The Good, The Bad, and not much Ugly
A bit late with our first ever Eagles post-game recap. But writing about game 1 after a week has given us time to digest the game and give perspective. As the title of this post suggests, the Eagles in this game, game 1 of the 2024 season had some good, some bad, but not much ugly. Which might not sound like it, but it says a lot. I’ll start with the not much ugly.
It felt good to see the team play competent football again. After how last year ended – the last month and a half or so of last season the Eagles looked like possibly the worst team in football and most players at one point or another looked like they had no idea what they were doing. I did not see any of that in this game, and yes that include Jalen Hurts bone headed interceptions. The offense moved the ball consistently, scored 34 points, had big plays, looked relatively balanced between running and passing, and incorporated the long-awaited pre-snap motion. The defense looked good early. The offense gave the ball up 3 times and the defense only allowed 9 points on those 3 turnovers. That is HUGE. And yes, they also gave up some big plays and allowed 29 points. But that was against a team many pick to go to the super bowl and against a young QB who many are saying is the next big thing, a possibly MVP this year and blah blah blah. So, week 1, the birds did not look perfect, but both offense and defense did things that contributed to the win and bet a good team.
Now let’s get to the good. Saquon Barkley. For a team that has shown little interest in investing in the RB position, I am still in shock they made this move. But damn am I happy they did. He is dynamic, a game changer and something this offense really needed after last seasons atrocious ending. Yes, we already had plenty of play makers, but more then anything we needed a jolt of life. And let’s not forget, most teams around the league are loading up on offense with playmakers. Miami, San Fran, KC, Cincinnati. Most of the top tier teams have at the least 2 legitimate playmakers that make things easier for the QB. But if you really get into it, they all have 3 or at least HAD 3. But I won’t get into that here. And I’m just going on about that because when it come to the Eagles people like to act like it’s a bad thing to have playmakers. It’s what most teams dream of and are trying to do. We’ve just done it better then most. But anyway, Saquon looked great in this offense. Thank you, NY, for signing Danile Jones instead of him. Much appreciated! Aside from Saquon, AJ still looked like AJ, DeVonta looked like DeVonta. The offensive line, without Kelce looked decent all things considered. Obviously, there was the couple errors from Jurgens to Hurts and whatnot, but I imagine those things should and will get better the more live reps they get together.
Now the bad. Jalen Hurts can not continue to make bone headed plays. I still like Hurts, still think he’s our guy. I want to be able to say, oh its week 1, no preseason games played, new OC, new center, blah blah. But all last year we kept saying, “let the main thing be the main thing”. Even with turnover and sloppiness we kept winning. Until it finally caught up to us and we became arguably the worst team in the league. That cant be the mentality again. That ok, mistakes were made, and it was a sloppy game but hey, its week 1 and we won. Turnover like that and winning is not sustainable. Turnover do and will happen. But its different when you as the QB are making bone heading, just bad decisions to cause them. Especially in spots when you can just live to fight another down.
With how last year ended, and all the changes that came in the offseason I had no idea what to expect from week 1. But I ended feeling and seeing more positive than negative. But this team, as proven last year, can not just get by on talent alone and ignore the things that need to be cleaned up. Overall, I feel good about this season, this team has too much talent to not be a top seed in the playoffs. Let’s keep things rolling in week 2 and hopefully we start seeing some more clean play from the team.
GO BIRDS!