There is no way to overstate how important it was to the Eagles and their season that they beat the Saints on Sunday, or how hard they tried at times to lose.
The final score, 39-17, says this was a thumping, and in the second half, it was. Those 30 minutes were the cleanest, the most efficient and competent, that the Eagles have played through their first five games. Admittedly, this standard is not high. But when the most egregious error over that long a period is another missed extra point by Caleb Sturgis, the Eagles will take it.