In the first four weeks of the season, the Eagles gained 1,176 yards of offense while losing three of their four games.
Things went a bit better offensively against the Saints on Sunday. The Eagles rolled up 519 yards of total offense and broke open a close game in the third quarter on their way to a 39-17 rout of their visitors from New Orleans.
Sam Bradford accounted for 333 of those yards through the air and he tried to make up for two first half interceptions in the end zone with a pair of touchdown throws. DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles combined for 183 yards on 33 carries in the team’s best rushing day of the season and nine different receivers caught passes in a well-balanced performance.
The tempo wasn’t quite what the Eagles would go for in an ideal world and there were miscues beyond Bradford’s two picks, but it was the kind of performance that Philly very much needed from the unit. The opposite is true of the Saints defense, obviously, and they’ll have a lot of work to do to get the unit somewhere closer to competence before facing the Falcons on Thursday night.
They’ll be work to do on offense as well after four turnovers on Sunday. Drew Brees accounted for three of them, including a pair of fumbles on sacks by Fletcher Cox that led to key Eagles points when the outcome of the game was still in doubt. Cox added a third sack and the Eagles overwhelmed the Saints line at several points during the game.
Winning won’t eliminate all the damage done in the first four weeks, but doing it again next week against the Giants would get them pretty close. Today’s offensive blueprint would be a good place to start working toward that win.