It was a stressful night, but it ended in victory. The Eagles will enter the weekend as NFC East pole-sitters, but how well did they play? It’s time to get the markers and boards out once more!
Quarterback
It was very much a game of two halves for Eagles QB Carson Wentz, which has oddly become the norm at this point. On one hand, Wentz was scrappy, held onto the ball for way too long, inaccurate, and frequented ill-advised throws. On the other, he made throws very few could make, led a fourth-quarter comeback with a makeshift offense, and continued to get up after being battered and bruised in the face of relentless pressure. He ended the night with 359 yards – a season-high.
Being forced to throw 25 times in a pair of quarters where you entered halftime with a 3 point lead isn’t ideal. Wentz continues to put faith in his wideouts (namely Travis Fulgham) and is beginning to build a real rapport with guys like John Hightower.
It was a bumpy night, but one with plenty of positives. Much like the feeling when your head is spinning after a wild Saturday night that you remember very little from.
Grade: C
Running back
Boston Scott is now the official owner of the New York Giants. I don’t make the rules. All three of his top career performances have come against the Big Blue, and his clutch game-winning TD reception was a true sight to behold.
In fairness to Scott, Clement, and even Jason Huntley (Oh, hello), the offensive line struggled to hold up, making it impossible to run up the gut consistently. But amassing 70 total rushing yards between the running backs is pretty admirable against the 8th-ranked run defense.
Grade: C
Offensive line
Do we have to?
This was probably the weakest outing we’ve seen from the Eagles offensive line. Sua Opeta started out solid but very quickly dropped off the face of the earth, while Jordan Mailata struggled more than we’re used to seeing and it clearly impacted Wentz from a comfort perspective.
Losing Lane Johnson on two occasions really hurt and the group never really got going, but at least Jamon Brown didn’t get a snap.
Jason Kelce’s penalty at the end was devastating…but it did set up the huge touchdown so…W?
Grade: D
Tight End
Richard Rodgers had his best game since week 12 in 2015, amassing 85 receiving yards and leading the Eagles in that metric. Without Ertz or Goedert available, Rodgers has been a real sight for sore eyes…although Hakeem butler putting up minimal fight for a TD reception that ended up in a PI going uncalled was less than ideal.
Grade: B-
Wide receiver
DeSean Jackson’s comeback started out explosively and then quickly burned out before a heartbreaking injury, but the rest of the group showed up and balled out.
John Hightower registered his second 50+ yard catch in as many weeks, while Travis Fulgham took a while to get going before putting up another 70+ yard outing.
Greg Ward Jr. added another iconic catch to his collection, making it hard not to see just how high his ceiling is as a long-term slot WR at the NFL level.
Grade: B-
Defensive grades are listed on the next page below.
Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire
