Eagles-Titans takeaways: A.J. Brown has monster day against former team
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Eagles dominated the Tennessee Titans through the air on Sunday in a 35-10 victory at Lincoln Financial Field to improve to 11-1 on the season.
Jalen Hurts played like an MVP candidate and A.J. Brown got revenge over his former team in the win.
Here are six takeaways from the game:
A.J. Brown has monster day
There's no denying that Brown had this one circled on his calendar for quite some time.
In the first game against his former squad, Brown had eight catches for 119 yards and two touchdowns. If it wasn't evident enough already this season, Brown showed how foolish the Titans were for trading him with his performance at the Linc. The Titans' pass catchers finished with a combined 157 receiving yards total on Sunday. Brown almost finished with more than that by himself.
Brown has completely changed the way the Eagles operate on offense this year, and his connection with Hurts has been spectacular. He's the best wideout the Eagles have had since Terrell Owens and the draft night move by general manager Howie Roseman is paying major dividends.
Brown's first touchdown came in the second quarter, but it wasn't easy. He made a 40-yard catch that was initially ruled a touchdown, but it was called back after being reviewed due to Brown stepping out of bounds.
But what did the Eagles do? They just dialed up back up again -- 40 yards to Brown on the next play for a score.
Brown's second touchdown was even more impressive as he made the grab over Titans cornerback Terrance Mitchell that Hurts laid on the money.
Hurts continues to play like an MVP
Last week, Hurts and the Eagles did it on the ground. But against the Titans, Hurts won with his arm and through the air.
Hurts completed 29 of his 39 passes for 380 yards and three touchdowns and recorded a rushing score in the win. It's most passing yards Hurts has thrown for in a single-game this season.
This is just one of the many reasons why this Eagles team is so dominant. They can win in multiple ways and different players step up every week.
But the main catalyst of it all has been Hurts, who's playing like an MVP and made himself a lot of money this season. Spotrac projects Hurts could get an average salary of $44 million after this year.
Hurts has already topped his touchdown total from last season. Last year, he had 16 passing and 10 rushing scores.
But after Sunday's game, Hurts now has 20 passing touchdowns and nine rushing on the year.
He's playing like the MVP.
Don't forget about DeVonta
You know who else an amazing day against the Titans defense? That would be DeVonta Smith, the wideout from Alabama the Eagles selected in the first round last year.
Smith had five catches for 102 yards and one touchdown in the victory over Tennessee.
Brown is the Eagles' No. 1 wideout, but Smith is talented enough to be a No. 1 on most teams in the NFL. Smith has good numbers this season, but if he were another team, he would be absolute stud and fantasy football star.
Smith ran a great route to open the scoring up for the Eagles and put them on the board in the first quarter.
What happened to Derrick Henry?
Entering the game, I thought this could've gotten ugly if the Eagles weren't able to contain Derrick Henry.
But the exact opposite happened.
The Eagles' defense bottled-up Henry for 30 yards on 11 carries, an average of 2.7 yards per carry.
Getting Jordan Davis back this week definitely helped the Eagles, but it was an impressive game from Jonathan Gannon's defense. Henry only recorded 38 rushing yards last week against the Cincinnati Bengals, so it looks like Gannon and the Eagles came in really prepared and executed against one of the best running backs in the league.
The performance was even more impressive when consider the struggles the Eagles' defense has had against the run this season.
It helped the Eagles were able to gain a lead to force the Titans to throw the ball, but you got to tip your cap Gannon and the defense.
Now, they'll have to face Saquon Barley next week when they play the Giants.
Eagles overcome penalties to win
The Eagles and Titans were close early, but the main reason was due to penalties.
In total, the Eagles had 12 penalties for 80 yards, and most of of them were false starts that happened in the first half. It was an odd showing by the offensive line, especially in your home stadium.
Maybe the Eagles' offensive line was trying to beat the Titans' aggressive defensive line to the snap? Possibly.
I wouldn't be too worried about the offensive line moving forward, it's one of the best units in the league, but it's something to monitor for the remainder of the season.
Eagles' pass rush had big day
The Eagles-Titans game script drew-up perfectly for Philadelphia.
The Eagles gained a lead, took Henry out of the game and forced Tennessee quarterback Ryan Tannehill to throw the ball, and their pass rush delivered.
The Eagles sacked Tannehill six times in the win.
Josh Sweat had two sacks to lead the Eagles, while Javon Hargrave, Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox and Haason Reddick each had one.
Hargrave now has a career-high eight sacks so far this season, while Reddick leads team with nine.
