least at first.
“I believe we did, man,” said Jackson, who was sacked three times, hit six more. “At the beginning of the game, when we first got out there, I believe we were hitting on all cylinders.
“Then the drive, the fumbled snap mishap, that’s kind of when we started messing up, right then and there.
“We have to just stay on task and just play our ball, just play how we play. That was a pretty good team, don’t get me wrong, but I felt like we left stuff out there. We should have put more points on the board. We shouldn’t have even put ‘Tuck’ in those kinds of situations, but it’s football. Everything is not going to go right.”
A WORD FROM HURTS - HIS FOURTH QUARTER DRIVE PRETTY MUCH SEALED THE DEAL
Jalen Hurts finished 11 of 19 for 117 yards, a touchdown pass and zero turnovers.
He engineered a drive that went for just 25 yards but took up 11 plays and 5:08 of the clock and resulted in a 35-yard field goal that effectively won the game.
He was asked how he's he’s grown in the Eagles four-minute offense.
“I’ve grown in every experience I’ve had throughout the course of my career," Hurts said at his post game press conference. "That’s important, being able to grow in all these situations, assessing, having quality conversations about them, and then continue to move forward.
"We talk about four-minute situations. I’ve said it before, you look at games in the past, sometimes we cut it close when it wasn’t needed. We’ve given the other team an opportunity to make a play and then win the game, instead of ending it on our own terms.
"So, it’s a very important situation in the game, and obviously, being able to learn from experiences helps in my role. I give a lot of credit to how our O-line played in those moments, and how (Saquon Barkley) is persistent in getting downhill and kind of finishing.
"I see him on our team this year making a big impact in those moments, especially when you have to lean on him in the end of games when we’re up.”
SAQUON ASKED IF HE KNOWS HOW MUCH HIS BIGS ENJOY BLOCKING FOR HIM
“I don’t need them to tell me that,” said Barkley, who has rushed for 1,499 yards on 246 carries and 11 TDs after just 12 games. “I see it, and I know it just off the confidence that they have in me. You can see it on film, how those guys block. Or when I break a long run and everybody is like this. I feel bad sometimes that I let them down when I get tackled.
“So, that’s definitely the reason why when I break a long one, I try my best to find the end zone. But the same joy they have blocking for me is matched with the passion that I have playing for those guys. I want to be great and I want to make those plays because I know how special they are and how hard they work.
"Like I said, I’ve been getting a lot of love. But I couldn’t be the player that I am or make the plays that I’m making without those guys up front.”
NICK SIRANNI ON THE EAGLES COMING BACK FROM A 0-9 DEFICIT
“We’re a resilient team,” Sirianni said after the game. “But nine in the first quarter, there’s a lot of football left to play. So, resilient team. Done a lot of different things. We’re a determined team. I think that was noticeable all week, on how determined this football team is.
“When there could be distractions with holidays, and Thanksgiving is a great holiday, but it’s still a distraction in our eyes, at the beginning. We’ve enjoyed the rest of that day, but they were so locked into that.
“Then, it could be a distraction from coming back from an afternoon off. But these guys didn’t miss a beat. That really shows you the leadership of this football team. Just being locked in and being hungry, being humble, and this was a good win for us.
“It’s a good football team we just played with a lot of good players. I can’t tell you how much respect I have for their coaches, their coaching staff, both sides of the ball, special teams-wise, everything. Coach Harbaugh is a great coach. He’s been a great coach in this league for a long time. That was a good challenge. That’s a good win for us to go home with.”
LAST WORD FROM LANE JOHNSON
At this point of the 2023 season, the Birds were 10-2 and had started one of the worst collapses in franchise history. It was a humiliating crash that cost both coordinators their jobs and forced GM Howie Roseman to make several roster changes in the offseason.
All Pro right tackle Lane Johnson talked after the game about how the team should be careful about their approach over the last five games of the season, four at home.
“A lot of these guys maybe weren't on this team last year,” Johnson said at his locker after the game. “You want raise awareness so you don't fall in the trap of getting complacent.”
Johnson continued to reflect on the 2023 downfall.
“You can really find what a person is all about. We learned that last year.”
He said beating a team he has never defeated during his 12-year career is a good sign.
“We knew coming in it was going to be a tough job,” Johnson said. “We've always played them really well, but never got a win. I hope it's a good reminder that to stay focused, stay committed...that's how you win games.” *
Some stats from pro-football-reference.com.
Email Al Thompson at al.thompson@footballstories.com
Comentarios