I began to write this article during the first half of the game against the Giants on Monday Night Football. Boy was that a mistake! To give you a hint, I think I absolutely trashed the entire team with more harshness than last weeks loss to the Miami Dolphins. Thankfully, the second half showed more drive and desire on the side of the Eagles. Hopefully they can keep this up for the last three games, but let’s go over who did good and who performed poorly on Monday Night!
STUD: Carson Wentz
In the first half Carson wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great either. He had a couple of missed throws, but still was able to get the Eagles moving a little with a very beat up offense. In the second half, Carson was the player we all know he can be, and played like he did in the 2017 season. It didn’t matter who they had at wide receiver, running back or right tackle, Wentz picked apart a defense that he should have dominated all day and put up 20 unanswered points. He clearly really likes both Miles Sanders and Boston Scott in the backfield (we will get to one of them later in this article) and then we have his favorite target Ertz as a number 1 receiver since we ended the game with only one real wide receiver due to injuries. If he keeps this kind of play up, there will certainly be a playoff run.
DUD: Ronald Darby
Last week when Darby got beat overtop by Devante Parker, I didn’t really think that Darby did much wrong. He was in position and tried to make a play, but someone just purely beat him because of their own skill set to do so. However, this week is inexcusable. He seemed to get beat every play by a rookie wide receiver and a now backup 38 year old QB that has a career losing record and was benched this year. The reason I say it like this is because it doesn’t matter who is trowing the ball and who is catching it, Darby has seemed to get beat consistently except for a couple games. I’m glad this is only a one year deal because I think it’s time for him to go.
STUD: Boston Scott
How was he on the practice squad? I’m not saying this guy is a top running back in the league, but he is a great backup/change of pace back. He has some great speed and amazing hands for a running back and watching him play Monday was like watching Darren Sproles when he was dominant with the Eagles earlier in his career. The guy can run up the middle since he just squeezes through small holes in the line, run outside, catch screen passes, wheel routes, or whatever else you need. He just made play after play and even when Sanders went down Monday, he didn’t skip a beat. Scott is a guy who should be behind Sanders and Howard and be a great 3rd down/change of pace 'back. He might have penciled in his roster spot for the 2020 season.
DUD: Coaching Staff
I thought it was kind of obvious that it was a bad idea to go into the game with only three receivers, with two of them having very limited game experience. However, it wasn’t obvious enough to Pederson and by the end of the game, we had one. One healthy receiver to end the game. One healthy, just called up from practice squad receiver. ONE! Now I know you aren’t going to get great receivers out of thin air, but we need bodies on the field and the Eagles coaching staff didn’t plan on that whatsoever. Not to mention that play calling yet again was brutal in the first half. I don’t know why the coaching staff doesn’t see that Wentz is better and more comfortable moving around, inside and outside of the pocket, rather than trying to be a pocket passer. His strengths come from extending plays and letting guys get open. Heck, even J.J. Arcega-Whiteside is better when Wentz does this. They need to let Wentz loose these last few weeks.
STUD: Vinny Curry
It was good to see Vinny have a good game with two sacks. He hasn’t done anything since the Super Bowl run in 2017, so it just was a nice little plus to the game. It was Curry's 3rd career game with 2.0+ sacks (first time since 11/26/15 at Detroit). Sadly, he probably won’t be on the Eagles next year, but I’m happy he’s getting his last little hooray in with this team before he goes into NFL limbo and is eventually out of the league. If we can get one or two more of these games out of Curry, I will be very happy!
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