Grayson’s Grades: Eagles vs. Cowboys

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Eagles survived a real threat from the Dallas Cowboys and won their season opener 24-20. It was far from a pretty victory and left plenty of room for improvement heading into a week two Super Bowl rematch against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Moments after unveiling their Super Bowl Championship banner, the Eagles lost two players. They lost Ben Van Sumeren to a knee injury and Jalen Carter was ejected for spitting at Cowboys Quarterback Dak Prescott.

Carter's decision cost this team dearly. The Cowboys were able to run the ball up the middle and for the most part, keep Prescott upright and able to look downfield.

The Eagles offense did some nice things and ultimately put up enough points to win the game.

Ugly wins are better than any kind of loss. The Eagles will take this for sure. However, it provided a report card full of mixed grades. Here is the latest edition of Grayson's Grades:

A

Jalen Hurts - Overall, I liked what Hurts did in the opener. However, I felt he was too quick to take his eyes off his receivers and worry about the pass rush. We have seen this before. It seems until he truly trusts the newer members of his line, he is quick to take his eyes away from looking downfield and starting to find his evacuation route from the pocket. That being said, he made a lot of great plays with his legs and was smart enough to slide and avoid taking hits after racking up some solid yardage. Hurts did throw one very pretty deep ball to Jahan Dotson for 51 yards. That accounted for one-third of his passing total of 152 yards. Also, Hurts did not complete a pass to AJ Brown until the fourth quarter. The reigning Super Bowl MVP completed 19 of 23 passes for 152 yards. He also carried it 14 times for 62 yards and two touchdowns.

Dallas Goedert - The Eagles were clearly happy to have Goedert back this season. His value showed immensely in this game. Goedert was a frequent early target for Jalen Hurts and Goedert ultimately caught seven passes for 44 yards. He is a reliable target for Hurts and helped the offense get rolling early when they needed to keep answering Cowboys' scores.

B

Saquon Barkley - Barkley had his fair share of carries toting the rock 18 times for 66 yards and a touchdown. It was good enough for a 3.3 yards-per-carry average. Not bad, but not close to what he did a year ago. It is only week one and clearly opponents are going to try and limit Barkley's impact on the game. The Eagles did also get the ball in his hands through the air with Barkley catching four passes for 24 yards.

Quinyon Mitchell - I thought Mitchell had a decent game. Sure, he allowed some completions, but also had some big pass breakups late in the game when it mattered most. He really should have had a big interception in the fourth quarter but had it go right through his hands. Mitchell did make a huge fumble recovery in the second half at the Eagles' one-yard line turning the Cowboys away after a long drive with zero points.

C

Offensive Line - The Offensive Line statistically did not do a bad job. Jalen Hurts was sacked just once. However, they did give up a pass rush that frequently forced Hurts to evacuate the pocket and use his legs to move the ball forward. Don't get me wrong, they did some nice things. It was Tyler Steen's first start and Landon Dickerson did leave the game in the second half. So without any preseason reps and Dickerson going out, there was going to be some timing and communication inconsistencies. There were also some times that they did a decent job providing a pocket for Hurts; however, he quickly got out of the pocket and looked to run.

Kevin Patullo - Patullo's first game as an Offensive Coordinator was not horrible, especially with the offense racking up 24 points in the victory. However, he did not get his best receiver, AJ Brown, into the box score until he caught his first pass in the fourth quarter. I think you need to build in a wide receiver screen or a quick slant to get Brown a catch sometime in the first quarter every week. I would also do something similar for DeVonta Smith. Some of that was not necessarily Patullo's fault. Jalen Hurts looked to pull the ball down and scramble a little quickly at times.

Nick Sirianni - I liked Sirianni's approach to defending a Super Bowl throughout training camp and leading up to the opener. However, he needs to have better control of his younger players. Jalen Carter was ejected before playing a snap for spitting on Dak Prescott. Nolan Smith was also flagged for a personal foul for taunting. All in all, the Eagles were tagged with nine penalties for 110 yards. Those kind of preventable penalties can turn a win into a loss and nearly did here. Ultimately Sirianni improved to 5-0 in season openers, but he must do a better job of controlling the emotions of his young players to prevent them from costing his team valuable yardage. It bears watching how Sirianni handles Jalen Carter's ejection leading up to the next game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Vic Fangio - On one hand I feel bad giving Fangio a 'C' since he likely had a thorough game plan surrounding his star defensive tackle Jalen Carter. Fangio lost Carter before a snap had been run for spitting on Dak Prescott. It affected everything making it a lot harder to stop the run up the middle while also making it harder to generate a good pass rush. This defensive performance looked similar to last year's opener. Fangio has a young defense and is throwing several young players into the fire early. As last season went on it appeared Fangio opened the playbook more and starter to do more. I felt he limited what he called yesterday partially due to the young players and also due to not having Jalen Carter. I expect this defense to show improvement each and every week as the season continues.

D

Adoree Jackson - I thought Jackson was giving way too much cushion in coverage and making it easy for Prescott to make some completions. He has to clamp down that coverage and I expect he will. The Eagles allowed some relatively big cushion to receivers early in the season last year. Jackson recorded four tackles and had one successful pass defense in the game.

Defensive Line - I was disappointed in the defensive line; however, they played the game without their anchor in the middle due to Jalen Carter's ejection. That made every one of their jobs harder. Instead of Carter getting double-teamed or triple-teamed freeing up other guys, they had to win their one-on-one battles. They also struggled at times to stop the run which prevented the Cowboys from facing very many third-and-long situations. Nolan Smith was called for a person foul for taunting after making a great tackle for a loss which hurt the defense. Moro Ojomo recorded the only quarterback hit on Dak Prescott. The book on him is to get in his face and hit him and this defense failed to do that.

F

Jalen Carter - Carter has a history and reputation as a player whose head you can get inside of. He has all-world talent but mentally has to be so much smarter and aware of his value to his team. Regardless of whether Dak Prescott was spitting between his linemen or at Carter's feet, he has to be smart enough to know he CAN NOT spit directly on Prescott. He hurt his team, could have cost his teammates a loss within the division and will face a fine and perhaps a suspension. In my opinion, he needs to get up in front of the entire team and apologize. I also look for some of the captains to get in his face and make it abundantly clear he cannot lose his composure like this again.