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  • Temple tight end Peter Clarke’s size is creating an advantage in the passing game: ‘He’s hard to bring down’

    Temple tight end Peter Clarke’s size is creating an advantage in the passing game: ‘He’s hard to bring down’

    On the first offensive possession of the season, Temple faced second and 9 from Massachusetts’ 21-yard line, and offensive coordinator Tyler Walker buzzed down a play call to quarterback Evan Simon.

    The play, called “Buckeye,” sent tight end Peter Clarke down the seam on a double move matched up with a UMass safety. The ball from Simon, which he says was “really overthrown,” somehow found the outstretched right hand of Clarke, the 6-foot-6, 265-pound tight end.

    “You look at his height and weight, and [he’s] just a big target who really makes my job easier,” Simon said by telephone recently. “The missed throws, or whatever you want [to call them], inaccurate throws, they have a little more leeway with [his size].”

    Walker heavily featured his tight ends as Montana State’s offensive coordinator, and he brought the same mindset to the Owls. He recalls meeting Clarke, describing him as “big, athletic, can run and catch the ball well.”

    Clarke, a native of South London, went through the NFL Academy, a platform that helps international athletes learn football. He told Walker that he watched YouTube videos to learn the basics of football, drills, and highlights.

    “He’s got great ball skills, he’s super intelligent,” Walker said. “When he told me that he learned [football] through YouTube, I was surprised, because he’s got football feel that you see from kids who’ve been playing the game their whole life.”

    Philly emulates his home

    Clarke has put up career numbers through eight games in his junior season with 23 catches, 378 yards, and four touchdowns. He entered the season with just five catches and three touchdowns.

    Football began as a hobby for him in England, where he played five-on-five games in middle school before enrolling in the NFL Academy at 16. He equates the NFL Academy to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., with the way it “emulates a college football sort of atmosphere in terms of the intensity and the weight room, the attention to detail in the meetings, the time schedule of early mornings, late afternoons, and really playing on a bigger stage than just an average high school.”

    Temple tight end Peter Clarke runs with the football against Howard on Sept. 6.

    “The NFL Academy did a great job of preparing me just for the transition of how much time, effort and intensity you put into this thing,” Clarke said. “And then once I got here, I had great leaders in my room, people like [former Temple tight end David Martin-Robinson], who’s on the Titans now, to really show me what college football was about and how to live this life.”

    When it came to choosing his future college home, Clarke said the decision was simple.

    “I wanted to go to a school that emulated something of my home environment, London, in a big city, 10 million people. I come from a very, like, inner-city part of London,” Clarke said. “So I wanted to go to a school that was in a city and Temple being in the heart of North Philly, when I came on my visit, it felt like home.”

    Top-rated tight end

    Among the tight ends across 136 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, Clarke is rated No. 1, according to Pro Football Focus, with a 91.8 grade, more than four points higher than the next player.

    His value on the field has been apparent this season. Clarke averages the most yards per catch (16.4) on the team among players with five or more receptions. But his preparation is what separates him, tight ends coach Chris Zarkoskie said.

    “Since I got here, he’s been a kid who has a good skill set and can do a lot of different things, and a young man who works really hard and is ready when his opportunity comes, which is the thing I’m most proud of for him,” Zarkoskie said. “He takes pride in the whole body of work that it takes to be a tight end. And I think that he’s continuing to grow and evolve as a blocker, in-line and out in space.”

    Temple’s tight end corps has representation from three international players: Clarke, Ryder Kusch (Canada), and Daniel Evert (Germany). David Wise is from South Philly and Jake Woods is from California. Zarkoskie said getting to coach this diverse group “is the coolest part of the game that we coach.”

    Temple tight end Peter Clarke enters before a game against Miami at Lincoln Financial Field on Sept. 23, 2023.

    Clarke arrived at North Broad weighing 225 pounds and has filled out his frame. He said he relishes most in proving that he is more than a run blocker by doing “freakish stuff” in the passing game. Walker and Simon agree, and both detailed Clarke’s best play this season as a pass catcher.

    “If I had to pick one from this year so far, I think it would be against UTSA in the second half,” Simon said. “Our first drive in the third quarter, we refer to it as ‘the spark,’ and we went down, scored, and his catch over the middle with a linebacker right on him and safety over top that could have really taken his head off. He stuck in there, caught the ball.”

    Added Walker: “Evan put the ball in a window the size of a computer screen, and you saw Peter’s big mittens just coming out of the air and catching the ball above his head. And then on top of that, being able to get the yards after the catch and add on another 15 yards, his pure size, his pure mass. He’s hard to bring down. He’s a little more fluid than people would think, just based off his size.”

    Clarke added to his highlight reel with a career-long 50-yard reception during a 38-37 overtime win over Tulsa on Saturday. With one more win, Temple (5-3) will be bowl eligible for the first time since 2019. And you can bet Clarke will be in the middle of it all.

  • Are the refs now favoring the Eagles? Plus, the Birds’ red-zone success and a new Tush Push controversy

    Are the refs now favoring the Eagles? Plus, the Birds’ red-zone success and a new Tush Push controversy

    Here’s a novel thought:

    The refs are actually favoring the Eagles.

    After decades of paranoia and conspiracy theories that cast the Birds as victims of perceived favoritism shown to such rivals as the Cowboys, Patriots, and Chiefs, consider what happened for the Eagles on Sunday against the Giants. Honestly, no fan base feels persecuted more than the Eagles’, whose owner, Jeffrey Lurie, is still bitter about the obvious defensive holding call by James Bradberry that cost them a Super Bowl win three years ago.

    These days, things are skewing Philly.

    The NFL continues to allow the Eagles to run the Tush Push, but that play earned another strike against it when the owners meet next spring.

    Assuming a team introduces another proposal to ban the controversial short-yardage play — which has been assailed as an injury risk, which is ridiculous, and has been assailed as a penalty magnet, which is legitimate — Sunday’s debacle will add fuel to whatever fire remains from last spring’s 22-10 vote, which was two ballots shy of a ban.

    Facing fourth-and-1 at the Giants’ 11 early in the second quarter, Jalen Hurts and his line surged forward and Hurts peeled off slightly to the left. Floating on a sea of humanity, Hurts clearly never stopped moving toward the line to gain, and as he reached the ball forward, Giants linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux stripped him of the ball and recovered it.

    The play was not reviewable because forward progress is not a reviewable issue.

    The larger issue here is that officials don’t seem to be able to consistently rule correctly on a number of areas, among them: whether the defense moves too early; whether the defense lines up in the neutral zone; whether the offensive line moves early; or whether the offense lines up in the neutral zone.

    Sunday, they didn’t properly gauge forward progress, even with the runner in plain view.

    The final was 38-20, but the call was enormous in the context of the game. Instead of losing the ball to a Giants team that had just completed a 52-yard touchdown drive, the Eagles retained possession and scored a touchdown two plays later to make it 14-7.

    Can the return of Brandon Graham fill the leadership void on the Eagles defense?

    It was just the first seven-point swing the officials delivered to the home team.

    Early in the fourth quarter, with New York facing fourth-and-11 and trailing by 18, Giants receiver Darius Slayton and Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell engaged in routine hand-fighting during Slayton’s route. Slayton disengaged in a normal fashion, caught the pass, and romped for a 68-yard touchdown.

    But no.

    Slayton was called for offensive pass interference. Brutal call. In fact, a penalty probably should have been called on Mitchell.

    Instead of cutting the lead to 11, the Giants had to punt.

    The Eagles are tied for 11th in total penalties called, and they’re seventh in total penalty yards, but most of the calls are inarguable, and, objectively, they seem to be getting away with lots of shenanigans. This was true Sunday.

    Yes, the Eagles won by 18, and they dominated all day, but they were gifted that 14-point swing. These two were the kinds of crucial calls that the Eagles and other Chiefs opponents lately have claimed gave unfair advantage to Kansas City; the kinds of calls the Patriots under Bill Belichick seemed to get all the time; and the kinds of calls America’s Team has gotten for 50 years in Dallas.

    The Eagles are getting those calls now … right?

    The Giants agreed, at least for Sunday. Said Thibodeaux:

    “They said they called the forward progress before he reached the ball out. Sounds like some [B.S.] to me.”

    Me too.

    Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert scoring a fourth-quarter touchdown against the Giants.

    Seeing red with Goedert

    Under Nick Sirianni, the Eagles have never finished outside the top 10 in red-zone efficiency. But with the combination of Sirianni and offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, who had served as Sirianni’s passing-game coordinator the last four years, the Birds have never been better.

    The Eagles are 6-2 in large part because they’ve converted 17 of their 20 trips inside the opponents’ 20-yard line into touchdowns. That’s 85%, which is about 11 percentage points better than the Ravens’ rate last season, which is the best conversion rate by any team over an entire season since Sirianni arrived.

    Why are they so efficient?

    Because the Eagles have a spectacular offensive line; a strong, fast quarterback; a lethal play in the Tush Push; a superstar running back; two star receivers; and, for my money, the most important red-zone weapon: an elite tight end.

    Also: superb play-calling. Example:

    On second-and-8 from the Giants’ 17-yard line, Patullo called a run-pass option. Hurts kept it. At the same time, tight end Dallas Goedert swung from the left side of the line to the right, broke upfield, and was wide-open for a touchdown.

    So many moving parts worked in perfect synchronization. It was the Eagles’ prettiest play of the season.

    Kevin Patullo’s offense is finally rolling as Eagles head into bye week

    “Ultimately, Kevin has to call the plays that he feels give us the best chance to win there,” Sirianni said after the Eagles went 3-for-3 in the red zone on Sunday. “I think we’ve done a good job of being efficient down there, though. … We’ve kept the ball moving forward. Jalen’s played really good football down there, and Dallas has obviously been really good down there.”

    Goedert had two touchdown catches in Sunday’s win over the Giants. His seven TD catches are first among tight ends and already are a career high.

    “They’ve been letting me get the ball and use my big body,” Goedert said. “We can score in a lot of different ways.”

    He certainly can. His 35 touchdowncatches (including playoffs) in about 7½ seasons as an Eagle rank second among franchise tight ends behind Zach Ertz, who caught 40 (including playoffs) in about 8½ seasons.

    “He’s a hell of a player,“ Hurts said. ”He’s a big-time target and in a sense, he’s due. He’s due. He does a lot of dirty work in this offense.”

    It might be tough to call Goedert’s number with Hurts, running back Saquon Barkley, and receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, but the Eagles are winning because Goedert is finding the end zone more than anyone else under Patullo.

    “KP has a really good feel in the red zone,” said Hurts.

    So does DG.

    Mixed emotionals

    After being embarrassed by owner Woody Johnson, who said, “If we can just complete a pass, it would look good” after seven weeks of bad quarterback play, Jets quarterback Justin Fields played well Sunday in a comeback win over the Bengals.

    Fields had been benched at halftime the week before in favor of Tyrod Taylor, but Taylor’s bruised knee sidelined him Sunday and gave Fields another chance. Fields played well enough to win: 21-for-32, 244 yards, one touchdown. Afterward, during an emotional press availability, he admitted that the pressures of his turbulent career, culminating in Johnson’s criticisms, broke him down.

    “This week, I found myself in my closet, crying on the ground, laying down,” Fields said.

    As you might assume, Johnson, formerly Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, is not a pleasant bloke. In an annual survey conducted by the players’ association, his 2024 team gave his club the league’s only overall “F,” and his franchise has been a punch line for years.

    However, if Johnson’s cruel, candid, but ultimately accurate assessment of the quarterback play worked, well …

    Coach Shane Steichen’s Colts are 7-1.

    Extra points

    Shane Steichen, in his third year in Indianapolis, continued his romp to Coach of the Year honors when his Colts beat the Titans and moved to 7-1. Since becoming the Eagles’ OC in 2021, Steichen’s teams have been in the top 10 in rushing, with the Eagles finishing No. 1 in 2021. This year, behind league-leading running back Jonathan Taylor, the Colts rank sixth. … Right behind Steichen in the running for COY: Mike Vrabel, whose Patriots reached 6-2 with a win over the Browns. Second-year quarterback Drake Maye leads the NFL with a 118.7 passer rating. … In that game, Browns defensive lineman Myles Garrett recorded five sacks, bringing him to 10 for the season, tied for the league lead. … Aaron Rodgers failed to join Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Brett Favre, and Drew Brees as quarterbacks who have beaten all 32 teams when his Steelers lost to the Packers, the team that drafted him. … The Cowboys, with their No. 2-ranked offense and second-to-last defense, lost in Denver and fell to 3-4-1. That means the Eagles are the only team in the NFC East with a winning record — remarkable, since the division was considered one of the best before the season began.

  • At 20, BalletX is nowhere near done bringing the most exciting new ballet and choreography to Philly

    At 20, BalletX is nowhere near done bringing the most exciting new ballet and choreography to Philly

    In 2005, Christine Cox just wanted to hire exciting choreographers to make new work on dancers who, at the time, were mostly her friends and colleagues picking up extra work in their off time from Pennsylvania Ballet.

    She had little idea that she was creating a Philadelphia institution.

    “I was a really short-term planner,” said Cox, 56, whose contemporary ballet company, BalletX, is celebrating 20 years. “I just wanted to do the next right thing.”

    She tried selling the company to everybody, she said: “people sitting in a picnic at Rittenhouse Square, someone at a library, someone I met in an elevator. I literally had postcards in my back pocket.”

    Once at a fair on Walnut Street, she had her team blow up hundreds of BalletX balloons and hand them out. “And I’d see all these balloons, and it was so much work” said Cox. “But you know, we were as a team, doing anything we could to spread the word, and we still continue.”

    BalletX dancers, João Pedro Silva and Itzkan Barbosa rehearse.

    There was no way of knowing that the troupe she started with Matthew Neenan (who later left to devote his full attention to his choreography but continues to work frequently with BalletX) would one day employe 16 dancers for an almost unheard of 52-week contract with six weeks of paid vacation time and a matching 401(k). Or that they would tour, perform frequently at the Vail Dance Festival, and have regular home seasons in Philly.

    Cox would go on to commission 150 world premieres by 80 choreographers, launching some careers and bringing well-known dance makers to Philly.

    The best Philadelphia dance shows coming to Philadelphia this fall (and winter)

    BalletX will be celebrating its two decades with a pair of retrospective performances over the next two weeks at the Suzanne Roberts Theater. The first week will include excerpts of works Cox commissioned in the company’s first decade. The second will include excerpts from more recent works and then finish with a short world premiere by rehearsal director Keelan Whitmore.

    BalletX dancer Eileen Kim rehearses.

    In all, the performances will mark 18 new works BalletX commissioned, each in snippets of six minutes or less.

    Until relatively recently, Cox didn’t realize the success she had built.

    It took BalletX opening its own studio on Washington Street in 2018 for her to see it.

    “When I saw the looks on people’s faces around the country, like, ‘Oh, we just opened up our own studio.’ Especially when we were in New York City. Suddenly everyone took us a little bit more seriously.

    A home of one’s own is a rare success in the dance world.

    Choreographer, Marguerite Donlon, center, rehearses dancers for the company’s 20th anniversary retrospective.

    She is finally starting to have a longer vision and dream.

    “I am able to now say, ‘OK, I think this, this is possible.’ I always say it with hesitation, because that’s my nature, the balance between humility and confidence. It’s a fine balance. I’m also a little superstitious. I don’t want to be like, ‘We’ve got it all figured out,’ and then the next thing you know, you’re navigating out of a pandemic.”

    And yet, the COVID-19 pandemic also helped shape BalletX, which was one of the first and more successful companies to do work on camera. The company continues to feature short films in every performance and will do so for the retrospective, too.

    The first week’s performances will open the way BalletX launched: with the angel trio from Neenan’s Frequencies. The initial three dancers were Cox, Neenan, and Tara Keating, who is now the company’s associate artistic director.

    Ballet dancers rehearse for the company’s 20th anniversary retrospective.

    “It was a couple years after 9/11. The lyrics in the music, the whole piece was just unexpected to me. We ended with this beautiful trio of this really lightning, fast, energetic piece. Matt just was so bold and daring … he would take really into make really incredible choices that were not traditional. And I think that was really important in helping us define who we were.”

    The program will also include Still at Life, which introduced the now widely known choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa to American audiences. It will also include a piece by Edward Liang, the artistic director of Washington Ballet, along with work by Jodie Gates, Nicolo Fonte, and Jorma Elo.

    The second week will feature excerpts from Trey McIntyre’s Big Ones, which got BalletX featured on the cover of Dance Magazine. It also includes work by Jo Stromgren, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Dwight Rhoden, and Jennifer Archibald. It will also feature the work of former BalletX dancer Caili Quan who, after launching her career in Philly, went on to choreograph for some of the top American companies.

    At the end of the retrospective, Cox wants to launch BalletX into the future, with the world premiere of Whitmore’s work.

    “I thought it’s really important to really end the night on the second program with what we do, which is the future. You know, we’re creating work.”

    BalletX 20th anniversary retrospective. “Program A: The first decade,” Oct. 29-Nov. 2. “Program B: The second decade,” Nov. 5-9. Suzanne Roberts Theater. $65-$90, 215-225-5389 x250 or boxoffice@balletx.org

  • Jefferson Health says it will terminate Lehigh Valley Health Network’s contracts with UnitedHealthcare

    Jefferson Health says it will terminate Lehigh Valley Health Network’s contracts with UnitedHealthcare

    Jefferson Health says it will terminate Lehigh Valley Health Network’s contracts with UnitedHealthcare next year, stating United, the nation’s largest health insurer, is paying less than their negotiated rates, Jefferson said Monday.

    The contracts will remain in effect until Jan. 26 for Medicare Advantage patients and until April 25 for patients with commercial insurance through their employer. In the last 18 months, Lehigh Valley Health facilities treated 70,000 people with United insurance, Jefferson said.

    “Like all health systems, we are facing significant headwinds as costs rise faster than reimbursement,” Mark Whalen, Jefferson’s chief strategy and transformation officer, said in an email.

    “When reimbursement falls substantially below negotiated levels, it threatens our ability to fulfill our mission of providing exceptional care to all patients.”

    Whalen said Jefferson will continue working to secure a better deal with United, as it has for more than two years.

    United said in a statement that its most recent proposal went to Lehigh Valley in April. “We have yet to receive a counter proposal from the health system, whose last proposal was provided in December 2024 and included a near 30% price hike in the first year of our contract,” the statement said.

    Jefferson countered with a statement saying that its dealings with United are not part of a normal contract renegotiation. “This ongoing dispute is caused by United Healthcare’s implementation of a multiyear 30% price decrease that was not agreed to, not accepted and is not sustainable, Whalen said.

    The timing of the United announcement is noteworthy. Medicare Advantage open enrollment is underway until Dec. 7 for plans that take effect Jan. 1.

    The potential termination of United’s Medicare plans on Jan. 26 puts United’s customers who depend on Lehigh Valley for health services in a quandary. Should they stick with United or switch to another plan, such as those offered by Jefferson’s insurance arm?

    United said Jefferson’s decision to make its announcement during open enrollment looked like “a negotiating tactic.”

    The Minnesota company has about 27,500 Medicare Advantage enrollees in the main counties served by Lehigh Valley Health doctors, according to federal data from September.

    The impasse does not affect Philadelphia-area Jefferson patients with insurance from UnitedHealthcare.

    Insurance regulations require notice to patients before contracts end.

    In March, Jefferson went out-of-network with Cigna Health for a few weeks during a similar impasse in negotiations. Jefferson and Cigna quickly reached a deal after the termination.

  • Tracking the sharp drop in Philadelphia health systems’ operating margins after COVID-19

    Tracking the sharp drop in Philadelphia health systems’ operating margins after COVID-19

    The worst of the coronavirus pandemic that started nearly six years ago is well in the past, but Philadelphia’s biggest nonprofit health systems are still contending with the financial disruption unleashed by the virus that led to thousands of deaths in the area.

    Operating conditions for hospitals started improving in 2023, but “the slope of the recovery is a bit more shallow than a lot of health systems had planned for,” said Mark Pascaris, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, one of three major credit ratings agencies.

    Patients have returned, but the pandemic led to a resetting of expenses for labor and supplies at a higher level, Pascaris said. “That’s been the challenge over the last two or three or four years now, trying to manage through a very challenging expense situation,” he said.

    To show how the financial landscape has changed, The Inquirer compiled financial data for the region’s six biggest health systems that have fiscal years ending June 30 each year. The analysis compared average operating profits in three years before the pandemic (fiscal years 2017-19) to the results in most recent three years (fiscal years 2023-25).

    All six systems showed a substantial drop in a measure of earnings that excludes certain accounting expenses and interest costs. This slice of financial results is known as earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization. Abbreviated as EBIDA, it’s a primary indicator watched by influential credit ratings agencies.

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    The experience of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia clearly illustrates what has happened: The organization’s aggregate revenue in the most recent three fiscal years was 58% higher than it was in the three years that ended June 30, 2019, but its EBIDA climbed only by half a percentage point.

    “Hospitals and healthcare systems across the country continue to face significant headwinds, driven by reimbursement challenges, increased supply and labor costs, uncertain governmental pressures, and the continued ripple effect of the pandemic,” CHOP said in a statement.

    Officials at ChristianaCare, Main Line Health, and Temple University Health System echoed CHOP’s remark.

    “Margins were far better prior to the pandemic, largely due to lower supply and labor costs,” Main Line’s chief financial officer Leigh Ehrlich said. “Those costs rose sharply during the pandemic and continue to rise.”

    How an accounting change boosted one profit measure for three Philadelphia area health systems.

    ChristianaCare’s CFO Rob McMurray noted: Not only have Medicare and Medicaid rates not kept up with inflation, but more people have those government forms of insurance for people 65 and older and for low-income people.

    The nonprofit is expanding from its base in northern Delaware to Southeastern Pennsylvania and is expanding alternative formats, such as hospital-care-at-home and micro hospitals, to reduce costs, McMurray said.

    A significant worry for Temple University Health System is the impact of the 2025 budget reconciliation bill, sometimes called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The North Philadelphia nonprofit estimates that Medicaid cuts in that law will cost it $519 million over the next 10 years, said Jerry Oetzel, the system’s CFO.

  • The Eagles had two games to get themselves right before their bye. They did that and then some.

    The Eagles had two games to get themselves right before their bye. They did that and then some.

    It was just 17 days ago that the Eagles lost for the second straight time, lost to the New York Giants by 17 points at MetLife Stadium, lost in so humiliating a fashion that their All-Pro right tackle called out the play-calling as predictable and their star wide receiver admitted that with more than 11 minutes left in the game he had already resigned himself to defeat. It was bad.

    Two seasons before, it had been worse. Two seasons before, the Eagles had lost back-to-back games to the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, and those pathetic performances triggered the kind of midseason change that reveals a franchise’s leadership has started to panic. The defensive coordinator was demoted. A Bill Belichick acolyte was promoted. And what began as a pebble rolling down a hill turned into an avalanche: six losses in seven games, a head coach whose job was in jeopardy, a collapse whose psychological residue remained on this team for a long time.

    Grading the Eagles’ win over the New York Giants

    Maybe, after their 38-20 victory Sunday in their rematch against the Giants, the Eagles can assure everyone that they’ve scraped away the last of that sticky stuff from 2023. Their Super Bowl win in February took care of most of it, but burping up that late lead against the Denver Broncos on Oct. 5 and getting manhandled by Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo four days later brought up all those bad memories again. The Eagles were 4-2 but reeling, still formidable but vulnerable, and it was fair to wonder whether they could straighten themselves out over their two games before their bye week.

    They did. They won a challenging road game against the Minnesota Vikings, then handled an inferior opponent Sunday. Now they enter their 15-day break with a 6-2 record, with a stranglehold on the NFC East, and — despite several injuries to key players, despite the ever-present mist of controversy around A.J. Brown — without the worry that their season was spiraling out of control.

    “I don’t think from an inside perspective there was ever any like, ‘Oh man, this is like ’23,’” coach Nick Sirianni said. “You know what I mean? But were there lessons learned in ’23? Absolutely. We continue to try to learn lessons from ’24 and ’25.

    “I always like our process off of a bye week and during a bye week. That’s my job as a coach. We’ve still got a lot of things to fix and clean up, but that’s what this week will be about: the players resting, looking at stuff themselves, and then us really grinding it out this week to put ourselves in a position to move on through the rest of the season.”

    Eagles defense shows ‘sense of pride’ and wins physicality battle

    It would be easy to argue that the Eagles are mentally tougher now than they were then; that they have a more talented, more cohesive collection of players; that Sirianni is a better head coach with a better coaching staff; that Jalen Hurts is a better quarterback. All those assertions are true, but they can feel intangible and opaque. The explanations for why a team regresses (as the Eagles did late in the 2023 season), improves (as they did in 2024), or stabilizes itself (as they’ve done over their last two games) often come down to the schematic and tactical adjustments that the team tries to make. They come down to concrete changes in the way the team does things.

    Take one example that went awry. When the Eagles decided in December ‘23 that they needed a new defensive coordinator, when they replaced Sean Desai with Matt Patricia, they failed to take a vital factor into consideration. Patricia’s defensive scheme was a lot of things, but simple wasn’t one of them, and there was little chance that the players would learn it well enough in time to thrive within it.

    “I still remember we used to come in here before games, and he’d have an entire greaseboard — it looked like a 15-foot-long greaseboard — and the entire thing was written up with all the calls,” Eagles center Brett Toth said after Sunday’s game. “And to see that, it’s like, ‘Wow.’ That’s tough on anyone to try to switch to midseason.

    “It’s a very hybrid defense. Anything with the Patriots is going to be very complex, high-IQ stuff. To have to learn and install that in the middle of the season, it’s a huge ask. This is chess. Football is 11-man chess.”

    Kevin Patullo’s offense is finally rolling as Eagles head into bye week

    Now take another, more recent, more successful example: the Eagles’ use, at long last, of under-center snaps and play-action passes. There’s no getting around the fact that their offense has been more dynamic overall — and their running game back to its old dominant self against the Giants — partially because putting Hurts under center allows Kevin Patullo to call a wider variety of plays. They didn’t have to rewrite the playbook. A new wrinkle was all they needed.

    “It’s not necessarily that you stick a guy under the center or you’re playing from the shotgun or you’re in a pistol,” said Hurts, who over his last two games has completed 34 of his 43 passes for 505 yards and seven touchdowns. “It’s about what you’re doing when you’re under center, how we’re leveraging what we do, how we’re leveraging the guys, what spots are we putting guys in when we’re in these different positions. We just want to continue to build off it.”

    Seventeen days ago, the idea that the Eagles would be building off anything heading into their bye seemed tenuous at best. The defending champs had staggered. The Giants had embarrassed them. And the memory of that awful ending to 2023 was fresh again. Now? It seems deeper in the distance, and they have a chance to make sure it stays there.

  • No, the Eagles aren’t better without A.J. Brown, but for one game they were

    No, the Eagles aren’t better without A.J. Brown, but for one game they were

    A.J. Brown stood on the sideline with a kelly green hoodie pulled over his head, which was also wrapped in a towel. The Eagles led the New York Giants, 31-13, late in the fourth quarter, despite the absence of their No. 1 wide receiver.

    But it wasn’t the passing game, nor Brown’s replacements, that had the offense looking its most efficient this season. It was the resurrection of running back Saquon Barkley and the ground attack that carried the torch.

    Eagles receivers other than DeVonta Smith had just one catch for 3 yards by the time quarterback Jalen Hurts dropped back on third-and-6 with just over six minutes remaining. But Hurts went to Jahan Dotson even though he had no separation against man coverage, on the type of jump ball that Brown has mastered the art of catching.

    And he’d probably like to see Hurts throw to him more often.

    David Murphy: Sad sack Giants lost this one before it started. Next time, don’t poke the bear (or Saquon)

    But Dotson was the target on this 50-50 opportunity, and he made the best of it, hauling in the 40-yard heave for a touchdown. Brown, out with a hamstring injury, raised his right arm and pumped his fist. He hung back near the bench reserved for receivers and greeted Dotson with a smile and a handshake after his score.

    “It’s tough when you’re missing not only the best receiver on your team, but one of the best receivers in the league,” Dotson said of Brown, who missed his first game of the season. “We have this motto in our room: There’s no drop-off, no matter who goes out there.”

    Make no mistake, the Eagles need Brown if they are to make a deep postseason run and repeat as Super Bowl champions. Sunday’s lopsided 38-20 win might suggest otherwise, because a balanced offense scored its most points and gained its most yards.

    But the Giants offered the perfect remedy. They had embarrassed the Eagles just 17 days earlier, but a perfect storm of a short turnaround following a choke job to the Denver Broncos, untimely injuries, and an offense still wandering in the identity wasteland contributed to an uncharacteristic loss.

    The Eagles should have taken advantage of the Giants’ run defense deficiencies in the first meeting. They got behind, and Hurts and the drop-back passing game couldn’t compensate. But Eagles coaches wanted to establish the run two weeks later, and Barkley’s 65-yard touchdown dash on the second play from scrimmage meant they could stick with it and open the playbook.

    A diversity of run calls and directions — and even personnel — helped spring Barkley for 150 rushing yards on 14 carries and reserve Tank Bigsby for 104 yards on just nine carries.

    Eagles grades: Saquon Barkley leads revived running game and defensive line dominates Giants in blowout win

    “That’s my all-time favorite way to win,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said during his postgame speech in the home locker room at Lincoln Financial Field.

    It was a vintage performance in a Sirianni era full of rushing records. The Eagles’ 276 yards on the ground ranked second in the last five years (behind 363 yards vs. the Green Bay Packers in 2022) and their 8.4 yards per carry were first over that span (ahead of an 8.2 average against the Giants, also in 2022).

    Sirianni’s Eagles with Hurts at quarterback are normally at their best when the run offense is humming. He was never going to abandon the cause with Barkley as his bell cow and the offensive line, despite injuries, superior to most.

    But Brown’s absence, at least for one week, allowed the Eagles to focus more on getting Barkley back on track. It meant having one less potent mouth to feed in the pass offense, but also one that can be vocal about his hunger.

    “Obviously, any time you lose a player like A.J. for a game, it changes some things as far as how you go about putting guys in different positions,” Sirianni said. “But if you have faith in the guys that you have that are backing him up, whether that’s receiver or O-line, you’ve still [got to] go about doing what they can do the best, but also putting them in a position to make plays.”

    Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 179 yards and four touchdowns on Sunday against the Giants.

    Hurts still dropped back to throw. But Smith was far and away his primary target, catching six of nine passes for 84 yards. Barkley was next with four grabs, with one coming on the oft-neglected screen pass. Tight end Dallas Goedert had three receptions with two resulting in red zone touchdowns.

    Overall, Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 179 yards and four touchdowns. There were still struggles against pressure and four sacks that appeared to fall on him more than anyone else. But it was a methodical day after an explosive aerial showing against the Minnesota Vikings last week.

    Marcus Hayes: ‘KP was just dying on the cross for us.’ Kevin Patullo’s offense is finally rolling as Eagles head into bye week

    “It’s definitely a different rhythm, because you get a flow of playing with A.J. and Smitty and Dallas and you have your crew,” Hurts said, before adding: “But when we are able to run the ball like we did, it creates more of a balance and free will of how we attack people.”

    Aside from three victory-formation kneels, and one Tush Push, the run-pass ratio was an equal 50-50. Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo had maybe his best play-calling day, and mixed in variety with Hurts under center, run-pass options, and outside runs on gap schemes.

    Offensive linemen Landon Dickerson and Jordan Mailata said the game plan called for more diversity in the running game. Sirianni countered that claim. “That doesn’t mean we haven’t had them in,” he said.

    Whatever the case, not getting to them before required patience from Barkley and the O-line after weeks of frustration.

    “I think it’s just being professional,” Barkley said of finally breaking loose. “Knowing that every week’s not going to be how you learn to be sometimes, but you can’t lose faith.”

    Eagles defense shows ‘sense of pride’ and wins physicality battle this time vs. Giants

    It could be a lesson for Brown, who has expressed his disappointment with the passing offense, both publicly in interviews and cryptically on social media. Few have objected when he has stood in front of microphones and, in so many words, said he wants the ball. He should. He’s one of the best receivers in the NFL.

    Even his post on X after the Tampa Bay Bucs game last month — when he quoted Scripture about not being listened to — was understood by many because he and Hurts had mainly failed to hook up in Tampa.

    But Brown’s most recent post — “using me but not using me” — after he caught four passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns in Minnesota probably took whatever discontent he may have to uncharted territory within the Eagles organization.

    Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, shown before his team’s win on Sunday, is unlikely to move A.J. Brown ahead of next week’s trade deadline.

    He is well-liked in the locker room, by the coaching staff, and the front office. But every player is expendable. The Eagles are unlikely to trade Brown ahead of next Tuesday’s deadline. There’s an astronomical dead-money hit, and Howie Roseman would need blockbuster compensation to even consider it.

    The Eagles general manager also isn’t known for trading players in their prime who are crucial to winning titles. Brown may not be pleased with whomever — most likely, Hurts — but it makes little sense for him to want to be moved. At least now.

    Sielski: The Eagles had two games to get themselves right before their bye. They did that and then some.

    Hurts, to his credit, went out of his way to praise the receiver several times during his Wednesday news conference last week. But it would behoove the quarterback to make Brown happy on the field and off. His success raises all ships.

    “I think the best is yet to come,” Hurts said when asked about Sunday’s run offense explosion.

    He sounds like he knows something. Getting Brown more involved would help.

  • Sad-sack Giants lost this one before it started. Next time, don’t poke the bear (or Saquon)

    Sad-sack Giants lost this one before it started. Next time, don’t poke the bear (or Saquon)

    Two weeks ago, Brian Daboll stood in front of his locker room and labeled a blowout win over the Eagles as “The Standard.”

    Since then, the Giants head coach has become reacquainted with The Usual.

    The Eagles accomplished their biggest objective on Sunday afternoon. It was to leave no doubt. Jaxson Dart would not be high-fiving any referees. Kayvon Thibodeaux would not be telling anybody to “[bleep] the Eagles.” And the Giants social media team most definitely would not be sharing any victorious videos of Daboll making grandiose proclamations to his players.

    Eagles grades: Saquon Barkley leads revived running game and defensive line dominates Giants in blowout win

    “For sure, we definitely saw how they celebrated when they beat us last time,” running back Saquon Barkley said after his 65-yard touchdown run on the second play from scrimmage catapulted the Eagles to a 38-20 win on Sunday.

    It is never wise to poke the bear, but it is especially unwise to poke the bear when you know you will be seeing the bear again in 17 days. If you are going to do it, you’d better pack some extra whistles. Or, failing that, some A.1.

    What the Giants seem to have forgotten is that they are not a good football team. In fact, they are the kind of football team that makes a sport of their not being good. Ten days after they stunned the Eagles with a 34-17 rout on Thursday Night Football, they raced out to a 19-point lead over the Broncos and then allowed 25 points in the last six minutes to lose, 33-32. It takes a special team to lose a game in that fashion. But, then, the Giants are a special team. They lose games the way Bob Ross painted pictures. With breathtaking creativity and speed.

    On Sunday, the movable object met the unstoppable force. The Eagles came out in their kelly green uniforms and they did it in vintage fashion. On their second play of the game, the offensive line opened up a weakside lane so wide that Barkley and Tank Bigsby both could have run through it. Never has a 65-yard touchdown looked so inevitable. Nor did the 189 yards that followed from Barkley and Bigsby. After the game, more than one Eagles offensive lineman noted how good the Giants’ front four was. You got the sense that they were noting it with glee.

    ‘KP was just dying on the cross for us.’ Kevin Patullo’s offense is finally rolling as Eagles head into bye week

    “We came in, we made the adjustments based off of what they gave us the last game, and we called plays to win,” guard Landon Dickerson said.

    The rest of the NFC can blame the Giants if this was the game in which the Eagles truly got their groove back. They entered Week 8 having gone five straight weeks without breaking 90 yards rushing. Not once had they reached 400 total yards of offense. On Sunday, they finished with 276 and 427. Barkley and Bigsby both cracked 100 yards and averaged 10-plus yards per carry. This, on an afternoon when Jalen Hurts threw four touchdown passes.

    “For us, it wasn’t about a weight being lifted off our shoulders,” said left tackle Jordan Mailata. “We just wanted to be the more physical team. It didn’t matter what it looked like.”

    It shouldn’t surprise anybody at this point.

    The Eagles have won a lot of games over the last four years by rag-dolling opponents, often saving their best for teams that have previously offended their sensibilities. We saw it in last year’s NFC championship game, when they road-graded the Commanders for 229 yards on the ground one month after Washington handed them one of their three regular-season losses. We saw it in last year’s Super Bowl, when they avenged their last-second loss two years earlier, to an extent that was almost uncomfortable.

    Give the Giants credit. They are a more competitive team than they have been throughout most of Daboll’s tenure at the helm. For all of Dart’s weird Gen-Z energy, he clearly has the touch and poise that can win behind a competent offensive line. Rival NFL general managers should take notice if Act I ends up going the way of Baker Mayfield in Cleveland. He has a keen sort of talent that cannot be measured or quantified, although it probably cannot make up for wholesale dysfunction around him. You saw it even on Sunday, when he kept the Giants within striking distance despite relentless pressure and a no-name receiving corps and a gruesome injury to running back Cam Skattebo.

    Eagles defense shows ‘sense of pride’ and wins physicality battle this time vs. Giants

    But the Eagles are operating on a different level. It is easy to lose sight of that fact given that they are operating on a lesser level than last season. The last couple of weeks have left little doubt, though. At 6-2 headed into the bye, they remain the most complete team in the NFC.

    More than anything, Sunday’s win was a reminder that rumors of Barkley’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Even after his 65-yard touchdown run, the veteran running back gained 85 yards on his last 13 carries before leaving the game with what was labeled a groin injury but mostly was precaution.

    “I wasn’t worried about it,” Barkley said. “I came off, but I’ve dealt with this before. Nothing crazy. It’s a long season. I try my best to listen to the trainers, listen to the coaches.”

    Did he fight to go back in?

    “I went out swinging,” he said. “Let’s say that.”

    With these Eagles, you wouldn’t expect anything else.

  • Eagles grades: Saquon Barkley leads revived running game and defensive line dominates Giants in blowout win

    Eagles grades: Saquon Barkley leads revived running game and defensive line dominates Giants in blowout win

    Instant grades on the Eagles’ performance in their 38-20 win over the New York Giants:

    Quarterback: A

    Jalen Hurts was efficient through the air, but also with his pre-snap reads in managing the return of the Eagles’ potent running game. He completed 15 of 20 passes for 179 yards and four touchdowns. The exclamation point came on a 40-yard jump ball that wide receiver Jahan Dotson pulled in for a fourth-quarter score.

    Hurts’ first touchdown pass came vs. a Giants blitz. He got his “hot” route — an uncovered Saquon Barkley — and the running back sashayed into the end zone for a 9-yard score. Hurts struggled vs. a third-down blitz a drive later, though, and was sacked.

    Hayes: Kevin Patullo used Saquon Barkley and the running game properly and now the Eagles offense is clicking

    The Eagles stayed committed to having Hurts under center, and he continued his success off play-action with a 26-yard hookup with DeVonta Smith in the first quarter. After a few weeks in which he didn’t run or scramble much, Hurts had his running shoes on. He converted a fourth down and nearly a long third down with scrambles in the first half.

    Backup Tanner McKee took snaps in mop-up duty.

    Running back: A

    The return of the running game led to both Saquon Barkley and Tank Bigsby rushing for over 100 yards in a game — the first time an Eagles running back duo did so since LeSean McCoy and Bryce Brown in Week 16 of the 2013 season against the Chicago Bears.

    Barkley went over the century mark for the first time this season with 14 carries for 150 yards. Barkley finally broke through for one of his patented home runs on his first touch of the game. He cut back against the grain, zipped through a hole, and took it to the house for a 65-yard touchdown.

    A greater variety of run calls helped Barkley. The outside runs were effective, particularly on gap scheme blocking. He picked up 10 and 28 yards on two such examples. Barkley injured his groin on a 28-yard rush late in the third quarter and didn’t return, likely out of precaution. He also caught four passes for 24 yards, including what felt like his first screen pass in ages and, later, a 9-yard touchdown.

    Bigsby was second up again, and on his first carry, he bounced an under-center handoff outside for an 18-yard rush. With Barkley sidelined, he converted a second-and-26 with a 29-yard gain in which he broke a tackle. All told, Bigsby rushed nine times for 104 yards.

    Will Shipley was held to 2 yards on three totes. AJ Dillon was active but didn’t play on offense. His spot on the 53-man roster could be in jeopardy.

    Receiver/tight end: B+

    Don’t let anyone fool you, the Eagles are better with A.J. Brown than without. With the No. 1 receiver out with a hamstring injury, others aside from DeVonta Smith needed to step up.

    On “National Tight Ends Day,” Dallas Goedert beat a safety on a 6-yard slant before the break for a career-best sixth touchdown of the season. Goedert grabbed his seventh in the fourth quarter on an option play in which Smith’s rub route freed the tight end for a walk-in 17-yard touchdown.

    Saquon Barkley and the Eagles run all over the Giants to head into the bye 6-2

    Jahan Dotson was targeted only twice, but he made the best on Hurts’ 40-yard heave. Darius Cooper, activated after a stint on injured reserve, often was the third blocking receiver on running downs in 11 personnel. He drew a pass interference penalty in the third quarter.

    Smith was Hurts’ favorite target, as he’s been over the last month. He caught 6 of 9 targets for 84 yards.

    Offensive line: A-

    The much maligned and banged up O-line delivered the type of performance it is known for with great run blocking and solid pass protection. Center Brett Toth got the job done in place of the injured Cam Jurgens (knee). Toth had a kick-out block on an outside gap scheme run that sprung Barkley for 10 yards. The Eagles went back to it late in the third quarter and Toth led the way on Barkley’s 28-yard run.

    Toth’s false start in the first quarter ruled out a fourth down go-for-it try. The additional 5 yards also tacked yardage onto the field-goal attempt, which was missed.

    Guards Tyler Steen and Landon Dickerson opened various lanes on inside runs but also got to the edge and helped on outside rushes. Dickerson had some rumbling, bumbling blocks on outside runs. The same could be said for tackles Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata. Johnson’s holding penalty brought back a 15-yard pass over the middle to Smith in the first quarter.

    The O-line has struggled vs. five- and six-man fronts all season. But with Fred Johnson lined up at tight end, the Eagles had six blockers vs. the Giants’ five, and each one handled his one-on-one on Barkley’s house call.

    Eagles linebacker Jalyx Hunt sacks Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, his first of the season.

    Defensive line: A

    The Eagles’ pass rush showed teeth and kept the elusive Jaxson Dart in the pocket, especially once the trailing Giants were forced to drop back their rookie quarterback. They finished with a season-high five sacks.

    Defensive tackle Jalen Carter, who was held out of the first game vs. the Giants, picked up his first sack of the season. He received assistance from good man coverage downfield.

    Outside linebacker Jalyx Hunt brought energy off the edge from the jump. He notched an early run stop and dropped Dart from behind on a scramble that netted just a yard. Hunt picked up his first sack of the season on a third down in the red zone in the third quarter. Defensive tackle Jordan Davis cleaned up for a sack on a failed run-pass option play in the second quarter. Moro Ojomo was credited with a sack.

    The Giants were dealt a blow when rookie running back Cam Skattebo suffered a gruesome ankle injury in the second quarter. The Eagles were more stout against the run than they were in the first meeting, as New York running backs averaged 3.4 rushing yards.

    Patrick Johnson’s rush off the edge forced Dart to step up into the waiting arms of Hunt. Johnson slipped when he dropped to cover Skattebo out of the backfield, and the running back caught an 18-yard touchdown pass for the Giants’ first points.

    Eagles defense shows ‘sense of pride’ and wins physicality battle

    Linebacker: B+

    Nakobe Dean played most of the snaps at inside linebacker ahead of rookie Jihaad Campbell. He had a run stop near the line of scrimmage in the second quarter. Dean trailed Devin Singletary on a wheel route that went for a 28-yard completion on a third down in the third quarter.

    The return of Dean has allowed Zack Baun to play to his freelancing strengths. He led the Eagles with six tackles and had a sack and another tackle for loss. Baun was late to account for Tyrone Tracy out of the backfield on a third-down conversion in the second quarter. But a few plays later, he broke up the pass to Skattebo on the play on which the running back got hurt.

    Campbell played on the edge in base sets. He finished with a relatively quiet two tackles.

    Cornerback: A-

    Kelee Ringo was the outside cornerback opposite Quinyon Mitchell in nickel personnel. Adoree’ Jackson was out with a concussion. Ringo didn’t allow his man to break free after Dart escaped out of the pocket on a third down in the third quarter. Mitchell locked down his side of the field and had a pass breakup on a deep shot.

    Cooper DeJean was outstanding in coverage and run support. He slashed into the backfield and dropped Tracy for a loss in the third quarter. DeJean was in coverage when Darius Slayton caught a short pass and turned upfield untouched for an 18-yard gain. DeJean blitzed off the edge and thwarted a run-pass option attempt in the second quarter.

    Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell breaks up a pass intended for Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton during the second quarter.

    Safety: B+

    Drew Mukuba had a solid bounce-back outing and didn’t allow Dart to beat him over the top. He had a couple of stops. Reed Blankenship struggled at times. He got beat by tight end Daniel Bellinger for a 21-yard reception in the second quarter. Blankenship appeared a touch late on a third-down throw over the middle in the third quarter.

    Special teams: B+

    The Eagles entered the game last in the NFL in defense-adjusted value over average on kick returns. But Will Shipley had a 41-yard kickoff return — the team’s longest of the season — in the first quarter. He had a 32-yard return after dodging a few would-be tacklers a quarter later.

    Xavier Gipson handled punt-return duties for the first time with Dotson’s increased role on offense and had a 17-yard return. Punter Braden Mann booted a 57-yarder with no return and flipped the field in the second quarter.

    Kicker Jake Elliott missed his second straight field goal dating back to last week when he doinked a 58-yard try off the right upright in the first quarter. He otherwise was perfect, connecting on a 40-yard field goal and five extra points.

    Jaxson Dart get his flowers, Tom Brady’s flub, and more from the Eagles-Giants broadcast

    Coaching: A-

    Coach Nick Sirianni has the Eagles 6-2 heading into the bye. It’s been an occasional slog, and it’s not as if the Giants are, well, giants, but he has his team playing its best football.

    Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo dialed up perhaps his best game since becoming the play-caller. His excellent play calling in the red zone continued. The Eagles have converted 17 of 20 (85%) possessions inside the 20 this season.

    Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts talks to Nick Sirianni (center) and Kevin Patullo during the second quarter of Sunday’s game.

    He opened the drive before the half with a dollop of outside runs — the first to the right, the second to the left, and then lastly one up the middle — which opened up the pass.

    The Eagles still had issues against the blitz and simulated pressures.

    Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio‘s unit contained Dart and until a late, meaningless touchdown held the Giants to 13 points. His simulated blitz call — which put Patrick Johnson in a tough spot — resulted in Skattebo’s 18-yard touchdown catch.

  • ‘KP was just dying on the cross for us.’ Kevin Patullo’s offense is finally rolling as Eagles head into bye week

    ‘KP was just dying on the cross for us.’ Kevin Patullo’s offense is finally rolling as Eagles head into bye week

    It took a few weeks with the new coordinator, but he figured it out, and the offense started producing.

    A few months later, the Eagles won Super Bowl LIX.

    That was last year.

    Kellen Moore introduced a radically new scheme. It took five weeks, give or take, for the Eagles to work out the kinks, and Moore was criticized the entire time. That was with a relatively stable roster, especially along the offensive line. The offense developed a run-first personality, emphasized ball security, beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, and earned Moore the head coaching job in New Orleans.

    Grading the Eagles’ win over the New York Giants

    Fast-forward a few months, and no one in the Eagles organization took more heat over the first seven weeks than Kevin Patullo, Moore’s successor and head coach Nick Sirianni’s longtime majordomo.

    Patullo has never been a coordinator before and inherited much of Moore’s simple scheme and elite personnel, but that personnel did not practice together even once for the entirety of training camp. Eight games into the season, the same five offensive linemen have not started and finished two games in a row.

    “You need continuity,” left tackle Jordan Mailata insisted.

    Excuses? Maybe.

    Explanations? Definitely.

    Eagles running back Saquon Barkley scores a touchdown on a 65-yard run in the first quarter against the Giants.

    At any rate, Patullo’s offense averaged 23.6 points in the first six games of the season. After Sunday’s 38-20 win against the Giants, it is averaging 33.0 points in the last two games.

    Moore’s offense averaged just 21.2 points through the first five games last season. It takes offenses time to synchronize.

    “There’s always a period of trying to figure things out,” said quarterback Jalen Hurts, who has now had five offensive coordinators in six NFL seasons.

    “Yeah,” said left guard Landon Dickerson, “remember last year, our start, and everyone wanted Kellen Moore fired?”

    Then, Moore’s offense synchronized.

    With the Eagles entering the bye week with a 6-2 record, consider Patullo’s offense synchronized. The guys finally get it. He’s a bit scarred, but he’s still standing.

    “What Kevin’s done a really good job of is being able to block out anything that can be a distraction to him and working like crazy to put himself in the best position to call the best game that he can each week, regardless of what’s going on,” said Sirianni, himself a weary recipient of the fury of this impatient fan base.

    “We knew KP was getting a chunk of the blame, but we knew, as a locker room, it was us,” Mailata said. “KP was just dying on the cross for us.”

    He’s been resurrected.

    This looks like an offense with a plan and a direction.

    Even more significantly, over the last two weeks, incorporating under-center snaps, play-action, and run-pass option, it looks like an unpredictable, diverse offense.

    Perhaps most significantly, it scored 38 points and produced four touchdown passes without the services of perpetual malcontent A.J. Brown, the best and least mollified receiver in franchise history. Brown missed the game with a mysterious hamstring injury. (Also, on social media, he repeatedly has hinted that he would like to be traded. The Eagles have a bye next week. The trade deadline is Nov. 4, which means missing Sunday’s game ensured that Brown would not incur further(?) injury by sitting out. But that’s a different discussion.)

    Eagles defense shows ‘sense of pride’ and wins physicality battle this time vs. Giants

    It’s foolish to think the offense, despite Sunday’s success, would be better without Brown. It’s wiser to admit that, with Brown, Sunday would have been even better, after seven weeks of twists and tweaks.

    “You realize what you’re bad at, what you’re good at, and where you need to help,” Mailata said. “Kevin’s doing a great job of adapting play calling to, you know, guys we have available and teams we’re playing.”

    He pointed to the plays on which Fred Johnson reported as an extra tackle, the first two of which resulted in a 65-yard touchdown run for Saquon Barkley, then an 18-yard run for Tank Bigsby. Patullo also called passing plays on two of Johnson’s insertions.

    Tight end Dallas Goedert celebrates with Eagles fans after his second touchdown catch of the game on Sunday.

    The Eagles also increased their league lead in red-zone efficiency, now at 85% after scoring touchdowns on all three trips inside the Giants’ 20-yard line.

    Sunday proved that the offense can be dominant; at least, it can be dominant against a plucky, inconsistent Giants team that fell to 2-6. It clearly built on a similarly competent performance in Minneapolis the previous week against a Vikings club that was 3-2 entering the game.

    In that game, Hurts compiled a perfect 158.3 passer rating, with 326 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. It was the best game of his career as a passer.

    Jaxson Dart get his flowers, Tom Brady’s flub, and more from the Eagles-Giants broadcast

    Sunday, Hurts’ rating was 141.5, with 179 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions. It was the second-best day of his career as a passer.

    Two weeks ago, the Eagles were concerned that Patullo’s offense might never jell. Now they can breathe easier during their week off.

    “Sense of relief, yeah,” Mailata said. “I think it does help with the confidence going into the bye week, that we’ve strung along two great games — one game dominant passing, and then the next game dominant in the run game.”

    On Sunday the passing was easier partly because the Giants’ secondary was thinned by injury and partly because the Eagles’ running game erupted.

    Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts talks with Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart (left) after the game at the Linc.

    Barkley’s first touch, the second play of the game, was that 65-yard touchdown run. He finished with 150 rushing yards, more than any other two games combined this season. Barkley suffered a minor groin injury, which gave more touches to Bigsby, who gained 104 yards, the second-best total of his career.

    The running game produced a total of 276 yards, almost 120 more yards than the Eagles’ previous season high and the first time in five weeks they broke the 100-yard mark.

    Can the return of Brandon Graham fill the leadership void on the Eagles defense?

    Again, they did it without Brown, one of their more potent weapons in history. They did it with Brett Toth starting his first NFL game at center, where he is replacing Pro Bowler Cam Jurgens. They did it against a Giants team that dominated them in East Rutherford just over two weeks ago.

    How’d ya’ll do it, Jalen?

    Same as every year:

    “Just got to be persistent.”