Defensive line
Not good enough. Haskins had 26 sacks on the year coming into this game on 186 drop-backs and the Eagles couldn’t get to him once. In fairness, Haskins was releasing the ball on the back of 3-step drops in order to negate the ferocious pass-rush, but the Eagles just lacked the kind of pressure really needed to make the former Buckeye pay. Seeing him scramble to evade pressure was nice, but an actual QB hit would’ve been nicer.
Grade: D
Linebacker
Nigel. Bradham. Touchdown. That’s an instant boost, right?
Outside of that, there were some tackling troubles throughout, but I was very impressed with T.J Edwards, who amassed 4 tackles and 0.5 TFL. This wasn’t the worst linebacking performance in the world and they did seem to fare better in clutch situations than other areas of the defense.
Grade: C+
Cornerback
Oh…dear.
For the third game in a row, a single receiver has posted 130+ yards and a touchdown, and for the third week in a row, the corners have been exploited. Avonte Maddox (though technically playing Safety) missed a tackle when dropping deep on a McLaurin TD.
The Eagles have allowed 6 TD passes of 50+ yards and having Maddox run into Jalen Mills and allow a huge play just doesn’t help. Communication issues continue to plague the unit.
Grade: E
Safety
This unfortunately kind of takes a hit thanks to Maddox dropping deep and missing a surefire tackle on McLaurin, but McLeod and Jenkins played reasonably well. Rodney had a team-leading 7 tackles as his role inside the box continually expands, while Malcolm Jenkins was…well, Malcolm Jenkins.
Grade: C
Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
