After beating Dallas, Eagles get good injury news, for once, and look to get healthier during their bye week
Darius Slay and Malik Jackson left Sunday night's game but should be OK with the bye week to heal, Doug Pederson said.
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Not only did the Eagles win a second successive game for the first time in 2020, they got out of that 23-9 Sunday night victory over Dallas without losing any important starters to injury, Doug Pederson said Monday.
Cornerback Darius Slay logged only 28 of a possible 79 defensive snaps before leaving the game with an ankle injury, and defensive tackle Malik Jackson tweaked his quad injury after playing only 17 snaps, but both are OK, Pederson said. Presumably they will be healthy enough to face the Giants in the first game after the bye.
The Eagles also hope to get back right tackle Lane Johnson (ankle and knee) and running back Miles Sanders (knee) for their visit with the Giants.
Pederson said that COVID-19 protocols will keep Eagles players from leaving the area during the bye, and he plans to bring them in to NovaCare on Wednesday. It wasn’t clear whether this would be for meetings or for a practice.
Pederson said the ability to work this week without having to game-plan would allow his coaching staff to revisit some game film and present it to players with “calmer eyes.”
Developing storylines
Jason Peters limped around a little between plays, but the 38-year-old left tackle persevered through all 63 offensive snaps, and he posted his best Pro Football Focus grades of the season. Peters, who returned from a Week 3 toe injury, graded out at an excellent 75.7 overall, 78.4 as a pass blocker, 70.6 on runs. Peters gave up one hurry, PFF said. Meanwhile, Jordan Mailata, in his first start at right tackle, was good at run-blocking (66.0), not good protecting Carson Wentz (30.3, the worst grade Mailata has logged). He gave up a sack to DeMarcus Lawrence on the Eagles' second snap.
This was the first game in which Javon Hargrave really seemed to have a big impact. He played 48 snaps at defensive tackle and PFF credited him with seven hurries, resulting in a 90.0 pass rushing grade.
Boston Scott gained 57 yards on his first seven carries, 13 on his remaining eight.
Take away the 32-yard completion to Travis Fulgham on the second series and Carson Wentz’s completions were as pedestrian as those managed by Dallas rookie quarterback Ben DiNucci. DiNucci’s longest successful throw was a 15-yarder, and after the throw to Fulgham to set up the first TD, Wentz didn’t manage anything that exceeded 15 yards. Future opponents might take note of how the Cowboys' soft zone, coupled with strong pass rush pressure, shut down the Eagles' passing game.
Trevon Diggs, Dallas’s second-round rookie corner, gave up some catches (six on 10 targets, for 76 yards and both Eagles TDs), but both his picks of Wentz were tremendously athletic plays. Cowboys coach Mike MacCarthy said afterward that Diggs is as good with the ball in the air as any player he has ever seen.
As long as he doesn’t have to cover anyone, T.J. Edwards is a heck of a linebacker. Would have been a star in an earlier era.
Who knew?
That facing the worst run defense in the NFL, the thing to do on both third-and-4 and fourth-and-4 would be to attempt passes?
Obscure stat
The Eagles twice were awarded sacks on trick plays in which Dallas wideout Cedrick Wilson was tackled with the ball behind the line, but before the game ended, the NFL ruled both plays were rush attempts, giving Wilson minus-11 rushing yards for the evening.