The Eagles fell to the Seattle Seahawks 23-17 at Lincoln Financial Field on Monday Night Football. With the loss, the Eagles are 3-7-1 on the season and out of first place in the NFC East. The Seahawks are 8-3 and regain first place in the NFC West. The Eagles have a short week before going on the road to Green Bay to face the 8-3 Packers who have a commanding three-game lead in the NFC North.
Here’s how Monday night’s game unfolded:
1. Eagles offense struggles out of the gate
The Eagles punted the ball away on their first five drives. They didn’t gain a first down until their final drive of the first half, a 15-play, 75-yard scoring march that ended with a Carson Wentz touchdown to Dallas Goedert to make it 14-6 at halftime. The Eagles were outgained in terms of total yards 71 to -4 in the first quarter and 194 to 74 at halftime.
The Eagles entered the game converting 2 of their last 21 third-down conversions. They were unsuccessful on their first five third-down attempts on Monday night before the scoring drive at the end of the first half. The Eagles finished 8-of-17 (47 percent) on third down.
2. Carson Wentz was under pressure all night
The Eagles started their 10th different offensive line combination in 11 games this season with Jordan Mailata at left tackle, Isaac Seumalo at left guard, Jason Kelce at center, Jason Peters at right guard, and Matt Pryor at right tackle.
Kelce made his 100th consecutive start at center, the longest active streak in the NFL. Peters, the future Hall of Famer, made his first career start at right guard.
Wentz entered the game as the most-sacked quarterback in the league, going down 40 times. He was sacked six more times on Monday night and hit a dozen times in all. The Seahawks were effective blitzing safety Jamal Adams (nine tackles and a sack) and linebacker K.J. Wright (five tackles, two for loss, and a sack). Carlos Dunlap returned to Lincoln Financial Field with the Seahawks (he played for the Bengals earlier in the season) and got a half-sack.
3. Carson Wentz made the biggest plays with his legs
Outside of the sacks, Wentz was 25-of-45 for 215 yards with two touchdowns and an interception for a 73.8 passer rating. On the scoring drive in the second quarter, Wentz had scrambles of 20 yards and 13 yards to help get the Eagles in scoring position. Wentz got into a groove and did a nice job looking off a defender to help free up tight end Dallas Goedert on the 3-yard touchdown.
Wentz was the leading rusher for the game with 42 rushing yards. Miles Sanders had just 15 yards on six carries.
The most underrated play of the night for Wentz came in the second quarter on the touchdown drive. He lost a snap high, raced to pick it up, and managed to throw the ball away and avoid the sack.
But there were several throws where Wentz wasn’t in sync with his receivers. He underthrew Goedert twice deep when the tight end beat a linebacker, one did result in a pass interference penalty. On Wentz’s interception in the fourth quarter, there was a miscommunication that resulted in the ball going into the hands of Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs.
