7 winners and losers from Eagles Week 13 win: Down with the King

The Philadelphia Eagles record is 10-2. They laid yet another beat-down with a 24-19 win over the Baltimore Ravens, but, if you watched the game, it wasn’t that close. It’s a win that should (but somehow won’t) shut up anyone who thinks the NFC is the Detroit Lions’ conference to lose. 

When it comes to a win like this, there are a whole lot of roses to give out, and only a handful of thorns. Unfortunately, the thorns are pretty prickly.

The Eagles didn’t play a perfect game, but they played a really good one

The Eagles defense came to play four quarters in Week 13. The Ravens offense has the most passing yards, the second most rushing yards, and the most points in the NFL. They’re really good… but they ran into a brick wall covered in spikes and razorblades with the Eagles. They held the best offense in the NFL to one real touchdown (don’t let anyone tell you the garbage-time touchdown was real).

Winner: Regicide

The Ravens had the ball with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. It was third and 11, and Lamar Jackson threw a short pass to Derrick Henry. There was no defender within five yards of Henry; we’ve seen this movie a thousand times, he was going to gain speed, Juggernaut his way through someone, and keep going for 40 yards… That’s until Cooper DeJean literally and metaphorically enters the picture. 

As Henry corralled the ball and turned to go upfield, the six-foot-three-inch, 250-pound running back was absolutely dump-trucked by the six-foot 200-pound rookie defensive back. 

DeJean saw Derrick, channeled his inner medieval assassin, and said, ‘Oh, hither comes doth King Henry. He thinks I be afeard? Nayeth. I doth be thee big dog now. Mayhaps I shall hit thee with an open field double leg takedown in front of thy friends, thy family, and thy royal court? For I am Cooper DeJean of Arc, and thy mondo size and giant slaying stiff arms mean naught to a usurper like myself,’ or something like that, probably.

What an amazing play by Cooper. It was set up perfectly for Derrick to humiliate the first defensive back to come near him. That was the exact opposite of what happened. Coop is an animal. 

Loser: Punting

On the Eagles’ first drive of the game, they got nowhere and had to punt. On that punt, long snapper Rick Lovato of all people, got called for holding. That ball would’ve been down at Baltimore’s 14-yard line, but Braden Mann had to punt again.

On that kick, Kelee Ringo got penalized for a wildly boneheaded kick interference. It would’ve been down at Baltimore’s 18-yard line, but the penalty put it to their 33. It was just an amalgamation of sloppiness

Fast forward to the Eagles’ third drive where the Eagles punt again. The Ravens muff the punt but recover it on their own 27… Whoops, more flags. Kelee Ringo got penalized for “Player Out of Bounds” (whatever that is) and Mann had to punt again. This time it’s returned for 11 yards to the Ravens’ 36-yard line. 

It was a really, really bad way to start the game special teams-wise. Fortunately, you can spin those two debacles in a positive way: it gave the punt team practice for later in the game.

Winner: Punting

On the Eagles' fourth drive of the game, there was a weird third-and-one play call where they ran the ball with Saquon out of shotgun and ended up with a one-yard loss. Braden Mann came back on and bombed a punt down to the Ravens’ one-yard line. 

The Ravens' drive went nowhere, they punted and gave the Eagles phenomenal field position (started at the Ravens’ 49), which led to the Eagles’ first touchdown of the game. It was an awesome series of events and a textbook example of taking advantage of field position… but that wasn’t the end of it.

After Justin Tucker missed his second field goal, the Eagles punted again and this one put the Ravens at their own five. Once again, the Ravens gave the ball back to the Eagles, and once again, the Eagles went down and scored.

With how good the Eagles’ defense is, those pin-deep punts are lethal. No offense in the NFL can consistently have 90+ yard drives when Jalen Carter and the gang are playing like this. Shout out to Braden Mann and his game-changing leg.

Winner: Jalen Carter

Jalen Carter is having a season without gaudy numbers, but he’s still getting the numbers. Per Next Gen Stats, he’s on the field almost every single play (95 percent of the defensive snaps over the past three games) and getting double-teamed on over half of the plays (25-of-43 pass rush snaps in Week 13). On top of that, he’s also getting held on almost every snap (not a Next Gen Stat, but it should be).

Against the Ravens, he had three tackles for losses, one sack, two QB hits, and seven hurries. This guy is a menace. Look at this:

He’s so fast. Assuming it wasn’t a missed assignment, why would you leave him unblocked and then run the ball to him? That’s just plain disrespectful. Also, it’s very funny that Zay Flowers thought that he didn’t touch the ground. Buddy, you just got wrecked.

Loser: Avonte Maddox

This week’s edition of ‘Avonte Maddox shouldn’t be on the field’ came early in the game. On a third-and-five, Josh Sweat was able to beat the left tackle and sack Lamar Jackson for an eight-yard loss. It would’ve meant the Ravens had to punt from their own 30-yard line.

That’s until there was a little piece of yellow fabric on the field because Avonte got called for a defensive hold. Not only did that nullify Sweat’s sack and games-with-a-sack streak, but it also kept the drive going. The Ravens would end up kicking a field goal five plays later. 

Later on in the game, Avonte was in coverage when Lamar took a deep shot to Nelson Agholor. He was thoroughly burned, in a way that no other Eagles defensive back can get burned, but luckily Agholor wasn’t able to get two feet in bounds/didn’t complete the catch (as he is wont to do).

If that catch was completed and Avonte was exposed, it would’ve been game-changing. That would’ve given the Ravens, who were down 14-12 at the time, a first-and-goal from inside the five-yard line.

Teams target Avonte almost every single time he’s on the field. He’s clearly the weakest link on the entire defense by a huge margin. Vic Fangio knows what he’s doing, but it’s hard to believe that Avonte is a better option over Kelee Ringo or Sydney Brown… or just not doing a dime package at all. 

Winner: Saquon Barkley

Saquon rocks. He carried the ball 23 times for 107 yards and a touchdown. That brings his season total to 1,499 rushing yards. He’s 109 yards away from breaking the Eagles' single-season rushing record and the next game is against the Carolina Panthers who allow the most rushing yards in the NFL. There’s a good chance he’ll make history very very soon … But this game he did something special, that only he had done before: he was on an NFC team that beat Lamar Jackson. 

Going into the game, Lamar had a 23-1 record against teams in the NFC. The only loss was against the Saquon-led Giants in 2022. This means, officially, that Lamar’s record against the NFC is 23-Saquon.

Per DraftKings on Monday morning, Saquon is +250 to win the MVP (behind Josh Allen -175) and he’s -500 to win Offensive Player of the Year. As far as the rushing title goes, his 1,499 rushing yards puts him 92 yards over Derrick Henry’s 1,409 yards… and he’s played one less game than Derrick. 

Just for fun, here’s a video of his touchdown:

Also, just for fun, here’s a video of John Mara being sad because Joe Schoen is bad at his job:

Winner: Feeling different

In 2023, the Eagles were 10-1 going into Week 13 when they got slaughtered by the 49ers and it started the winter from hell. Leading up to that game, they were barely skating by and every week was a grueling exercise for all 60 sphincters (some more than others) in our bodies.

This season it feels different. This season, the Eagles aren’t just winning games, but they’re beating teams. They’re leaving no doubt that they are the better team, week in, and week out. It’s awesome. The players are having fun and they are playing like it. The Philadelphia Eagles are 10-2, and it’s fun to watch.