It’s nothing but accolades, center-stage bows, and a historic Eagles season in the making. Iggles fans have several areas to savor, but one record is something nobody saw coming.
Team Scoring Mark
This could be the all-time prolific Eagles scoring machine. That’s ALL TIME in the HISTORY of the franchise.
They started Week 15 with 386 points, the most of any team in the NFL. More even than the Kansas City Chiefs and the acrobatic Patrick Mahomes (384).
The Iggles are flirting with destiny.
- The most points they ever had in one season was 474, in 2014.
- To reach that mark in the same 16-game time frame, they need to compile 88 points in the next three games against the Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints.
- They are right on pace to do that, averaging 29.7 points per game, and this is realistic IF they need the final two weeks.
The “If’ reigns supreme. It surrounds how much they will need the Week 17 and 18 home finales against the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants. That’s what happens after a 12-1 start.
If the Birds beat the Dallas Cowboys next week, they will likely clinch the No. 1 seed through the playoffs and have nothing at stake over the final two games. The starters may play only a half each in the closing weeks if that was the case.
Should they stumble one of the next two weeks, the Eagles would at least have to play the Saints. Three full games would give this team an excellent shot at the mark.
The Birds tallied 457 in the Super Bowl-winning campaign of 2017, but a season-ending injury to Carson Wentz prevented the mark from being set.
The Eagles were shut out 6-0 in the season finale, which meant nothing to them. Had they needed the game and tallied 18 points, the new mark would have been set.
474 remains the number. We’ll see what happens next.
Jalen Hurts Breaking Records of His Own
Wow, what a season. He’s already up to 32 touchdowns with only three picks. Three.
Hurts joins Drew Brees (2018), Aaron Rodgers (2014) and Tom Brady (2012) as the only players to have 32 touchdowns and five or fewer interceptions in one season.
This is the beginning of an excellent pattern for Hurts.
- For his career, he has had 44 touchdowns and only 16 interceptions.
- Some quarterbacks in the Hall of Fame have more interceptions than touchdowns.
- Joe Namath ended with 173 interceptions and 220 picks.
- Not even close to a 1-1 ratio. Hurts is far out in front of that.
By the way, Iggles fans, know who was the first QB in NFL history to finish a season with over 30 touchdowns and fewer than ten interceptions? It was none other than Donovan McNabb, whose 31 TDs and only eight picks in 2004 launched the Eagles into the Super Bowl.
McNabb is a target in another Hurts ascent.
- That year, he had 34 total touchdowns.
- The team record is 35 by Randall Cunningham in 1990.
Hurts looks certain to eclipse that.
A.J = T.D
The addition of A.J. Brown has provided an explosive element to the Eagles’ offense. He’s cranked it up recently and become just the fourth wide receiver this year to amass ten touchdowns.
Davante Adams and Travis Kelce lead the pack with 12. Brown and Stefon Diggs have 10.
Sack Masters
One reason the Birds have one of the top defenses is that they lead the NFL with 49 sacks.
That’s nearly four per game, which means a lot. Spread those sacks out over two or three possessions and you have stifled several drives.
One of the sack masters, Brandon Graham, took the spotlight this week.
The NFL named Graham the NFC Defensive Player of the Week after he collected three sacks and a forced fumble in the 48-22 romp over the New York Giants.
Graham is the third Eagles player to win the Defensive Player of the Week award twice in one season, joining linebacker Seth Joyner in 1991 and cornerback Eric Allen in 1993. And you thought Iggles fans loved him because of the strip-sack fumble he notched against Tom Brady in the Super Bowl.
- Graham’s award is the eighth time an Eagles player has been given a weekly conference honor this season.
- Hurts has been the offensive player of the week twice.
- Haason Reddick has been the NFC defensive player of the week twice.
- Cornerback Zech McPhearson and former Eagles kicker Cameron Dicker (Dicker the Kicker) were previously named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
- Dicker later gained AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for a game-winning boot on behalf of the Los Angeles Chargers.
To hear more Eagles accolades, tune in to Why Eagles Why, which I host along with Pete Amato and Bill Gelman. Top Eagles players are a topic of our most recent show.
