By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor
A shutout at any point in a season, even the preseason, is an accomplishment. The Eagles defense blanked the Pittsburgh Steelers. While the Steelers were resting many of the starters that the Eagles will face in Week 3 of the regular season, the defense turned in another impressive performance.
There were still growing pains as well, but the 17-0 win moved them to 2-0 on the preseason.
Here are the grades for the Eagles this week.
Pass Offense – B-
The Eagles offense was on the field for just four plays in the first quarter. Penalties were the main concern with this group. A holding penalty on Isaac Seumalo negated a 21-yard screen pass to Darren Sproles and a pass interference call on Zach Ertz nullified a 12-yard pass to Rueben Randle.
That said, looking at the numbers of both Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel, the pairing was solid. The Eagles are still without a passing touchdown in the preseason, but the two combined to go 24-for-35 for 185 yards and protected the ball well. Bradford continues to play it safe, but can you blame him when there really is no explosive option on the offense? He's left to look for more conservative plays, and did that effectively.
In the receiving game, Paul Turner had another strong game and Nelson Agholor made a couple of good catches as well. While the receiving game still needs to show more consistency, the performance this week was miles above last week.
Run Offense – B-
Nothing flashy about the running game, but it did produce the only offensive touchdown of the game with Kenjon Barner scoring from five yards out in the third quarter.
Part of the key with this group is keeping Ryan Mathews healthy through the preseason, which is why five carries for 18 yards was more than enough for him this week. Barner turned in a solid week too, rushing for 41 yards on six carries.
Pass Defense – A-
Performance-wise, they were very good. There were a few lapses here and there from players among the secondary, but from the pass rush to the four interceptions, you're starting to see a cohesive unit, and that's saying a lot in Week 2 of the preseason.
Nolan Carroll is far and away the team's best-performing cornerback and Malcolm Jenkins' presence on the field continues to be so meaningful. Carroll and Jenkins each had interceptions with Carroll getting his on a well-timed and well-executed play and then returning it for the score.
Jaylen Watkins also continued a strong preseason with another interception and Aaron Grymes made a terrific play to come up with a pick as well. The team also had four sacks and eight tackles for loss, showing that the pass rush is getting things done as well.
Run Defense – A-
Last week against the Buccaneers, the Eagles allowed 1.5 yards per rush on 21 rushing plays against. This week, they faced 21 rushing plays from the Steelers and allowed an average of 2.4 yards per carry, one of those to Fitzgerald Toussaint for 11 of the Steelers 50 rushing yards.
Special Teams – B
If you don't have a whole lot of negative things to say about the special teams group, it usually means it was a good performance. Cody Parkey was the full-time kicker in this game with Caleb Sturgis out and made both extra points and his only field goal attempt from 40 yards. Donnie Jones put two of his seven punts inside the 20.
The kick coverage team did allow a 26-yard return by Sammie Coates, but everything else was strong.
