At 6-0, Eagles need to do 3 things to remain undefeated after bye week

PHILADELPHIA – Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was heading into the locker room Sunday night, smiling because his team had just defeated the Dallas Cowboys 26-17 on national television in front of a sold-out Lincoln Financial Field.

Seizing the opportunity, Sirianni tweaked a saying made famous by former Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson during the Cowboys heyday in which they won three Super Bowls.

“How ‘bout those Eagles,” Sirianni yelled.

Sirianni had a reason to be happy because his team moved to 6-0, finding themselves atop a surprisingly tough NFC East. Sirianni was also happy that his team was able to find a way to win after the Cowboys scored 17 unanswered points to cut the Eagles’ lead to three points in the fourth quarter.

During his post-game press conference, Sirianni acknowledged the struggles at the end of the game but was glad his team was able to hang on for the victory.

“We know we have to play a complete game,” Sirianni said. “What’s exciting about being 6-0 and not having played a complete game yet in my opinion, and the players will tell you the same, is that there is only room to get better. That’s our goal.”

The Eagles will have a week to look over the things they could do to finally have a flawless game, being that they are now entering the bye week. The Eagles have done a lot of good things so far this season. The Eagles lead the league in turnover differential (+12) and forcing turnovers (14). The offense is also clicking, averaging 394.5 yards per game, making them the third-best offense in the league.

Although they have played well, the Eagles still need to sure up a few things to remain the only unbeaten team in the NFL.

Here are three things the Eagles must do after the bye week to remain undefeated:

Find ways to solve blitzes on Jalen Hurts

In the last two weeks, defenses have begun to send an extra player on a blitz, one more than the Eagles have had to block them. The extra rusher has forced Hurts to scramble, trying to buy time and let the routes develop downfield for his receivers to have a chance to make plays.

On some of the plays, it appeared as if there was no outlet for Hurts to throw to, forcing him to throw the ball away or take the sack. The Eagles coaching staff will likely do a self-scouting evaluation during the bye week, seeing if they have any tendencies that are causing teams to blitz in certain situations, along with potentially coming up with tweaks to a couple passing plays to give Hurts some more options to get the ball out of his hand.

Fix second-half scoring woes

The Eagles have inexplicably been one of the best second-quarter scoring offenses in the NFL, scoring 112 points alone, which is more than 11 teams have scored all season long. However, the Eagles have 35 points in the second half.

The team has tried being conservative by running the ball and aggressive by throwing, but both have not succeeded. Short of keeping the scoreboard from saying second quarter throughout the entire game, adjustments have to be made because they are playing with fire, especially if they ever find themselves behind at any point in the fourth quarter.

Figure out the special teams issues

In each game this season, the Eagles’ special teams units have given up a big play that almost changed the entire complexation of the game. The latest one came in the second quarter of Sunday’s game against the Cowboys, when wide receiver KaVontae Turpin returned a kickoff 63 yards, putting the ball in Eagles territory. The Cowboys were able to get a field goal out of it, giving the team some life heading into halftime.

If the Eagles have aspirations of earning the top seed in the conference for the playoffs and then making a deep run in January, the special teams will need to become a solid unit and not give up big plays that put the opposition in good field position and putting the defense in challenging situations. The Eagles may be at the point where they have to use more veteran players to sure up a couple of the units, but something has to be done soon. If not, it will eventually cost the team a game.

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Chris Franklin may be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com.

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