Saquon Barkley is a god.

Howie Roseman is a genius.

The Giants are idiots.

That could be the entire 10 observations of this game.

The first-place Eagles made it seven straight wins with a 37-20 win over the Rams Sunday night at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

They are now 9-2, tied with the Bills and Vikings for the third-best record in the NFL, behind the 10-1 Chiefs and 10-1 Lions. They haven’t lost since September.

It’s a great team that keeps getting better. Watch out, lions.

1. Let’s have a conversation about Saquon Barkley. I have run out of adjectives to describe what he does. Completely ridiculous. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, he opens the third quarter of a one-possession game with a 70-yard touchdown run and then follows that with a 72-yarder to put the game away in the fourth quarter. Barkley is the sixth player in NFL history with two 70-yard touchdown runs in the same game. On Sunday night he was amazing. He finished with a franchise-record 255 rushing yards – and 302 scrimmage yards – ranking 9th in NFL history. Wilbert Montgomery was incredible when he was healthy. Brian Westbrook was great. LeSean McCoy may be a Hall of Famer. But I’ve never seen anything like what Barkley does. Not only is he having one of the best seasons ever by an Eagles running back, he’s having one of the best seasons ever by a running back. He has now reached a career-high of 1,392 rushing yards… with six games to go. His career high was 1,312 two years ago with the Giants. If people don’t consider him a serious MVP candidate because he’s not a quarterback, they have no idea. He’s the best player I’ve ever seen, Dangit.

2. This defense is simply absurd. Absurd. They probably won’t get the attention they deserve because of No. 26, but they just shut down this high-flying Rams offense and held them to 14 points, 222 yards, and 4.4 yards per play before their meaningless last-minute drive. They are playing at such an amazing level at the moment, strong at every stage. Coverage. Busy. Tackle it. So much fun playing together. There is no weak link in this group. None of the opponents can attack or go after it. They’re just good at every level, and it’s easy to forget that this group, as currently constituted, has been together for seven games since Cooper replaced DeJean Avonte Maddox. These weren’t the Browns or Jaguars or Cowboys or Commanders or Giants. This is a very potent Rams offense led by a possible Hall of Fame quarterback with two elite receivers. They gained 123 yards and seven points on their first two drives and then 122 yards and seven points on their next seven drives. By then the Eagles were up by 23 points and the game was over. Vic Fangio has pulled off a miracle this year by taking some new guys and a few holdovers from the NFL’s 30th-ranked defense and turning them into the best defense in football. Incredible.

3. That was really next level stuff from Cooper DeJean, who spent most of the evening talking to Cooper Kupp, who is just one of the best slot receivers in the NFL, a guy who once had almost 2,000 yards in a season, who averaged 77 yards per game in his career. DeJean has been unreal since Vic Fangio put him in the starting lineup after the bye, and he’s shut down some really good receivers, but Cooper Kupp is in a different league, and in the shots of DeJean covering Kupp, the Rams veteran was able to just can’t get everything working. It’s so fun to watch this child. How about this: The Eagles haven’t lost since he joined the starting lineup.

4. I didn’t think this was a particularly sharp match for Jalen Hurts, especially early on. He took a few sacks he shouldn’t have and misfired a few times when he had guys open. I made some bad decisions in the pocket. But what he did again was officiate a game where the Eagles were heavily attacked with enough big throws to keep the defense honest, and he did it by playing flawless football. Without DeVonta Smith, he focused on AJ Brown, who once again came up big. Hurts went 15-of-22 for 179 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions and a passer rating of 108.0. He has ten touchdown passes, ten rushing touchdowns and one interception in his last eight games. The numbers weren’t flashy, but when you run the ball like that, they don’t need to be. Hurts does exactly what his team expects of him. You better believe he’s a big reason why this team keeps winning.

5. Matt Stafford isn’t the easiest to sack because he clears the ball so quickly. He was only sacked 21 times out of 370 drop backs in the game – that’s 5.7 percent of drop backs, which was fifth most in the NFL. In three of his last four games, he hasn’t been sacked at all. But the Eagles found ways to put a lot of pressure on him, especially after the Rams’ first two drives. Milton Williams had two huge sacks and Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham and Nakobe Dean each had one. That’s five sacks against a quarterback who has been sacked four times in his last five games. The Eagles also had 11 quarterback hits, including three from Williams and BG. That continues an encouraging trend, with the Eagles’ pass rush finally getting going after a slow start. The Eagles had six sacks in four games before the bye, but they have 27 in the last seven games and the combination of excellent coverage in the secondary with consistent pass pressure is tough to beat. Even for a high-octane passer like Stafford.

6. Without DeVonta Smith, you thought the Eagles needed a few weapons in the passing game other than AJ Brown and Dallas Goedert. And Saquon Barkley had a nice night in the passing game, where he was increasingly used, but for the most part Jalen Hurts focused solely on Brown, who seemed to be open on every play. Brown caught six of seven targets for 109 yards, including catches of 28, 27, 19 and 17 yards and that six-yard TD that was initially ruled an incomplete pass. Barkley was so remarkable that it’s easy to forget that Brown is one of the best wide receivers in the game, and he showed why on Sunday night, catching everything and picking up heavy, physical yards after the catch. Brown is a beast.

7. The news that Brandon Graham is out for a year with a torn triceps is simply crushing, not only because he is one of the best people you will ever meet, but because he plays at an insanely high level for everyone, let alone ​for a 36 year old. old in its 15th season. If this is BG’s last game, it was a doozy: one sack, two tackles for loss, three quarterback hits and a pass breakup. “I don’t want to go out like that, but if that’s not in the plan, I’m happy with where I am,” BG said in the locker room. “But I’m not there yet. Let’s see how the rehab goes and we’ll go from there.” The Eagles will truly miss BG, not only for his leadership, personality and energy, but also because he is playing at an extremely high level. BG’s sack gave him 76 ½ career sacks and moved him past the great Clyde Simmons into third place in Eagles history. If BG wants to play another year, I’m certainly not going to try to talk him out of it.

8. With BG out for the year and Bryce Huff on IR for at least three more weeks, the Eagles are suddenly very thin at edge rusher. Not that Huff did much before undergoing wrist surgery. Josh Sweat and Nolan Smith have been very good, but it’s a position where the Eagles don’t have much depth. Rookie Jalyx Hunt has shown some promise, but he is raw and very inexperienced. One man who could be promoted is practice squad Tarron Jackson, who was originally a sixth-round pick of the Eagles in 2021 and played in 21 games for the Eagles in 2021 and 2022. Jackson led Jared Verse on the scout team this past week, and his teammates raved about him. I would expect him to be the next guy.

More to come…

Subscribe to Eagle Eye wherever you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | YouTube music | Spotify| Stitcher | Simplecast | RSS | Check out YouTube