PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 Jalen Hurts and the Eagles silenced some criticism, ended a losing streak and are now on the brink of a repeat championship.<\/p>\n
A Super Bowl?<\/p>\n
Not quite \u2014 though a second straight appearance in the Super Bowl at least remains a possibility, unlike last season\u2019s opponent, the Kansas City Chiefs.<\/p>\n
The Eagles\u2019 resounding 31-0 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders put them one win away from winning their second straight NFC East title. The Eagles (9-5) need one win or one Dallas Cowboys loss to become the first team to win consecutive NFC East titles since, well, the Eagles won the last of their four straight crowns from 2001-2004.<\/p>\n
Not bad for a team that suffered a three-game losing streak this season and had to listen at times for calls to bench Hurts and fire offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.<\/p>\n
Playing in the woeful NFC East sure helps the Eagles navigate rough patches in the season. So does the chance to get an offense right against the lowly Raiders \u2014 the start of a soft December stretch that includes Saturday\u2019s game at the four-win Washington Commanders.<\/p>\n
The Eagles are the No. 3 overall seed in the NFC and remain on track to host a playoff game during wild-card weekend. They could still earn a No. 1 seed but that remains a statistical long shot. They would need to win their final three games while the teams ahead of them \u2014 along with some other oddities \u2014 must each lose twice for the road to the Super Bowl to go through Philly as it did last season.<\/p>\n
More performances like they had against the Raiders could help down the stretch. Hurts threw three touchdown passes and the Eagles defense not only had its first shutout since 2018, but it held the Raiders to just 75 total yards.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou couldn\u2019t ask for anything more,\u201d Hurts said.<\/p>\n
Not just against the Raiders \u2014 but what\u2019s still left on the table for the Eagles to accomplish.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s working<\/p>\n
The defense. The Eagles had their first shutout since Dec. 30, 2018, against Washington and it was their largest margin of victory in a shutout since a 31-0 win over Green Bay on Dec. 16, 1990. Las Vegas\u2019 75 total yards were the fewest surrendered by an Eagles defense since Dec. 4, 1955, against the Chicago Cardinals (49 yards).<\/p>\n
Brandon Graham had his first two sacks with the Eagles since he ended his short-lived retirement after the Super Bowl and returned to the team in late October.<\/p>\n
At 37 years, 255 days old, Graham became the oldest player in Eagles history with a sack. Richard Dent was 37 years, 1 day when he had a sack in 1997.<\/p>\n
What needs help<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to find any holes when a team pitches a shutout.<\/p>\n
Stock up<\/p>\n
Hurts bounced back from a five-turnover game against the Chargers to throw three touchdowns and complete 12 of 15 attempts for 175 yards. He also rushed for 39 yards and had no turnovers.<\/p>\n
Hurts is tied with Buffalo\u2019s Josh Allen and New England\u2019s Drake Maye for the most 25-plus yard passing TDs (9) in the league this season. It\u2019s the second-highest total in his career after he had 12 of them in 2022.<\/p>\n
Hurts was eventually benched for backup Tanner McKee \u2014 just like some Eagles fans and media personalities wanted headed into the game. Only in this instance, it was because the Eagles were ahead 31-0, not because of Hurts\u2019 ineffectiveness. Hurts said he was born to brush off criticism about his performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everybody needs to remember where I come from and how I\u2019m built,\u201d Hurts said. \u201cI just want to lead in the right way, set the right example. I\u2019ve done the same thing since I went to University of Alabama and everything that has been in front of me, so it\u2019s no different now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stock down<\/p>\n
A.J. Brown complained about his role in the offense and the Eagles responded by giving him the ball. Brown had three straight 100-yard receiving games \u2014 all losses. He had only two catches for 41 yards \u2014 including a 27-yard TD reception \u2014 against the Raiders and the Eagles won.<\/p>\n
Hurts and the Eagles need to figure out how to incorporate a successful Brown into a consistent winning streak if they want to win another Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
Injuries<\/p>\n
The Eagles could have two-time All-Pro offensive lineman Lane Johnson back in the lineup against Washington for the first time since he suffered a foot injury on Nov. 16 against Detroit.<\/p>\n
Key number<\/p>\n
9 \u2014 Dallas Goedert\u2019s two TD receptions against Las Vegas gave him nine this season, the second most by a tight end in franchise history. Pete Retzlaff had 10 in 1965. Goedert has three games this season with at least two touchdown receptions, putting him behind Mike Quick (4, 1987) and Harold Carmichael (4, 1979) for most in team history.<\/p>\n
Next steps<\/p>\n
The Eagles play the Commanders twice in the final three weeks \u2014 with a Dec. 28 game at Buffalo sandwiched in \u2014 and could increase their odds for a No. 1 seed with a series sweep of their NFC East rival.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NFL<\/p>\n
Dan Gelston, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 Jalen Hurts and the Eagles silenced some criticism, ended a losing streak and are now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-347350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}