Week 15: Greg Ward Seals the Deal for Philadelphia

The Eagles Keep Their Playoff Hopes Alive in a Win Over their Division Rivals

Takeaways:

1. Carson Wentz Keeps Delivering

Maybe the most scrutinized quarterback in football this year, Carson Wentz has delivered consecutive stellar performances in must-win games. Today, his top three wideouts were J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, Greg Ward, and Robert Davis. If Tom Brady can get constantly excused for his play because of his “poor” receiving core of Julian Edelman, Mohamed Sanu, and N’Keal Harry, then Wentz should be praised for coming through with this. He finished with 266 yards, three touchdowns, and zero picks while continuing his NFL-best streak of 17 consecutive games with a TD pass. He now has 25 touchdown passes to only seven interceptions this year.

2. Speaking of Receivers…

Greg Ward, former University of Houston quarterback, is the Eagles best wide receiver right now. On Sunday, he was the only receiver to record a reception for Philadelphia. He finished with seven grabs for 61 yards and most notably came up big on the last drive, totaling 4 catches for 40 yards and what proved to be the game-winning touchdown. The best part? His winning touchdown was a contested catch in the back of the end zone. Eagles receivers this season have refused to come down with passes that have any sort of contest on them, so it was good to see that change. Carson Wentz now has five game-winning/tying touchdown passes this season. Unfortunately, only two of them were caught. J.J. Arcega-Whiteside continues to have a terrible season. He failed to record a stat this game outside of a fumble recovery. He dropped yet another touchdown and just continued to be a non-factor overall. After watching Terry McLaurin (more on him later), D.K. Metcalf, and other young receivers make instant impacts on their respective teams, it stings, even more, to see JJAW do absolutely nothing.

3. Miles Sanders, Bell Cow

In my preview, I said that the Eagles needed to run the football, and run the football they did. Miles Sanders looked amazing throughout the game, appearing to have the makings of a #1 back. He averaged a monster 6.4 yards per rushing attempt and reached the end zone twice. He also recorded 6 receptions, adding 50 receiving yards to his 122 on the ground. In the process, Sanders broke the Eagles rookie records for scrimmage yards and rushing yards. After an early-season slump, he’s broken out as one of our more consistent players. Boston Scott touched the ball 13 times, good for 65 yards and a 5.0 average. Obviously, it wasn’t going to be like the last game, but it was good to see that he didn’t regress from Monday night’s breakout.

4. The Defense Is a Problem

I touched on how the Eagles defense seems to be a remedy for struggling QBs and WRs, and Dwayne Haskins proved my point. The rookie quarterback had a measly 61.2 passer rating coming into the contest… and proceeded to raise it a full nine points. He recorded 261 passing yards on just 28 attempts, keeping the score close throughout the entirety of the contest. He also wasn’t sacked at all. Terry McLaurin, who was picked after J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, doubled down on impressive performances vs. the Eagles. Let’s compare their stats in head-to-head matches.

2 games:

J. Arcega-Whiteside: 0 receptions, 0 yards, 0 touchdowns

T. McLaurin: 10 receptions, 255 yards, 2 touchdowns

Not even close. Even worse than watching McLaurin torch the defense again was seeing Haskins pick up major yards on scrambles. Haskins has never been a running QB and was also playing on a bum ankle. If the Eagles are serious about winning this division, they can’t bring the same defensive effort next week against Amari Cooper and Co.

5. Flashback to 2017

It was fun to see the Eagles end the game on a defensive touchdown, something they did several times in their 2017 Super Bowl season (vs. OAK, vs. LAR, vs. WAS*). Defensive players don’t get many chances to score touchdowns, so it must’ve been great for Nigel Bradham to just outrun Redskins players to the house as time expired.

* against Washington in Week 1, 2017, the Eagles defensive TD came with about 1:30 to go

The Eagles host the Dallas Cowboys next week in what basically serves as the NFC East Championship.

-By: Micah Jimoh