The Eagles’ defense has quietly hit a standard of dominance the rest of the NFL still hasn’t figured out how to reach this season.QQ
The Eagles defense played a phenomenal game against the Raiders to send the NFL a message.
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Perfect practice makes perfect – right? For the Philadelphia Eagles, they must have had a nearly perfect week of defensive practice ahead of their Week 15 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. Philly shutout the Raiders by a score of 31-0, and the game was basically decided by the middle of the third quarter.
Eagles missed zero tackles vs. Raiders to set new standard in NFL this season
According to Brandon Lee Gowton, the Eagles did not miss a single tackle against the Raiders. They were incredibly sure-handed and played with fantastic technique all game long. While you can probably argue some of the tackling situations to negate this statistic, it is still incredibly notable for a team to achieve this sort of feat by this point of the season.
The Eagles Have An ELITE Defense Thanks To Vic Fangio… Build The Statue!The Eagles Have An ELITE Defense Thanks To Vic Fangio… Build The Statue!
In a game where the temperature was frigid and snow aplenty pregame, Philly found a way to stymie Las Vegas at every turn, whether on the ground or through the air. On offense, the Eagles controlled the clock and found effective ways to gain yards through the air, with tight end Dallas Goedert exploding for another huge performance. That helped the defense stay fresh all game long.
As far as the stat sheet, Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean led the team in tackles with eight. Cooper DeJean had a strong game in the slot, and Quinyon Mitchell was only targeted twice. The Raiders knew they couldn’t find success versus him. LB Zack Baun also recorded an interception.
In the postgame, Dean said that the defensive performance wasn’t flying under the radar on the sideline, either. The Eagles wanted to keep the Raiders under 100 total yards and discussed achieving that during the matchup.
“Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean says getting a shutout in the NFL is a big deal. He remembers his days at Georgia, getting shutouts, but it is a great thing to get a shutout in the NFL. Cooper DeJean says the Eagles defensive players started talking about holding the Raiders to under 100 yards. And the Eagles did that!” — John Clark via Twitter/X
Philadelphia was expected to control this game from start to finish, but actually seeing the Eagles do precisely that has to be a nice feeling for their fan base.
After three losses in a row, the Eagles are showing glimpses of why they’ve been considered a Super Bowl contender for much of this campaign.
