Grayson’s Grades: Eagles at Raiders

What happens in Vegas did not stay in Vegas for the Philadelphia Eagles. The whole world knows they laid another egg on the football field and suffered their fifth loss in seven weeks. The Raiders just looked like they wanted it more and beat the Eagles 33-22.

The Eagles scored a touchdown on their opening possession and proceeded to get outscored 33-15 the rest of the way. There was some questionable decision-making by Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni. Also, the same issues that have plagued this team once again hurt them. Penalties, turnovers and soft defense all contributed to the loss.

Another poor effort yields yet another ugly report card. Here is the latest edition of Grayson's Grades:

A

None

B

Dallas Goedert - This was Goedert's first game without Zach Ertz overshadowing him. Ertz was traded to the Carinals last week. Goedert had a good game and finished as the leading receiver. Goedert caught three passes for 70 yards.

C

None

D

DaVonte Smith - Smith had two drops in the first quarter. He dropped another early in the second quarter. Those passes were low or behind him, but he needs to make those catches. Smith played much better in the second half and saw his fair share of targets. However, that is a little late to get it going. Smith was targeted nine times and caught five passes for 61 yards.

Jordan Mailata - Mailata had his hands full with Yanick Ngakoue. Ngakoue recorded a pair of sacks in the game as well as two quarterback hits.

F

Nick Sirianni - Sirianni at least showed a desire to try and run the ball more. It was working early in the game too gaining yardage as well as helping to throw off play-action. But Sirianni's team looked flat compared to the Raiders. I continue to see way too many RPO's. It appears Jalen Hurts is keeping too many of those as well. Costly penalties once again aided in killing some drives. I also had some issues with some of Sirianni's decisions in this game. Why would you accept a holding penalty on the Raiders that would have brought up a fourth down and three at the Eagles 43? Instead Sirianni chose to make it third and 15 and the Raiders made them pay with a 42 yard pass play. I disagree with the timing of the onside kick attempt. Down by 10, I get trying to steal a possession; however, why risk giving the Raiders the ball on your side of the field when your defense has not really stopped them all day. Why did Quez Watkins not get his first target until halfway through the third quarter?

Jalen Hurts - Hurts came off this mini-bye and did not look very sharp. He had several bad throws either low or behind his receivers. There were some of those plays that could have gone for decent yardage as receivers were open. Hurts committed the mortal sin of bobbling a snap and fumbling it away with the Raiders recovering it. That happened on third and goal from the one. I feel Hurts is keeping way too many of the RPO's. Another problem is his completion percentage. It is routinely around 50 percent. Quarterbacks in the NFL must complete at least 60 percent of their passes to have a chance at success. Hurts completed 18 of 34 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns. He added 13 carries for 61 yards

Jonathan Gannon - I am out on Gannon's defense. I see a passive defense waiting for something good to happen to them. The successful defenses make good things happen for them. I fail to understand why he continues to play his corners off receivers as much as he is. The Raiders were using the bump-and-run technique on Eagles receivers and several incompletions were due to those defensive backs disrupting the timing of the play. I would love to see Eagles defensive backs do exactly that. Since the Linebackers can't cover anyone, it also wouldn't hurt to have them give a little contact at the line of scrimmage to try and disrupt some of those routes also. Disrupting the timing of the route could cause the Quarterback to hold the ball a little longer leading to more incompletions, sacks or better yet... turnovers.

Linebackers - These linebackers are late to almost every tackle. They are also failing to put themselves in the Quarterbacks throwing lane. We all know it is not the most talented group, but give them a chance to be aggressive within the play called. They are late to cover their man, and late to hit the running lanes. Linebackers are