By Ross Archer
The Eagles weathered key injuries to their secondary while rushing for 246 yards to stun the New Orleans Saints 24-21.
The Saints entered with the No. 2 rushing defense (76.1 yards per game) in the NFL, including a streak of 55 consecutive games without allowing a 100-yard rusher.
By halftime, Eagles running back Miles Sanders had 96 of his 115 rushing yards and rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts had 75 of his 106.
Making his first NFL start, Hurts was 17 of 30 for 167 yards and a passing TD to help Philly (4-8-1) snap a four-game losing streak.
With the Saints’ loss and Green Bay’s 31-24 win against Detroit, the Packers took over as the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
The Saints and Packers are both 10-3, but Green Bay beat New Orleans in Week 3 for the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The Eagles led 17-0 at halftime but lost three starters in the secondary — Darius Slay, Avonte Maddux, Rodney McLeod — to injury in the second half.
The Saints were able to exploit the injuries in the third quarter with an Alvin Kamara 5-yard rushing TD and a 37-yard TD pass from Taysom Hill to Emmanuel Sanders.
But with the Saints driving for the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter, Hill was strip-sacked by Josh Sweat at the Eagles’ 47-yard-line on fourth-and-2. The takeaway set up a 53-yard drive, capped by Sanders’ second rushing TD for a 24-14 Eagles lead.
