The 2016 jumped out to a hot start, riding a dominant defense and better-than-expected play from their young quarterback to a 3-0 record. and company allowed only 27 points acro s the first three games of the year, as the Eagles forced six turnovers on their way to defeating the , , and in quick succe sion. Philly also got efficient running from the duo of Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles, while , completing 67 of 102 pa ses for 769 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions. The Eagles looked like they just might be the best team in the NFC East, with a fearsome defense that would lead the way and an offense that ranked in the top-five in nearly every efficiency statistic. But then they took their bye and the wheels began to fall off. They lost back-to-back games coming out of the off week, got suspended, and Wentz completely fell off a cliff as the Eagles slumped to a 4-9
Rayjon Tucker Jersey finish following their 3-0 start. Comp %YPATD %INT %RatingW-L Weeks 1-3 64.7% 7.54 4.9% 0.0% 103.8 3-0 Weeks 5-17 62.0% 5.97 2.2% 3.5% 74.3 4-9 It wasn't all that simple, of course, but zooming out, that's e sentially what happened. The Eagles shot out of the gates hot, and couldn't maintain once the competition got tougher. (Again, two of those first three wins came against the Browns and Bears -- otherwise known as two of the three worst teams in football.) It's tough to say the start was a fluke, per se, but the record and the competition hid some blemishes that undermined the team later in the year. The Eagles didn't have good enough weapons for Wentz to throw to, there wasn't enough in the way of secondary pa s-rushing behind Cox and , and the running backs didn't consistently keep the offense ahead of schedule.After making a series of changes this offseason to ensure their pa s offense was more Wentz-friendly, adding and first-round pick to supplement the pa s rush, and signing to bring a power element to the run game, the Eagles are again off to a hot start, and again appear to be the cla s of the NFC East through the early part of the season. This time they're 4-1 through five weeks, with wins over Washington, the , the , and the , and with their only lo s coming against the undefeated , who look like the best team in the . Heading into their Thursday night showdown with the 4-1 , it seems an opportune time to ask the question: Are the Eagles "for real" this
Utah Jazz Hats time around? Offense rolling during hot startThe evidence is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the effort to cater the offense to Wentz and put him in better position to succeed has worked well, and he looks to be an improved player piloting an improved offense.Let's go back to that chart from above, tacking Wentz's 2017 numbers onto the bottom. Comp %YPATD %INT %RatingW-L Weeks 1-3 64.7% 7.54 4.9% 0.0% 103.8 3-0 Weeks 5-17 62.0% 5.97 2.2% 3.5% 74.3 4-9 2017 62.1% 7.69 5.6% 1.7% 97.7 4-1 Wentz has in some ways been even better than he was during last year's start, pushing the ball down the field slightly more often and creating touchdowns on more of his throws. He has slashed his post-Week 3 interception rate in half as well, an especially encouraging sign given how often he hemorrhaged turnovers over the latter part of last season.After a rough start, Blount has been on fire over the last three contests, carrying the ball 42 times for 277 yards (6.6 per carry). has emerged as the clear-cut top option for Wentz in the pa sing game, while , , and yes, even have proven to be markedly better than last year's crop of pa s-catchers
Elijah Hughes Jersey (which included Agholor).As a result, the Eagles are averaging 27.4 points per game against a group of teams collectively giving up an average of 22.4 per game in games against non-Philadelphia opponents. They entered Week 5 ranked No. 9 in offensive efficiency, per Football Outsiders' DVOA, and after they hung 34 points on the Cardinals and saw four of the teams ahead of them struggle for scores this week, it's reasonable to expect them to jump into the top five when the new rankings come out on Wednesday. An opponent-based mirage?On the other hand ... the Eagles have not exactly beaten anybody, and with this exception of this week's trouncing of the Cardinals, their wins have not been especially impre sive.Philadelphia's four victories have come at the hands of opponents with a combined record of 5-11 in games played against non-Eagles opponents, and their seven-point lo s to the Chiefs was on track to be a 14-point lo s until Nelson Agholor scored a touchdown with eight seconds left in the game.A controversial fumble call at the tail end of the Washington game turned a late five-point lead into a 13-point opening-week triumph. Their wins against the otherwise-abominable Giants and Chargers came by a combined four points, and the win over the Giants required two field goals in the final minute -- the second of them a 61-yarder as time expired. And the Philly
Jordan Clarkson Jersey defense holding the Cardinals to only seven points on Sunday also sounds wildly impre sive right up until you remember that the Cardinals combined to score 51 points against the atrocious defenses of the , , and in their prior three games; for comparison's sake, we will note that the lit up the same trio of defenses for 122 points. Holding down the David Johnson-le s Cardinals is something pretty much everybody has done.The Eagles' outside corners have been especially vulnerable, the team's full-season pace of 38 sacks is not ideal, and injuries to Sproles (done for the year with a torn ACL and broken arm), (working his way back from a dislocated ankle), Cox (out the last two games with a hamstring injury), (knee), and now Lane Johnson (concu sion) are concerning moving forward.The verdictIf it seems like a cop-out to say we won't really know whether the Eagles are legit until they play
Bojan Bogdanovic Jersey some better competition, well, that's because it probably is. If they can't stack wins over these next few weeks, however, there's a real chance they could hit a spat of trouble after their bye week once again. After taking the week off in Week 10, the Eagles play five of their seven remaining games against the Cowboys (twice), , Rams, and . That's not exactly a friendly schedule.If the Eagles can do to the Panthers what they did to the Cardinals, though, that might be as surefire a sign as we'll get that they're a force to be reckoned with.
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