By: Kylan Watson

After beating the Green Bay Packers last week in a game that became a defensive brawl. The Philadelphia Eagles faced the Detroit Lions in a game that was a measuring stick game for both teams. Philly used their talent and physicality advantage on the defensive side of the ball to dominate Detroit 16-9 for a statement victory in the loaded NFC conference.

The Eagles once again struggled on the offensive side in this game, their first few drives were killed by drops by their talented receiving core, and penalties killed and early scoring drive as well. Kevin Patullo gets a lot of attention for his playcalling, but eventually players must execute and that has been lacking throughout the season for this Eagles team.

Multiple drives are either killed by penalties or missed blocks on the offensive line. The whole unit is not playing well, but the offensive line just is not healthy and doesn’t put their stamp on a contest like they used to. Patullo and the Eagles brain trust have to start calling plays that will help their offensive line find its form again, and that may include going no huddle/up-tempo plays, mixing in some more run/pass option plays, and taking advantage of AJ Brown and Dallas Goedert’s size and physicality advantage.

While their offensive unit struggled Vic Fangio’s defensive unit continued to dominate another top offense in the NFL. The Lions usually score 31 points a game but could only manage six points in this contest because of a Jamison Williams touchdown reception. Throughout this game both teams dealt with the wind, but the Eagles were able to make Jared Goff feel them throughout this game. On multiple drives Goff saw his passes batted down or he was thrown to the ground by a Philly defender.

Jaelan Phillips is proving to be one of the best mid-season trades of the season for the Eagles. His dominance has turned a unit that has struggled to put opposing quarterbacks on the ground into a nightmare for them. Goff had his worse offensive game of the season in this game (he completed 40% of his passes in this game usually completes 70% of his passes) and that’s what this game came down to which defensive unit could impose their will. Thanks to Phillips it was the Eagles defensive unit that blew up multiple scoring opportunities for Detroit in this contest.

However, despite losing this game the Lions defensive unit has nothing to be ashamed of they were able to keep this game close despite the Eagles having multiple opportunities to put this game away. They were able to stop Philly on two tush push attempts to make this a one score game, and they probably could have pulled this game out had they not faced an equally dominant defensive unit in this game.

Philly will now prepare to travel to Dallas next week to face the Cowboys and they will need to find their offensive rhythm against them. The Cowboys have one of the worse defensive units in the league so this should be a get right game for Philly’s offensive unit, but they will need to stop beating themselves with the dumb penalties and find a more balanced offensive approach. Implementing these things into their gameplan next Sunday afternoon should put them in great shape to win their ninth game of the season.