NFL: High-flying Philadelphia Eagles 2017: Eagles fly High

Prior to their Bye-Week, the Philadelphia Eagles (8-1) lead the NFC East with the best balance sheet and are already more successful than last year. SPOX examines the Pennsylvania team, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. What are the reasons for the upswing and what are the chances in the playoffs?

With 13 seconds on the clock, the Eagles get the ball back. It’s 24:24 in Week 3 against the New York Giants and Brad Wing has just pushed a punt more sideways than forwards. Carson Wentz has the chance to win a last-second at his own 48.

With First Down, there is little success because no one is open. But Wentz, now in his second year, fires the ball wisely into the end and has seven seconds left on the clock. At Second Down the young QB finds newcomer Alshon Jeffery near the sideline. He climbs quickly to the line and stops the clock at the opponent’s 43rd position. One more second. Decision Time for Head Coach Doug Pederson: Field Goal with a rookie kicker or Hail Mary? It will be the Field Goal and Jake Elliott will thrash the 61 yard leather through the poles. Victory for the Eagles!

The Eagles are facing their Bye-Week at 8-1 and the last-second triumph over division rivals in Week 3 was something of an initial impetus for the young Eagles team, which last year had a 7-9 record after a dream start of 3-0. This time it got already in week 2 a damper from the Kansas City Chiefs (20:27) missed. Week 3, however, provided proof that 2017 could be different – the necessary nerve strength seems to be there.

Much has been said and written in the ever critical Philadelphia. Is Pederson competent enough for a head coach position? Which Wentz is the real one – the one from the beginning of the 2016 season or the one from the disappointing end? And what is the identity of this team as a whole? Where are we headed?

After nine games, we have the first answers to these questions. And almost all of them are positive. Yeah, Pederson seems to know what he’s doing. Luckily, you don’t usually win eight out of nine games in the NFL.

But the latter also has a lot to do with Wentz and his development. After he had started his rookie season furiously, he lost a lot of ground in analogy to his team. This year, however, he increased his production significantly and already now has more touchdowns (23) than in the entire previous year (16). In all other relevant statistics, he is also on course to surpass them by far.

Only his Completion Percentage fell by just under two percent to 60.5, which doesn’t seem tragic. His game has evolved. He now works much more competently with the pre-snap reads and makes wiser decisions. Symbol for this: his throwing out in the final phase of Week 3. Last year, he probably would have tried to force something. Now he sees the situation in the field more clearly.

It is also striking that Wentz is running more efficiently. After just nine games, he has 211 yards on his account, with a total of 150 in 2016. One reason for this might be that he now has more space in certain phases, because the defenses have to concentrate more on coverage – a clear effect of the newly launched receiving corps, which last year resembled a laughing stock.

Especially Alshon Jeffery is worth mentioning here. The Ex-Bears receiver is the big number one option, which was sorely missed last year – as in the years before. Now Jeffery doesn’t have any outstanding numbers until this time of the season – he is basically heading for career lows in all categories – but with five touchdowns he occupies second place in his team.

What’s more, Jeffery, who signed a one-year contract for just under $9 million to recommend himself for a long-term deal after a weak season due to injury, is making his colleagues better. Defenses mainly focus on him, so less attention is paid to others.

The first to benefit from this is undoubtedly Nelson Agholor, who has not been able to meet his expectations in the last two years. Now he is no longer in focus and blossoms – after three touchdowns in two years he now has five. He has also clearly surpassed his yard totals of the first two seasons.

The top option for Wentz was Tight End Zach Ertz, who leads all relevant receiving stats of the Eagles.

What also makes life easier for the young QB is Philly’s explosive running game. The Eagles run for the third most yards per game and have improved their already impressive Backfield shortly before the Trade Deadline: Jay Ajayi, who caused a sensation at the Dolphins last year and scored a 46-yard touchdown in his first match for the Eagles and led the team with 77 yards on the ground, came in.

He was not even the first option in the running game with the human bulldozer LeGarrette Blount on the Depth Chart. In addition, with Wendell Smallwood and Corey Clement there are two more change-of-pace backs. Darren Sproles’ failure is therefore relatively easy to cope with.

All this is fuelled by the fact that the Offensive Line is one of the best in the league. However, this is also one of the biggest concerns for the second half of the season, as Left Tackle Jason Peters has torn his cruciate ligament and is no longer available. And whether he can be adequately replaced by Halapoulivaati Vaitai is at least doubtful, as Peters is one of the best in his field.

The Eagles are well prepared for a longer run into January. Defensive, however, doubts are warranted.

On the one hand, Cornerback Ronald Darby and linebacker Jordan Hicks are two capable defenders seriously injured and lost for the rest of the season, while on the other hand the Secondary is under constant fire.

Against the run, Philly only admits an average of 66.4 yards – by far the best value of the NFL. But this is a deception, as no team is less likely to compete against the Eagles (166). This, in turn, is also a product of the strong offense, which scores the second most points on average. Teams have to fight fire with fire and often find themselves in pursuit of catching up. It’s more a matter of getting to the time-saving pass than the time-consuming running game.

Philly is consequently at the passport yard average in the last quarter of the league. However, this is compensated for by the fact that the Secondary has already caught eleven interceptions and thus occupies second place in the NFL. This is also a clear increase for this group, as Philadelphia has been rather mediocre in this respect in recent years. Another reason for the effective defense, which only allows an average of 19.9 points, is the Pass Rush, which produces the sixth most sacks (25).

Three of these have so far been the responsibility of Chris Long. The experienced Defensive End, who provides his full salary to charity, may be just a spin player, but he has a lot of experience, having been in the NFL for ten years. In the cabin he continues to be a leader, helping his colleagues to grow outside the room.

Of course, the Eagles have not won anything yet, after all there is still a lot of football to play, but the prospects for success in NFC East are not so bad. Already now, they have two and a half games ahead of the worst pursuer from Dallas, three and a half games ahead of the Redskins, who have already been defeated twice.

After Bye-Week, Philly is already receiving the cowboys before the almost obligatory season finale in Texas begins. Whether Dallas will be able to plan in these duels with star-running back Zeke Elliott is still in the stars. If it is missing, this would be another – immense – advantage for the Eagles.

The remainder of the rest of Philly’s program will include difficult away trips to Seattle and the Los Angeles Rams. In addition, there are trips to the Giants and Oakland. So they can’t take their foot off the accelerator in Philadelphia.

Looking beyond that at the playoffs, it can be said that the composition of the team is promising. A multi-faceted offensive, which relies on the running game as an engine and is accompanied by a broad-based passing game, has always produced good results in January and perhaps even February. In addition, the defensive is opportunistic enough to keep up with strong opponents.

Last year the season came to a disappointing end due to a weak middle section, but if the performances shown so far and the positive impression are confirmed, then at least the first playoff participation since 2013 could be the bottom line. Given the overall constitution of the NFC, it would certainly be possible to do a lot more than that.