Eagles get well against wretched Raiders, move to brink of winning 2nd straight NFC East title

PHILADELPHIA — Las Vegas sent the Eagles the get-well-soon card they needed.

It came in the form of Kenny Pickett and the wretched Raiders. Jalen Hurts and the Eagles knew exactly what to do with it.

They got well immediately, ending their three-game losing streak with a 31-0 beating of perhaps the worst team in football.

The Eagles improved to 9-5 and cut their magic number for clinching a second straight NFC East title to one after the Dallas Cowboys lost Sunday night at home to the Minnesota Vikings.

Hurts used his arm and legs to lead the offense to scores on five of six possessions before exiting with 13:17 left in the game.

The defense, meanwhile, held the Raiders to 75 yards of offense and sacked Pickett four times on the way to the team’s first shutout since a Week 17 in 2018 at Washington.

Hurts, shrugging off absurd suggestions during the week that he should be benched, completed 12 of 15 passes for 175 yards and three touchdowns to finish with a 154.9 passer rating, the second best mark of his career. He also ran seven times for 39 yards.

Tight end Dallas Goedert had two touchdown catches and A.J. Brown had the other for the Eagles. The Eagles also got running back Saquon Barkley heavily involved in the offense as he carried 22 times for 78 yards and a touchdown before leaving at the same time as Hurts.

The Eagles will have a chance to win the division Saturday against the Commanders at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md. If they do, they’ll be the first NFC East team to win back-to-back division titles since 2004 when the Eagles won their fourth straight NFC East crown.

A new trick for an old dog

Perhaps the most peculiar scene during the first two episodes of HBO’s Hard Knocks: In Season with the NFC East has been the presence of veteran edge rusher Brandon Graham in position meetings with the defensive tackles.

According to Pro Football Focus, Graham had lined up 52 times at defensive tackle this season since coming out of retirement in Week 10 at Green Bay. That’s a single-season record for Graham, whose previous high for snaps at defensive tackle was 45 during the team’s Super Bowl run in 2017.

Graham added to that total against the Raiders and made the most of his new gig, coming up with his first two sacks since his return to the team.

His first sack was an odd one. It resulted in an eight-yard loss and a first down for the Raiders, thanks to a couple of penalties on Cooper DeJean. The Eagles’ second-year cornerback was flagged for holding on Raiders receiver Tyler Lockett and he also drew a dead-ball foul unnecessary roughness penalty for pushing Lockett down.

Because the Raiders accepted the dead-ball foul, the Graham sack stood.

Graham later added another sack of Pickett on a third-and-6 play in the second quarter.

The sacks boosted Graham’s career total to 78 1/2, which ranks third on the Eagles’ all-time list, seven behind Trent Cole.

Lucky 13

Both teams opened the game with 13-play drives, but onlythe Eagles came away with points.

Nine of the 13 plays were runs, including seven carries by Barkley. The Eagles converted all three of their third downs on the way to the end zone. Hurts ran a QB draw for nine yards on a third-and-4 play and bulled his way for two yards on a third-and-1 tush push. The final third-down conversion came on a tough six-yard catch by DeVonta Smith on a third-and-four play.

The drive also included a 20-yard pass interference penalty against Eric Stokes on a throw to A.J. Brown and it ended with a four-yard shovel pass for a touchdown from Hurts to Dallas Goedert.

Pickett, in his first start for Las Vegas, took the Raiders on a 13-play, 41-yard drive that stalled on a fourth-and-6 incompletion after Moro Ojomo came through with his fifth sack of the season on a first-and-10 play from the Philadelphia 37.

Ca-ching, ca-ching

The Eagles opened their second offensive possession with a 44-yard connection between Hurts and DeVonta Smith that put the ball at the Las Vegas 33. A second pass interference penalty against the Raiders set up a first-and-goal from the 5-yard line.

On second down, offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo called the perfect play and Hurts made the perfect pass, but it was dropped in the end zone by Goedert. The free-agent-to-be tight end missed a chance to raise his career-high touchdown total to nine and the Eagles settled for a short field goal by Jake Elliott after Hurts was sacked by Maxx Crosby on third down.

Goedert did get another chance in the third quarter on yet another shovel pass that he took into the end zone. Goedert also had a 32-yard catch on that drive and he finished the day with six catches for 70 yards.

It’s going to be fascinating to see what the tight end’s market is this offseason and if the Eagles are willing to pay to keep him.

Saquon scores

While the Eagles made it clear that they wanted to run Barkley early and often on this chilly afternoon, the star running back didn’t have a particularly productive first half.

Thanks to four carries in which he had zero or negative yards, he went into halftime with just 34 yards on 15 carries. He did, however, score his sixth rushing touchdown of the season just after the two-minute warning to put the Eagles up 17-0.

Barkley needs just 60 yards for his fifth 1,000-yard rushing season in eight years. He also had two catches for 14 yards and has 1,213 yards from scrimmage for the season.

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