It’s a happy Tuesday morning as the Eagles defied the odds and reversed the course of fate. It wasn’t Andrew Luck delivering a game-winning drive, but Nick Foles, Darren Sproles and the Eagles.
So the Eagles are 2-0. That’s the good. The bad is that they struggled through the first 30 minutes once again and set up an uphill climb in the second half. They were able to make it, but a pattern like that is not going to benefit them in the coming weeks.
Still a win is a win, and against the Colts, this is a huge one. Here is the weekly report card.
Pass offense: One thing is for sure, the screen game with Sproles worked wonders for the offense. Sproles accounted for 152 receiving yards. That’s great and does boost this grade. But the receivers had a total of six catches for 70 yards. That’s way too few over three players. Foles was better. The receivers weren’t. Sproles and Zach Ertz save this grade. B
Run offense: Again, look no further than Sproles. The Eagles had some issues with the running game. But at times, they had to look to the running game to get something going. LeSean McCoy is still dynamic on the ground and Sproles is downright explosive. It won’t be the best game for this group this season, but those two carried the offense in several ways on Monday. A-
Pass defense: Giving up three touchdowns: bad. Giving up less than 200 yards to Luck: good. Again, not a banner game for the Eagles pass defense, but when it counted, they made plays and didn’t let Reggie Wayne or T.Y. Hilton control the game. Malcolm Jenkins had the big one. B+
Run defense: The Eagles controlled this aspect in Week 1. In Week 2, they let Trent Richardson and Ahmad Bradshaw run all over them. And some of the penalties, like the jumps on snap counts, are flat out unacceptable. The grade is slightly boosted with some strong plays from Fletcher Cox, including his forced fumble recovered by DeMeco Ryans that helped the Eagles tie the game. C
Special teams: Between the penalties, which affected the defense as well, special teams had a solid game. It wasn’t nearly as memorable as Week 1, but they did the job. If anything, most of the special teams focus goes to the obvious star. Cody Parkey hit three field goals, including the game-winner from 36 yards as time expired. His miss from 38 yards is concerning, but he bounced back well. B+
Overall: There’s room to improve but they did get better following a rough Week 1 performance. A win is a win and by most standards, this is a good one. The Eagles performance well in the clutch. You don’t want to spot every opponent double-digit leads in the first half, but it’s hard to argue with the second half results. This is a defining win that could only be the beginning for the Eagles this season. B+
Kevin Durso is a contributor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @KDursoPhilsNet.
