Roob’s Eagles Stats: Just how rare is Eagles’ rushing success? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
You’re going to have to read some of these stats multiple times to truly understand how wild the Eagles’ recent numbers are.
During their six-game winning streak, the Eagles have been doing some remarkable things on both sides of the ball.
We’ll run down a bunch of them in today’s Roob’s Eagles Stats and then some Reed Blankenship, Jalen Hurts and Zach Ertz stats as well.
One thing you won’t see in this one is Saquon Barkley stats. That’s because we’re saving those for a special edition Roob’s Saquon Stats that you’ll see very soon. As crazy as these stats are, the Saquon stats are even more insane.
1. During their six-game winning streak, the Eagles have outgained the Browns by 128 yards, the Giants by 220 yards, the Bengals by 117, Jaguars by 232, Cowboys by 202 and Commanders by 170. That’s a 1,069-yard margin, the Eagles’ largest in any six-game span in 71 years. This is why we love the Stathead team span finder yardage margin tab. Last time the Eagles outgained six opponents by more yards was in 1953, when they outgained the Giants, Colts, Cardinals, Giants, Washington and Browns by 1,135. They’ve outgained their 10 opponents by 1,068 yards, which is their largest margin to start a season since 1954, when they outgained their first 10 opponents by 1,154 yards.
2. The Eagles have 1,813 rushing yards, their most through 10 games since 1950, when they ran for 2,136 yards the first 10 weeks of the season. Their 1,813 rushing yards are 5th-most by any team through 10 games since 1984 (but not the most in the NFL this year – the Ravens have 13 more.) They’ve out-rushed their 10 opponents by 814 yards, which is their largest 10-game margin to start a season since 1949, when they somehow had a 1,304-yard rushing margin through 10 games (1,712 yards to 408) on their way to the NFL Championship. The Eagles have rushed 36 or more times in six straight games, matching the longest such streak by any NFL team since the 1986 Bears ran 36 times in 11 straight games. Last time the Eagles had 36 rushing attempts in six straight games was 1951.
3. And the Eagles’ 19 rushing touchdowns match their most through 10 games since 1949, when they had 24. They also had 19 in 1953. They’re only the third team since 1962 with 19 rushing TDs and a 5.0 rushing average through 10 games. The 1998 Broncos with Terrell Davis and 2005 Seahawks with Shaun Alexander are the only other teams to record that rushing double in the last 62 years.
4. Going to the other side of the ball, the Eagles have now held six straight opponents to 280 or fewer yards for the first time since 1991 and only the second time since 1954. That record-setting 1991 defense held an incredible 10 straight teams below 280 yards. The Eagles have allowed 2,731 total yards, the fewest to open a season since the 1991 defense allowed 2,220 the first 10 games of the season.
5A. The Eagles have also allowed only 784 passing yards the last six games, just 131 per game. That’s their fewest in a six-game span since the 1998 team allowed 738 during a mid-season stretch. And they’ve only allowed five offensive touchdowns during the six-game winning streak, their fewest since a six-game stretch of 2009 and equalling the fewest since they allowed five in six games in 2002.
5B. They’ve also now gone six straight games without allowing an offensive touchdown longer than five yards, something they had never done previously in franchise history. The Eagles have 18 touchdowns of more than five yards and they’ve allowed six.
6. Jalen Hurts’ rushing touchdown against Washington was his 11th this year and gave him 49 in 61 career starts. That’s 17 more than any other quarterback has ever had in his first 61 career starts. Josh Allen and Cam Newton had 32, Jack Kemp 31 and Daunte Culpepper 27. Even though Hurts didn’t play until the last month of his rookie season – and he possibly has seven games left this year – his 57 career touchdowns are 12th-most in NFL history by a player in his first five seasons. At his current 2024 rate of 1.1 rushing TD per game, he’ll have 64 at the end of the season, which would tie Eric Dickerson for 6th-most ever by a player in his first five seasons.
7. With his 43-yard completion to Saquon Barkley, Hurts now has an NFL-high 10 passes of at least 40 yards. With seven games to go, that’s already the most by an Eagles quarterback since Sam Bradford had 12 in 2015. Overall, including running plays, the Eagles have an NFL-high 14 plays from scrimmage of at least 40 yards. The Ravens are next with 11.
8. Reed Blankenship now has seven career interceptions, matching the most by an Eagles player in his first 35 games since Eric Allen had 13 in his first 35 games back from 1988 through 1990. Blankenship’s seven INTs are the most by any safety since Tashaun Gipson had 12 in his first 35 games from 2012 through 2014.
9. Zach Ertz’s 4th-quarter touchdown was his 26th at the Linc, most in the stadium’s 22-year history. DeSean Jackson (17), Brian Westbrook (16), Jeremy Maclin (15), A.J. Brown (14), DeVonta Smith (13) and Brent Celek (13) are next. Ertz is the seventh player to score a touchdown at the Linc both for the Eagles and against the Eagles. The others are T.O., Corey Clement, Golden Tate, DeSean Jackson, Julio Jones and Saquon Barkley. With his six catches Thursday night, Ertz increased his career total to 752 and became the sixth tight end in NFL history with 750 catches. The others are Tony Gonzalez (1,325), Jason Witten (1,228), Travis Kelce (967), Antonio Gates (955) and Shannon Sharpe (815). Ertz has the 3rd-most catches by a tight end in his first 162 career games, behind Kelce (915) and Witten (822). If you count postseason games as well, Ertz has 788 career receptions.
10. This is the section that half our readers can’t stand because it’s a positive Nick Sirianni stat. And it’s a remarkable one. Sirianni now has a 42-19 career record for a .689 winning percentage. He passed Matt LaFleur two weeks ago and George Halas last week and on Thursday he improved from .683 to .689 and passed Hall of Famer Ray Flaherty (.684), who won NFL Championships with Washington in 1937 and 1942. Sirianni’s 42nd win also moved him into a tie with Doug Pederson with the 5th-most coaching wins in Eagles history. He’s one behind Buddy Ryan at 43, and that would put him in a tie for 4th place, behind Andy Reid (130), Greasy Neale (63) and Dick Vermeil (54). With 42 wins, Sirianni is already tied for the 14th-most wins in NFL history by a head coach in his first four seasons, and that’s with seven games remaining. Two more would place him in a tie for 5th-most and if the Eagles go 5-2 he would be tied for 3rd-most.
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