"You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger, and you don't mess around with Jim."
There is an old trope in sports movies when the hardcore head coach puts his team into a box. Because of the team's talent, they win anyway -- until, that is, until they get punched in the mouth. "Let us play our game", they beg, when staring down a loss against the first great opponent they face. About one spinning newspaper and slow motion montage later, the team is the talk of the world.
That team, this year, is the Philadelphia Eagles. The only twist, though, was that they aren't a scrappy underdog team from nowhere, but the reigning Super Bowl champions.
And they have officially arrived to the 2025 season.
After pretty ho hum outings against the Cowboys and then Kansas City Chiefs, you could be forgiven if you thought that the Eagles were suffering from a bad Super Bowl hangover. Especially coming into the second half of their Week 3 tilt against the Los Angeles Rams, where they found themselves suddenly down 26-7. This team was a far cry from the one that put up 44 points against Kansas City's vaunted defense just a season ago. Maybe their wins against the Cowboys and Chiefs were too narrow for comfort, after all -- maybe it was unsustainable.
Fast forward to the end of the game go, and the relieved shrieks of 'Go Birds!' could be heard around the country. The Eagles had finally gotten back something they had seemingly lost. AJ Brown finally got the work he was craving, as had Devonta Smith. They pulled out a win against one of the most well-rounded opponents they will face this season.
But the plot twist is that the Eagles had never lost their explosiveness. They just waited until Week 3 to uncork it.
The Eagles never wanted to pass the ball, even though they could
Here's the thing about the Philadelphia Eagles that most fans (and fantasy football owners) easily lose sight of. They are one of the few contending teams with multiple true ways to beat you. And unlike most contenders, their coaching staff likes to win slowly. Not 'balanced', but slow. For lack of a better word, if the defense is stifling and the tush is pushing, Philadelphia would think nothing of slowly strangling teams to death, especially if they are making mistakes. Think about Week 1 against Dallas with their multiple late-game drops, or Kansas City's Nerf gun-like offense in Week 2. There, slow and methodical works the way that it's always done.
The Eagles, despite having AJ Brown and Devonta Smith, pass the least in the NFL through three weeks at 45.9% attempts per play. But fun fact, that is only 2 points higher than their 43.71% rate in 2024, also last in the league. The only reason we didn't notice as much last season is because Brown's 'pop-off' games were more spread out, especially target-wise.
Keep in mind: it took the Los Angeles Rams and their extremely well-rounded offense to make Philadelphia's coaching staff flip the switch on Jalen Hurts' arm, and until they face another potential NFC Championship contender, he likely will be asked to keep it under wraps again. Whether or not that that's a smart idea is a wholly separate discussion, but given that he is a top ten quarterback in average QBR, Hurts has earned more trust than the staff is displaying.
All of this to say: Philadelphia's pass rate ballooned up to 57% against Los Angeles, and not only did Hurts' efficiency stay largely the same under that increased sample size -- against one of the NFL's best defenses, mind you -- but he passed the eye test with flying colors. Let that be the lesson that Philadelphia's coaching staff takes home from this win: Jalen Hurts is able to unlock things for your offense on his own. And with the way that Saquon's been running through three weeks (64.7 rush YPG, 3.3 yds/rush) compared to last season's numbers (125.3 rush YPG, 5.8 yds/rush), he could likely use the less-stacked box that comes with teams fearing Philadelphia's passing attack once again.
So, a message to Eagles OC Kevin Patullo: let your team play their game. Because if 2024 wasn't evidence enough, the fact that they took a punch from a contender and exploded over one quarter should show you that they can clearly play it.