Will the Least Self-Destructive NFC Contender Please Stand Up?

The Eagles win despite themselves. The 49ers suffer a crushing loss. The Cowboys attempt the former but end up doing the latter. Oh, and the Vikings are 3-0. Confused yet? Walkthrough can help.

Three NFC contenders. Three confounding Week 3 performances. Two troubling losses. One troubling win. Let’s get the Walkthrough started.

Hardwired to Self Destruct. Part I: Fear and Loathing in Greater Philly

The Philadelphia Eagles thoroughly outplayed the New Orleans Saints but did not deserve to win. They are 2-1, but they are in big trouble. Their busy offseason of myriad changes was an almost unqualified success, yet they failed to solve their biggest problems.

The Eagles beat the Saints 15-13 in the Superdome in a three-hour myocardial infarction of a football game on Sunday. They won despite a trio of mind-boggling fourth-down decisions, two inexcusable Jalen Hurts turnovers, a blocked punt, injuries to DeVonta Smith and Darius Slay and an illness that kept Lane Johnson in the locker room lavatory for most of the afternoon.

The Eagles won because Saquon Barkley went ham for 147 rushing yards, including a 65-yard touchdown. They won because the laws of central tendency came knocking for the Saints, who looked like the 2007 Patriots through two games. They won because a defense that listened to the Falcons’ last-minute Monday night comeback while driving home on the Schuylkill Expressway in Week 2 clamped down on the Saints for all but three offensive series. They won because three Saints defenders impersonated Larry, Curly and Moe on a simple crossing route to Dallas Goedert on third-and-16 with just over one minute left in the game and Reed Blankenship got his arms under a Derek Carr sinkerball for a game-icing interception that spared Iggles fans from another last-second dance with disaster.

The Eagles would be 3-0 had Barkley not dropped a third-and-short pass in the flat on Monday night. They are also a handful of reversals-of-fortune from 0-3. If the Eagles are indeed a .500-caliber team, they are the least-average .500-caliber team in history. They are awesome except when they are absolutely purtid, which is just often enough to spoil everything.