Game Review – MIN 38, PHI 20

The Eagles played sloppy against the Jets, but were so much more talented that they won easily. The Eagles went to Minnesota and found out you can’t be sloppy against a good team. The Vikings played their best game of the year and beat the Eagles 38-20.

After falling behind 24-3, the Eagles got hot and scored 17 straight points. They cut the lead to 24-20 and had momentum. The Vikings were on their heels.

Unfortunately the Vikings re-gained their balance and dominated the rest of the game. They made plays when they counted most. The Eagles had dug too big a hole against too good of a team. It was encouraging to see the Eagles fight back after falling behind, but you have to focus on the bigger point. Once again, the Eagles fell behind. The defense gave up a TD on the opening possession. The offense then went 3 & out. That’s just not good football. You aren’t going to win consistently when you’re always falling behind.

Coaching

Not a strong showing by the Eagles coaches. Doug Pederson went for it on three 4th downs. The Eagles converted on just one of them. The most controversial decision came late in the half. Pederson called for a fake FG with the Eagles down 24-10 and 20 seconds left. His explanation is that if the play worked, Jake Elliott would have hit Dallas Goedert with a pass near the sideline. Goedert would have gone out, stopped the clock and the Eagles would have had one or two shots at the end zone. Pederson wanted points.

I hated the decision live. I hated it more after re-watching the game. The direct snap to Elliott made was easy for everyone to see and the DB immediately covered Goedert. Elliott tried to improvise, but threw an INT. I would rather Pederson have just gone for it with Carson Wentz and the offense or kick the FG. The fake was a poor idea and just not worth the risk. No one is saying this is the reason the Eagles lost or anything silly like that. I just thought it was a bad decision.

Arguably the worst moment in the game came on 3rd/4. The Eagles couldn’t get the play off in time and took a penalty. That led to a sack and killed a drive. I don’t know if that is on Pederson or an assistant or Wentz, but that was a brutal time for a penalty.

Pederson did a solid job with the Eagles offense. There were some good plays called and some were well-executed. I liked the fact he didn’t give up on the run game. My biggest complaint would be with the quick screens to Alshon Jeffery. I like then near the goal line and when AJ is covered 1 on 1. The Eagles threw 3 screens to him. AJ isn’t running great this year so that felt awkward. Get the ball to Agholor for those plays.

Jim Schwartz had his issues as well. I don’t know if he didn’t communicate well or his players weren’t listening or what, but the lack of discipline by the DBs was alarming. One blown coverage is something you deal with, but the coverage in this game was bad.

The Vikings had a creative gameplan. They used a reverse on the opening drive to take advantage of the Eagles aggressive run D. That run went for 10 yards. They mixed creative plays a few times. That made it feel like they felt this was an important game. The Eagles seemed to be treating this as business as usual. There is merit to the Vikings approach, but this was an October meeting. Are you better off saving the creative gameplan for down the road?

QB

Carson Wentz played well overall. He was great at times. He was 26-40-306. Wentz threw a pair of TDs and was picked off late in the game. He had a couple of key passes dropped (stop me if you’ve heard this before).

Wentz made a great pre-snap read and adjustment in the 3rd Qtr. That gave him Miles Sanders 1 on 1 with a LB. Wentz hit him for a gain of 45 and that set up a score. Wentz hit Sanders earlier in the game for a 32-yd TD. I loved his short TD to Jeffery. Wentz dropped back and no one was open. He moved in the pocket, but instead of running he kept his eyes on the receivers. He then hit AJ for a short score. There was another play where Wentz moved around to buy time and he hit AJ for good completion over the middle.

Wentz ran the read-option and kept the ball. He got 16 yards on that. Smart play.

Not everything was great. 54 deflected one of his passes and almost picked it off. Wentz has had too many passes deflected this year. That’s something he’s got to work on. Wentz had some throws that weren’t ideal. If he hit Sanders or AJ with better throws on sideline routes, they might have scored. Accuracy isn’t about completing passes. You want the ball to be in the right spot.

I do like the fact Wentz gives his guys chances. He gave AJ chances on a couple of 50-50 balls. He gave Mack Hollins a chance to make a play. Wentz is throwing deep for Nelson Agholor. The plays aren’t coming right now, but Wentz’s instinct to try is important.

RB

Jordan Howard had a solid game. He was 13-49 on the ground. There was one negative play. Howard failed to pick up a blitzer coming right up the middle and that led to a sack.

Miles Sanders was only 3-6 as a runner, but he was 3-86 as a receiver. He’s becoming a real weapon. Sanders catches the ball well. He runs good routes. He shows good situational awareness.

WR

Alshon Jeffery was 10-76…one of those catches went for 26 yards! The other 9 went for 5. Yikes. Jeffery did an excellent job of getting open on the play where he caught the TD. Jeffery isn’t catching enough of the intermediate throws that come his way right now. He needs to be better at that.

Nelson Agholor was 4-42. He had a couple of good catches, one on an over route and one on a catch & run. The lack of success on the deep balls is frustrating. That’s not all on Agholor, but he needs to be better.

Mack Hollins did not catch a pass. He missed a block on a quick screen to AJ on a short-yardage play. Something needs to be done here.

TE

The Vikings made a real effort to slow down Zach Ertz. He did have 4 catches for 54 yards. The one bad play came when he failed to catch a 3rd down pass. Wentz put the ball right on Ertz and it went right through his arms.

Dallas Goedert played well. He was 5-48 and also blocked well.

OL

It sure looked like Isaac Seumalo screwed up on the initial 3rd down. He stayed with the DT instead of passing him to Peters and blocking the LB.

Jason Peters started, but got hurt and was replaced by Andre Dillard. The rookie was up and down. He struggled with power rushes. Dillard must anchor better. He had some real good plays as well. You can see his potential.

The OL did a good job with run blocking for the most part. The deficit kept the Eagles from running more than they did. Pass protection was solid. Wentz did get sacked twice, once on a blitz.

DL

Fletcher Cox had his best game of the year. The stat sheet shows 5 tackles and a TFL. It won’t show you that he was close to getting Cousins on a handful of plays. I don’t think he’s all the way back yet, but Cox is more disruptive every week.

Brandon Graham had a sack from DT. He also blew up a screen and a shovel pass. He does need to be more productive off the edge.

Derek Barnett did not have a dumb penalty. Or a sack. He did have one TFL. Barnett’s lack of discipline on bootlegs and reverses has hurt the team in multiple games. If Barnett stays wide, the second TD to Diggs doesn’t happen. Instead, Cousins has no one near him. The Vikings tried that play later and Barnett was in position that time. Cousins didn’t have time to make a good throw.

Josh Sweat was quiet.

Daeshon Hall got 3 snaps on defense. He just missed a strip-sack. He hit Cousins just after the ball was thrown. Please play him more.

Hasaan Ridgeway had a solid showing. He had 2 TFLs. Split a double-team and got a TFL near the GL.

Vinny Curry was too quiet.

LB

Zach Brown did not play well. His mouth and his play combined to get him cut.

Nigel Bradham had a big hit on Cousins when he scrambled. Clean, tough hit. Bradham got hurt in the game and only finished with 2 tackles.

Nate Gerry played pretty well. He was in on 6 tackles (1 TFL) and played aggressively. He did struggle in the Red Zone. Gerry has got to play better down there.

Kamu Grugier-Hill is still knocking the rust off. He played 35 snaps, but didn’t have much to show for it.

Rookie TJ Edwards only played 10 snaps, but looked good. He had 4 tackles. Edwards is natural, instinctive and tackles well. He seemed to mostly play OLB.

DB

Rasul Douglas had a bad game. There were 2 long TDs. He expected help on them, but I’m still not happy with his coverage on  those plays. Douglas got beat by other receivers, including a TE. He stumbled on that play, but CBs can’t do that. Penalties were also an issues. Holding on 3rd/6. Openly tugging on the jersey. That gets called all the time. Dumb. Drew a PI flag late in the half.

Sidney Jones tackled well on the opening drive. That got me to hoping he was going to have a good game. Oops. He got burned for a short TD by Thielen. The coverage wasn’t bad, but Jones didn’t play the ball. Was badly beaten in the 2nd, but got lucky because Cousins threw the ball to the other wide open receiver. Ugh. Called for PI in 3rd. Tough call. That official had been allowing contact all game, but decided to throw the flag there. On the next play, Jones missed tackle of RB. Called for holding in the end zone in the 4th. Not exactly a Pro Bowl performance.

Orlando Scandrick was quiet. MIN didn’t play a lot of 11 personnel.

Craig James replaced Jones for a while. He was beaten for a TD.

Rodney McLeod had 6 tackles. He didn’t make any plays. Gave up completion on 3rd/12. Was right by Thielen, but somehow let him get open. That really hurt.

Malcolm Jenkins led the team with 8 tackles. He had a PD and a FF. Nearly gave up TD in late 1st. Poor pass gave Malcolm time to catch up and knock Thielen out of bounds. Jenkins bit up on a play in the 2nd Qtr and left the deep middle wide open. Easy TD for Diggs.

STs

Cameron Johnston averaged 43.7 yards per punt.

Elliott was 2 of 2 on FGs. He was 0 for 1 as a passer.

Boston Scott was the PR. He showed some juice. He had a 13-yd PR and looked good. That was encouraging.

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