Ten Takeaways From Philadelphia Eagles Bounce Back Win Over Titans

As many expected, the Philadelphia Eagles did what they were supposed to do on Sunday against the Titans. The Birds won and won big as they beat the Titans for the first time in franchise history 43-24. Although it wasn’t pretty, Eagles fans can finally get past the terrible loss to the Green Bay Packers. Before we move things ahead to Thursday’s big division showdown against the Dallas Cowboys, here are this week’s ten takeaways.

1. First and foremost, I’ll give credit to LeSean McCoy. The guy has taken his fair share of criticism this season, but he finally got it going against the Titans rushing for 130 yards on 21 carries. Shady also had his longest run of the season that went for 53 yards in the second quarter. If McCoy didn’t have a breakout game against the Titans, you almost had to wonder if it was ever going to happen. With McCoy breaking out, it bodes well for the Eagles as in order to beat the Cowboys, Shady will have to have a repeat performance.

I think he’s an outstanding running back and I think he’s proven that in this league for the years that he’s been in this league. So we’ve got a lot of confidence in LeSean and we’ll always have confidence in him, as long as he’s healthy.-Chip Kelly

2. Moving on to the rest of the offense, I’ll start with the quarterback. The Eagles have not had great quarterback play this season even when Nick Foles was starting. However, this team continues to win in spite of it all which shows how good they really are. Sanchez threw for two interceptions and had numerous passes sail on him. It was enough to get the job done this week, but moving forward, Sanchez will have to play much better, especially with a big game against the Cowboys coming up.

3. One thing that has surfaced since Sanchez has started is what type of receiver the Eagles have in Jordan Matthews. If not for Odell Beckham Jr., Matthews may be the best receiver in the class. Over the last three weeks(since Sanchez’s takeover), Matthews is fourth in the NFL in receiving yards and has led the Eagles in receptions. Matthews is starting to really heat up going down the stretch.

4. Now moving on to the not so good part of the Eagles win, the defense. This defense time and time again gives up big yards and big plays to below average quarterbacks. Kirk Cousins, Austin Davis, and now you can add Zach Mettenberger to that list. Mettenberger threw for a career high 345 yards which included 11 passes of 15 or more yards, one of which was called back, and two passes of 40 yards or more. The Eagles play Tony Romo and Dez Bryant on Thursday in case you didn’t already know…

5. The Eagle are headed into the “beef” of their schedule in November and December and in order to win they are going to have to be able to put teams away with their defense. The Eagles were up 17-0 looking like they might blow the game open before allowing the Titans back in the game with two touchdowns to make the score 20-14. The defense did tighten up in the second half, but the Eagles cannot allow teams back in the game like that.

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6. While most of the defense has been bad this season, three players that have really stepped up are Connor Barwin, Brandon Graham, and Trent Cole. The trio finished with four combined sacks and ten quarterback hurries. It was the thing that was missing in last week’s game against the Packers, and it looks like they got back on track as they were harassing Mettenberger for much of the day.

7. Another thing that I’d like to point out, and this group might just win the game ball of the year in my book, the Eagles’ special team’s is flat-out making plays. They now have six special teams touchdowns with Josh Huff‘s franchise record 107-yard kickoff return to open the game. The Eagles’ six special teams touchdowns, as you might expect, leads the league.

8. While talking about the special teams, you also can’t forget about Cody Parkey. He did miss his second attempt of the season, but given that this was a 49-yard field goal, Im not too concerned. The rookie has shown that he has the leg and the accuracy, one miss from almost 50-yards is nothing to worry about.

9. Taking a quick look ahead to next week, the Eagles and Chip Kelly will have a lot to prove. They are 1-3 against teams with winning records and have only beaten three teams with winning records in the Chip Kelly era. Adding to that, seven of their nine losses have been to teams with winning records. The Cowboys are 8-3, the Eagles will need to break that spell on Thursday night.

10. I said last week that we shouldn’t get to down about a bad loss to Packers in Lambeau Field, and I will say the same thing about the Tennessee Titans at the Linc this week. The Titans are 2-9, and the Eagles did exactly what they should do, blowout bad teams at home. The Eagles may be 8-3, but there is still a lot of season to be played and a win against the lowly Titans is nothing to get overly excited about. It’s nice that the Eagles got the win and got back on track in a potential trap game, but the real season is just beginning.

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