Eagles grades by position after gutty win over Saints

Eagles grades by position after gutty win over Saints originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

NEW ORLEANS — It wasn’t an easy victory but it was an important one.

The Eagles out-played the Saints for much of the game on Sunday but still narrowly escape from the Superdome with a 15-12 win.

The Birds are now 2-1 with a trip to Tampa before the early Week 5 bye.

Let’s get to the grades:

Quarterback

Jalen Hurts: 29/38, 311 yards, 1 INT; 8 rushes, 25 yards, 1 lost fumble

It’s really tough to grade Hurts in this game. Because for most of the afternoon, he played really good football without his top two receivers. He was delivering balls on time and led a game-winning drive. But the turnovers need to stop. Hurts threw his fourth interception of the season in the first half when he was picked off by Tyrann Mathieu in the red zone. And then Hurts fumbled away the ball on the very next Eagles drive. He was a big reason the Eagles didn’t put up any points in the first half — but he was also a big reason why they were able to put out the win in the second half.

Grade: B-

Running back

Saquon Barkley: 17 carries, 147 yards, 2 TDs; 4 catches, 9 yards

The play after DeVonta Smith got knocked out of the game, Barkley broke off a 65-yard touchdown run and showed off his acceleration as he sped away from defenders. It was the longest Eagles run since Miles Sanders broke off an 82-yarder in 2020. In a game with a Alvin Kamara on the other sideline, Barkley was clearly the best back in the game. Through three weeks, Barkley has been as advertised.

In 14 games with the Giants last year, Barkley went over 100 rushing yards once. He has done it twice in three weeks as an Eagle.

Grade: A

Receiver 

DeVonta Smith: 7 catches on 10 targets, 79 yards

The Eagles came into this game without A.J. Brown and then they lost Britian Covey to a shoulder injury and then they lost DeVonta Smith in the fourth quarter when he was concussed on a violent hit in the middle of the field. But Smith was productive before the injury and the Eagles got contributions from Covey, Jahan Dotson, Johnny Wilson and Parris Campbell. The Eagles obviously miss Brown but every receiver who played in this game made a catch.

Grade: B

Tight end

Dallas Goedert: 10 catches on 11 targets for 170 yards

After the loss to the Falcons, there were plenty of questions about why Goedert wasn’t getting more targets. That changed on Sunday. Goedert had 170 receiving yards, which smashed his previous career high of 135 back in 2021. And his 11 targets are the second-most in his career. Did Grant Calcaterra miss a couple blocks in this game? Sure. But we’re not docking the tight end group, not after Goedert had the best performance of his career catching the football.

Grade: A+

Offensive line

The Eagles ended up losing the right side of their line to injury in the first half. Mekhi Becton went down with a finger injury and then Lane Johnson suffered a concussion. There were some early hiccups but backups Fred Johnson and Tyler Steen did enough for the Eagles to get the win. Give them credit for being prepared to step in.

Grade: B+

Defensive line

Jalen Carter: 4 tackles, 1 QB hit, 2 TFLs, 2 PBUs

The Eagles were gashed by the run in Week 2 against the Falcons and there was a legitimate fear that it would happen again against the Saints. But the Eagles’ held Alvin Kamara to 87 rushing yards on 26 attempts for an average of 3.3 yards per carry. The Eagles got just one sack — it came from Jordan Davis in the first quarter. But they had good pressure on Derek Carr and Jalen Carter was very good. It was easily his best game of the season so far. Brandon Graham also put together an impressive performance and had a QB hit.

Grade: A

Linebacker

Zack Baun: 13 tackles; 9 solo tackles

Against his former team, Baun led the game in tackles and was all over the field. Even on the pass where Kamara beat him down the left sideline, Baun was in good position. Nakobe Dean also had a good game with 8 tackles and a TFL. Believe it or not, the Eagles are getting really solid linebacker play right now.

Grade: A

Secondary

Reed Blankenship: 2 tackles, 1 INT, 1 PBU

There were a few third-down conversions to Chris Olave but the Eagles held Carr to 142 passing yards and picked him off to seal the game in the fourth quarter. This was Blankenship’s second game-sealing interception in three games. Darius Slay got banged up after a cheap shot from Trevor Penning and Kelee Ringo replaced him. Ringo was targeted early when he entered the game. Quinyon Mitchell had a nice recovery on a deep ball to get a PBU vs. Rasheed Shaheed, who has a ton of speed. C.J. Gardner-Johnson wasn’t perfect but he played through an injury and was very physical.

Grade: B+

Special teams

Jake Elliott: 0/1, miss from 60

The Eagles had a punt blocked when J.T. Gray came around the edge unblocked to get his hands on the ball leaving the foot of Braden Mann. Elliott had just one shot at a field goal and missed badly from 60. After Covey got hurt, Cooper DeJean filled in. DeJean fair-caught one punt and returned the other for a tough 6 yards.

Grade: C

Coaching

Record: 2-1

If the Eagles lost this game, we’d be spending the next week talking about Nick Sirianni’s game management. Some of those issues popped up again in this game. The Eagles were 1-for-3 on fourth downs in this game and passed up on trying two makable field goals in a close game. The worst decision came at the end of the second quarter when the Eagles ran a play off the tush-push look on 4th-and-1. They were stuffed with just 14 seconds left. The upside was getting the first down and perhaps having one or two throws to the end zone. Sirianni should have just taken the points.

The Eagles were also penalized 7 times for 45 yards, including a too-man-men call on offense.

Grade: C

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