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Eagles topple Jets, 24-17: Game Recap & Analysis

By Pat Roach

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The Philadelphia Eagles squared off against the New York Jets today, coming away with a victory for the first time in the 2015 season. Here’s recap and analysis for the Eagles week 3 win at MetLife Stadium:

First Half

To the delight of the fans, the Eagles come out swinging as Ryan Mathews gets a 27 yard gain out of the I-formation. The Eagles are varying tempo right out of the gate, letting it run down on the conversion to Jordan Matthews. The offense continues to gash the Jets defense, averaging 8 yards per carry on that opening drive, in stark contrast to the previous 2 weeks. Parkey caps it off with a field goal. Eagles are first to score, opening with a 3-0 lead. Good start.

It’s now been 3 and outs for the Jets on each of the first 2 drives. The Eagles defense has been strong up front and tight in coverage. Very nice start.

Malcolm Jenkins continues to shine. Sniffs out the bubble screen to Brandon Marshall and brings him down for a big loss. On the next snap, Jordan Hicks processes the play quickly and flies up in coverage to make the tackle and force a punt. Malcolm Jenkins has been a stud to this point. For all the criticism that the Eagles front office has taken, Jenkins was a tremendous free agent acquisition.

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Eagles

HUGE PLAY. Darren Sproles fields the punt at the Eagles 11 yard-line and is off to the races. Sproles makes roughly half a dozen defenders look foolish as he weaves in and out of traffic for an 89 yard score. Massive shot in the arm for the Eagles, who have their first touchdown of the day, and now lead 10-0.

On the Jets second drive Nolan Carroll does an awesome job of blanketing rookie WR Devin Smith deep down the near sideline. Carroll ran with Smith stride-for-stride, using sideline leverage to locate the ball and break up that the pass. Carroll has quietly been good so far this season.

Eagles offensive woes continue as Ryan Mathews drops a ball that could’ve been a huge gain. Missed opportunities continue to plague the offense; huge missed opportunity.

Jets head coach Todd Bowles makes a Reid-ian decision in challenging a failed 3rd down reception by Jeremy Kerley. Bad decision by the first year coach that could cost the team down the stretch. Meanwhile, the Eagles defense continues to hold strong, not allowing much on the ground or through the air.

The Eagles regain possession following the failed challenge and put together their best drive of the day, pushing the ball downfield and capping it off with a redemption touchdown pass to Ryan Mathews, who was wide open on the wheel route. Bradford looked sharp on this one, extending plays and finding open targets. 17-0, Eagles.

Incredibly stupid play by Brandon Marshall, who, with shades of Ronnie Brown, tosses a lateral while being dragged down, clanking the ball off of Connor Barwin‘s facemask. Jordan Hicks recovers the ball and the Eagles take over.

Sam Bradford drops back in an incredibly clean pocket and fires low to a wide open Nelson Agholor downfield. Agholor has been open on several occasions, but Bradford hasn’t been able to connect. Up and down day for Bradford to this point.

A few plays later a Jets defender makes a boneheaded decision, slamming Darren Sproles to the ground after the whistle. Instead of bringing up a 3rd down, the refs walk off 15 yards. Frustration clearly mounting for he Jets, and things don’t get much better as the Eagles subsequently drive downfield and Darren Sproles punches it in for the TD. 24-0, all Eagles.

The Jets takeover and drive the length of the field for a Brandon Marshall touchdown. Hardly reasonable to expect the Eagles to maintain the shutout, but it would’ve been nice to be up by 24 heading into the second half. 24-7, Eagles.

Note: Before the end of the half Andrew Gardner went down with an apparent foot injury, and went into the locker room for X-rays. Gardner is reportedly done for the day.

Second Half

The Eagles open up the second half with possession and convert by virtue of a pass interference call. The Eagles ultimately punt on the heels of Sam Bradford’s first sack of the day. It appears that Matt Tobin, who’s taken over for the injured Gardner, was the victim.

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On the next Jets possession Brandon Bair bats down a Fitzpatrick pass, and thenEric Rowe makes a play, sticking with Smith down the sideline and getting his head around to break up the pass, forcing the punt. It’s nice to see Rowe get involved in a positive way. Bair has played pretty well in relief of the injured Cedric Thornton.

On the next Jets drive there’s a couple of excellent plays by Eagles defensive backs: Nolan Carroll sticks with Brandon Marshall and breaks up a near touchdown pass. A few plays later, Eric Rowe makes his presence felt yet again, making an acrobatic interception in the end zone. Great day for both Rowe and Carroll to this point.

The Eagles face a 3rd and 8 on the ensuing drive when Bradford makes his best play of the day, unfortunately, it’s dropped. Bradford takes the low snap and maneuvers in the pocket to drop a dime to Sproles on the sideline. Sproles very well could’ve gone all the way to the house. The Eagles offense continues to leave plays on the field.

Carroll is having a great day, but drops an lay-up interception a few drives later. That could’ve been a potential dagger.

With about 10 minutes to go, the Jets drive downfield and Ryan Fitzpatrick finds Kerley in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. It’d be nice to see the Eagles open things up a bit on offense. It’s very frustrating to see them sit on a lead in a game that was shaping up to be a statement by the Eagles.

The Eagles take over and get Ryan Mathews going. Mathews has ran hard with good pad-height today, and then… Fumble.. In Eagles territory. Huge mistake by Mathews, who coughs the ball up at midfield. This could prove to be a huge change in momentum for New York.

The Jets take over and… INTERCEPTION! Brandon Bair deflects the ball at the line and Jordan Hicks pulls it in for the second Eagles turnover of the day. It’s been a great day for the rookie who has compiled 9 tackles and an INT to this point.

After an Eagles 3 and out, the Jets take over in hopes of making a late push. Brandon Bair has yet ANOTHER batted pass, bringing his total for the day to 3. On the following play, Fitzpatrick’s pass is broken up and Walter Thurmond comes down with the interception. That’s 4 turnovers for the Eagles defense on the day.

After the the Eagles chew some clock, the Jets take over and put together a few plays to come away with a field goal to make it a one-possession game. This game has been a huge success by last week’s standards, but it’s still disappointing to see Chip be so ridiculously conservative after jumping out to a 24-0 lead. This game should not be 24-17.

The Eagles now have the ball with about 2:30 left to play. Mathews takes a few hand offs and the Eagles run it down to about 1:30 before absorbing a pair of penalties that will make the upcoming punt attempt more difficult. A lot of sloppy football today for Philadelphia.

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    • On 3rd and long Mathews takes the handoff, only to see laundry on the field. Quentin Coples is flagged for illegal hands to the face, and that’s the game. That penalty is good for an automatic first down, and Bradford puts a knee on it to end the game, 24-17 Eagles.

    Final thoughts

    The Eagles really needed this win today and came through in a big way. It was disappointing to see the offense be so maddeningly conservative after jumping out to a lead. Still, the Eagles revitalized their hopes of playoff contention today with a much needed win against a good Jets team.

    The NFC East is an absolute mess right now, and with the win the Eagles are right back in it. The Dallas Cowboys are decimated by injury, and squandered an early lead against at home against Atlanta. The Eagles are now tied for second place in the division, and just one game out of first place behind a Dallas team that will be without both Dez Bryant and Tony Romo for an extensive period of time.

    In terms of play today, it was an excellent showing by the Eagles defense, who did an excellent job of limiting the Jets offense throughout the duration, despite another weak outing by the offense. It was really a group effort as the defense played extremely well as a whole, forcing 4 turnovers and limiting the Jets offense all day.

    Malcolm Jenkins was his usual excellent self, running mate Walter Thurmond came down with a huge interception. Brandon Bair was a presence at the LOS, batting balls, while rookie Jordan Hicks made a number of plays. Nolan Carroll and Eric Rowe had great days as well, and the Eagles secondary held Ryan Fitzpatrick to just 4.9 YPA, while picking off 3 passes. The front seven was excellent against the run, holding the Jets to under 3 YPC. On the offensive side of the ball things weren’t quite as impressive, albeit better than the previous week.

    Bradford averaged under 5 YPA, and was erratic throughout the afternoon. In fairness, there were several dropped passes, two of which could’ve gone for huge yardage. Regardless, the Eagles offense yet again didn’t operate as effectively as one would hope –granted, this is the Jets defense. On the bright side, it seemed as though the coaching staff made some good adjustments coming into the game, varying the tempo, producing more North-South running plays, and even running out of the I at times. The offensive line looked world’s better at times, and gave Bradford all day to throw. This is a decent game to build off of and a step in the right direction.

    The Eagles improve to 1-2 and are now back in the division race. Stay tuned for more coverage!

    Next: Eagles vs. Jets Inactives: Birds Down Four Starters

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