Eagles soar as motivator Doug Pederson returns; Cowboys run over Giants, but can either stop the run?

Dougie Fresh comes back with the Jags and provides the motivation the Eagles need for the fourth week in a row.

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson meeting with Indianapolis Colts quarterback Nick Foles after their game on Sept. 18.Read moreJohn Raoux / AP

Published Sept. 30, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET

With a topflight offensive line, upgrades on both sides of the ball, and a settled coaching staff, the Eagles’ biggest obstacle to a fast start in 2022 lay in motivation. They were the most talented team in the division, but would they play to capacity every week?

They have. The NFL schedulers made sure they would. They’re 3-0 with a bullet, clearly the class of the NFC East after a dominant win at Washington. Can they keep it up?

This Eagles era, as golden as it has been, has been marred by inexcusable losses to inferior teams: 2020 at Washington, 2019 at Miami, 2018 against Carolina. They gave those games away. They lost focus.

Nevertheless, the Birds’ efficient play of 2022 should continue for at least one more week, thanks to the man who coaches the Jaguars.

Week 1 took them to Detroit, where they faced the latest Hard Knocks darlings. HBO’s contrived and heavily edited semi-reality production routinely inflates the viability of its subjects. The 2021 Cowboys fizzled; the 2020 Rams and Chargers, who shared both the preseason show and new SoFi Stadium, did little to justify their obscene, $5.5 billion home; and the 2019 Raiders struggled, though they were still a better show than the 2018 Browns, whose appearance only assured unearned endorsement money for Baker Mayfield. No, the Eagles weren’t going to let themselves lose to Dan Campbell’s kneecap cannibals.

Week 2 welcomed the Vikings to Lincoln Financial Field. Lose the home opener? On Monday Night Football? Not to old nemesis Kirk Cousins, who was 6-3 against them. Not to freshly traded first-round bust Jalen Reagor, who sought “revenge” (?) from the team that paid him well to play bad football. Not to star wideout Justin Jefferson, whose lunch Darius Slay ate all night; two prime-time interceptions launched Big Play on a fifth Pro Bowl campaign. And certainly not with James Harden, Bryce Harper, Bradley Cooper, and Questlove in the house.

Week 3 sent the Eagles 135 miles south to visit Philly villain Carson Wentz. It also sent about 10,000 Eagles fans, who took over FedEx Field and made this a virtual home game; The Washington Post wrote an entire story about it. As for Wentz, his weakness of character and unmatched selfishness — he forced a bad trade that ruined the Eagles’ 2021 season — provided a target the defense could not miss. He was sacked nine times.

Further, Jalen Hurts, the QB he left behind, had every reason to prove that the Eagles would survive Wentz’s exit. Hurts played the game of his life.

Now, Week 4 arrives on a wave of nostalgia. Doug Pederson, the coach Wentz campaigned to get fired after 2020, has the Jags at 2-1. Coincidentally, they would be 3-0 if Wentz hadn’t ripped Pederson’s heart out in Week 1. Pederson led the Eagles to their only Super Bowl title, after the 2017 season. Plenty of the principals from that team remain: Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, Lane Johnson. All played their best football under Pederson, but all would love to send Pederson back to Florida with a loss.

After Sunday, the schedule grows less titillating and more treacherous. The Eagles next play at Arizona, with a visit from the Cowboys looming; will this be a trap game? The Birds then get a bye before the Steelers come to town. The Battle of Pennsylvania never disappoints ... but then the Eagles make a short-week trip for Thursday Night Football in Houston. Will they still be motivated?

Then again, it’s a pleasant exercise to contemplate which inferior teams stand in the way of what should be handy successes.

It means the team in question is very, very good.

On the run?

The most (only?) entertaining component of the Cowboys’ win over the Giants on Monday Night Football was watching Saquon Barkley, Ezekiel Elliott, and Tony Pollard combine for 259 rushing yards. You know, if you like actual football.

It’s a tad unsettling that those three running backs’ production in one game is only 25 yards fewer than the production of all of the Eagles’ running backs in their first three games combined.

Hurts has accounted for 167 of those yards on 37 carries, which puts him on pace for 946 yards and 209 carries. This is unsustainable; the record for QB runs in a season is 179 by Lamar Jackson in 2019. No quarterback should run the ball 12 times per game, as Hurts is doing now. Hurts’ rushing attempts the last two years are the reason he ended his first two seasons injured.

Subtract Hurts’ yards and the Eagles are averaging less than 95 yards per game, which would be 21st. Those numbers more accurately reflect their ability to run. This is astonishing, considering the size, talent, and experience of the Eagles’ offensive line, which remains the best in the NFL. The Eagles built big leads in Games 2 and 3, but thanks to runs stuffed by the opposition, they could not control the second halves. Hurts shouldn’t have had to play the last two fourth quarters.

“We haven’t been able to put teams away,” Johnson said in visitors’ locker room Sunday after the Birds went scoreless in the second half for a second game in a row. “That has to change.”

It probably won’t change Sunday, since the Jaguars’ improved defense, disciplined and hungry, ranks No. 1 in the NFL against the run, allowing just 55 yards per game.

As it pertains to the NFC East, however, the Commanders, Giants, and Cowboys currently are relatively pliant against the run. Will that remain true when Dallas visits in three weeks, when Washington comes Nov. 14, and when the Birds face the Giants in Games 13 and 17?

Perhaps, by then, it won’t matter.

Perhaps by then, as Johnson said, the Eagles will be able to put teams away.

Inquirer Eagles beat reporters EJ Smith and Josh Tolentino preview the team’s Week 4 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Doug Pederson. Watch at Inquirer.com/EaglesGameday