What matters is a victory that will break trends, defensive attacks and a strong youth movement

The Philadelphia Eagles are coming off their best win of the season and best win in over a year after defeating the Cincinnati Bengals by 20 points in Week 8. It was a dominant game and it was the second straight game where they could sit back and rest in the fourth quarter.

The match was the most controversial moment of the match Jalen Hurts in two different shoesbecause while he’s good at being a setter, he’s apparently even better at tying knots. What can’t he do?

That means this week’s news is good news. When your vibrations are this high, you have no choice but to ride the wave.

Over the last eight weeks, rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell has proven to be everything you could hope for and more. Over the last three weeks, rookie defensive end Cooper DeJean has strengthened the defense in ways one could only dream of. These are instant improvements with a sickeningly beautiful rawness.

Quinyon has been going crazy since week one, but DeJean walked into Paycor Stadium and crushed the souls of 60,000 Cincinnatians. DeVonta Smith’s touchdown was enough to end the game, but when Cooper fielded Ja’Marr Chase on fourth down, it caused an early, if justified, mass exodus of Bengals fans from the stadium. It was amazing.

When it comes to Quinyon, there are two possibilities: he’s an extreme vegan who hates footballs being made of leather and quarterbacks respect that so much they don’t throw at him… or he’s just unbelievably good.

He was the SAM launcher that quarterbacks learn to avoid. Joe Burrow threw the ball 37 times for 234 yards. He targeted Q twice, both receptions (one to Ja’Marr and one to Mike Gesicki), for a total of just 12 yards.

According to Next Gen Stats, in seven games, the rookie has allowed 19 receptions on 37 targets (51.3%) for 237 yards, only 2.6 YAC per reception and ZERO touchdowns. He is nails.

As of Tuesday morning (October 29, 2024) on DraftKings, Quinyon has the third-best odds to win Defensive Rookie of the Year honors behind Jared Verse and Laiatu Latu. Once Quinyon starts actually getting steals that he barely misses, he’ll be getting closer to the top.

All of this is a microcosm of what’s going on with the Eagles’ defense. Reuben Frank of NBC Sports Philadelphia noted: :

“When you think about it, it’s not surprising that this defense performed well in the first weeks of the season with all the new elements. In the first game in São Paulo, they gave up 29 points to the Packers. They allowed a game-winning 70-yard TD in the first game against the Falcons. They were outshot by 33 points in Tampa… DeJean is 21 years old. (Jalen) Carter, Mitchell and (Nolan) Smith are 23 years old. Jordan Davis and (Nakobe) Dean are 24 years old. Reed Blankenship and Milton Williams are 25 years old. The only defensive starter older than 28 is 33-year-old Darius Slay.”

Compare that to 2023, when the defense featured Kevin Byard (30), Bradley Roby (31), James Bradberry (30), Zach Cunningham (28) and Nicholas Morrow (28).

Things are coming together for Vic Fangio, and the right youth movement is not only at the forefront, but also a catalyst. As sick as it is, it’s equally comforting.

Not only can you see the development of the Eagles’ defense based on how they perform on the field, but you can look at the numbers and snap count on the defensive line over the last eight weeks to see that Fangio is locking down on what’s working on offense. These numbers come from Next Generation Statistics:

Players who have maintained a consistent snap percentage throughout the season include Jalen Carter, Josh Sweat and Milton Williams. These guys’ consistent playing time is relatively predictable.

Bryce Huff and Jordan Davis saw the biggest declines, but for different reasons. Huff was supposed to be an elite talent. He started the season really, really bad, but he’s been doing well this week. Unfortunately, he makes $17 million a year, so “okay” isn’t enough, but at least he’s been doing better lately.

In the four games before the bye, he had one tackle, zero sacks and one quarterback pressure. Since then, he has recorded six tackles, 1.5 sacks and seven quarterback pressures. It’s not good again, but at least it’s better.

Jordan Davis is different because the Eagles gave him a chance to improve his passing game earlier in the season. Since then, he has mainly become a power forward and is used as such.

Nolan Smith’s increase in playing time is amazing. He has 2.5 sacks in the last three games, which is a huge increase from the one sack he had in all of 2023. He has earned his playing time and is getting to the point where you can’t wait to see him on the field.

Fun Fact: Last season, Nolan Smith played a total of 182 snaps on defense. He already has 173 snaps this season.

Jalen Hurts was phenomenal on Sunday. It was great to see this because it’s been a hot minute since anyone could actually talk about one of his performances without a troll on Twitter saying, “Well, actually…”

Week 8 was the fourth time Jalen rushed for three touchdowns. The last time he did this was Super Bowl LVII. According to Statmuse, he is the first quarterback to have four games with three rushing touchdowns.

Jalen’s pass to DeVonta Smith was also the longest pass of his entire career, which is amazing considering all the bombs he threw at AJ Brown.

He also got fired ZERO times on Sunday. He only appeared in five games as a starter, in which he was never sacked. That’s impressive because not only has he played behind the backup right guard and backup left guard, but Bengals defensive back Trey Hendrickson has the fifth-most sacks in the NFL this season (with seven).

Saquon Barkley rushed for 108 yards against the Bengals, bringing his season total to 766 yards. That’s the most yards he’s had in seven games in his career. He had 726 yards in 2022 and 481 in 2018.

In 2013, LeSean McCoy set the Eagles’ single-season rushing record with 1,607 yards. For Saquon to break that record, he needs to average 101 yards rushing per game. His average is 109.4 yards. What we are witnessing is historic.

The Eagles won the last two games by 25 and 20 points. The last time they had two such regular season wins was in Weeks 13 and 14 of the 2022 season. Week 13 was AJ Brown’s revenge game against the Titans, and Week 14 was the game where the Eagles clinched their playoff spot with a 48-22 victory over the Giants.

The mood is extremely high right now and the Eagles will look to keep it high when the Jacksonville Jaguars come to town in Week 9 without two or three of their wide receivers. The birds are back.