The Kansas City Chiefs are the only non-NFC East team the Philadelphia Eagles have faced in all five of Nick Sirianni’s seasons as coach.

Sirianni and his squad seem to have the upper hand lately.

The Eagles defeated the Chiefs on Sunday for the third straight time with a 20-17 victory at Arrowhead Stadium, not the easiest place to win. 

The Chiefs are 56-14 at home when Patrick Mahomes starts, so Sunday was a good win for the Eagles to get, even though it was not exactly pretty. It was also the first time in Mahomes’ NFL career that he lost three consecutive games, dating back to the Super Bowl loss. 

The Eagles have not been perfect so far, especially offensively, but that’s OK. Remember, they didn’t start too hot last season, and they got better. 

The one thing that stood out to me Sunday was the defense, which looked much better than the season opener against the Dallas Cowboys.

In Week 1, the pass rush (and we can blame Jalen Carter for this) failed to get to Dak Prescott very often, and the secondary couldn’t stop CeeDee Lamb. He just stopped himself with costly drops.

However, Vic Fangio is a genius and can make adjustments, which worked out great against the Cowboys. 

And that continued Sunday.

The Chiefs only scored seven points in the second half, and that was a late-game TD. 

Mahomes went 16 for 29 with just 187 yards passing, a touchdown and an interception, which was more on Travis Kelce than Mahomes’ fault. But safety Reed Blankenship was covering him great, and Andrew Mukuba made the interception.

That really was the turning point in the game. If the Chiefs scored there, we could be talking about a loss. Luckily, the Eagles just did enough to get the win and improve to 2-0 on the season.

Overall, Fangio’s unit was very strong in this game. Mahomes is a Hall of Fame quarterback, and Andy Reid is a Hall of Fame coach. It’s not really easy to hold the Chiefs to 17 points. Granted, the wide receiver situation in Kansas City is atrocious, but Mahomes still had Kelce and Hollywood Brown. Mahomes still made big plays, and the Chiefs are never out of close games — like Sunday — when he plays. 

But the Eagles defense pressured him (two sacks and 10 QB hits— three by Carter) and tackled well. He rushed for 60 yards in the first half, but just six in the second half. Again, Fangio and the defense made adjustments. 

Cooper DeJean led with eight tackles, rookie Jihaad Campbell added seven. Zach Baun and Jihaad Campbell made some great plays and tackles. Campbell was actually all over the field, like last week. He had seven tackles and a QB hit. Mukuba was dominant in the second half, making most of his tackles in the third and fourth quarters.

Mukuba made a big-time tackle on third-and-1 early in the third quarter. Reid attempted to go for it on fourth-and-1, and the Eagles defensive line stopped Kareem Hunt.

In fact, the Chiefs converted just four of their 12 third downs.

Even Za’Darius Smith, who just signed here late last week, performed well. He had four tackles, half a sack, a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit. He seems like a great addition to the edge rush rotation, at least for now.

That led to Jake Elliott’s 51-yard field goal, so a great stop that broke the 10-10 tie. Imagine if the Eagle didn’t make that stop. The Chiefs could have kept driving and took the lead instead.

Again, Mahomes did not have his best receivers, but to have a performance like that, and on the road, Fangio and his defense really put together a great show.

The biggest thing that still concerns me is Adoree Jackson. He was not good at all against Dallas. He was decent Sunday, but he wasn’t going up against great receivers. What’s going to happen next week when he sees DaVante Adams and Puka Nacua? I am just not very confident in Jackson, but he can prove me wrong next week.

Still, the defense performed well. It’s not a finished product, but Fangio will make it better, especially as the younger players jell and get more comfortable. I am impressed with how the defense is, especially the linebackers, but they are not perfect, either.

And at least the defense can provide fans with more confidence than the offense.

The biggest bright spot from the offense Sunday was Saquon Barkley. Against a stout run defense, he was able to finish with 88 yards on 22 carries and a TD. The Eagles did not get much going in the passing game, so Barkley was needed to be productive, and he did just that. He never had any easy runs, either. He had to earn his yardage, and he came up big, especially late when the Eagles were running clock.

But I don’t get what’s going on with the passing game. 

I have been (and always will be) a Jalen Hurts’ defender. Like always, he did what it took to win Sunday. He made a great 28-yard pass to DeVonta Smith on a critical 3rd-and-10. But outside of that, nothing big happened in the passing game. That was the longest pass of the game. A.J. Brown’s longest catch was 8 yards, which was the second longest pass play.

Is it new coordinator Kevin Patullo’s playcalling and overall scheme?

If so, he needs to be way more aggressive.

We all know Hurts can throw. Well, he can do everything and anything it takes to win. He is so clutch. Even when his stats aren’t pretty, he just does whatever it takes to win. But with the talent on the offense, the passing game should be better. 

So, it’s very strange that for the second straight week that the passing game was nonexistent, which isn’t normally always like that. Again, the second half was better, but not by much.

Brown only has 35 receiving yards after two games, which is not good for a player of his caliber. Patullo has to dial up more, long passing plays, especially for Brown.

I don’t really care that Hurts only threw 101 yards. The end result was a win. I just want to see more deep passes because, against the Rams on Sunday, the Eagles will need to have a better offensive showing against Matthew Stafford and that high-powered offense.