Some tough marks on offense after Eagles’ Week 1 loss to Washington originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
That was ugly.
After beating Washington in six straight games, the Eagles had a 17-point lead but let Washington come back to win 27-17 at FedExField. It was an epic collapse and there aren’t very good marks on offense for Week 1.
Quarterback
Carson Wentz: 24/42, 270 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT, 72.5 rating
In the first quarter and a half, it looked like Wentz was going to end up with one of the best games of his career, but it ended up being one of the worst. While jinxes aren’t real, I’m getting a lot of flak about this tweet:
That’s why Wentz can’t get an F for this game. Yeah, the collapse was awful but he still played a brilliant first quarter and a half. It was weird to watch it all collapse.
Grade: D
Running backs
Boston Scott: 9 carries, 35 yards (3.9)
Without Miles Sanders and behind a makeshift line, the running backs really couldn’t get much going. Their three running backs in this game — Scott, Corey Clement and Jason Huntley — got 16 carries for 55 yards (3.4) and didn’t do a whole lot in the receiving game either. They need to get Sanders back next week.
Grade: D
Wide receivers
Jalen Reagor: 1 catch, 4 targets, 55 yards
That one deep ball to Reagor was special. Wentz tossed it up on 3rd-and-22 and Reagor showed off his speed. That was a clear bright spot. But that was really it for the receivers. DeSean caught two for 46 but didn’t play very much. Greg Ward had 5 for 31. John Hightower didn’t have a very strong NFL debut, catching 1 pass on 4 attempts for minus-2 yards. Hightower also had an egregious drop.
Plus, Reagor and Hightower didn’t do a great job of coming back to the ball on interceptions.
Grade: D
Tight ends
Dallas Goedert: 8 catches, 101 yards, 1 touchdown
It was the best game of Goedert’s career and the first 100-yard performance for the former second-round pick. And on top of it, Zach Ertz also caught a touchdown. But late in the game, Ertz dropped a huge pass on a 4th-down conversion attempt. It’s one he needs to make. That’s what prevents an A here.
Grade: B+
Offensive line
The Eagles gave up eight sacks on Sunday. That’s most they’ve given up in a game since Sept, 30, 2007, when Osi Umenyiora wrecked Winston Justice. They were without Lane Johnson, which means they had a makeshift line of Jason Peters, Isaac Seumalo, Jason Kelce, Nate Herbig and Jack Driscoll. At one point, Driscoll was replaced by Jordan Mailata. No one had a truly horrendous performance but if you put it all together, it was awful. They also couldn’t get anything going in the run game, which would have taken some pressure off them in pass pro.
The crazy part here is that Matt Pryor didn’t even get on the field. How did he go from a potential starter at like three spots to being a deep reserve again?
Grade: F
Defensive line
Josh Sweat: 3 tackles, 1 sack, 2 QB hits
It wasn’t a dominating performance for the Eagles’ defensive line but I thought they did good enough. Sweat’s sack was a beauty. I thought Malik Jackson had a really strong start. And they held Washington to 80 yards on the ground (2.2 per attempt).
A big problem is that the line didn’t get through the game without incident. Brandon Graham had to be checked for a concussion and Vinny Curry suffered what seemed like a pretty significant hamstring injury. They were already without Derek Barnett Sunday.
Grade: B
Linebackers
Nate Gerry: 10 tackles, 2 TFL; Duke Riley: 6 tackles, 1/2 sack
Gerry got double-digit tackles for just the third time in his career. If he has a good year, it’ll mean a lot for the Eagles. Riley was also really active. The linebackers did their jobs on Sunday.
Grade: B
Secondary
Avonte Maddox: 4 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 PBU
Aside from a miscommunication on the first touchdown, I thought the new-look secondary did OK. It wasn’t their fault that Washington kept starting with great field position in the second half of the game. Perhaps the best sign on Sunday was that Darius Slay seemed to hold up while traveling with Terry McLaurin. McLaurin ended up with 5 catches for 61 yards, but the Eagles will certainly take that.
Grade: B
Special teams
Jake Elliott: 1/2 on FGs; 2/2 on PATs
Cam Johnston had a pretty good day. He had 5 punts for an average of 53.6 yards and downed 3 inside the 20. But his worst punt came when the Eagles couldn’t afford it. He punted a 43-yarder from their own 9-yard line in the 4th quarter.
Jake Elliott made a 38-yard field goal but missed one short from 53. Elliott should have enough leg to make a 53-yard field goal without wind; it set Washington up with good field position.
Reagor muffed the first punt he saw but settled down after.
Grade: C
Coaching
Eagles record: 0-1
Doug Pederson was his usual aggressive self, but it might have backfired some on Sunday. The Eagles were 0-for-2 on 4th downs. I obviously don’t blame him for the one Ertz dropped late in the game, but the 4th-and-4 in the third quarter was questionable. The Eagles had the ball on Washington’s 45-yard line and Wentz took a sack on a blitz. I get that Pederson wanted to gain some momentum but the Eagles’ offense was out of sorts and sometimes you have to know your personnel.
Aside from that, Ron Rivera did a great job of making adjustments on the fly Sunday. Pederson couldn’t figure out how to get his team going once the momentum shifted. He’ll have a big task ahead of him this week.
Grade: D
