Four turnovers are difficult to overcome.

Kirk Cousins threw for 364 yards with four touchdowns Thursday, but the Minnesota Vikings lost 34-28 to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Vikings fumbled four times in the game, including Justin Jefferson’s out of the end zone, which would have been a TD. But that is Minnesota’s problem. The Eagles capitalized on those turnovers, and that was great to see.

Was the win perfect? No… but the Eagles did a lot of things better than Week 1. Even though it wasn’t a pretty win, good teams in the NFL find ways to win. And this was a very important win for later in the season, in regards to NFC seeding.

The Vikings finished with 374 total yards, but most were passing yards as just 28 were on the ground. But that is not too surprising with the Eagles not having cornerback James Bradberry or safety Reed Blankenship. Giving up more passing yards should have been expected. The thing that bothered me was, after going up 27-7 after DeVonta Smith’s 62-yard TD, the Eagles allowed the Vikings to storm back to cut the deficit to 27-21. And when the Eagles’ put together a good drive that led to D’Andre Swift’s 2-yard score to extend the lead to 34-21, the Vikings were able to drive quickly and score. I would have liked to see a stop at the end and not let teams hang around.

But Cousins was sacked twice, and the Eagles had 10 QB hits. That was great to see with a healthy and young defensive line. The Vikings did not have many carries as they had to catch-up, but just stopping the Vikings’ run game and bringing that pressure was a positive. Again, we expected the secondary to struggle without some starters. But the defensive line was great this game. 

Want to talk about more positives?

I cannot believe Swift only got one carry last week!!! He finished with 28 carries for 175 yards and a TD. He averaged 6.3 yards per carry. I was so glad to see him more involved. Boston Scott finished with 40 yards on eight carries, and Jalen Hurts added 35 yards with two scores on 12 carries. Overall, the rushing game had 259 of the Eagles’ 430 total yards. The rushing attack was incredible, which tired down Minnesota’s defense. The rushing game, mainly Swift, was very explosive Thursday. And that is a credit to the Eagles’ top-tier offensive line. I want to see more of that next week, especially Swift. 

But like last week, the passing game wasn’t the best. Hurts was 18 for 23 for 193 yards with a TD and an interception. Minus the two deep passes to Smith, which accounted for almost 120 of the 193 yards Thursday, the passing attack wasn;t great. Hurts’ interception was not pretty. A.J. Brown had just 29 yards on four receptions, and Dallas Goedert had just 22 yards on six receptions. It was nice to see Goedert targeted this week, but he needs to be more involved.

Overall, the Vikings’ defensive and offensive lines were exposed. It’s a good thing the Vikings have good skill players, otherwise the Eagles would have won by much more, especially being gifted four turnovers. Still, if those turnovers never happened, the Eagles would lose. It’s that simple. But we don’t live by “if’s.”

It was great to see Zach Cunningham lead the Eagles in tackles (eight), and Nicholas Marrow also get involved. The Eagles will need them with Nakobe Dean on the IR for the next three games.

Again, the Eagles won a game where they did not play their best football, and that’s all that matters. But the passing game needs to get better. It’s rusty right now. Hopefully with more than a week until the Eagles travel to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 25 on Monday Night Football, the passing attack will be better.

Right now, the Eagles are 2-0… and that is the most important thing right now.