The prescription for an ailing football team seems to be a trip to Detroit.
The Philadelphia Eagles beat down the winless Detroit Lions on Sunday, breezing to a 44-6 victory on Sunday afternoon in the Motor City — at least offering the comfort that they don’t belong amongst the very worst of the NFC.
A rare showing of offensive affluence was headlined by five consecutive scoring drives, which began with their second possession of the afternoon. Remarkably enough, it was fueled by the Miles Sanders-less run game — something that first-year head coach Nick Sirianni has been so reluctant to turn to on a consistent basis.
Boston Scott and Jordan Howard recorded two rushing touchdowns apiece while combining along with quarterback Jalen Hurts to record 187 of Philadelphia’s 236 ground yards in Detroit on Sunday.
Hurts’ light throwing day was his least-strenuous aerial statline of the season, completing just 9-of-14 passes for 103 yards.
Scott opened the scoring with a one-yard touchdown with 3:11 left in the first quarter before Howard followed up a Jake Eliott field goal with a four-yard touchdown rush of his own with 2:51 to go in the first half to give the Eagles a 17-0 halftime advantage.
Scott and Howard alternated touchdowns in the third quarter to turn things into a rout — which was further exacerbated after the latter’s score with 1:20 left in the frame when Darius Slay recovered a fumble coughed up by D’Andre Swift and took it 33 yards to the house.
While the offense flexed their muscles, the defense made the mid-week controversy revolving around coordinator Jonathan Gannon a thing of the past as they held the Lions to just 228 yards on the afternoon.
That included limiting Jared Goff — who is just two-and-a-half years removed from playing in a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams — to a miserable day in which he passed for just 222 yards with five sacks.
On a day in which they missed an early field goal, punted three times, committed one turnover, and turned it over on downs another three times, the Lions had to wait until there was 7:14 left in the game to get on the board via an eight-yard touchdown rush up the middle from Jermar Jefferson.
With the Eagles cruising up 38-3 in the fourth quarter, Hurts was given the hook early to preserve him, allowing for new No. backup Gardner Minshew — who received the promotion after the Eagles traded Joe Flacco to the New York Jets — to get a few snaps with the first-team offense.
He completed 2-of-2 passes for 11 yards.
