5 Studs (and 2 Duds) from Eagles’ Monday Night Football Blowout Win Over Buccaneers

Stud: Reed Blankenship

The Eagles ended up needing Reed Blankenship even more than they expected to on Monday, as both Justin Evans and Sydney Brown got banged up in the win, leaving Blankenship and Terrell Edmunds as the only healthy safeties.

And Blankenship wasn’t just healthy, he was clearly back up to 100%.

That became very clear early when Blankenship stepped up and made a massive play in the run game:

After that his big first half continued, grabbing his first interception of the season (and only the second of his young NFL career):

The Eagles’ secondary as a whole was very stout despite the injuries. Josh Jobe got picked on specifically a few times, but when you see a strong cohesive performance like we had on Monday you can often thank the safety play. Safeties can bail out corners when they’re sitting back in a zone, and they’re often the players who get attacked when they’re forced into man coverage when the defense brings pressure.

Even when Blankenship gave up a reception, like the fourth-quarter grab from Mike Evans, he was in fine position and just fell victim to the whole “sometimes great receivers just make great plays” thing.

It wasn’t the best game of Blankenship’s career, but for a guy returning from injury to make an impact like he did is absolutely studly behavior.