What can you say about Monday night's Eagles win over the Panthers other than pure domination. That's the only way to describe the Eagles victory.
There were countless contributors and that just makes the victory sweeter. The Eagles turned in a true team win as they prepare for three games that will define who they are as a team.
Here is this week’s report card.
Pass offense: Mark Sanchez to Jordan Matthews: words you will get used to hearing as Sanchez fills in for Nick Foles. Sanchez started slow but once he gained his rhythm, he was really on his game. He got plenty of help from his receivers, who made several great catches and ran well with the ball. But there was nothing like the Sanchez-Mattews duo and what they did inside the 20. A-
Run offense: The only essentially non-existent part of the Eagles on Monday night was the run game. It was barely established, yet still produced two touchdowns. The grade falls somewhere in the middle – points for the scoring, points off for not using the run earlier to just milk the clock in a game that was out of reach by halftime. B
Pass defense: Usually, I'm splitting this between the pass rush and the secondary coverage. The secondary had lapses, but three interceptions and a really strong game by Bradley Fletcher can easily change the grade. The pass rush was phenomenal with Connor Barwin and Brandon Graham leading the way. It's hard to argue with nine sacks. A
Run defense: The Eagles front seven is scary good. They continued a solid season getting minimal work. It seemed like every snap was the start of a passing play for Cam Newton. Newton wasn't comfortable at all, which instantly took part of the workload away from the run defense, since Newton wasn't nearly as mobile as you would expect. On the Panthers two running backs, the Eagles did the job. A
Special teams: Last week, the Eagles seemed to struggle on special teams. It was a very uneventful game there. Not this week. Darren Sproles returned a punt for a touchdown and the coverage was as good as usual. A
Overall: This ranks close to the Eagles home win against the Giants. There's almost nothing more you could ask from the Eagles as they delivered a game where everyone came ready to play and contributed. Another plus here: no injuries to speak of. So a fully healthy team – from this week anyway – heads to Green Bay following one of their best games of the season. A
Kevin Durso is a contributor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @KDursoPhilsNet.
