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Eagles finally off and running

Birds’ ground attack was productive against Saints.

Ryan Mathews runs with the football against the New Orleans Saints.
Ryan Mathews runs with the football against the New Orleans Saints.Read more(Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)

NOW THAT the thrill of witnessing an actual Eagles' home-field victory has worn off, now that photos of the final tally glowing on the Linc scoreboard have been framed and the scoresheets have been pressed into scrapbooks, many Eagles fans will spend the days until Monday night's encounter with the Giants debating one question:

What was real in that 39-17 steamrolling of the Saints, and what wasn't? What might endure, and what was a mirage?

Despite Chip Kelly's denials yesterday, it sure seemed the run- blocking got simplified a bit. There was way more room to maneuver than DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles saw in the first four games, combined. The blockers weren't looking at each other going "oops" nearly as much. Putting Sam Bradford under center a lot definitely created some forward momentum for the backs.

Sunday was how the Eagles' running attack should look, but New Orleans, ranked 27th against the run coming in, was just awful up front. The linebackers weren't anticipating, flowing into the run gaps at the snap the way, say, Sean Lee did for Dallas.

The Giants came out of the weekend ranked second in the NFL in stopping the run, behind the Falcons. So we'll get a pretty good idea Monday night about how enduring the offensive line improvement might be. My guess is things will be better, but not nearly as good as they were against the Saints.

The other key areas in question are the pass defense, and Bradford.

Turnovers made the Eagles' D look more dominant than it really was on Sunday, Fletcher Cox notwithstanding. The Eagles allowed a combined 248 passing yards, on 11 catches, to Willie Snead and Brandin Cooks. The hope here has to be that Mychal Kendricks returns from that hamstring injury this week, and that Kiko Alonso isn't too far behind him. The Birds need help in coverage underneath and in blitzing effectively, which those guys could provide.

Bill Davis and Chip Kelly talked about the need to eliminate the seven "X" plays the Eagles gave up Sunday, but maybe even more pernicious, when the game was still close, was the tendency to give up third-and-long conversions, a bad habit that carried over from the Washington game.

Late in the third quarter, the Saints still within a couple of scores, New Orleans stood at 6-for-11 on third down. The visitors converted their very first third down of the day, third-and-8 from their 41 to wide-open tight end Benjamin Watson, who gained 22 yards.

They converted third-and-5, third-and-8 again, this time a 46-yard pass to Cooks over Malcolm Jenkins on the drive that allowed New Orleans to tie the game at 10-10, 3:38 seconds into the third quarter), third-and-7 and third-and-10 - all before garbage time, when the Saints scored their final touchdown.

The common thread might have been the lack of a consistent pass rush. Though the Eagles ultimately sacked Drew Brees five times, and he lost devastating fumbles on two of them, the pressure seemed to only come on blitzes, and it didn't always get there, by a long shot.

Again, Monday night will tell us more here. Eli Manning is playing really, really well, He's completing 66.5 percent of his passes, for 1,417 yards, the NFL's third-best total. He has thrown for 10 touchdowns and just two interceptions, which is exactly as many as Bradford threw in the Saints' end zone in the first half Sunday.

As for Bradford, he continued his pattern of posting impressive second-half totals after a disappointing first half. Bradford is 54- for-96 for 524 yards in the first half, 66-for-94 for 757 in the second half. He has three picks in each half, but six of his eight touchdown passes have come after halftime.

This is an easy one to parse: Bradford still needs to be much, much better for the Eagles to be any good, for them to beat a contending team. You don't come back from two first-half end-zone interceptions Monday against the Giants. You just don't.

Kelly was nonchalant (or resigned?) about Bradford's inconsistency, both Sunday and yesterday, when Kelly offered that, "He'd be great at a doubleheader," and said: "Maybe he just gets settled a little bit more" in the second half.

That is something that has to get fixed, quickly.

Developing storylines

**Chip Kelly said yesterday that to the coaching staff, Ryan Mathews (eight carries, 73 yards) and DeMarco Murray (20 carries, 83 yards) are "the same player." This makes sense only if Mathews has DirecTV and Murray has cable. Mathews hits the hole faster and harder. Murray is mostly effective running over people in space, so far.

**Of the nine Eagles who caught passes Sunday, eight caught all but one or two of the balls thrown to them. Then there was Riley Cooper, everyone's favorite fourth-down option, with three catches on eight targets.

** Kelly said Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor are working on the NovaCare JUGS machine at 7 a.m. every day. Matthews still dropped at least two passes Sunday, including a TD that was going to be wiped out by an Agholor pass interference call anyway, Agholor not disguising his pick route well enough. "It's something that's hurt us in every game we've played," Kelly said. "We call those SIWs - self-inflicted wounds. That's us dropping the ball, that's not a defense making a good play."

** Marcus Smith got 22 snaps against the Saints, the same as Vinny Curry. Kelly noted that Smith's pressure was a factor on Walter Thurmond's fourth-quarter interception.

** Josh Huff went from four snaps against Washington to 41 against the Saints. His explosiveness was a welcome addition.

Who knew?

That the Saints would turn out to be even more fun to host than the pope?

Obscure Stat

The only Eagles receiver with more than one touchdown catch this season is Brent Celek, with two. On just five catches.

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian