Grayson’s Grades: Eagles at Ravens

The Philadelphia Eagles extended their winning streak to eight games with a 24-19 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. It was a gutsy performance that required the ability to outlast and out-physical the Ravens in the second half.

It was an old-school game that featured the top two Running Backs in the league with the Eagles Saquon Barkley having the better fourth quarter to propel his team to victory. The Eagles defense deserves a lot of credit as well for largely preventing Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson from having explosive plays that typically lead the Ravens to their wins.

This was a big win for the Eagles who showed a lot of the characteristics championship teams typically display. They were physical, focused, unified and determined to win.

The Eagles remain one game behind the Detroit Lions for the top seed in the NFC. They are getting closer to locking up the NFC East and at worst, the two seed in the conference. This was a strong performance and yielded another solid report card.

Here is the latest edition of Grayson's Grades:

A

Saquon Barkley - Barkley continues to strengthen his status as a serious MVP candidate and should be considered the front-runner for the award in my opinion. He kept wearing down the Ravens defense and ultimately broke a big run when the Eagles needed it the most. Barkley ran off tackle and went 25 yards to score a big fourth-quarter touchdown to help put this game away. Barkley carried the ball 23 times for 107 yards and a touchdown. He also added two receptions for ten yards. Barkley is just 108 yards shy of breaking LeSean McCoy's franchise record for rushing yards in a season.

Jalen Carter - Carter is a consistent force in the middle of this defensive line. He is always taking up double-teams and allowing his teammates to make plays. Carter himself is also helping to collapse the pocket while fighting through those double-teams. He doesn't always light up the box score, but has a major impact on the success of this defense. Carter had four tackles including one sack, three tackles for a loss and two quarterback hits.

Nick Sirianni - Sirianni deserves a ton of credit for overseeing this run of eight straight wins. He always has his team ready to play. They never panic, even in this case when they fell behind 9-0 in the first half. He did a good job of having a feel for the game and took points when they were there while also understanding he needed to keep punting while his offense tried to start finding its way. This team responds to him and plays well for him. That cannot be understated. He has them all playing well for each other and each side of the ball is playing an unselfish style. They are also determined to out-physical their opponents.

Offensive Line - This offensive line is fun to watch. They frequently win their battles and dictate the line of scrimmage to the opponent. They deserve a ton of credit for wearing down a defensive line to eventually allow Saquon Barkley to break off some big runs in the second half. Cam Juergens deserves a lot of credit for how well he has filled Jason Kelce's shoes. Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Mekhi Becton and Lane Johnson have all meshed together very well and proved to be one of the strongest offensive lines in the league.

Vic Fangio - Fangio really has this defense playing at an extremely high level. They understand their spacing well, seem to stay disciplined and in their lanes and also play an unselfish style that leads to success. They are preventing the explosive plays that lead to chunk yardage, they do a good job of keeping opponents out of the endzone and limiting them to field goal attempts when they do get in the red zone, and keep getting pressure on the opposing quarterback forcing mistakes to occur. This defense forced three fumbles, but failed to recover them. They also got three sacks. One of those sacks directly led to a missed Field Goal by Justin Tucker.

Cooper DeJean - DeJean made one of the key plays that will have a lasting impression from this game. He made an open-field tackle on Derrick Henry that drove Henry to the ground. It got the Eagles sideline really fired up and excited. DeJean is having a great rookie year. He also did a good job in coverage at various times in this game. DeJean continues to provide a spark to this defense. He had five tackles and one pass successfully defended.

Zack Baun - Baun's amazing season continues. He has been a consistent, high-performing piece of this defense. Baun is always around the ball and makes plays whenever he is given the chance, He led the team with 13 tackles and had half a sack, one tackle for a loss and one quarterback hit. Baun now has 118 tackles on the year. He continues to be one of the best offseason additions to this team, especially this defense.

Nakobe Dean - Dean is also having a great year. He continues to fly around the field. His speed allows him to close on ball carriers quickly and to cover a lot of space. Dean was second on the team with ten tackles. He has 94 tackles this season.

AJ Brown - Brown made some big catches at key moments in the game to help move the ball down the field. He does a great job of tacking on yards after the catch and frequently makes the first tackler miss. He is a threat to go deep at any time and he constantly draws a lot of attention from the defense. Brown caught five passes for 66 yards.

Dallas Goedert - Goedert did a great job of taking advantage of his limited opportunities as a receiver in this game. His best catch came after he released from the line of scrimmage, caught the pass and turned it upfield. Goedert broke a tackle and was able to stay inbounds to score a touchdown from 17 yards out. Goedert caught three passes for 35 yards and a touchdown.

Braden Mann - It was probably an overlooked part of the game, but Braden Mann was outstanding. While the offense struggled to get going in the first half, Mann was flipping the field and doing it at a high level. He punted six times with five of them going inside the 20. Mann also had one downed at the one-yard line. He also averaged 51.2 yards per punt.

Nolan Smith - Smith was one of the players that needed to step up in the absence of Brandon Graham whose season ended last week due to injury. Smith shows great speed to get upfield on the edge. It allows him to close on a quarterback from behind and occasionally get a sack or hit without the quarterback seeing him coming. I would like to see Smith get more physical and be able to add some inside moves to his arsenal. He is showing growth and improvement and I expect that to continue with more reps and snaps coming his way.

B

Jalen Hurts - Hurts got out to a rough start. He seemed out of sync and struggled to get the offense going in the first quarter. Ultimately he led the offense to 24 points and got the win. He also continues to do a great job of taking care of the ball and not turning it over. He still seems to hesitate throwing the ball or takes just a bit too long to evacuate the pocket. Hurts is doing what he needs to do within the context of this offense and is using his legs better to help the RPO work with Barkley. I need to see him get this offense out to a little better start, especially in some of these big game. Hurts completed 11 of 19 passes for 118 yards and a touchdown. He also carried it nine times for 29 yards and a touchdown.

Kellen Moore - Moore deserves a lot of credit for sticking with the run, even when it seems to be stopped. He understands Saquon Barkley is the kind of back you have to feed frequently enough because he has the power to break one at any time. However, Moore has to get this offense going earlier in the game. It would be a lot easier to find success if they could do a better job of scoring points in the first quarter. I think this is as simple as trying to set Jalen Hurts up for more success early in games. Ultimately Moore is doing a great job of coordinating this offense. They just need to do a little better job on third down than they did yesterday and that starts with better success on first and second downs.

Jalyx Hunt - Hunt was one of the players who needed to step up in the absence of Brandon Graham. He did a good job in this game. The rookie showed what he has learned since the start of the season and made some big plays in this one. Hunt had two tackles, indcludng a half a sack and one quarterback hit.

C

None

D

None

F

None