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The Patriots 17-10 win over the Eagles wasn’t exactly the Mona Lisa of victories. Not very artistic. Definitely not a masterpiece. But escaping Philadelphia with a W certainly put that Mona Lisa smile, at least for a moment, on the normally sour puss of the da Vinci of football, Bill Belichick.
This was a game that started very badly. The defense that was supposed to lead these Patriots to the promised land got picked apart by a pretty unspectacular Philly offense. It began with Carson Wentz narrowly escaping pressure and heaving a prayer way up field, only to have that prayer answered by an interference call. Next thing you know, less than two minutes into the game the score was Philly 3-Pats 0.
After an exchange of punts, the Pats defense, which had destroyed a bunch of creampuffs and been exposed by Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, couldn’t get off the field. Frustrating the defense with a series of dinks and dunks, Carson Wentz and company kept an impatient Tom Brady off the field for almost 10 minutes during a 95 yard, 16 play touchdown drive. The score was 10-0 halfway through the second period, and it looked as if this might be a very long afternoon.
Then, like one of those energy-efficient bulbs that take a while to generate much light, the defense emerged from the darkness. With just a few strokes of his brush, the old master made a few adjustments, and the defense figured it out, connected the dots, and (pardon the multiple mixed metaphors) righted the ship. Even the offense was less sleepy, although not in the most satisfying way, scoring three field goals, even though they should have scored three touchdowns.
In the second half, the Pats decided to paint a different picture, and did so using broad strokes. In came the no-huddle. Brady, under pressure all game and not always accurate, managed to find an array of receivers, connecting with a grand total of ten different players. And then, of course, came the trick pay. Backward pass from Brady, TB12, to Julian Edelman, JE11. The bearded wonder, reminding us all of his glory days at Kent State, spotted Phillip Dorsett in the end zone and delivered a strike.
The Pats’ score, at 4:11 of the third quarter, was the last time either team put points on the board. At that point, everything went into slow motion, and much of the third and fourth quarters became a pitcher’s battle. A few hits, a couple of errors, several walks and strike outs, but not a lot of runs. A few last second hopes for Philly provided a bit of drama right to the end, but this Eagles team wasn’t going anywhere. It was a pure delight to anyone who bet the under.
So I guess that a win is a win, even if it was a little sketchy. For Bill and Company, it was likely a quick stop for a cheese steak, then back home. Back to the drawing board to paint another masterpiece on the canvas we know as the gridiron.
