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Eagles Find New Life In 39-17 Victory Over Saints

By Joseph Santoliquito

PHILADELPHIA, PA (CBS) — The Eagles soothed the doom-and-gloomers for a week with a 39-17 victory on Sunday over the visiting and hapless New Orleans Saints at Lincoln Financial Field, by remaining relevant in October and temporarily saving their season.

The Eagles find themselves in a strange juxtaposition from a week ago. In finding new life in the pitiful NFC East at 2-3, they Eagles find themselves in an NFC East showdown for first place in the division with the visiting New York Giants next Monday night.

The defense has been the driving force to the modicum the Eagles have had the first quarter of the season. Fletcher Cox almost singlehandedly led to the victory, with a career-best three sacks, forcing two fumbles and picking up a fumble recovery that led to 10 points. Cox was in Drew Brees' face the entire game, picking up a team-high six tackles.

"I'm going to give big credit to the back end today, because all three of those sacks were cover sacks," said Cox, who is having an all-pro season. "I was getting time to rush the quarterback. It was real big to have four turnovers and it left our offense in position to score. I knew it was going to be a grind playing a Hall of Fame quarterback like Drew Brees getting the ball out early. A couple of times he held the ball and from the back end, we got good coverage. I was a little surprised he held the ball. It's something we spoke about all week staying in his face. It's the first time I ever had three sacks in one game. Most important is that we won the football game and get this team back on a good road."

The Eagles amassed a season-best 519 yards of total offense, while quarterback Sam Bradford was 32 for 45 for 333 yards and two touchdowns—also throwing two interceptions in the end zone (the last time Bradford threw for over 300 yards came when he played for St. Louis in a 31-24 loss to Atlanta on Sept. 15, 2013, when he threw for 352 yards, 3 TDs and an interception).

"This is what the offense is supposed to look like, but every week it could be something different," Eagles tackle Jason Peters said. "We just have to keep chugging. We executed the plays, like I've been saying in our losses. We haven't been executing the plays properly. Today, we did that. I think it's best (the offensive line has played this year). We're jelling. We knew it would take time to get better. Take this tape and continue doing the things that we did today."

Against the Saints, the Eagles trailed once, 7-0, when rookie linebacker Jordan Hicks lost Saints' receiver Ben Watson on the outside and Drew Brees quickly recognized the lapse, quickly hitting Watson for a 6-yard touchdown. The Eagles then scored 39 of the game's next 49 points—fueled by the defense led by Cox. For the game, the Eagles forced four turnovers that led to 20 Eagles' points.

The sway of the game—and possibly the season—came when the Eagles scored 13 points in a 13-second span during the third quarter. The Eagles responded to Zach Hocker's 21-yard field goal that tied the game at 10-10 with a 9-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a Ryan Mathews' 2-yard score with 6:44 left in the third quarter, giving the Eagles a 17-10 lead.

On the Saints' first play following the touchdown, Cox sacked Brees for his third of the game, forcing Brees to cough up the ball at the New Orleans 13. The next play Bradford hit a wide-open Brent Celek with scoring toss and a 23-10 lead with 6:31 left in the quarter. It's the best sequence the Eagles had all season—but it couldn't come, of course, without one stumble when kicker Caleb Sturgis missed the extra point. Sturgis was four-for-four on field goal attempts, booting a 39-, 29- 26- and 41-yarders.

The running game, nonexistent until now, pounded the Saints' anemic run defense for 186 yards. DeMarco Murray had his best game as an Eagle, rushing for a game-high 83 yards on 20 carries and cosmetic touchdown in the fourth quarter with the game well decided. Josh Huff had a career game, catching four passes for 78 yards and a touchdown, and his 19-yard reception set up Ryan Mathews' third-quarter 2-yard touchdown.

"We played the style of football that we know we can play," nose tackle Bennie Logan said. "We don't have to figure out our identity as a team, we know our identity. We just have to go out and execute the plays. It's nothing like we have to look for anything, or find anything. We know we're a good football team. It starts with offense, defense, special teams, and the only thing that's been hurting us is ourselves."

Byron Maxwell kept the win in perspective.

"At the end of the day, we didn't win the Super Bowl or anything, we just have to keep building as a team," Maxwell said. "We have an identity, we just had some hiccups in the road. We know what we're trying to do. It's just a matter of doing it now."

BOX SCORE

GALLERY

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