Philadelphia Eagles Survive Another High-Wire Act With Teamwork vs. Los Angeles Rams

The Philadelphia Eagles defense pitched a second-half shutout, Jake Elliott kicked three field goals, and Jalen Hurts had his best running game of the season while putting up another 300 in a 23-14 win over the Los Angeles Rams to reach 5-0.

The Philadelphia Eagles did their weekly highwire act once again, somehow keeping their balance long enough, and skillfully enough, to make it successfully to the other side and out of danger.

They did it this time in La-La-Land, inside one of the most beautiful venues in the NFL. They did it with a total team effort, winning in all three phases of them in defeating the Los Angeles Rams, 23-14, to get to 5-0.

There wasn’t much of a home-field advantage for the Rams at SoFi Stadium. It was overrun with Eagles fans and sounded very much like this one was being played in South Philly.

Philly has so many ways to beat you, whether they’re playing across the country, in their backyard, your backyard, or even a dark alley.

It starts with quarterback Jalen Hurts, who is now 22-1 as a starter in his last 23 games. His legs came to play, running for a season-high 72 yards and a touchdown on 15 runs.

His arm was equally lethal. He recorded his second straight game with more than 300 yards passing, completing 25-of-38 passes for 303 yards. The only blemish was an end-zone interception in the second half.

"Winning is the main thing," Hurts told reporters in LA. "To come out to LA, that's a long flight, six hours from coast to coast, to come out here and get a win after the long week of prep and kind of a different type of work week given the travel circumstances, waking up in the middle of the night because sleep is off, all those little things, it's very rewarding to get a win against a really good team, a team that won the NFC Championship and the Super Bowl two years ago."

Jalen Hurts walks off the field a winner again and is now 22-1 in his last 23 regular-season starts / USA Today

Tight end Dallas Goedert had the kind of game many thought he’d already have by now. He had four of his eight catches on the Eagles’ first drive of the game for 45 yards, including his first TD of the season on a six-yard strike. It was his first TD since Week 10 of last year.

Goedert had a career-high 49-yard reception on his way to 117 receiving yards.

“Football for me is catching the ball and running routes, things like that, but I love everything about the tight end position, being able to block and different things like that, but it felt,” he said. 

“That first drive was a lot of fun…We have a really special offense. We can run the ball. We have great running backs, we have great receivers on the outside, so you have to be ready for your opportunities when they come.”

The Eagles can score in ridiculously fast fashion, too. How does a 75-yard, four-play drive that used the final 32 seconds of the first half grab you?

That’s what the Eagles did to take a 17-14 lead into the locker room. There’s a good chance it was the quickest drive of more than one play in team history.

The home run in that sprint drive was a 38-yard completion to A.J. Brown, who went over 100 yards for a third straight game with six receptions for 127 yards and has 24 catches for 433 yards in the last three games.

With two seconds to go in the half, Hurts used the Brotherly Shove as time expired to score a touchdown.

“You always want to be aggressive,” said Hurts. “The moment you start playing the game you want to play the game and stop being aggressive you’re doing yourself a disservice. We did a great job on that.”

In the second half, the Eagles defense pitched a shutout. L.A. was the fourth-ranked offense in the NFL, holding them to 50 yards over the final two quarters.

It looked like Cooper Kupp was going to burn the defense to the ground, a defense that had allowed 31 points to the Washington Commanders last week.

The Eagles tried covering the NFL’s offensive player of the year in 2021, who was making his season debut after starting the year on injured reserve, with Mario Goodrich, Eli Ricks, Nicholas Morrow, and Darius Slay. 

The receiver had six catches for 95 yards in the opening two quarters, but things seemed to settle down when Bradley Roby, signed earlier in the week to the practice squad, made his Eagles debut. Kupp ended with eight catches for 117 yards.

“Excellent job of our defensive staff adjusting,” said Sirianni. “We have to get to those a little sooner. ...we have to do a better job coming out of the gates on a player the caliber of Cooper Kupp.”

Then there was the Eagles’ pass rush. Jalen Carter got to Stafford early, piling up two sacks. Haason Reddick got to Stafford late, picking up back-to-back sacks, on third and fourth downs, as the Rams were trying to move quickly down the field trailing by nine with less than three minutes to play in the game.

Pay no attention - at least for now - to the bogeyman behind the curtain, which is the red-zone issue. The Eagles visited the red zone six times but scored just two touchdowns.

“We have to be better in the red zone in general, but I think we’re taking steps in a positive direction,” said Hurts.

The Eagles offense, though, had three drives of 12 plays or more, leading to almost 38 minutes of time of possession.

“That was a good football team we beat,” said Sirianni.

A team that made the Eagles have to walk that high wire yet again.