Philadelphia Eagles: The good and the bad from Week 1 win

The Philadelphia Eagles took home a dominating win against the team from Washington to start the season.

The Philadelphia Eagles completed their task. They took down their division foes in Washington thanks to a second-half surge from the defense. The 30-17 final score doesn’t tell the story of the struggles the team faced in the first half, but they prevailed.

As the Eagles look to tighten up their game before they face off against Kansas City, let’s reflect on some of the good and some of the bad that came from the Week 1 win.

The Good

Pocket evadability

Carson Wentz didn’t have a perfect game, but boy was it impressive. Wentz dazzled fans with his shiftiness in the pocket, avoiding what seemed like inevitable sacks time after time.

The Washington defense isn’t the most talented, but their aggressiveness is near the top of the league. They blew past a solid Philadelphia Eagles offensive line more than once, leaving Wentz to make a play for himself.

He set the tone early, however, making the most impressive play of the game in his first offensive series with a touchdown pass to Nelson Agholor.

OH MY 😧😱 @cj_wentz pic.twitter.com/Z9lhUCh0mK
— uSTADIUM App (@uSTADIUM) September 10, 2017

These are the type of plays that elevate someone into stardom, and it’s why Eagles fans should be so excited.

Blitzes

Jim Schwartz brought the heat on Kirk Cousins. And the Eagles presence was felt. Fletcher Cox was seemingly in the backfield every play, continuing his dominance from the preseason. The entire front seven seemed to be involved in almost every play.

Secondary wasn’t horrible

Yeah, they weren’t great. Yeah, they weren’t up against the best receiving core in the NFC East. But the weak point of the defense played decently in their first game of the year.

Jaelin Mills is had some low points in this game, but made big plays when needed. His interception came in the red zone, and was a momentum swing in this game.

The Bad

Ronald Darby‘s injury

The gruesome ankle injury Darby faced put the Philadelphia Eagles’ newly acquired top corner out of the rest of the game. Although it looked worse, Darby’s timeline is set somewhere around 4-6 weeks.

It’s a miracle he has a shot of making a return this season given how bad it looked, but there is still a problem coming the Eagles way.

Although Mills played pretty well in Week 1, he is doubtful to become a staple as a consistent top corner in the league. How the Philadelphia Eagles respond will be interesting.

Play Calling

Doug Pederson has had an interesting few weeks heading into the season opener, with all the odd Schwartz power struggle talk.

He didn’t really help his case in Sunday’s win. Leaning towards short passes instead of runs in peculiar situations. His failed swing pass play call that lead to a fumble took away an early momentum that could have put the game out of reach early.

He called just 24 run plays all game, putting 41 plays into Carson Wentz’s hand. Not a terrible option, but there were a lot of run situations that were replaced by failed screen passes.

Caleb Sturgis strains quad

He missed a key extra point in the win, but Sturgis nailed three important field goals when the game was tight. Ian Rappaport reports he has strained his quad, with kicking workouts becoming an immediate response.

Sturgis has had an odd tenure so far with the Eagles. You’ll recall his odd concussion caused by a Donnie Jones punt in the offseason of last year during his kicking battle with Cody Parkey.

The Eagles will need to find his replacement for the next several weeks.

Next: A look at Agholor's performance

Overall, a solid week for the Philadelphia Eagles, who should be ecstatic to rack up an early divisional win.

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