Some Dallas Goedert craziness, the obligatory Cameron Dicker stat and lots of Jalen Hurts numbers you won’t believe.
Here’s this week’s edition of Roob’s Eagles stats.
1. Dallas Goedert continues putting up insane numbers in his first full season as the Eagles’ No. 1 tight end. Goedert had eight catches for 95 yards Sunday on just nine targets, and he’s now caught 24 passes on 29 targets this year. His 11.6 average yards per target is 2nd-highest in the league this year - not among tight ends but among all players with at least 20 targets, behind only Bills wide receiver Gabriel Davis (15.5). Goedert has a catch of at least 23 yards in all five games this year. He’s the first Eagle with a reception of 23 yards or longer in five straight games since 2014, when Jordan Matthews had one in seven straight. The last Eagle with a 23-yard catch in each of the first five games of a season was Mike Quick in 1988. (He also did it in 1983.) Overall, Goedert is third among tight ends with 335 yards, behind only Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews. Speaking of tight ends, Goedert’s former teammate Zach Ertz had six catches against the Eagles, giving him 663 in his career and moving him past Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome for eighth place all time among tight ends. Next on the list is Jimmy Graham, who had 713.
2. On the first 4th-and-1 of career – in his first career start, against the Saints late in 2020 – Jalen Hurts was stuffed for no gain by Kwon Alexander and Marcus Williams. Since then, he’s carried the ball on eight 4th-and-1s and converted all eight into first downs. He converted his second 4th-and-1 in that Saints game, then was 2-for-2 last year, and he’s 5-for-5 this year. That 89.9 percent success rate since the start of 2020 is second-best in the NFL, just a hair behind Jacoby Brissett, who is 9-for-10 for 90 percent. Josh Allen is also 8-for-9 since the start of 2020, and Carson Wentz and Jonathan Taylor are both 10-for-12 for 83 percent.
3. The Eagles are 3-0 this year when they score six or fewer second-half points. The rest of the NFL is 12-33 when scoring six or fewer second-half points. The Eagles were 4-24 in their previous 28 games over the last 10 years when scoring six or fewer points after halftime.
4. Remember that old thing about how Jalen Hurts wasn’t accurate enough to be a successful NFL quarterback? Hurts is now completing 67.9 percent of his passes this year, and that’s second-highest in Eagles history through five games. In 1993, Randall Cunningham was at 69.1 percent after five games, but his season actually ended after four games. Hurts is fifth in the NFL in accuracy, ahead of people like Aaron Rodgers, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes.
5. And Hurts’ six rushing TDs are second-most in NFL history by a quarterback after five games. In 1961, Billy Kilmer had eight rushing TDs in the 49ers’ first five games. The Bears’ Johnny Lujack in 1950 and the Steelers’ Kordell Stewart in 1997 also had six. Hurts is second this year in rushing TDs behind only Nick Chubb, who has seven. Hurts is already 13th in Eagles history with his 19 career touchdowns. Two more move him into the top 10.
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6. Hurts already has seven career games with multiple rushing touchdowns. That’s second-most ever by any quarterback in their entire career. Cam Newton had 10. Hurts is also 5th-most in franchise history in games with multiple rushing TDs, behind Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren (12) and LeSean McCoy, Ricky Watters and Wilbert Montgomery (8 each).
7. One more Hurts: One more Hurts: He’s now down to one interception every 49.3 attempts, which is 13th-best in NFL history (500 attempts). Just ahead of him in 12th place on that list is Carson Wentz with one INT every 51.1 attempts. When this season began, Wentz was in 10th and Hurts was 27th. Just a wild guess that Hurts will pass his former teammate in the next few weeks. Hurts has thrown one or fewer INT in eight straight regular-season games.
8. The Eagles are one of only 16 teams in history to commit two or fewer turnovers in their first five games. This year’s Cowboys are among the others. Overall, the Eagles have gone eight straight games with one or fewer turnovers. That’s two shy of the franchise record of 10 set over the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
9. Cameron Dicker’s 23-yard field goal with 1:48 left made him the first Eagles kicker in franchise history to make a game-winning field goal in his first career game. Eight other Eagles kickers have made a field goal in their first NFL game – Ove Johansson in 1977, Tony Franklin in 1979, Paul McFadden in 1984, Dean Dorsey in 1988, Todd France in 2005, Alex Henery in 2011, Cody Parkey in 2014 and Jake Elliott in 2017. No Eagle has ever scored a game-winning touchdown in his first career game.
10. The Eagles’ 12 rushing touchdowns equal the most by any team through five games in 37 years. The last team with more than 12 was the 1975 Dolphins. Since then, the 1989 Bears and 2021 Browns also had 12 through five games. The Eagles also had 12 rushing TDs five games into the 1944 and 1949 seasons.