Merry Christmas!!

The Eagles just needed to beat the Giants on Monday, and they did just that. It wasn’t the win most would have liked, but the Eagles pulled out a 33-25 victory

The Eagles are in first place in the NFC East, and now control their own destiny to be the first team to win back-to-back NFC East titles since they won four straight from 2001-2004.

All that sounds great.

But the win Monday did not instill any more confidence in this team. It was much more difficult than needed.

The Eagles still made plenty of mistakes. They had a 17-point lead at halftime, but that soon became a two-point lead after the Giants scored 15 points off turnovers. The pick-six was one thing— Dallas Goedert slipped and Hurts did not make the best throw. Still, it was more in Goedert than Hurts. But turnovers (more so INTSs) have been a major problem all season. At this point in the season, that will probably remain an issue. If Hurts hasn’t fixed his INTs by now, it probably won’t stop in the next two weeks before playoffs. So, yes, it bothered me and was frustrating. But the turnover to start the second half was even worse.

What was Olamide Zaccheaus doing? Yea, he was pushed into his teammate. But I don’t get why he was running backwards.

Turnovers have been a huge issue. The Eagles fumbled three times against Dallas, all in Cowboys’ territory. The turnovers against the Seahawks were costly. Both could have been different games without turnovers. But again, these turnovers are something we have to accept at this point (unless it can quickly change).

There were times in the second half when it felt like the Eagles’ losing streak would turn into four straight games.

One play it didn’t feel that way?

On third-and-20, Hurts made a miraculous 32-yard pass to A.J. Brown, keeping the drive alive. And it led to a D’Andre Swift TD run, giving the lead to a 27-18 lead.

The Eagles put together two good drives to close out the game, each resulting in Jake Elliott field goals.

But where was that all game? They ran more at the end. They put together faster drives. Things seemed to run smoother. Listen, the one thing with the Eagles is they have yet to play a full game this season. Each game has been very inconsistent on offense and defense. What would happen in they played a full game? Personally, I’m tired of seeing these spurts. Please, just play a complete game for once.

Sadly, that might not ever happen…. But the offense looked a lot better the last few drives, and my guess is because THEY RAN THE BALL! Swift finished with 20 carries for 92 yards and a TD. Kenny Gainwell even got involved and had 42 yards on six carries. I definitely liked that, especially because some situations the last few weeks should have been a running play but weren’t.

Hurts played a better game, though. Putting the interception aside, he base some good throws and decisions. He wants perfect though, like not running out of bounds before halftime. Luckily the Giants committed a penalty. But that was not smart on Hurts’ part. He had to know the Eagles had no timeouts, right? But besides that, he looked comfortable, and the Giants did blitz heavy in the game. However, Hurts did finish with 301 yards and led the Eagles to 33 points. After the way he played last week (the last few weeks), it was just a positive performance from Hurts. And he broke the single-season record of rushing touchdowns (15) first a quarterback.

That’s good to see going forward.

And one thing you have to remember is the Eagles played with injuries, especially an extremely thin linebacker corps.

Rookie Ben VanSumeren had to play. He had five tackles. He wasn’t terrible, but I’d rather have Zach Cunningham. Shaq Leonard finally made his presence felt. He led the wreak team with seven tackles and had a big sack. It was good to see him involved more.

Avonte Maddox could be back soon, along with many key players the Eagles did not have, like Cunningham and Darius Slay.

The Eagles do need a lot of work. But they have the Cardinals and the Giants again. There is no reason they shouldn’t win both and at least win the NFC East.

This was wasn’t encouraging, but the Eagles are 11-4 and hopefully got some momentum going into the final two weeks.

Are they a Super Bowl team? Nope.

But we just have to take it one week at a time and hope for the best at this point.