The Philadelphia Eagles had a hard-earned 15-12 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday that not many saw coming, thanks to how bad the Eagles defense played over the first two weeks compared to how strong the Saints offense was in that one gap
The Eagles held the Saints to 12 points and 4.0 yards per game average, after New Orleans came into Sunday averaging 45.5 points and 6.9 yards per game.
The Eagles’ win impressed many who watched the game, including CBS Sports NFL analyst Matt Ryan.
“I mean that was a serious win down there,” Ryan said on CBS Sports HQ on Monday. “Offensively, they didn’t do much until they got Saquon’s long run [Barkley] and the junction of [Dallas] Goedert — and that was a result of the two defenders meeting each other.
“Mercy victory on the road,” Ryan continued. “Their defense played really well, Inside, that D-Line collapsed the pocket on Derek Carr. They did a great job against the run game and the secondary stood up and made plays. I played down there a lot when I was in Atlanta. , it’s not an easy place to enter and win Every time you do the work in New Orleans, it’s well earned.
The Eagles got an elite performance from Saquon Barkley, who carried the offense. Barkley finished with 17 carries for 147 yards and two touchdowns (8.6 yards per carry) in the win. He totaled 156 yards from scrimmage and averaged 7.4 yards per touch. In the fourth quarter, Barkley had three carries for 69 yards and two touchdowns — including a 65-yard score that got the Eagles on the board.
“Saquon, specifically, responded to that drop,” Ryan said. “To go there like he did with the two touchdowns was impressive.”
The Saints offense didn’t come close to its hot start on Sunday, but can still live up to a three-game scoring average of 34.3 points (first in NFL) and 6.0 yards per game (sixth in NFL). This offense is still very good, even if they regress to the mean.
“I think we’ve all been surprised by their production in the first two weeks,” Ryan said. “I wouldn’t expect them to have the performance they had yesterday either. I think it’s going to balance out. They’re going to be somewhere in the middle of that.
“I kind of expect them to be in between where they were the first two weeks and where they were yesterday.”
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