Rushing Attack Reaching Historic Levels

The Eagles went over 200 yards rushing for the fifth time this season and netted over 175 for the seventh straight game in a 27-17 win over the Washington Football Team

PHILADELPHIA - On Monday night in Chicago, NFL fans saw a team in Minnesota which spent first-round picks at center and left tackle in recent seasons, as well as a second-round pick at left guard, buckle in the face of the Bears' overwhelming front to the point a typically high-volume passer in Kirk Cousins had his career-low in passing yardage because the veteran was never able to get comfortable.

Fast forward to Tuesday in Philadelphia and you saw an Eagles team down to their fifth and sixth options at the offensive guard positions yet still managed a rushing attack that compiled a breathtaking 238 yards on the ground during a 27-17 win over the Washington Football Team.

Miles Sanders led the team with a career-high 131 yards on 18 carries while his complement, Jordan Howard, returning after missing two games with a knee injury, chipped in with 69 more on 15 carries.

The last of the three-pronged attack was the so-called plus-one in quarterback Jalen Hurts, who ran for 38 yards on eight carries, including two sneaks for touchdowns, giving him 10 on the season.

“I mean, what weren’t they doing?" Washington star defensive tackle Jonathan Allen said. "At the end of the day, I have to play better. If I play better, I give our team a better chance to win. If our defensive line plays better, we give our team a better chance to win. It’s the [defensive line], this game is on the [defensive line].”

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The frustration of one of the game's best interior defensive linemen was notable considering he wasn't being blocked by Landon Dickerson or Jack Driscoll, never mind Brandon Brooks and Issac Seumalo.

And they did it against the fifth-ranked run defense in the NFL.

Sua Opeta, making his first start of the season in place of the COVID-stricken Dickerson, and jack-of-all-trades Nate Herbig were supplementing the three stars on the O-Line, star center Jason Kelce, who looked like a sprinter while getting downfield on a long Sanders' run, and tackles Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata.

"This is great," Howard gushed of the rushing attack. "The offensive line does a great job. The tight ends, receivers, and coaches - they put us in a great position and Jalen makes the right checks. They all just make our jobs easier to run. They [create] gigantic holes and it surprises you because it’s like there aren’t supposed to be holes that big in the NFL so it’s surprising but we’re not complaining about it.

"You just can’t have any hesitation, especially in the NFL because that hole will close up very fast. So you have to hit it as soon as you see it.”

The Eagles are the first team to rush for 175-or-more yards in seven consecutive games since the 1985 Chicago Bears, who were fueled by one of the greatest runners of all time in Walter Payton.

Dallas Goedert wore a costume from one of his favorite holiday movies, Elf :: Ed Kracz/SI.com Eagle Maven

With Philadelphia, everyone contributes.

"It takes everybody," head coach Nick Sirianni said. "It does. It always starts with the offensive line, and we've got some gritty guys upfront. I don't want to single out - all of them. What a great job by Sua Opeta to step in and play a great game, too, to be able to run the ball like we did and protect like we did against, again, like I said, a really good defense that I have a ton of respect for with some good front guys.

"And so it starts there. Our backs, we've got a good stable of backs, we've got our receivers blocking on the perimeter. Dallas Goedert is one of the best blocking tight ends in the NFL not to mention what he did catching the football. I think Jack Stoll is really coming along, and Jalen just gives you another element to the run game that's hard to stop."

Hurts and his ability to affect opposing defenses in the secret sauce, according to Sirianni.

"Front side wins games, back-side wins championships is what I've always been taught," Sirianni said. "I know that we're not in a championship mode, but it's a saying that says back-side is so important. When you have a quarterback like Jalen that, really makes the back-side, they have to almost respect the back-side in case he pulls [the football]."

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Goedert tapped into the teachings of well-regarded offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.

"It starts all the way from the play-calling to coach Stout, how he coaches the O-Line," said the Eagles' star TE who had a career-high 135 yards receiving on seven catches. "He's all about repetition. It's all about 1,000 reps on how to kick. Not 1,000 kicks, you know what I mean?

"It's doing the same thing over and over again and getting really good at what you do. And I think from the top of our depth chart on the offensive line to the bottom whoever we put in there is going to do a good job because of how detailed they are. How detailed we are in the installs, in practice, things like that."

The final piece of the puzzle, according to Goedert, is the standard itself. 

The next man up isn't expected to just step in, he's expected to perform at the same high level.

"You don't want to be the guy who goes in there and wrecks it," Goedert said. "Sua did a great job stepping in."

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.