PHILADELPHIA \u2014 The Eagles had every excuse in the book Sunday. By the end, they had another loss.<\/p>\n
They lost Saquon Barkley early, were already without DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert and Lane Johnson and watched more bodies fall as the afternoon went along. Still, they led the Rams by 10 points in the fourth quarter before the offense went nowhere and the defense finally broke in a 24-20 loss at Lincoln Financial Field.<\/p>\n
Quarterback: D<\/p>\n
Jalen Hurts threw two touchdown passes to Darius Cooper and no interceptions, but those numbers flatter him. He completed just 12 of 27 passes for 93 yards, held the ball too long, took four sacks and presided over an offense that went an astounding 0-for-12 on third down. The passing game produced just 68 net yards.<\/p>\n
Running back: C<\/p>\n
Barkley carried twice for eight yards before leaving with a hamstring injury. Tank Bigsby eventually found some room and finished with 55 yards on 14 carries, while Will Shipley added 23 on six attempts. Not horrendous under the circumstances, but there wasn\u2019t enough consistency to keep the offense on schedule.<\/p>\n
Offensive line: D<\/p>\n
Rookie Markel Bell held his own in his first NFL start after Johnson became a late scratch, but the unit as a whole had a rough afternoon. The Rams repeatedly created pressure and Cam Jurgens had another uneven day at left guard. Philadelphia averaged 3.0 yards per offensive play.<\/p>\n
Tight end\/Receiver: C-<\/p>\n
Cooper saved this grade with two terrific touchdown catches, including an 18-yard grab in traffic. Makai Lemon had three catches for 27 yards and Zach Ertz caught two for 13 in his first home game since returning to Philadelphia, but nobody took over with Smith and Goedert sidelined. The entire passing game produced only 93 gross yards.<\/p>\n
Defensive line: B<\/p>\n
For most of the afternoon, the front gave the Eagles a chance. Nolan Smith recorded the Eagles\u2019 only sack, Jonathan Greenard, before an injury, supplied the pressure that helped produce Andrew Mukuba\u2019s interception and Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis did good work inside. But L.A. running back Kyren Williams eventually broke through, finishing with 80 yards and scoring both of the Rams\u2019 fourth-quarter touchdowns.<\/p>\n
Linebacker: B+<\/p>\n
Jeremiah Trotter Jr. stepped in for Zack Baun and looked like he belonged there, leading the Eagles with 15 tackles and breaking up a pass. Jihaad Campbell supplied pressure on a blitz and broke up a fourth-down pass. Against a Rams offense that ran 77 plays, the young linebackers spent a long afternoon on the field and mostly answered the bell.<\/p>\n
Cornerback: B-<\/p>\n
Cooper DeJean intercepted Matthew Stafford, giving the Eagles two takeaways after going the first three games without one. Quinyon Mitchell played well before leaving with a knee injury, but Puka Nacua eventually got loose against a battered secondary and finished with nine catches for 125 yards. Riq Woolen also drew a costly late pass-interference penalty.<\/p>\n
Safety: B<\/p>\n
Mukuba finally ended the Eagles\u2019 takeaway drought with a first-half interception and returned it 20 yards into Rams territory. The safeties helped keep Stafford from hitting many explosives early, and Los Angeles had only 10 points through three quarters. Eventually, though, Stafford found the cracks.<\/p>\n
Special teams: A<\/p>\n
Jake Elliott was money in the rain, hitting from 29 and 56 yards and making both extra points. Braden Mann averaged 48.8 yards on six punts, and Britain Covey ripped off a 41-yard punt return. This unit did its job and then some.<\/p>\n
Coaching: D<\/p>\n
Vic Fangio\u2019s defense deserves credit for forcing two turnovers and holding the NFL\u2019s top-ranked offense to 10 points through three quarters despite missing Baun and losing Greenard and Mitchell. Sean Mannion\u2019s offense deserves no such mercy: 172 yards, 12 first downs and 0-for-12 on third down are hideous numbers.<\/p>\n
Nick Sirianni gambled twice on fourth down in the second half and lost both bets. The second failure, on fourth-and-goal from the Rams\u2019 2 with a 20-10 lead, left three points on the table. The Rams promptly drove 99 yards. A game the Eagles controlled slipped away.<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X and Threads at @the_defranc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 The Eagles had every excuse in the book Sunday. By the end, they had another loss.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1418,69,4538,71,70,726,432],"class_list":["post-299912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-nfl","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}