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Eagles vs. 49ers Week 8 Observations and Reaction with Videos

Adrian Fedkiw|

For 31 seconds the Philadelphia Eagles were dominant and scored a pair of touchdowns.

The other 59:29? It was enough to get by the winless San Francisco 49ers.

Jalen Mills registered a pick-six during that blistering 31-second span and was part of a dominant defensive display which overwhelmed the 49ers and helped the Eagles record a 33-10 victory on Sunday afternoon.

The game was tied 3-3 late in the first half before Carson Wentz tossed one of his two touchdown passes, hitting Zach Ertz from a yard out. And 31 seconds later, Mills crossed the goal line after returning a C.J. Beathard interception 37 yards for a score. Philadelphia took a 17-0 advantage into the locker room and scored the game’s first 20 points.

Fletcher Cox had one of the Eagles’ four sacks as the third-round rookie Beathard was harassed for much of the soggy afternoon. Brandon Graham, Vinny Curry and Mychal Kendricks also put up sacks. San Francisco’s interior of its offensive line is already a weakpoint, but injuries to tackles Trent Brown and Garry Gilliam made it extremely difficult for the 49ers to keep Beathard upright.

Even when the Eagles weren’t getting credited with sacks, their defensive line was in the backfield causing havoc. Here’s Long and Cox with some deep penetration.

Timmy Jernigan was a beast again, completely bulldozing over Daniel Kilgore prior to his tackle-for-loss.

Mychal Kendricks stepped up in the absence of Jordan Hicks, also showing off some coverage skills, which is normally a weakness of his.

Patrick Robinson exited with a concussion, but had another splendid outing before departing. He was making tackles in the running game and closed quickly on this pass to pop it up into the air and into the arms of Rodney McLeod for the interception.

While the defense shined, the offense was lackluster. The offensive line was an abomination, Lane Johnson struggled mightily. Wentz didn’t have a lot of time to scan the field because of this and finished 18-of-32 for 182 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. And even when he was getting protected better in the second half, Wentz’s accuracy wavered. He threw behind some receivers and sailed a couple over their head.

As you can see, the right side of the Eagles’ line didn’t really show up. There’s been a lot of discussion this week about the Eagles potentially acquiring a tackle prior to Tuesday’s trade deadline, but Johnson and the right side was much more of a dilemma than Halipoulivaati Vaitai and the left side, even though he surrendered a sack too.

With Von Miller coming into town next Sunday, the pass protection obviously needs to improve quickly.

Alshon Jeffery was limited to two catches for 61 yards, but the one was one of those 50-50 snags we’d been waiting for out of Jeffery all season long. That touchdown celebration was tremendous as well.

Oh, another thing, more of Mack Hollins and less of Torrey Smith please!

The game had an unusual feel to it, seemingly feeling like a preseason game. Despite a lackluster offensive performance, it was almost expected after thriving during a pair of primetime games. I guess they were due for a letdown. So despite some setbacks, the only worry coming out for me is the pass protection. The loss of Jason Peters was significant and Miller strolling into Philly next week certainly doesn’t make things any easier.

 

You can follow Adrian Fedkiw on Twitter (@AdrianFedkiw) and e-mail him at [email protected]. Subscribe to The Bitter Birds on YouTube here. Follow Philly Influencer on Twitter (@PHL_Influencer), Facebook and Instagram.

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