Week 7 Eagles grades by position after huge win over Dolphins originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Eagles went up against the high-flying Dolphins in a battle of 5-1 teams and emerged with a 6-1 record.
It was a big 31-17 win on Sunday Night Football after losing an ugly one last week to the Jets. The Eagles really responded.
Here are their grades by position:
Quarterback
Jalen Hurts: 23/31, 279 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT; 11 carries, 21 yards, 1 TD
The first-half fumble was on Hurts for holding the ball too long. But this was a gutty performance from Hurts, who was clearly playing through a knee injury. His off-schedule play, rolling to his right to hit A.J. Brown for 32 yards to set up a second quarter touchdown was prime Hurts. The pick-6 wasn’t really his fault but it’s another turnover in a season where there have been too many. Still, a lot of really good signs from Hurts in this game. Hopefully that knee injury doesn’t linger.
Grade: B+
Running back
D’Andre Swift: 15 carries, 62 yards
The final numbers weren’t great in this game but Swift had some really nifty runs and showed great patience to find some room that wasn’t really there. And Kenny Gainwell did have a whiff in pass protection but made up for it with a really tough touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
Grade: B
Receiver
A.J. Brown: 10 catches, 137 yards, 1 TD
We’re watching an all-time stretch by a guy who might go down as the greatest receiver in Eagles history. Don’t take this for granted. Brown has now gone over 125 receiving yards for five straight games, tying Calvin Johnson’s streak from the 2012 season. Brown didn’t even have a catch in this game until the second quarter and still went off. DeVonta Smith had a quieter day with 4 catches for 49 yards but he appears to be playing with a splint on a finger on his right hand. Julio Jones caught one pass for three yards in his Eagles debut. Nothing for Olamide Zaccheaus.
Grade: A
Tight end
Dallas Goedert: 5 catches, 77 yards, 1 TD
While Goedert came into this game with a groin injury but was still able to have a couple back-to-back 22-yard catches to help set up the Eagles’ first scoring drive of the game. And he also had a 19-yard touchdown. Goedert is at his best when he’s picking up yards in chunks and he did that against the Dolphins. This was Goedert’s second-best game this season behind his 117-yard performance against the Rams.
Grade: A-
Offensive line
The Eagles had just 99 rushing yards and averaged 2.9 yards per rushing attempt in this game and Hurts was sacked three times. But overall this unit did a good enough job to help the Eagles put up 355 yards of offense and 31 points. Hurts had enough time to do damage.
Grade: B+
Defensive line
Josh Sweat: 2 sacks
The Eagles’ defensive line was the engine that powered Sean Desai’s defense to a dominant performance against the top offense in the NFL. Coming into this game Tua Tagovailoa had been sacked just six times all season and the Eagles got him three times on Sunday night. They also had a sack on a trick play. Sweat, Haason Reddick, Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter and the entire rotation got pressure on Tua, which isn’t easy. And they also held the NFL’s top-ranked rushing offense to 45 yards after they came into the day averaging 182 per game.
Grade: A+
Linebacker
Nakobe Dean: 3 tackles
It was a relatively quiet day for the Eagles’ linebackers, which is good and bad. It’s good because they weren’t exposed in coverage but they also didn’t make many splash plays. Ultimately, every unit on that side of the ball did its job, surrendering just one touchdown to a great offense. The Eagles rotated with Dean, Zach Cunningham and Nicholas Morrow.
Grade: B+
Secondary
Darius Slay: 4 tackles, 1 TFL, 2 PBUs, 1 INT
The Eagles entered this game without two starters in their secondary and had to rely on a few untested rookies against a potent passing attack. They held up. Tua passed for just 216 yards and while Tyreek Hill got his (11 for 88) the Eagles were able to hold this offense in check. The interception by Big Play Slay in the fourth quarter was the play of the game. And how about Eli Ricks and Josiah Scott making some plays too?
Grade: A-
Special teams
Braden Mann: 1 punt, 57 yards
After a couple special teams blunders against the Jets, the Eagles had a clean special teams game in this one. Mann’s only punt was a big boomer, Jake Elliott drilled his only field goal attempt, the Eagles didn’t give up big returns and Boston Scott had a 38-yard kick return. Nice day for Michael Clay’s group.
Grade: A
Coaching
Record: 6-1
Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai had a signature game in this win. He went up against a historic offense and really shut it down. The Eagles’ defense gave up 10 points and 3 of them came on short field after a turnover and a drive that netted just 1 yard. Give Nick Sirianni credit for his aggressiveness on fourth down in their own territory in the fourth quarter. The only thing that took away the A+ was some weird play calling from OC Brian Johnson in the red zone early in the game.
Grade: A
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