The Philadelphia Eagles entered the season with high expectations.

For the most part, the defense lived up to the hype as the Eagles opened the season with a 25-20 victory over the New England Patriots.

The offense played subpar, and that was surprising and unexpected. The defense had a lot of new faces and were young in different areas. So, growing pains were expected. But overall the unit played well.

After Jake Elliott’s 32-yard field goal, Darius Saly made an interception off a deflected pass and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown, extending the lead to 10-0. Newcomer linebacker Zach Cunningham recovered a fumble, which led to DeVonta Smith’s 5-yard TD pass from Jalen Hurts, which extended the lead to 16-0 after Elliot missed the extra point.

The offense, which consists of mostly returners from last year’s NFC Championship season, punted on its next four drives. And they were three-and-outs.

The offense just did not perform well at all., and that was shocking with the talent they have.

Yes, the Patriots defense is very good. Most did not expect the Eagles to absolutely kill New England. However, the offense was just very underwhelming.

The Eagles’ next three drives ended with FGs, and luckily Elliott is consistent. He made 56-, 48 and 51-yard FGs … Twelve of the 25 points were off FGs. Seven were due to a pick-six. Hurts threw for just 170 yards with one TD, and he had a very costly fumble at the end of the game when the Eagles could have wrapped up the win.

Instead, the Patriots had a chance to get the winning TD. Luckily the defense forced a turnover on downs… but the offense again failed to convert and went four-and-out, giving the Patriots the ball at the New England 44-yard line. The defense made two HUGE stops at the end. Was the defense stellar? Not really, but they made the necessary stops to win the game.

The Eagles could have (maybe should have) scored 35-plus points with the opportunities they had. But the offense dissapointed.

The Eagles had just 251 yards of offense, and that was not good enough. A.J. Brown finished with just 79 receiving yards, and DeVonta Smith had 47 and a TD. Kenny Gainwell was the leading rusher with 54 yards, Hurts was second with 37. Gainwell had seven carries and Hurts had nine. Surprisingly, D’Andre Swift had just one carry for 3 yards. He should been used more, so that’s on the coaching. Dallas Goedert did not even have any receptions, and he was wide open on a couple plays. That’s on Hurts.

Again, New England has a great defense. I knew this would be a test for the Eagles, but they hurt themselves on multiple occasions on offense.

Overall, the offense was disappointing. But not the defense. Yes, it got very nerve wracking at the end. But the offense put the defense in those situations. The offense should have put up more points… again, the opportunities were there.

Still, the defense stopped the Patriots when it mattered. Reed Blankenship, who was expected to step up for CJ Gardner-Johnson at safety, led with 12 tackles (nine solo). Justin Evans and Nakobe Dean each had seven tackles, Jordan Davis and Avonte Maddox each had six. Slay had three passes defenses, and Blankenship and Maddox each had two.

New England had 382 total yards of offense, 210 in the second half as the Patriots played catch-up . The Eagles forced five punts and three turnover on downs. They played well… the offense just let them down. That wasn’t expected, and it needs to chance.

The Eagles will host the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday. The Vikings lost 20-17 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, so hopefully the Eagles perform better on offense Thursday.