Eagles have taken off

     The Eagles' mentality all last year was: "It wasn't pretty, but hey, a win' s a win." And that was pretty much the theme of yesterday's game vs the Packers. 

    It is really hard to judge a Week 1 game. After all, it's almost like another preseason game, as everyone is trying to get back into the swing of things. Many star players who were held from preseason games will be understandably rusty. What makes this Eagles' game particularly hard to judge is the fact that the turf in Brazil was horrendous. Players on both sides were slipping and sliding and it was hard for players to get their footing. 

    With that being said, the Eagles were definitely rusty, and everyone misses Jason Kelce right now. The Eagles struggled with turnovers all night. Jalen Hurts threw two picks and lost a fumble. In the fumble, the ball was snapped before Hurts was ready. Another fumble came on the brotherly shove, but it was thankfully recovered by Saquon Barkley. Chemistry between Cam Jurgens and Hurts will be expectantly bad at first, but some of the miscues were painful to watch. Hurts' picks were brutal mistakes as well, both of them being poor throws. The first came with the pocket collapsing and Hurts threw a prayer to DeVonta Smith. Smith was covered too well and it was picked. Hurts was trying to get rid of the ball, as he was standing in the endzone, but he should have thrown the ball away instead of throwing a risky pass. The second pick was a redzone interception. Hurts escaped from the pocket, threw another risky pass, this time to A.J. Brown, and it was taken by Jaire Alexander. They nice part was that every single turnover was made up for by the Eagles' D, which made several tough redzone stops. They also denied a two-point attempt in the second quarter. 

    Quinyon had a good debut, recording two PBU's and five tackles. Zach Baun was all over the place, with two bags and 15 tackles. Reed Blankenship snagged an interception, and although they allowed two touchdowns from Jordan Love, they held him to a 50% completion percentage. C.J. Gardner-Johnson allowed a 70 yard touchdown from Jayden Reed, so there is obviously a lot to clean up, but it wasn't a horrible showing from the defense. The D has more fire, and has a lot more potential. 

    Saquon Barkley was the star of the game. Barkley basically lived in the endzone, scoring three times. He rushed for 109 yards, averaged 4.5 a run, caught a touchdown, and ran for two more. His speed, beautiful cuts, and ability to find those rushing holes are going to be crucial for the Eagles this year. A.J. Brown grabbed a 67 yard touchdown, and DeVonta Smith had 84 yards. Jahan Dotson was silent, with no catches at all and only one target. His role is going to be small and I just don't see him getting more than 400 yards this year. He is competing for attention with an excellent receiving corps, and even Kenneth Gainwell is stealing his targets. It's not that he's incapable of play, however, and he's nice to have if Brown or Smith miss games. 

Saquon Barkley had a stellar debut

    Photo Credit: Yahoo Sports

    The first game won't ever be perfect. You'll still be ironing out some wrinkles and finding your groove. But the mentality of last year can't happen again because it was so poisonous. This team has to strive for perfection. They can' get just get away with high-turnover games and still expect to win. Yesterday's win was understandable, but it cannot continue. 

The above photo was taken from a Yahoo Sports article. Photo Credit: (AP Photo/Doug Benc) ASSOCIATED PRESS. Image used for commentary.