In Roob's Observations: The gap between the Eagles and rest of NFC keeps growing

By Reuben Frank • Published November 9, 2025

Why the Eagles’ NFC East domination is going to last well beyond this year, thoughts about how the snaps are going to be distributed with the Eagles’ new-look edge position and the one thing that gets overlooked when we talk about 4th and 26.

It’s an action-packed Roob’s 10 Random Eagles Observations as we all count down the endless hours until 8:15 p.m. Monday night finally gets here.

1. The Eagles didn’t technically clinch the NFC East during the bye week, but that tired stat about how no team has won consecutive division titles since the 2003 and 2004 Eagles? We can say good-bye to that. Yeah, all three other division teams lost. And that’s big. And yeah, the Eagles have a three-game lead in the NFC East with half a season to play. But what was really striking about Week 9 was seeing just how much of a mess the Cowboys, Commanders and Giants really are. The Cowboys have lost three of their last four, their quarterback is 32, they have the 2nd-worst defense in the NFL and they’ve won four playoff games since 1996. The Commanders have already lost more games than last year, they have no clue how to keep their gifted young quarterback healthy, they have the oldest roster in football and their quarterback is now a 32-year-old who’s won eight games since 2019. The Giants somehow beat the Eagles a few weeks ago, but that’s their only win since Week 4, their gifted young quarterback is taking a beating every time he goes out on the field, they have the 29th-ranked defense in football, their coach keeps coming unhinged after every bad call and they’ve won one playoff game in the last 14 years. A glance around the NFC East truly hammers home just how much stronger and more stable the Eagles’ franchise is than any other team in the division. They have the best owner, G.M., coach, quarterback and roster in the NFC East, and it's not close. The Cowboys, Commanders and Giants aren’t just losing, they’re giving their fans no hope that they even have a clue how to turn things around. And the Eagles just keep rolling. If the Cowboys go 4-4 the rest of the year – and I can’t imagine that happening – the Eagles would need to go just 2-7 to clinch the division. If the Eagles go 6-3 the rest of the year, they clinch the division even if the other teams suddenly start winning every game. Having a magic number of six with half the season left is crazy. The Eagles aren’t just better than every other in the NFC East, they’re the only team that has a vision for the future. Sorry, NFC East. They’re not going away.

2A. As the Eagles head to Green Bay to face a 5-2-1 Packers team, it’s interesting to note that since 2022, the Eagles have the best record in the NFL in road games against winning teams at 10-5 (.667). The only other teams above .500 during that span are the 49ers (10-6, .625), Bills (8-6, .571) and Lions (8-6, .571), Steelers (10-8, .556) and Ravens (9-8, .529). The Eagles have won five of their last six road games against winning teams, including wins in Kansas City and Tampa this year. The only loss in the stretch was in Washington last year. If you can beat good teams on the road, you’ve got a chance to do some special things.

2B. The Eagles have gone 2-1, 3-2, 3-2 and 2-0 in road games against winning teams the last four years. In franchise history, they’ve only had 11 other seasons with a winning record vs. winning teams: 1944 (2-0), 1952 (2-0), 1960 (3-0), 1979 (2-1), 1989 (3-1), 1991 (2-1), 2001 (2-1), 2003 (3-1), 2014 (3-2), 2017 (4-2) and 2019 (2-1). So they never had consecutive seasons with a winning record against winning teams in franchise history, but they’re 2-0 with the Packers, Chargers and Bills remaining so with one win in those three games they’ll do it four straight years.

3. The Eagles have a long-standing philosophy of not rushing guys back from injuries and bringing them along gradually once they do bring them back. With that in mind, I would guess Jalyx Hunt will get the most edge snaps Monday night, Jaelan Phillips will be second and Nolan Smith will be third. The Eagles are playing about 63 defensive snaps per game, and if they’re around that number in Green Bay you’d figure Hunt will probably be around 40 snaps, Phillips 35, Smith maybe 25, Josh Uche 15 and Brandon Graham maybe 10. But Vic Fangio will always adjust from the plan if he thinks it makes sense. If Smith doesn’t look rusty and is getting good pressure, up his snaps and decrease Uche’s. The Eagles desperately need these guys to produce. The only edges currently on the roster with a sack are Uche and Hunt, with one apiece. But they’re far better equipped to harass the quarterback now than they have been.

4. Tanner McKee and Kenny Pickett are the only quarterbacks in Eagles history to start one game and win it. And their starts came in back-to-back games. And McKee finished Pickett’s start.

5. Cam Jurgens hasn’t played since leaving the Vikings game with a knee injury after just 15 snaps. So the Packers will be the second game he’s missed. Obviously, the Eagles miss their Pro Bowl center, although Brett Toth has hung in there so far. But the encouraging thing is that the Eagles haven’t put Jurgens on Injured Reserve. He’s still on the 53-man roster, and if they believed he was going

to miss at least four games they would have shut him down before the second Giants game. The Eagles never reveal any injury information, but they must believe Jurgens will be back for at least the Dallas game in two weeks or they would have put him on IR.

6. The Eagles averaged 16.1 RPO plays per game last year 2024. They’re averaging 8.5 this year. Why the huge drop? It appears that teams are figuring out ways to defend it better this year, and it’s gone from being a nice change-of-pace weapon to a play that isn’t surprising anybody. The Eagles ran more RPOs than any other team in each of Nick Sirianni’s first four seasons – 311 in 2021, 209 in 2022, 188 in 2023 and 311 last year. Over that four-year period, they ran 384 more RPO snaps than any other team (the Ravens and Chiefs, not surprisingly, were second and third). But Kevin Patullo has gotten away from the RPO game in recent weeks, and that appears to be one of the things that’s helped the Eagles finally get going on offense. The first five games this year the Eagles averaged 11.2 RPO plays per game and the last three that number dropped to 5.0. In the second Giants game, the Eagles didn’t run a single RPO play - the first time that happened since a win over the Cowboys in 2019, when Doug Pederson was still head coach. The Eagles are still 7th in the league in RPO snaps but all the numbers are way down. It’s a major adjustment for the offense and one that appears to be helping.

7. Dallas Goedert is one of only four active tight ends to play at least 100 games and average over 40 yards per game (he’s at 43.7) while also averaging at least 11 yards per catch (he’s at 11.5). The others are Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Mark Andrews. Not bad company.

8A. Whenever I think Eagles-Packers, I think 4th and 26. There are so many fascinating aspects to that play. Donovan McNabb and Freddie Mitchell did not have a good relationship, and Freddie was probably the last guy on Earth 5 wanted to throw to with the season on the line. But nobody else was open. No team had ever converted a fourth down that long in NFL postseason history. The longest previous 4th-down conversion was a 4th-and-18 that the Chiefs converted in 1992 against the Chargers on a Dave Krieg 28-yard pass to Michael Smith (they lost 17-0). Also, Freddie got absolutely blasted from behind by Packers safety Darren Sharper. The Packers’ defense on that critical snap was so muddled that Packers defensive coordinator Ed Donatell got fired after the game. Donatell only sent four rushers and played such a soft zone that Freddie was able to find space in the middle of the field and Donovan flat-out ripped it to him. But watching that play – and I’ve probably watched it more than any other play in Eagles history, even the Philly Special – the thing that’s so mind-blowing to me is the protection McNabb got from his o-line. On the pivotal play of the season – lining up under center - he had this huge pocket that allowed him to take a seven-step drop, set his feet and really step into the throw and drive the ball to Freddie. That was Tra Thomas at left tackle, John Welbourn at left guard, Hank Fraley at center, Bobbie Williams at right guard and Jon Runyan at right tackle. The Packers had some quality pass rushers back then – Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila was a Pro Bowler that year, Aaron Kampman was a two-time all-pro and linebacker Nick Barnett was always dangerous. They sacked McNabb eight times that day at the Linc, to this day the 6th-most sacks ever recorded in a playoff game and the most sacks the Eagles have allowed in a playoff game. We all know what happened after that legendary play. David Akers field goal to tie, Dawk interception off Brett Favre, Akers field goal to win. But none of it happens – the comeback from 14-0 down in the first quarter, one of the greatest plays in Eagles history, a historic Dawk INT off a Hall of Famer and an overtime playoff win – if not for the masterful blocking by Thomas, Welbourn, Fraley, Williams and Runyan when the Eagles needed it the most.

8B. When I was doing interviews for the book, "The 50 Greatest Plays in Eagles History,” I reached Freddie down in Florida and told him about the book and let him know that with 4th and 26 and also the 60-yard Monday Night Football catch against Dallas in 2004 on the 14-second McNabb scramble, he had two of the top 11 plays in Eagles history. His response? "Just two?”

9A. In that second Giants game, Tank Bigsby, in his first game as an Eagle with more than one carry, became only the ninth Eagle with 100 rushing yards on nine or fewer carries. But 25 years ago, an Eagle surpassed 100 yards on just two carries. That was punt returner Brian Mitchell. With the Eagles up 24-7 over the Falcons in the fourth quarter at the Vet, Andy Reid pulled regular running back Duce Staley and let Mitchell get some rare carries. On the Eagles’ first drive of the fourth quarter, Mitchell had a 20-yard run to set up a Donovan McNabb touchdown pass to Charles Johnson. And then with 2:08 left in the game and the Eagles on their own 15, Mitchell took off and ran 85 yards for a touchdown. It was the only run of his 14-year career longer than 36 yards. And it was 49 yards longer than 36 yards. Mitchell finished the game with two carries for 105 yards. The only player in NFL history with more rushing yards in a game with two or fewer carries was Andy Uram of the Packers in 1938. Uram had a 97-yard touchdown run against the Chicago Cardinals in a 27-20 win at Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisc., and also an 11-yard run for 2-for-108.

9B. Mitchell also caught three passes for 35 yards in what turned out to be a 38-10 win over the Falcons. His 140 scrimmage yards is 4th-most in NFL history by a running back on five or fewer touches and most since 1966.

9C. There’s more! Mitchell also had an 89-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter of that game. He’s the only player in NFL history with two 85-yard touchdowns of any kind in the same fourth quarter. The only other Eagle with two 85-yard TDs in the same season was Derrick Witherspoon, who had 95- and 97-yard kick return TDs in 1996. The only other Eagles with two 4th-quarter 85-yard TDs in their entire career are Joe Carter in 1937 (86-yard catch from Rabbit Kean) and 1938 (92-yard fumble recovery return) and Lito Sheppard (101- and 102-yard INT returns off Vinny Testaverde and Drew Bledsoe vs. the Cowboys in 2004 and 2006).

9D. Mitchell’s 85-yard TD run is 3rd-longest in Eagles history. Herschel Walker had a 91-yarder in a loss to the Falcons in 1994 and Wilbert Montgomery had a 90-yarder in a win over the Oilers in 1982.

9E. The only other players with two 85-yard touchdowns in their entire Eagles career are Hank Baskett, who had three, and Ben Hawkins, Mike Quick and DeSean Jackson, who had two each. Mitchell is the only Eagles in history with two career 4th-quarter TDs of 85 yards … and they were in the same game. The only other Eagles with 4th-quarter touchdowns of at least 85 yards: Joe Carter, Hawkins, D-Jackand Baskett.

9F. The Eagles have gone 165 consecutive games without a kick return touchdown, a streak that dates back to Josh Huff’s 98-yarder in a 21-10 win over the Vikings at the Linc in 2016. That’s only two games shy of the longest streak of consecutive games in franchise history without a kickoff return touchdown. They went 167 games in a row without one from late in 1984 through late in 1994. The longest streak in NFL history is 511 games by the Bucs from 1976 through 2007.

10. It’s weird that nine weeks into the season, there’s only one team with four wins. Three teams – all in the AFC – are 7-2, seven teams – five in the NFC – have six wins and seven teams have five wins. And 14 have three or fewer wins. There’s almost no middle ground. Fourteen teams are at least two games under .500 and 15 are at least two games over .500. The only teams within a game of .500 are the Chiefs and Panthers at 5-4 and the Vikings at 4-4. That’s just weird.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/roobs-observations-nfc-east-cowboys-giants-commanders/694562/

So we now have a 4 game lead in the NFC? With 8 left to play? I mean we haven’t wrapped it up yet but it feels like that could just be a matter of if not when. I don’t want to jinx it but I mean the other East teams are going to lose more games the rest of the way… we could lose out and still potentially win the East.