What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Think about some of the big plays from Sunday night. DeMarco Murray caught a pass on a wheel route and turned that into a gain of 44. Zach Ertz made a terrific catch down the right side that gained 27 yards and set up a FG. You may also remember a play in overtime where Jordan Matthews caught a pass over the middle and raced 41 yards for the winning TD.

Did Sam Bradford do something differently?

Or did his receivers just finally start making plays?

It doesn’t really matter what happened, only that the Eagles passing game came alive. There were 6 pass plays of at least 27 yards. Jordan Matthews had 3 of those plays. Finally, a game where a WR made several big plays. Riley Cooper and Miles Austin delivered long TDs vs the Skins. Josh Huff had some good plays in the win over the Saints. But Matthews was 9-133-1, the best game by an Eagles WR all year long.

Matthews has battled drops all year, but caught the ball well on Sunday night. He went up against Byron Jones, the Cowboys standout rookie DB, most of the game and got the best of him most of the time. Jones did break up a short pass in the end zone and that was a very impressive play. Not only did Matthews catch the ball, but he added RAC yards. He was fast, elusive and tough. Matthews doesn’t go down on first contact. He will break arm tackles and force you to get him down. Dallas failed to do that on the overtime play and that won the game.

Bradford has had his issues this year. But he needs help. He needs receivers to quit dropping passes and he needs them to start making plays. Both things happened last night and the results were fantastic.

Bradford didn’t throw any INTs. He generally made good decisions. That was probably his best game in terms of accuracy. He had good pocket presence. Even on the winning TD, he threw the ball just a moment before getting hit. There were several plays where I yelled “Throw it!” as a defender was closing in on him. Sam did that each time and it resulted in some key plays. Since I’m a team guy, I won’t take credit for that. I’ll let Sam have it.

Nobody is putting Bradford in the Hall of Fame just yet. He played well against Dallas, but is still 28th in the league in QB rating. He’s got to play even better if the Eagles want this to end up a successful season. Last night was a good performance. The Eagles had a makeshift OL. They were on the road. They were without a couple of key WRs. The offense still put up good numbers and made key plays. Bradford and his pass catchers were a huge part of that.

Let’s hope they build off this.

The Eagles need Agholor, Huff, Cooper and Austin to make more plays. This offense can’t be RB-TE-slot and put up big numbers on a consistent basis. The WRs have to step up. Maybe the big game from Jordan Matthews will prove to be a spark.

*****

The offense had TD drives of 80, 95 and 90 yards. They had a 67-yard drive for a FG. Another FG drive went 45 yards. There were no short fields.

That’s impressive.

*****

A hero I failed to acknowledge last night is Caleb Sturgis.

He hit all 3 of his extra points. He hit a chip shot 31-yard FG. His greatest moment as an Eagle came when he nailed a 53-yard FG at the 1:51 mark. That was one clutch kick.

Even more impressive, Chip Kelly said after the game that there was a bit of win on that side of the field.

*****

A lot of people have tried to write-off the Eagles offense. The NFL solved Chip Kelly. They don’t have the right players. They haven’t drafted an OL since 1978. And on and on.

Since Week 3, the Eagles have rushed 192 times for 903 yards (4.8 average). — Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) November 9, 2015

In 3 of last 4 games, Eagles have had 150+ rush yds & 250+ passing yds. Only once have they had more such games in an entire season [1953]. — Reuben Frank (@RoobCSN) November 9, 2015

There are still issues to be fixed, but the offense isn’t nearly as bad as some try to make it out to be. The running game has really come alive. The passing game is showing real signs of life.

Lots of reasons for optimism.

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