Advertisement

In Roob's Eagles Stats, crazy numbers from Swift, Elliott and Smith

Reuben Frank
·7 min read
1

In Roob's Eagles Stats, crazy numbers from Swift, Elliott and Smith originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

We’ve got some sweet D’Andre Swift stats, some crazy Jake Elliott numbers and some wild DeVonta Smith accomplishments in this week’s edition of Roob’s Eagles Stats.

And a ridiculous Nick Sirianni stat to top it off.

Enjoy the numbers!

Swift piling up the yards: We have to start with D’Andre Swift, who ran 28 times for 175 yards and a touchdown in his first extended action in an Eagles uniform. Swift is only the eighth player in the Eagles’ 91-year history to rush for 175 yards in a game. LeSean McCoy did it three times, Timmy Brown, Steve Van Buren and Wilbert Montgomery twice each and Bryce Brown, Duce Staley and Swede Hanson once each. Swift is the first player the Eagles did not draft to rush for 175 yards in a game since Brown had 180 yards against the Cards at Busch Stadium in St. Louis in 1965. Brown was a 29th-round pick of the Packers in 1959. Brown and Swift are the only Eagles drafted by another team to ever rush for 175 or more yards for the Eagles. Swift’s 175 yards are the most by an Eagle since Shady’s franchise-record 217-yard game against the Lions in the snow in 2013. He had the most rushing yards against the Vikings in 32 years, since Barry Sanders – like Swift a Lions draft pick – gained 220 yards in a 34-14 win over the Vikings at the Metrodome in 1991.

By Land and by Air: With Swift rushing for 175 yards rushing and DeVonta Smith gaining 131 receiving, this was the first time the Eagles have had a running back and a wide receiver both over 130 yards in the same game in 13 years. On Dec. 12, 2010, LeSean McCoy ran for 149 yards and DeSean Jackson caught four passes for 210 yards in a 30-27 win over the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.

Crazy rushing margin: The Eagles ran for 259 yards and held the Vikings to 28 rushing yards, and that 231-yard differential is the Eagles’ 4th-largest since 1950 (and 12th-largest ever). It’s the largest against the Vikings in 44 years, since a 37-7 loss to the Cards at Busch Stadium – there’s Busch Stadium again – when the Cards out-rushed the Vikings by 255 yards (325 to 70), with O.J. Anderson gaining 164. Last time the Eagles rushed for over 250 yards and allowed fewer than 30 was in 1949, when they out-rushed the Rams 274-21 in their 14-0 win at L.A. Coliseum in the NFL Championship Game. Van Buren ran for 196 that day, an Eagles postseason record. The Vikings’ 28 yards are the fewest the Eagles have allowed since they held Washington to 21 in a 24-0 win at FedEx Field. This is the first time since 1947 the Eagles have gained at least 350 rushing yards through two games while allowing fewer than 110. They’re only the 13th team to ever do that. The NFL has only been tracking rushing and passing first downs since 1999, but during that 25-year span the Eagles are the only NFL team on record with at least 19 rushing first downs and four or fewer passing first downs in a game. The 19 first downs are 6th-most on record. The Eagles’ four passing first downs are their fewest since they had four against the Panthers in 2012 and matched their fewest since they had two vs. the Giants in 2003.

Hurts closing in on record: With two rushing touchdowns Thursday night, Hurts now has scored multiple touchdowns in nine games. The only NFL quarterback with more career multiple-TD games is Cam Newton with 10. Hurts’ 28 total rushing TDs are 8th-most in Eagles history but only one behind Timmy Brown, three behind Ricky Watters and four behind Randall Cunningham. So four more TDs puts him in a tie for fifth behind Steve Van Buren (69), Wilbert Montgomery (45), LeSean McCoy (44) and Brian Westbrook (37).

DeVonta chasing DeSean’s mark: Smith’s 100-yard game was his ninth, and the only Eagles with more before their 25th birthday are DeSean Jackson (13) and Jeremy Maclin (9). Ben Hawkins and Jordan Matthews also had eight. Smith’s birthday is Nov. 14, so he has seven more games before he turns 25. Among players drafted since 2021, only Ja’Marr Chase (9) has more 100-yard games than Smith.

You again?: Kirk Cousins threw for 364 yards, completed 71 percent of his passes and had four touchdowns and no interceptions. In 2015, Cousins completed 67 percent of his passes for 365 yards with four TDs and no INTs against the Eagles in a 34-28 Washington win at the Linc. The only other QBs with a 65 percent, 350-yard, 4-TD, 0-INT game against the Eagles are Don Meredith of the Cowboys in 1966, Phil Simms in 1984 and Drew Brees in 2018. Cousins has done it twice and the score in both games was 34-28. Cousins has thrown 26 touchdowns against the Eagles. Only Eli Manning (54), Sonny Jurgensen (33) and Sammy Baugh (27) have thrown more. Thursday’s game was his seventh against the Eagles with a passer rating of at least 100. That ties the most ever. Billy Kilmer, Jim Hart, Manning and Tony Romo also had seven.

They keep throwing: The Patriots and Vikings have thrown 98 passes against the Eagles, the 15th-most any team NFL has ever faced the first two weeks of a season. The most passes the Eagles previously faced through two games was 96 in 2013. The Eagles are only the fourth NFL team ever to face 98 or more pass attempts and 31 or fewer rushing attempts through two games. One of the three others was the 2016 Chargers, with Nick Sirianni on Mike McCoy’s coaching staff.

Rocket Leg: With his 61-yard field goal and his 61-yard game winner against the Giants in 2017, Jake Elliott became only the sixth kicker in NFL history with two career field goals of at least 60 yards. The others are Brett Maher (4-for-4), Greg Zuerlein (3-for-10), Sebastien Janikowski (2-for-9), Justin Tucker (2-for-8) and Matt Prater (2-for-4). Those two field goals are Elliott’s only career attempts from at least 60 yards. Elliott has now made six career kicks of 56 yards or more – 7th-most in history. He’s 6-for-7 from 56 yards and up, and that 83 percent accuracy is highest in history by a kicker with at least five attempts from 56 yards or more.

Pinpoint accuracy: It might not have been Jalen Hurts’ finest passing game, but he did complete 18 of 23 passes for 78 percent against the Vikings. That’s the 2nd-most accurate performance of his career. He completed 84 percent of his passes against the Vikings last year on 26-for-31. The only other quarterbacks with two career games of 78 percent accuracy vs. the Vikings are Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Gary Danielson and Kurt Warter.

He doesn’t lose many games: Nick Sirianni improved his career record as a head coach to 25-11 (.694) and passed Blanton Collier to move into ninth place on the all-time NFL head coaching winning percentage list. Only six coaches who’ve been a head coach for more than two full years have won 70 percent of their games: Guy Chamberlin (.784), John Madden (.759), Vince Lombardi (.738), Matt LeFleur (.716), George Allen (.712) and Ralph Jones (.706). Chamberlin coached in the 1920s and Jones in the 1930s. A win Monday night in Tampa puts Sirianni at .703.