Weekly Report Card: A better week, but improvement needed

After Week 3, the Eagles are 1-2. A win is a win is a win, and the Eagles will take whatever win they could get at this point.

It was definitely a sloppy game at times and there are still far too many things to correct on a team that was supposed to have it all figured out on offense. On the other side of the ball, the Eagles delivered a strong game that really keyed the victory.

With that, here are this week's grades in our weekly report card.

Pass Offense: Sam Bradford needs to get it together and get back the accuracy displayed in Green Bay in the preseason. The Eagles receivers need to stop dropping passes. For all of the flaws, a big reason the Eagles couldn't get anything going in the second half, they did complete several good passes on two scoring drives, including Bradford's best pass of the game, a perfect placement to Ryan Mathews for a touchdown. C

Run Offense: See what happens when you establish the run and hit the hole? Ryan Mathews did and it helped him total 108 yards for the day. Darren Sproles was a solid second option. But Mathews carried the ground game to its best game this season and without DeMarco Murray. B+

Pass Defense: Until space finally opened up as the game got later, the pass defense really did an excellent job. Brandon Marshall was almost invisible for the entire first half. No receiver really could get it going. In the second half, different story. The yards were there and the Jets took advantage. But credit Malcolm Jenkins, Eric Rowe and Nolan Carroll for making good coverage plays and Rowe, Jordan Hicks and Walter Thurmond for coming up with key interceptions. Overall, a solid day for the pass defense. B+

Run Defense: All things considered, the Eagles did a good job limiting the run against the Cowboys in Week 2 and they still allowed 109 yards. This week, they allowed 47 to the Jets. A short-handed front seven, missing Mychal Kendricks, Kiko Alonso and Cedric Thornton, didn't miss a beat. Hicks was incredibly impressive in his first start. Brandon Bair delivered a great game. It seemed like every member of the line and linebackers was ready and anticipated the next move on every run. There was just no room. A

Special Teams: What more can you say about Darren Sproles? That punt return, complete with great blocking from the coverage team and broken tackles from Sproles, seemed to wake up the Eagles sideline and kickstart a huge second quarter that paced the team's win. No complaints for Donnie Jones again, but Cody Parkey, despite making the only field goal he attempted and all extra points put a kickoff out of bounds in the first. That's just inexcusable. But that won't overshadow Sproles' contribution. A-

Overall: The most credit should go to the guys who had to fill the shoes of starters. You couldn't have asked for more from them — from Hicks to Bair to Mathews to Rowe. There's a lot of reason to be considered about the offense still, but take the gritty win and fine-tune everything next week in preparation to face Washington. B

Kevin Durso is managing editor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.