Eagles need a miracle to pull out victory despite dominating Saints

NEW ORLEANS — The Eagles dominated the New Orleans Saints Sunday at the Caesars Superdome and they lived to tell about it.

They can thank Saquon Barkley and Dallas Goedert for bailing them out in one of the strangest games you'll ever witness.

After leaving at least nine points on the field because of turnovers and hideous decisions by coach Nick Sirianni, the Eagles put together a game-winning drive in the final two minutes.

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Faced with a third-and-16 situation from his own 35, Jalen Hurts found Dallas Goedert on a crossing route after two New Orleans defenders collided with each other. By the time Goedert was done running, he had picked up 61 yards and landed at the 4-yard line.

Barkley followed with a 4-yard touchdown run with 1:01 remaining, then capped off his amazing day by scoring on a two-point conversion. A Reed Blankenship interception sealed the Eagles' 15-12 victory that allowed them to improve to 2-1. Barkley finished with 147 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries.

Hurts, despite two turnovers, finished 29-for-38 for 311 yards and made some clutch throws.

The Eagles went up and down the field all game long when they had the football and smothered what had been the best offense in the NFL through the first two weeks of the season.

And yet they nearly had to get on the charter flight back to Philadelphia late Sunday afternoon dealing with another loss in a game they should have won.

The Eagles left at least nine points on the field (three because of a Hurts interception and six because of Sirianni's decisions).

Another Sirianni decision set up the Saints for a go-ahead score with just over two minutes remaining. A 12-yard touchdown pass from Derek Carr to Chris Olave on broken coverage gave New Orleans a 12-7 lead, but the Eagles prevented the two-point conversion.

The Eagles finished the game with 460 yards of offense compared to just 219 for the Saints, who had averaged 405.5 yards and 40.5 points in their first two games of the season.

Along with the heavy dose of frustration the Eagles encountered from their turnovers and Sirianni's horrible game management, they also were hit hard by injuries at a time when they were already without star receiver A.J. Brown.

Wide receiver Britain Covey (shoulder), right guard Mekhi Becton (finger) and right tackle Lane Johnson (concussion) all left the game in the first half and did not return.

But the scariest injury of them all came in the fourth quarter. Jalen Hurts completed three straight passes to DeVonta Smith for a total of 17 yards, but on the third one the receiver took a huge hit from a trio of New Orleans players and his helmet was knocked off.

He did not get up immediately after the play, but eventually was escorted to the sideline after a lengthy delay and did not return.

And then, on the very next play, Barkley burst through the left side of the New Orleans defense and broke off a 65-yard touchdown that gave the Eagles a 7-3 lead.

The Saints got their second field goal of the day on their next possession and yet another questionable decision by Sirianni followed.

When an Eagles drive stalled at the New Orleans 42, the coach decided to send out Jake Elliott for a 60-yard attempt that badly missed its mark. Worse, it gave the Saints the ball at the 50 and the capitalized with their only touchdown of the game.

Given that the Saints had put up a combined 91 points in their first two games against the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys, the Eagles couldn't have asked for a better performance from the defense.

The Saints scored on their 15-play opening drive, but they had to settle for a Blake Grupe field goal, thanks to the defensive work of former Saint Zack Baun and defensive tackles Milton Williams and Jalen Carter, who was a dominating force all day.

Baun and Williams combined on a second-down tackle that knocked Alvin Kamara for a three-yard loss and Carter pressured Carr into an incompletion on a fourth-and-14 play.

Jordan Davis, the other Eagles' defensive tackle who appeared to be underperforming before Sunday, immediately ruined the Saints' second offensive series with a sack of Carr for a 12-yard loss on first down.

New Orleans finished the first half with just 71 yards and 54 of those came on the first series, but the Saints still took a 3-0 lead into the half, thanks to two awful turnovers by Hurts and a hideous decision by Sirianni at the end of the half.

Hurts got the Eagles deep into Saints' territory on their second possession of the game with consecutive completions of 21 and 43 yards to DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert. But on a third-and-eight play from the 11, Hurts made a terrible decision when he tried to get the ball to Smith six yards deep in the end zone. Veteran safety Tyrann Mathieu stepped in front of Smith for the interception.

It was Hurts' fourth interception of the season and his second in the end zone.

His sixth turnover of the season would follow on the next possession and probably cost the Eagles three more points. On a second-and-10 play, he was tripped up by defensive end Carl Granderson for a sack and fumbled the football at the New Orleans 46. Willie Gay recovered for the Saints.

Hurts' two turnovers were bad, but Sirianni's coaching decisions were worse.

Teams defer when they win the toss in an effort to get points at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half. The Eagles had that opportunity and came away with nothing.

After mismanaging his timeouts on the Eagles' final offensive drive of the first half, Sirianni had a decision to make on a fourth-and-one play from the New Orleans 15 with 14 seconds left in the first half. If he takes the points, the game is tied and the Eagles get the ball to start the second half.

Instead, Sirianni opted to go for it with no guarantee that the Eagles would get any more than three points even if they got the first down given how little time remained. The Eagles lined up in "Brotherly Shove" formation, but handed the ball to Barkley, who was stopped for no gain.

At the start of the second half, the Eagles went from their own 23 to the New Orleans 34 behind some powerful running by Barkley, but then they were faced with a fourth-and-four situation.

The situation demanded a field goal.

Siranni went for it. Hurts was sacked. More points had been left on the field by the Eagles.

Somehow the Eagles overcame it all and left the Superdome with a victory.