Eagles vs. Colts: Full Report Card Grades for Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Eagles followed their recipe from the Week 1 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars—shoddy first-half play from both the offense and defense before a second-half scoring fest resulted in a victory. This one was much closer than the 34-17 win; the Eagles narrowly held off the Indianapolis Colts by a 30-27 score, walking off on rookie kicker Cody Parkey’s game-winning field goal. CSNPhilly.com's John Clark shares the historical significance of the Eagles' 2-0 start:
"Eagles 1st team in NFL history to start 2-0 after trailing by 14+ points in 2nd half of each game
— John Clark CSN (@JClarkCSN) September 16, 2014"
Nick Foles wasn’t quite the quarterback from a year ago, but he came up big when it mattered the most. He efficiently guided the Eagles down the field late in the fourth quarter to set up Parkey’s winner, with the big play being Zach Ertz’s 24-yard reception.
Chip Kelly’s offense has seen its fair share of struggles this season, notably in the first half, but still, a 2-0 record and more points scored than any other NFL team is pretty good work by a second-year head coach. Fly Eagles Nation tweets with confusion about the Eagles' superior stats in comparison to how they are playing:
"#Eagles also now have more points and yards than anyone else in the NFL. They don't even look that good yet either.
— Fly Eagles (2-0) (@FlyEaglesNation) September 16, 2014"
The Eagles will have six days to prepare for their next opponent, an RGIII-less Washington Redskins team that may or may not have former Eagle DeSean Jackson in uniform.
Quarterback
1 of 8
It’s easy to pick apart Foles’ game. He missed open receivers, and his first-half jitters from Week 1 carried over to Week 2. But Foles threw for 331 yards and ran for 22 more. He threw the game-tying touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin and then led the offense down the field to set up Cody Parkey’s game-winning field goal.
Foles didn’t take a sack all game. He led the Eagles to 30 points, including 24 of those in the second half. Sure, a more efficient Foles would have had the Eagles up by 10 midway through the fourth quarter, and that’s why he doesn’t grade as an "A" on this review.
He has a lot to work on in his game, but don’t forget that he was playing behind an offensive line missing two starters, and he still turned in a performance that got the Eagles a win playing prime-time football against a reigning division champion.
Grade: B-
Running Backs
2 of 8
LeSean McCoy had a good game Monday night, rushing for 79 yards and a touchdown and catching 23 yards out of the backfield. But once again, it was multidimensional all-purpose back Darren Sproles who stole the show.
Sproles finished with a career-best 153 receiving yards on seven catches. He took a screen pass 57 yards early in the game and then helped ice it with a 51-yarder in the fourth quarter. He rushed four times for 26 yards, including a sensational 19-yard touchdown in which he just refused to go down. Bleacher Report Featured Columnist Alessandro Miglio discussed Sproles continuously being targeted and the Colts lacking a game plan to address it:
"Seriously, it felt like Sproles touched the ball every other snap he was on the field. Colts did nothing to adjust.
— Alessandro Miglio (@AlexMiglio) September 16, 2014"
Sproles also ran back four punts for 25 yards; that’s over 200 all-purpose yards for the 31-year-old. Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer compared Sproles' performance to that of former NFL player Brian Westbrook:
"Amazing comeback by the #Eagles and Darren Sproles was the main sparkplug. It was a Brian Westbrookian-type performance.
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) September 16, 2014"
Grade: A
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
3 of 8
Few players in Philadelphia take as much criticism as Jeremy Maclin, but the sixth-year receiver quietly caught the game-tying touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter. Maclin’s final numbers (four receptions for 45 yards and a score) weren’t stellar, but he is coming off of a torn ACL, and his touchdown grab was huge.
The go-to option in the passing game remains second-year tight end Zach Ertz, a nightmare of a weapon who is quickly being unleashed on the rest of the NFL. Ertz caught four passes for 86 yards Monday night. His 27-yarder early on was pivotal in the Eagles’ opening drive, but his 24-yarder with just over two minutes left helped win the game. Philly.com's Jimmy Kempski shared insight on Ertz's stats:
"Zach Ertz leads the NFL in yards per catch (min 3 receptions).
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) September 16, 2014"
Riley Cooper’s struggles from Week 1 carried over to Week 2; he hasn’t proven he can get separation without DeSean Jackson opposite him. The worst part of Cooper’s game has been the blatant drops; he had a deep one in the end zone he probably should have caught and a shorter route later on that he flat-out dropped. Cooper also got called for a false start.
Rookie wide receiver Jordan Matthews was quietly disappointing; he finished with just one reception for 17 yards, a drop and a holding penalty. Veteran tight end Brent Celek’s drop was one of the more frustrating one, as he failed to hold onto one that would have surely been a touchdown.
Grade: C
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Offensive Line
4 of 8
It’s difficult to grade the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive line without watching game film and factoring in that two of the five starters are injured (or suspended). Foles wasn’t sacked, and the team put up good stats.
Jason Peters was his usual terrific self at left tackle, and center Jason Kelce stole the show. Few offensive linemen in the league have Kelce’s natural athleticism in getting up the field to block.
Right tackle Andrew Gardner was abused for the majority of the game, but it’s tough to blame him for that. Gardner is technically the fourth option at tackle; Lane Johnson is suspended, Allen Barbre is on season-ending IR and Matt Tobin is dealing with a high ankle sprain.
Hopefully by next week, newly signed guard Wade Smith is ready to contribute at left guard, and Dennis Kelly can slide over to play right tackle. And even with Gardner’s struggles, the Eagles have still ran the ball with ease this year, and they’re scoring points in bunches. Rotowire.com's Josh Collacchi illustrates the Eagles' issues, while highlighting the fact they lead the NFL in points:
"Foles has been awful. Lane Johnson is suspended. Evan Mathis is hurt. Allen Barbre is hurt. Struggling in the red zone. Lead the NFL in pts
— Josh Collacchi (@JoshCollacchi) September 16, 2014"
Grade: B
Defensive Line
5 of 8
It was a disappointing performance from a usually stout Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive line. Not only did the team register no sacks, but they also allowed the Indianapolis Colts to run all over them.
The Colts finished with 169 yards on 38 carries; even first-round bust Trent Richardson picked up 79 yards on 21 carries. Ahmad Bradshaw was much more efficient when he ran, totaling 70 yards on 13 rushes.
Fletcher Cox did come up with a huge play, forcing a Richardson fumble late in the third quarter that led to an Eagles touchdown. The Eagles actually forced a pair of fumbles from Richardson and held the Colts to just 2.0 yards per carry on Indianapolis’ final four drives.
Grade: D+
Linebackers
6 of 8
It wasn’t a day to write home about for the Philadelphia Eagles’ linebackers. The pass-rushers (Trent Cole, Connor Barwin and Brandon Graham) were quiet, picking up zero sacks between them. Aside from Barwin’s batted pass on the first play of the game, none of them stood out, except Cole getting called for a pivotal encroachment penalty on third down late in the contest.
When Mychal Kendricks got hurt, the play of the linebackers really suffered.
The Eagles entered the season knowing they didn’t have a lot of depth; then Travis Long and Najee Goode went on season-ending injured reserve, and that left Casey Matthews as the backup to Kendricks. Matthews was so inept Monday night that he was benched after just two series. Dan Klausner tweets about Matthew's impact on the overall game:
"Casey Matthews was in for what, 2 or 3 drives? Colts went thru D like hot knife thru butter. Then Matthews benched for last drive, 3 and out
— Dan Klausner (@dklausner) September 16, 2014"
One aspect in which the defense did play well, though, was stopping Luck and Co. on third downs, as referenced by Bleacher Report AFC West Lead Writer Christopher Hansen:
"The #Eagles have he best third-down defense so far. Have allowed just 23.1% conversion rate.
— Christopher Hansen (@ChrisHansenNFL) September 16, 2014"
Grade: D-
Secondary
7 of 8
It was an interesting day for the Philadelphia Eagles’ secondary.
Andrew Luck only threw for 172 yards, averaging just 5.1 yards per attempt. He was essentially relegated to the duties of a game manager, except for the fact that Luck threw three touchdown passes when the Indianapolis Colts reached the red zone.
It looked like Luck was going to put the game away for good late in the fourth quarter, but he threw an ill-advised interception to Malcolm Jenkins, who read the play perfectly and nearly took it to the house. In all, this was a defense that held the NFL’s best young quarterback to just 172 passing yards and recorded a pivotal turnover with the game on the line.
That’s pretty good work.
Grade: A-
Special Teams
8 of 8
If the special teams were anything Monday night, they certainly weren’t boring.
It started and ended with Cody Parkey, the undrafted rookie free-agent kicker who overcame an early missed field goal to kick a walk-off against his former team (and he did it twice, due to a timeout).
But punter Donnie Jones was magnificent as always, averaging a ridiculous 53.8 yards on his four punts. Costly penalties on the special teams (Bryan Braman twice and Chris Maragos once) certainly didn’t help, although all is forgiven when the team is 2-0.
Grade: B
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